12/16/2015Music: Simon & Garfunkel -- Underappreciated? You Bet! | Evernote Web https://www.evernote.com/Home.action#n=3dd912c7-4250-4464-924d-b0ab409fe196&ses=4&sh=2&sds=5&1/4Music: Simon & Garfunkel -- Underappreciated?You Bet!Music: Simon & Garfunkel -- Underappreciated? You Bet!SIMON & GARFUNKEL: THE COMPLETE ALBUMS COLLECTION ($99.99 CD; Sony Legacy)In the new Reese Witherspoon film Wild, the movie begins with a striking instrumental passage.</p><p> It's from "ElCondor Pasa (If I Could)", the Simon & Garfunkel track from their massive selling classic album Bridge OverTroubled Water.</p><p> But the filmmakers don't just play the song to create a mood.</p><p> In fact, they take that shimmeringintroduction in the song with its haunting strings and plucked string instrument and they loop it and extend itagain and again, creating an even more intense mood of dislocation and discovery.</p><p> You feel certain thatsomething momentous or beautiful is just around the corner.</p><p> They refer to the song again and again in this wayand don't play the track as a whole until the closing credits.</p><p> This allows the appearance of the song as a wholeto imply the film's heroine has also been made whole after her journey on foot.Indeed, the film's soundtrack may be its most inventive element, since preexisting songs are almost alwaysheard in snippets or far away or mutated in some way, creating an interesting soundscape. [Of course, "ElCondor Pasa (If I Could)" was an equally inventive track for Simon & Garfunkel, who used a preexistinginstrumental track by Los Incas as the basis for their adaptation of what they believed to be an ancient folk tune.]Another Simon & Garfunkel song is heard in a way when Witherspoon as Cheryl sings out her own new lyrics tothe tune "America." Fifty years after they debut, Simon & Garfunkel's music still instantly evokes both an era andthe timeless desire to seek out meaning in life.</p><p> They rose to superstardom when Mike Nichols worked with theduo to use their music in a similarly ground-breaking way on the film The Graduate, another era-defining work.Indeed, Simon & Garfunkel are as big as ever.</p><p> They're members of the Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame, multipleGrammy winners and still a huge draw in concert both solo and together.</p><p> If and when they announce newconcert dates, those dates will sell out.</p><p> Yet their image remains that of folkies in a way: two guys and a guitar,two gorgeous voices intertwined on timeless melodies written by Paul Simon.This aura of directness and simplicity has overshadowed several facts.</p><p> Simon & Garfunkel were every bit asworld-shaking culturally as the Beatles and the Rolling Stones.</p><p> Paul Simon's skills as a guitarist go almostunmentioned compared to his songwriting.</p><p> And most of all, their tremendous innovations on arrangements andproduction were as groundbreaking as anyone.</p><p> You remember the songs, but when you listen again to theirlandmark albums, you'll hear remarkably inventive work by Simon, Garfunkel and their engineer and producingpartner Roy Halee that is just as jaw-dropping as anything by the Beach Boys or the lads from Liverpool.With the release of Simon & Garfunkel: The Complete Albums Collection ($99.99 CD; Sony Legacy), fans of thisduo have a chance to hear their music like never before.</p><p> For the first time in decades (and in many cases sincethe albums originally came out), you can listen to them remastered from as close to the original tapes aspossible.</p><p> Many LPs and certainly CDs were based on different mixes or master tapes that were worn down byconstant use.</p><p> Just as The Beatles Mono Box blew your mind with the level of detail even casual fans could hearfor the first time (not to mention arrangements and mixes that simply hadn't been used since the originalreleases), these albums are sonically gorgeous and as true as possible to the artists' vision.The boxed set contains 11 albums in their own mini-sleeves, including all five studio albums, four live albums,12/16/2015Music: Simon & Garfunkel -- Underappreciated? You Bet! | Evernote Web https://www.evernote.com/Home.action#n=3dd912c7-4250-4464-924d-b0ab409fe196&ses=4&sh=2&sds=5&2/4the soundtrack to The Graduate and their brilliant first Greatest Hits set.</p><p> Each reproduces the original artworkand sounds remarkably good. (No surprise for the live albums released for the first time in the last few years, buta revelation for most of the rest.) What immediately strikes you looking at this collection is how massive animpact Simon & Garfunkel had with such little music.