Bookends - Tumblr Posts

Having S&G be the first thing you hear in Girl Interrupted is so fitting tho.

cultural context via the wisdom of youtube comments

Simon & Garfunkel by Richard Avedon via Popular Noise magazine by Byron Kalet

babe are you ok? youve been playing america by simon and garfunkel for the past 4.5 hours now.

No but we can all agree that BOTW cover pic is the worst, yes? Yes.

And after all these years, I still can't choose my favorite between Bookends and Parsley. SOS and Wednesday are cute too, though. While BOTW is tragic, which is fine, after all, considering the mood of the album.

Well, he had Artie to create that magic with.

Anyway yes, listen to Bookends.

listening to Bookends cover to cover is an excellent way to spend an early Sunday evening. it’s essentially a masterpiece. I have been talking about and enjoying s&g since I was a young child and honestly I’m going to spend the rest of my life talking about how good this shit is clearly. It’s just that their music and words are deeply embedded into my own personal life experience. Bookends is a concept album as well as a masterpiece which is double the delight. my fav tracks are as follows in this order:

1. America 2. Punky’s Dilemma 3. At The Zoo 4. Mrs. Robinson 5. Bookends Theme 6. Fakin’ It 7. Overs

The rest are good and part of the cohesive flow, but these tracks specifically facilitate in growing little wings around my heart in order to let it soar upon listen. How did Paul Simon do it? I know he’s famous as fuck but idk feel like s&g is underrated.

Listen to Bookends.

Well, Bookends took a long time to (write and) record indeed, and I remember reading somewhere that part of the delays were due both to Paul's writer's block and to Artie not feeling too well for some periods of time through 67/68. But I may be wrong. Or it may be false anyway.

Nevermind what they went through to make it though, as they did a marvelous job on that album. Saying that Bookends is not "put together adequately" is bullshit, artist.

Anyway, thanks to this "Hell was frozen over" I now have a picture of Paul and Artie burnt in my brain: them begging some CBS boss, possibly Mr Davis himself, in a Jake Blues style. Ifkyk.

"Honest! I ran outta gas. I had a flat tire. I didn't have enough money for cab fare. My tux didn't come back from the cleaners. An old friend came in from outta town. Someone stole my car. There was an earthquake, a terrible flood, locusts! It wasn't my fault! I swear to God!"

Today’s episode of ‘reviews that use a whole lot of words to say nothing of value,’ featuring a very odd series of attempted insults towards Bookends. Supposedly “hell was frozen over” during the writing/recording process and “Simon and Garfunkel were unable to really put it together adequately.”

A few people might disagree 💀

The Daily Bruin, 04/18/68

Yep.

Both the Bookends and the Central Park version are bliss.

why don’t you listen to america by simon & garfunkel and maybe you’ll calm down

Now that's a really good question, yes!

After they couldn't have the (rather beautifully illustrated) all-familiar suggestion on the cover of Wednesday Morning 3A.M., it really begs the question why any of these two pics couldn't have been the cover of Bookends. Richard Avedon, please.

Ah yes, this is beyond sweet 🥰

i think abt this video like 20 times per day

Old friends, memory brushes the same years Silently sharing the same fears

"Old friend" is a gayass thing to call someone

Yup.

Apparently Paul wasn't too fond of Mrs Roosevelt either and it was Artie that brought it up during a meeting with Mike Nichols. They decided to change it to Mrs Robinson, using it in the movie with just the few lyrics existing at the time, the strumming and the harmonies and lemme tell you, for me it was smashing in that scene. Smashing.

Then came the other lyrics and oh my gods I love Mrs Robinson I love all its versions I can't I'll stop

remember when paul simon said no to doing the midnight cowboy soundtrack

April 3, 1968 • Bookends

On this special occasion, the birthday of this beauty of an album, I'm not only thinking about how great it is. I’m also thinking about my Grandma, and I’ll tell you why via an episode that has stayed with me all this time.

I came to know S&G via my Daddy's audiocassette of Central Park playing in my parents’ car. They knocked me head over feet immediately and I wanted to listen to everything they ever recorded - but we’re talking Italy around 1999/2000, before the internet really was a thing. You had to buy CDs or cassettes, and if you didn’t like ‘em, then what? Lots of money thrown away, so it was basically not gonna happen.

