Paul Simon - The Complete Albums Collection (2013) [15CD Box Set] *Re-Up*

Rhino remastered and expanded Paul Simon's Warner catalog in 2004, boxing up the nine albums released between 1972 and 2000 as The Complete Studio Recordings. This archival work provides the foundation for Legacy's 2013 set The Complete Album Collection, which supplements these expanded reissues – a total of 30 bonus tracks were added to the nine albums, including demos, alternate takes, outtakes, non-LP material, and live cuts (but no original hit version of "Slip Sliding Away," an oversight that remains on this 2013 box) – with the two live albums released on Warner (1974's Paul Simon in Concert: Live Rhymin', 1991's Concert in the Park), the 1965 curiosity The Paul Simon Songbook that he recorded in the wake of the disappointing reception to Simon & Garfunkel's 1964 debut Wednesday Morning 3 AM and, most importantly, the two excellent albums Simon released after 2004: 2006's Surprise and 2011's So Beautiful or So What. This means The Complete Album Collection is Paul Simon's Complete Recorded Works – minus Simon & Garfunkel, of course, along with "Slip Sliding Away" – and, as a whole, it is a mightily impressive body of work, showcasing an artist who remains restless and curious four decades into his career. Here, the low points and transitional albums don't seem like egregious missteps – the roundly lambasted Songs from the Capeman has elements that have aged well – but rather part of the overall journey. There may not be much in the way of liner notes – there are album details and an overall intro from Ashley Kahn, a music journalist and professor who was also Simon's tour manager during the Graceland years – but the package is handsome, presenting each CD as a mini-LP, the sound is terrific, the price is affordable, and the scope is complete, so The Complete Album Collection is in every way an upgrade over the previous The Complete Studio Recordings.

Album List:

1965 - The Paul Simon Song Book
1972 - Paul Simon
1973 - There Goes Rhymin' Simon
1974 - Live Rhymin'
1975 - Still Crazy After All These Years
1980 - One-Trick Pony
1983 - Hearts And Bones
1986 - Graceland
1990 - The Rhythm Of The Saints
1991 - Paul Simon's Concert In The Park (2CD)
1997 - Songs From The Capeman
2000 - You're The One
2006 - Surprise
2011 - So Beautiful Or So What

The first album to use this title is one of the most mysterious in Paul Simon's output and almost belongs more with Simon & Garfunkel's discography, given its 1965 recording date. Following the failure of Simon & Garfunkel's first, all-acoustic folk revival-style album, Wednesday Morning, 3 AM, Simon headed off to England to see about pursuing music over there. While he was in London, he found himself in demand as a visiting American "folksinger" (though Simon's credentials in this area were rather limited), began building up a following in the coffeehouses, and was eventually pegged for a performing spot on the BBC. Suddenly, there were requests for Paul Simon recordings, of which there were none – as a result of his being signed to Columbia Records in America, however, he was brought into the London studios of British CBS and recorded this album with only his acoustic guitar for backup. The resulting album is spare, almost minimalist, as Simon runs through raw and unaffected versions of songs that he was known for in London, including "The Sounds of Silence," "The Sun Is Burning," "I Am a Rock," "A Simple Desultory Philippic" (in its earliest form, and far nastier than the version later done by Simon & Garfunkel), and "Kathy's Song."

Tracklist:

01 - I Am A Rock 02:45
02 - Leaves That Are Green 02:33
03 - A Church Is Burning 03:26
04 - April Come She Will 01:51
05 - The Sound Of Silence 03:09
06 - A Most Peculiar Man 02:26
07 - He Was My Brother 02:49
08 - Kathy's Song 03:31
09 - The Side Of A Hill 02:20
10 - A Simple Desultory Philippic (Or How I Was Robert McNamara'd Into Submission) 02:21
11 - Flowers Never Bend With The Rainfall 02:20
12 - Patterns 03:13
Bonus Tracks:
13 - I Am A Rock (Alternate Version) 02:47
14 - A Church Is Burning (Alternate Version) 03:10

If any musical justification were needed for the breakup of Simon & Garfunkel, it could be found on this striking collection, Paul Simon's post-split debut. From the opening cut, "Mother and Child Reunion" (a Top Ten hit), Simon, who had snuck several subtle musical explorations into the generally conservative S&G sound, broke free, heralding the rise of reggae with an exuberant track recorded in Jamaica for a song about death. From there, it was off to Paris for a track in South American style and a rambling story of a fisherman's son, "Duncan" (which made the singles chart). But most of the album had a low-key feel, with Simon on acoustic guitar backed by only a few trusted associates (among them Joe Osborn, Larry Knechtel, David Spinozza, Mike Manieri, Ron Carter, and Hal Blaine, along with such guests as Stefan Grossman, Airto Moreira, and Stephane Grappelli), singing a group of informal, intimate, funny, and closely observed songs (among them the lively Top 40 hit "Me and Julio Down by the Schoolyard").