</p><p> Their five studio albums aren't even very long.</p><p> It amountsto less than three hours of music and just 58 tracks, including covers and some oddities like "Voices Of OldPeople." They've released almost as many live albums as studio albums.</p><p> Add in their numerous compilationsand boxed sets and those vastly outnumber the five studio albums.</p><p> But no wonder: the songwriting brilliancebegan almost from the start and their three final albums pushed forward what was possible in recording like fewother acts then or now.For Grammy winning producer Roy Halee, his association with this act and their various solo projects has beenlife-changing.</p><p> His first session in a studio was on Bob Dylan's recording of "Like A Rolling Stone." He workedwith Blood Sweat & Tears and got Journey their record deal.</p><p> Halee was in a broom closet at the Bonsoirnightclub recording Barbra Streisand in one of her earliest demonstrations to a record label about what shecould do in performance.</p><p> And yet, Simon & Garfunkel is his legacy."I will never forget that audition and initially hearing the sound of those two voices," says the 80 year oldproducer from his home in Boulder, Colorado. "It was classical but it was pop.</p><p> It was hooky, it was catchy, it wasbeautiful.</p><p> It just floored me."For reissue producer Steve Berkowitz (a well-known talent in the industry who Halee knows and respects andmost importantly of all trusts), tackling Simon & Garfunkel was both daunting and exciting.</p><p> He happily details justa few of the many reasons their work is so powerful."Paul's guitar playing is fantastic and recorded so well," says Berkowitz, beginning his list. "Their voicestogether.</p><p> The newness of what they did compared to their mentors, whether it be the Everly Brothers or beforethe Everly Brothers the Louvin Brothers, where some of the harmonies came from.</p><p> Artie's just incrediblybeautiful angelic phrasing and ability, the way he'll turn a phrase at the end.</p><p> It's magnificent and beautiful."And they were blessed with having this partner they trusted and liked in Roy, who was so unique in what hedeveloped.</p><p> I'm here to say, from the second record on, he was developing ideas and sounds and reverb andtechniques and juxtapositions of things loud and small unlike anybody except maybe the Beatles."Ironically, the more successful an act (or more popular a movie), the more fragile becomes the source material.You'd think a hit film by Alfred Hitchcock would be treasured but the value in an original print of say RearWindow lies in how many copies they can make to show in theaters.</p><p> The same is true for master tapes ofalbums.</p><p> Columbia famously stored every scrap of audio worth saving in the Iron Mountain, a vault in theCatskills."When I was there, every tape, every lacquer, every master went into that vault," says Halee. "When a tape wasfinished in the studio, when it was mastered, that immediately went into the vault."But that didn't mean the masters of popular albums weren't voraciously used again and again.</p><p> As Halee put it,nobody was thinking about history; they were just putting out hit records.</p><p> So with an act like Simon & Garfunkel,the task is even more daunting."They were so successful and the tapes were put out so many times over the years, the tapes got worn downand worn out," says Berkowitz. "Quite frankly, what has been left behind are third generation, LP Dolby copies.So we had a dilemma.</p><p> How do we put these out in a top quality way with subpar masters?"The solution was to go hunting."We set out to find original Simon & Garfunkel masters and I'm happy to say we were successful," says12/16/2015Music: Simon & Garfunkel -- Underappreciated? You Bet! | Evernote Web https://www.evernote.com/Home.action#n=3dd912c7-4250-4464-924d-b0ab409fe196&ses=4&sh=2&sds=5&3/4Berkowitz. "When these records originally get made, there is a final mix and a final master.</p><p> When that finalquarter inch tape was done, let's say here in New York City, then they would make a cutting master for the plantin Connecticut and from the same tape they'd make a copy for Terra Haute, Indiana where there's a plant andthey'd make a copy for the plant in Santa Monica.</p><p> They'd make one for the UK and France and Israel andAustralia and Japan.</p><p> Those would all be called the 'dash one tapes,' the first copy of the original master.</p><p> Well,I'm happy to say between England and France and Japan we were able to locate original 'dash one' mastersthat had been sent there."Of course, finding them was one thing.</p><p> Using them to create new sources for CD and various digital formats isquite another.