Luckily for me, my Uncle had all the studio albums on vinyl! So I often visited to religiously listen to them on repeat, a goofy 12 yo trying not to scratch them and stuff. I had no idea what the songs were about, I was just starting to learn English, but I was in awe. Those voices! Those sounds!

And the covers of the albums, how unusual they were to my eyes! Not in a bad way, mind you, but so different from what I was used to - I was familiar with Queen, with the Beatles, with lots of other international artists and their pictures, but S&G’s just had their own kind of flavor, if you know what I mean. There were two people and not a whole group, nor a single artist, for a start. They looked so young, so bonded… I didn’t know a thing, I had no idea who they were, but those album covers spoke to me. 

The music told me all I needed to know, really. I tried to follow the lyrics on the back of the albums that had them, but of course I barely understood them - too young to get the whole meaning, but I didn’t mind, because I got the vibes.

So anyway there I was, marveling at the beauty of the harmonies and music and curious about who created such a magic. My Granny walked in one day and something upon these lines happened:

"Who are they? What is it they're singing?" 

"I have no idea Granny - they're American though, from NYC!"

"Oh yeah? What are they like?”

I picked the albums and we started looking at Bookends because you know, it’s the one where you can see their faces better.

“Do you remember seeing them on TV some time, Granny?”

“Not at all.” She paused to listen, I guess Wednesday Morning was on and Go, Tell It on the Mountain was playing. “They sound meh. But they're very handsome."

"I think they sound great and look meh, Granny."

"Hm. Lemme hear something else.” I have no memory of what I chose, but whatever it was, it won her over. “Well, shame they sing in such a strange language, I can’t understand a word. But you're right, they do sound nice. And you'll appreciate the rest when you grow up.”

And I do believe quite a lot of my problems started that day, lol. Anyway, it’s some sweet memory I felt like sharing. Happy Bookends birthday, my fellow S&G lovers!

By the way, I later discovered my Granny knew both The Sound Of Silence and Mrs Robinson because they were both sang in Italian by Italian artists in the 60s. SOS was turned into a love song, Mrs Robinson kinda maintained a pale bit of the original meaning. Anyway, Granny didn’t care about the lyrics, she was hooked by the music. I particularly remember when she heard S&G’s Mrs Robinson: she looked at me with such happiness in her eyes and agreed that it sounded just great - though she was still annoyed at the language, “Why two handsome boys with such handsome voices must sing in such an unintelligible language!”

Vintage Short Story editions from Modern Library. Here are some of my all-time favorite short stories. :) 

Bookends | Gia & Kelly

A black leather jacket topped a crushed silk shirt, itself sporting a generous sheer stripe down the center that ran from neck to navel. Her pants were tight, topped by leather boots. She wore half a dozen different bracelets on her left arm and gold crosses for earrings, set off by the dramatic backdrop of her lustrous chocolate hair. In short, Gia Desstrin hadn’t dressed for a library. Without a word, Gia walked up to the counter behind which Kelly sat, turned around, and jumped up to sit on the desk. Arching her brows, she glanced over her shoulder at Kelly, mischief glittering in her eyes. There was a good chance Kelly was intoxicated. “You’re beautiful,” were her opening lines. Chuckling to herself, Gia slid her legs around, now sitting perpendicular to Kelly, and stretched her legs out in front of her. “You should be showing that off. I could do your makeup…and your hair…and your clothes.” She frowned deeply, “You get that you could totally rock the sexy librarian thing, right? I tell you what, guys in this town would be lining up to read like nobody’s business.” Gia tilted her head towards Kelly. “How about it? I bet you’d have waaay more fun, huh? Let’s bounce!”

Gia giggled brightly, her dark eyebrows shooting upwards at the sound of Kelly's unenthusiastic greeting. "Oh," she repeated, delightedly, slapping her knee before titling her head towards Kelly. "What are you reading?" Gia reached for the volume as Kelly stuffed a bookmark in place. Letting her hand drop, her smirked. "The Void? That sounds sexy," she laughed, almost certainly intoxicated. "Ok, so what's your most-popular-book of the season? If it's Twilight, I will probably be hosting a bonfire at my place tonight. Bring all your copies." Gia had found New Moon personally offensive. Gia wasn't generally much of a YA book reader, but when werewolves-in-fiction soared into public view, even she had to break down and read a copy. Safe to say, she hadn't finished it. "Of course it is!" exclaimed Gia. "But why limit yourself? You could have a big brain and big boobs and a bit butt!" She slapped a hand over her mouth, laughing, when she remembered that she was practically shouting this in a library. "Whoops!" She shrugged. "Why don't you come to my place? I can hook you up. If nothing else, I can straighten your hair for you, get you a slightly better fitting sweater and a sweet pair of earrings. Nothing too slutty, if that's not what makes you comfortable...even if you could totally rock it, because you could. But, what's important is that you feel sexy, whatever you're wearing!"