Tracklist:

01 - Mother And Child Reunion 03:09
02 - Duncan 04:43
03 - Everything Put Together Falls Apart 02:01
04 - Run That Body Down 03:54
05 - Armistice Day 03:57
06 - Me And Julio Down By The Schoolyard 02:44
07 - Peace Like A River 03:23
08 - Papa Hobo 02:35
09 - Hobo's Blues 01:20
10 - Paranoia Blues 02:58
11 - Congratulations 03:51
Bonus Tracks:
12 - Me And Julio Down By The Schoolyard (Demo - San Francisco 2/71) 02:29
13 - Duncan (Demo - San Francisco 2/71) 02:48
14 - Paranoia Blues (Unreleased Version) 03:14

Retaining the buoyant musical feel of Paul Simon, but employing a more produced sound, There Goes Rhymin' Simon found Paul Simon writing and performing with assurance and venturing into soulful and R&B-oriented music. Simon returned to the kind of vocal pyrotechnics heard on the Simon & Garfunkel records by using gospel singers. On "Love Me Like a Rock" and "Tenderness" (which sounded as though it could have been written to Art Garfunkel), the Dixie Hummingbirds sang prominent backup vocals, and on "Take Me to the Mardi Gras," Reverend Claude Jeter contributed a falsetto part that Garfunkel could have handled, though not as warmly. For several tracks, Simon traveled to the Muscle Shoals Sound Studios to play with its house band, getting a variety of styles, from the gospel of "Love Me Like a Rock" to the Dixieland of "Mardi Gras." Simon was so confident that he even included a major ballad statement of the kind he used to give Garfunkel to sing: "American Tune" was his musical State of the Union, circa 1973, but this time Simon was up to making his big statements in his own voice.

Tracklist:

01 - Kodachrome 03:35
02 - Tenderness 02:55
03 - Take Me To The Mardi Gras 03:30
04 - Something So Right 04:36
05 - One Man's Ceiling Is Another Man's Floor 03:48
06 - American Tune 03:47
07 - Was A Sunny Day 03:44
08 - Learn How To Fall 02:47
09 - St - Judy's Comet 03:21
10 - Loves Me Like A Rock 03:40
Bonus Tracks:
11 - Let Me Live In Your City (Work-In-Progress) 04:21
12 - Take Me To The Mardi Gras (Acoustic Demo) 02:31
13 - American Tune (Unfinished Demo) 04:03
14 - Loves Me Like A Rock (Acoustic Demo) 03:24

One thing Simon & Garfunkel never did much of was tour, so a Paul Simon solo tour, following two commercially successful solo albums, was one more way for Simon to distance himself from the duo and, simultaneously, by performing songs like "The Boxer" and "Homeward Bound," to reclaim his songwriting catalog. Reflecting the musical explorations he had pursued since S & G, Simon brought along Brazilian group Urubamba and gospel group the Jessy Dixon Singers. The result wasn't perfect: nobody needed to hear "Jesus Is the Answer" (a Dixons spotlight number) on a Paul Simon album, and if it was inevitable that he would try his own version of "Bridge Over Troubled Water," it was also predestined that he wouldn't come near to matching Garfunkel's original. Though the album was, like most live albums, artistically redundant (there was nothing new, and none of the live versions improved upon the studio ones), it served as a career statement and it had a marketing function, buying the relatively slow-working Simon time between new studio releases. (Simon completists should note that, as in all live performances of "The Boxer," Simon sings the extra verse [beginning "Now the years are rolling by me"] not included on the Simon & Garfunkel studio version.)

Tracklist:

01 - Me And Julio Down By The Schoolyard 02:47
02 - Homeward Bound 02:44
03 - American Tune 04:01
04 - El Condor Pasa (If I Could) 04:05
05 - Duncan 05:07
06 - The Boxer 06:07
07 - Mother And Child Reunion 04:02
08 - The Sound Of Silence 04:24
09 - Jesus Is The Answer 03:26
10 - Bridge Over Troubled Water 07:28
11 - Loves Me Like A Rock 03:01
12 - America 04:37
Bonus Tracks:
13 - Kodachrome (Alternate Version) 02:55
14 - Something So Right (Alternate Version) 04:34

The third new studio album of Paul Simon's post-Simon & Garfunkel career was a musical and lyrical change of pace from his first two, Paul Simon and There Goes Rhymin' Simon. Where Simon had taken an eclectic approach before, delving into a variety of musical styles and recording all over the world, Still Crazy found him working for the most part with a group of jazz-pop New York session players, though he did do a couple of tracks ("My Little Town" and "Still Crazy After All These Years") with the Muscle Shoals rhythm section that had appeared on Rhymin' Simon and another ("Gone at Last") returned to the gospel style of earlier songs like "Loves Me Like a Rock." Of course, "My Little Town" also marked a return to working with Art Garfunkel, and another Top Ten entry for S&G. But the overall feel of Still Crazy was of a jazzy style subtly augmented with strings and horns. Perhaps more striking, however, was Simon's lyrical approach. Where Rhymin' Simon was the work of a confident family man, Still Crazy came off as a post-divorce album, its songs reeking of smug self-satisfaction and romantic disillusionment.