</p><p> Berkowitz has worked on projects for countless legendary acts like Bob Dylan (including the newBasement Tapes boxed set) and the Beatles Mono LP Box release, and many many others.</p><p> He credits the workof Vic Anesini on mastering the music (Anesini has been involved in S&G projects for some 25 years) as crucialto the project's success."He's a fantastic mastering engineer," says Berkowitz, who serves as a consultant for major labels on variousreissue projects and also produces and works with new talent via his company The Music Tells You. "He knowsthis material as well as anyone on the planet."The process itself is quite fascinating, even to non-audiophiles."I can tell you when we mastered these, we found and we searched all over through Sony, individual collectorsand even Paul Simon's office for original 1-A pressings of each record, including the Greatest Hits.</p><p> We wouldthen play that record and copy it 24-96.</p><p> We would then take the most recent remix and put it down in ProToolsin parallel to it.</p><p> Then we would take the individual analog master tape which we were now using and put thatdown again in series."So, if you will, we now have three versions of this stacked: an original album, the most recent commercialpressing and then the flat master which made that 1-A pressing in the first place.</p><p> Then we would sit there andexperiment with what EQ do we need from that flat transfer to make it sound like that LP again.</p><p> We would goback and "a, b, c," "a, b, c" and listen back and forth and switch back and forth for all the levels and all thenuances and matched it up very closely."Halee's respect for Berkowitz's dedication to getting it right is obvious.</p><p> When we spoke, he had yet to receive afinal copy of the new boxed set. "But if Steve Berkowitz says it sounds great, then it sounds great," Halee saysconfidently.Similarly, Berkowitz's appreciation for the innovations of Simon, Garfunkel and Halee was already high but greweven more.</p><p> Especially on Parsley, Sage, Rosemary & Thyme onwards, Berkowitz was reminded anew of howgreat they were."You hear a group of people exploding musically, electrically, and sonically and blowing it up into somethingnew," he says. "I kept thinking, are they influencing the Beatles or are the Beatles influencing them? Do theMommas & The Poppas sound like this because of this track? It's very present, very current.</p><p> And in some ways,here in the 21st century people don't think about them anymore as big as the Beatles or as big as the Stones oras big as Jimi Hendrix.</p><p> But they were! And the records were incredibly influential."And for Halee, the journey continues.</p><p> He's excited about the new album Halee is working on. "You wouldn'tbelieve it," says Halee, but he's working on a new album by Paul Simon.</p><p> Halee is reguarly flying from Coloradoto Newark and then being driven to New Haven, Connecticut. "So it's a bit of a schlep," he jokes about thecommute.</p><p> But it's worth it.</p><p> They're recording with much of Simon's excellent touring band, with the tracks tend tobe coming first and then the lyrics following this time around.</p><p> Any theme? Any driving element to the project, likethe South African music that inspired the Grammy winning masterpiece Graceland which Halee also worked on12/16/2015Music: Simon & Garfunkel -- Underappreciated? You Bet! | Evernote Web https://www.evernote.com/Home.action#n=3dd912c7-4250-4464-924d-b0ab409fe196&ses=4&sh=2&sds=5&4/4and considers a crowning achievement? Not really, just the building block for all of Simon's work over thedecades. "Just really really good songs," says Halee.Thanks for reading.</p><p> Michael Giltz is the founder and CEO of BookFilter, a book lover's best friend.</p><p> It's a websitethat lets you browse for books online the way you do in a physical bookstore, provides comprehensive info onnew releases every week in every category and offers passionate personal recommendations every step of theway.</p><p> It's like a fall book preview or holiday gift guide -- but every week in every category.</p><p> He's also the cohost ofShowbiz Sandbox, a weekly pop culture podcast that reveals the industry take on entertainment news of the dayand features top journalists and opinion makers as guests.</p><p> It's available for free on iTunes.</p><p> Visit Michael Giltz athis website and his daily blog.Note: Michael Giltz is provided with free digital advances and final copies of music in the hope that he'll reviewor write a story on them.</p><p> He receives far more albums than he could ever cover.