Bookends | Gia & Kelly

Kelly was a dutiful worker. In school, she turned assignments in by their due date. While working as a youth counselor at summer camps as a teenager, she always showed up on time. She did her taxes well before April. Most days at the library, Kelly kept herself busy all day long shelving, taping damaged pages, organizing new displays, and helping lead bashful men and women to the shelf housing "50 Shades of Grey". This afternoon while sorting through the turn-in drop box, however, she had been enticed by a dystopic space thriller called "The Void"; she was on page 48 when Gia popped onto the counter.

"How can I help you?" She blubbered, shutting the book on her thumb a bit harder than her nerves would have liked. Kelly's eyes shot up to see not a nine year old kid looking for the Magic Tree House Series, but instead Gia (naturally in leather) sitting on her counter. "Oh," her voice fell flat.

Kelly ran her fingers through her curly brown hair and then proceeded to defensively throw it up into a pony tail as if to keep it safe from Gia's meddling hands. "Intelligence is sexy, Gia." She squished her lips to one side of her face and furrowed her brows before shoving a bookmark in "The Void" and continuing her sorting of the turned-in books as if she were too busy for Gia's makeover.

Gia tilted her head, arching her brows significantly. Tutting, she slid down from the desk on the staff side and, leaning against it, looked at Kelly again. “Kelly Amadeus Smith!” she exclaimed, obviously inventing a middle name because, drunk as she was, Gia either could not remember or simply had never known what Kelly’s middle name was. “Pleeeeease,” Gia rolled her eyes. “You are God’s gift to this,” she gestured around, brow contorting as she tried to remember what the building was called. She failed. “Bookstore. Who here is sexier than you? No one, Kelly! Embrace your inner…something.” She gestured vaguely. “Your hair is incredibly! And so are your eyes and your mouth and your adorable little nose…Don’t shortchange yourself!” Gia gasped as if Kelly had slapped her. “Kelly Johann Smith!” she declared, standing for a moment with both her hands on her hips. “You’re going about this all wrong! Kelly and sexy are one in the same! You have a lioness in you! Let her roar!” Throwing her head back, Gia laughed, picturing Everett’s face if Kelly ever shifted into a lioness. She didn’t try to explain any part of that, however, and, clearing her throat, moved on. “Awwww,” Gia put a hand to her heart when Kelly essentially equated her name with sexy before hugging her…or trying to, but it involved hugging the chair as well, given that she was sitting. “No, but see, you can’t be Gia Desstrin. She’s taken! But you can be Kelly…Smith! And you can rock it! I can help.” Gia looked triumphant, as if she’d just finished up some tear-inducing speech that might motivate frightened soldiers to go to battle…rather than some babbling, mildly slurred rant. “Promise.”

Bookends | Gia & Kelly

Kelly continued to work her way through the pile of turned-in books, pretending to be much busier than she actually was. “The only big thing I have is hair,” she flashed an unimpressed look up at Gia. Truly, Kelly’s hair was one of her most defining physical traits. Chalk it up to genetics or the fact that she often forgot to comb it, but Kelly’s hair more often than not resembled that of a fluffy otter or something. She didn’t care. Otters were cute and she had more important things to worry about…

Like baking and gardening and falling asleep early on the couch. 

"Why do I have to feel sexy anyways? Can’t I just feel like Kelly?" She whooshed her hands through the air as if to show herself off—her old jeans and big purple sweater reaching past her butt. She put on a bracelet today; that was something. It was made out of pennies and had quotes from Alice In Wonderland on it… Kelly made it herself… there was hot glue on it… but it was jewelry. 

Much to her dismay, Kelly reached the bottom of the turn-in pile. She leaned back in her chair and opened the “The Void” back up on her lap. The first inkling of a smile crossed her face since Gia came in… “We can’t all be Gia Desstrin.” Kelly winked. 

Today I counted the cars on the New Jersey Turnpike