Paul Simon & Art Garfunkel had been friends since childhood, and the duo had been singing together since age 13. Since that point, the duo had been recording some odds and ends singles for minor record labels, some of which became neighborhood hits. Eventually, the two Queens boys got a deal from Colombia records under their now iconic Simon & Garfunkel name, and their first album was recorded in just three sessions. Produced by Bob Dylan's producer Tom Wilson, there is unfortunately very little to write home about with Wednesday Morning, 3 AM. While Paul Simon's original material can easily take home the gold on this one, more than half of the album is traditional material or songs from other folkies (including Bob Dylan, no less). Not without potential, of course, as Paul Simon is a skilled writer and arranger, and Garfunkel a great vocalist, but it's no surprise to me that this record initially flopped.
The covers on this album make up a majority of the record - 7 out of 12 songs are not written by Paul Simon. I find this especially shocking for two major reasons; first off, Paul Simon proves himself to be an incredibly capable writer with just five songs on this album. Second, the covers are incredibly hit or miss. A handful showcase not only Paul's skill as an arranger, but fit the mold of the duo well. The pair's rendition of Dylan's timeless "The Times They Are a-Changin'" is probably my favorite cover of the song, and the duo give the song the respect I believe it deserves. "The Sun is Burning" is a lovely arrangement, and lyrically goes from a lovely ode to a dark anti-war song. An unexpected twist, and one that somewhat brilliantly contrasts with the loveliness of the vocals. These songs are, unfortunately, the exception and not the rule. Moments like "Go Tell It on the Mountain" or the stumbling opener of "You Can Tell the World" feel flat-out rushed and almost disharmonious in the vocals - there's also the fact that these are two Jewish boys singing about the birth of Christ, but that's neither here nor there. Renditions of "Peggy-O" and "Benedictus" don't fare much better.
That leaves five originals from Paul Simon, and this is where you'll find the most consistent of the album's material. From the first original of "Bleecker Street" with its rich and poetic lyrics that talk of loneliness, you get a sense for Paul Simon's typical lyrical style. The accompanying harmonies on the originals also feel more realized than on their renditions of pre-established songs. The haunting "Sparrow" that follows tells the plight of those forgotten by a rich society. The harmonies the two adopt are similarly filled with tension and haunting. The powerful protest song "He Was My Brother" is a powerful piece, and one often associated with Andrew Goodman, a fellow attendant of Queens college with Paul Simon - Goodman was a victim of the Freedom Summer Murders, killed by the KKK. The closing title track is an ideal encapsulation of Paul Simon's songwriting - containing some sort of inability to communicate or feel. This theme is, obviously, best seen in the album's most enduring moment, the harrowing "The Sounds of Silence." A perfect glimpse of the duo's potential in a cold, discontent song about the distance between people, heightened by the wonderful dual vocals between the two. It goes without saying that it's the album's greatest moment.
Of course, not every song is "The Sounds of Silence." Wednesday Morning, 3 AM flopped, and the duo split for the first of many times. Paul Simon flew to England to begin a solo career, yielding the brilliant The Paul Simon Songbook, and Art continued his studies at Columbia University. It wouldn't be until the surprise success of a remix of "The Sounds of Silence" that the duo would reunite for four increasingly high quality albums, but those are reviews for the future. With hindsight, the faults of Wednesday Morning become ever more apparent - it was the songwriting that makes Simon & Garfunkel so good, and without it you've got little distinguishing it outside of a pretty boy and an admittedly beautiful tenor singer. It's all uphill from here, at least.
RATING: ✯✯✯✯✯✯✯✯✯✯
Listen to Wednesday Morning, 3 AM.
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