page_title: Bookends (album)
section_title: Recording and production
hierarchical_section_title: Bookends (album) / Recording and production
caption_attribution_description: English: CBS Studio Building 52nd and Madison in New York City
context_page_description: Bookends is the fourth studio album by American music duo Simon & Garfunkel. Produced by Paul Simon, Roy Halee and Art Garfunkel, the album was released on April 3, 1968, in the United States by Columbia Records. The duo had risen to fame two years prior with the albums Sounds of Silence and Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme and the soundtrack album for the 1967 film The Graduate.
  Bookends is a concept album that explores a life journey from childhood to old age. Side one of the album marks successive stages in life, the theme serving as bookends to the life cycle. Side two largely consists of unused material for The Graduate soundtrack. Simon's lyrics concern youth, disillusionment, relationships, old age, and mortality. Much of the material was crafted alongside producer John Simon, who joined the recording when Paul Simon suffered from writer's block. The album was recorded gradually over the period of a year, with production speeding up around the later months of 1967.
  Initial sales for Bookends were substantial in the US, and the album produced the number-one single "Mrs. Robinson". The album sold well in the US and in the United Kingdom, where it peaked at number one.
context_section_description: Bookends was recorded in fits and starts from 1966 to 1968. John Simon's first session with the group was for "Fakin' It" in June 1967. The duo were signed under an older contract that specified the label pay for sessions ("As a folk duo, how much could recording costs be?" said John Simon). Simon & Garfunkel took advantage of this indulgence, hiring viola and brass players, as well as percussionists. When the viola players arrived, the duo were so intrigued with the sound of the musicians tuning their instruments before recording that they spent nearly all night (at Columbia's expense) trying to find the random sound.
  The record's brevity reflects its concise and perfectionistic production. The team spent over 50 studio hours recording "Punky's Dilemma", for example, and re-recorded vocal parts, sometimes note by note, until they were satisfied. Simon paid close attention to his vocal takes, and he strived to get each line perfect. He took a bigger role in all aspects of production, and harmonies for which the band was famous gradually disappeared in favor of songs sung solo by each member. Although the album had been planned long in advance, work did not begin in earnest until the late months of 1967.
  John Simon's work with the duo produced several tracks that ended up on Bookends, such as "Punky's Dilemma", "Save the Life of My Child", and "Overs". In October 1967, Morgan Ames, writer for High Fidelity magazine, attended a recording session with the duo, Simon, Halee and an assistant engineer at Columbia's recording studio on 52nd Street in New York City. Her observations were reported in the November edition of the magazine:
  The team's working relationship is built upon listening to each other, asking advice, taking it, building each other's morale. Though it's obvious they enjoy working with John Simon, the last word seems to come from one partner to the other [...] Ideas are tried, accepted, rejected. Time passes. Too much time. Too little headway [...] "Punky's Dilemma" is put aside for the moment and Simon begins work on the title song for the new album, Bookends.
  Work on Bookends slowed by the beginning of the new year, with John Simon's departure from Columbia. The duo and Halee completed production themselves, recording "America" on February 1, the final version of "Mrs. Robinson" on February 2, and "Old Friends" and the closing "Bookends Theme" on March 8. Simon felt the album "had the most use of the studio" of all of the duo's albums.
caption: Bookends was recorded at Columbia's Studio B at the CBS Studio Building in Manhattan.[13]
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