Tonight I ripped a few discs from Sly and the Family Stone (‘Fresh’, ‘There’s a Riot Going On’ and a greatest hits disc) as well as the five Simon and Garfunkel studio albums that was released as ‘Collected Works’ on Columbia in the early 90s.

I find it quite ironic that the Sly and the Family Stone Greatest Hits disc is missing some pretty major songs. I can’t seem to find a date on the disc, but I am going to have to assume that the reason ‘Family Affair’ and ‘If You Want Me To Stay’ is NOT on the Greatest Hits disc is because the Greatest Hits was released before ‘Fresh’ and ‘Riot’. Or, the compilation was put together simply based on sales. Not being alive in the early 70s, I really don’t know how much airplay those songs would have gotten (though they were both top 10 singles, so it couldn’t have been shabby)… and I’d be surprised if his excellent version of ‘Que Sera Sera’ was heard by anyone but people who bought ‘Fresh’. I imagine part of the problems was that with ‘Riot’ and ‘Fresh’ the Family Stone was already falling apart. ‘There’s a Riot Going On’ is a pretty dark album (certainly not ‘Dance To The Music’) and it is mostly Sly himself recording most of it (with a drum machine and multi-track recorder). But it has some of his best work at the same time. While ‘Everyday People’ may be his shiny happy people song that most people think of when they think of the Family Stone, ‘Family Affair’ and its tortured stories told in the verses is a masterful and powerful song, I think possibly his best.

I have all the Simon and Garfunkel albums on vinyl (which I found used over the years) but I still picked up the ‘Collected Works’ somewhere along the way, and I’m quite glad I did. I am not sure if Simon and Garfunkel sound better on vinyl in the same way that John Coltrane does, and while the pops and crackles on my jazz albums seem to lend an ambience (albeit a nostalgic one) to my jazz LPs, I like the CD recordings of Simon and Garfunkel better. The ‘Collected Works’ weren’t cleaned up much for the CD issues (mastering was done as an analog stage) but the harmonies and more gentle guitar work really works better in a clean recording.

I’m not the biggest fan of the song ‘Bridge Over Troubled Water’, but I love that Celia hears ‘Cecelia’ and dances to the music. ‘The Boxer’ and its orchestral hits, while over the top are brilliant. And I can’t help but think of the Andean pan-flute players that would be on Sproul Plaza at Berkeley on weekends when I hear ‘El Condor Pasa’. While their last album is great, I am amazed at how far removed it is from ‘Wednesday Morning, 3 AM’. The original version of ‘Sounds of Silence’ has got to be one of the best songs from a first album ever made which would then be remade by the same group for a second album and horribly ruined (sorry – the orchestral background for the second version is just an abomination). The sins of the second album are made up for on the third (with the closing track ‘7 O’Clock News / Silent Night’ rounding the album out in a beautiful and politically jarring way). Bookends was another great album (following the soundtrack work they did for ‘The Graduate’, a great movie made better by the amazing music used in it). Then after ‘Bridge Over Troubled Water’ that is pretty much it except for reunions in big parks and a great skit on an episode of Saturday Night Live.

I do like most of Paul Simon’s solo work though… but it is hard for me not to think ‘poor Garfunkel… kinda pulled the short end of the straw with the breakup’. Except, they had broken up once before. ‘Wednesday Morning, 3 AM’ took quite some time to catch on… The two had split up even before it was released. When it suddenly began to sell they got back together to support the album, which led to more. So – at least Garfunkel got 5 albums (and a number of reunions) out of the deal. I get the feeling Paul Simon would have figured out a way to make music either way though.