Each is named “Bookends” and each features only acoustic guitar for instrumentation. Of the seven songs, the first and last are the same song. I am as familiar with the songs on this album as any I can think of, and yet it was just recently that it occurred to me that side one of Bookends (the ‘Bookends’ side) takes us chronologically through the stages of life, and their unique struggles. That means that I first heard this album when I was no older than 10.

But given her love for their music, I can’t imagine that it was very long after its release. I can’t give you the precise date that Bookends took its first spin on our turntable. I’ve mentioned before that all the Simon and Garfunkel albums in my birth family’s house belonged to my sister.

It is with a fair amount of embarrassment that I admit that this realization escaped me for many years. Or perhaps better stated, the journey of a life. Seven songs, lasting just under fifteen minutes, take us through the journey of a lifetime. Artists were starting to use the medium creatively and Bookends is one of the first to devote an entire side of an album to a theme. Vinyl was in the beginning stages of its heyday. It is, in that regard, a breakthrough album. The albums leading up to Bookends increasingly show Simon’s developing songwriting skills, and glimpses of his creativity. But it is with this album that we really see that originality flourish.

That being the case, why would I select Bookends, rather than their fifth and final album, Bridge Over Troubled Water, as topic for this TBT? It is generally accepted that each Simon and Garfunkel album surpassed its predecessor in quality, popularity, critical acclaim and recognition. Bookends, the fourth of five studio albums from the iconic duo Simon and Garfunkel, is just two years shy of celebrating its fiftieth birthday.

Garfunkel bookends