Tracklist:

01 - Still Crazy After All These Years 03:26
02 - My Little Town 03:51
03 - I Do It For Your Love 03:35
04 - 50 Ways To Leave Your Lover 03:37
05 - Night Game 02:58
06 - Gone At Last 03:40
07 - Some Folks' Lives Roll Easy 03:14
08 - Have A Good Time 03:26
09 - You're Kind 03:20
10 - Silent Eyes 04:12
Bonus Tracks:
11 - Slip Slidin' Away (Demo) 05:30
12 - Gone At Last (Original Demo w/The Jessy Dixon Singers) 04:38

Though it was released to coincide with the opening of the film One-Trick Pony, which Paul Simon wrote and starred in, the One-Trick Pony album is not a soundtrack, as it is sometimes categorized, at least, not exactly. If it were, it might contain the Paul Simon song "Soft Parachutes" and other non-Simon music featured in the movie. Instead, this is a studio album containing many of the movie songs, some of them in the same performances (two were cut live at the Agora Club in Cleveland). The record is not billed as a soundtrack, but a sleeve note reads, "The music on this Compact Disc was created for the Paul Simon Movie 'One-Trick Pony.'" Anyway, if Simon was in fact writing songs for Jonah, his movie character (as seems true of songs like "Jonah," "God Bless the Absentee," and "Long, Long Day"), he intended that character to take a somewhat less considered lyrical viewpoint than Paul Simon generally does, but to be even more enamored of light jazz fusion than Paul Simon had been on his last album, Still Crazy After All These Years.

Tracklist:

01 - Late In The Evening 04:02
02 - That's Why God Made The Movies 03:37
03 - One-Trick Pony 03:53
04 - How The Heart Approaches What It Yearns 02:49
05 - Oh, Marion 04:00
06 - Ace In The Hole 05:43
07 - Nobody 03:32
08 - Jonah 03:30
09 - God Bless The Absentee 03:17
10 - Long, Long Day 03:57
Bonus Tracks:
11 - Soft Parachutes (Unreleased Soundtrack Recording) 01:53
12 - All Because Of You (Outtake) 04:06
13 - Spiral Highway (Unreleased Soundtrack Recording) 02:56
14 - Stranded In A Limousine 03:10

Hearts and Bones was a commercial disaster, the lowest-charting new studio album of Paul Simon's career. It is also his most personal collection of songs, one of his most ambitious, and one of his best. It retains a personal vision, one largely devoted to the challenges of middle-aged life, among them a renewed commitment to love; the title song was a notable testament to new romance, while "Train in the Distance" reflected on romantic discord. Elsewhere, "The Late Great Johnny Ace" was his meditation on John Lennon's murder and how it related to the mythology of pop music. Musically, Simon moved forward and backward simultaneously, taking off from the jazz fusion style of his last two albums into his old loves of doo wop and rock & roll while also incorporating current sounds with such new collaborators as dance music producer Nile Rodgers and minimalist composer Philip Glass. The result was Simon's most impressive collection in a decade and the most underrated album in his catalog.

Tracklist:

01 - Allergies 04:39
02 - Hearts And Bones 05:39
03 - When Numbers Get Serious 03:26
04 - Think Too Much (b) 02:45
05 - Song About The Moon 04:11
06 - Think Too Much (a) 03:05
07 - Train In The Distance 05:12
08 - Rene And Georgette Magritte With Their Dog After The War 03:45
09 - Cars Are Cars 03:15
10 - The Late Great Johnny Ace 04:53
Bonus Tracks:
11 - Shelter Of Your Arms (Unreleased Work In Progress) 03:11
12 - Train In The Distance (Original Acoustic Demo) 03:13
13 - Rene And Georgette Magritte With Their Dog After The War (Original Acoustic Demo) 03:47
14 - The Late Great Johnny Ace (Original Acoustic Demo) 03:22

With Graceland, Paul Simon hit on the idea of combining his always perceptive songwriting with the little-heard mbaqanga music of South Africa, creating a fascinating hybrid that re-enchanted his old audience and earned him a new one. It is true that the South African angle (including its controversial aspect during the apartheid days) was a powerful marketing tool and that the catchy music succeeded in presenting listeners with that magical combination: something they'd never heard before that nevertheless sounded familiar. As eclectic as any record Simon had made, it also delved into zydeco and conjunto-flavored rock & roll while marking a surprising new lyrical approach (presaged on some songs on Hearts and Bones); for the most part, Simon abandoned a linear, narrative approach to his words, instead drawing highly poetic ("Diamonds on the Soles of Her Shoes"), abstract ("The Boy in the Bubble"), and satiric ("I Know What I Know") portraits of modern life, often charged by striking images and turns of phrase torn from the headlines or overheard in contemporary speech. An enormously successful record, Graceland became the standard against which subsequent musical experiments by major artists were measured.

Tracklist:

01 - The Boy In The Bubble 03:59
02 - Graceland 04:51
03 - I Know What I Know 03:13
04 - Gumboots 02:44
05 - Diamonds On The Soles Of Her Shoes 05:51
06 - You Can Call Me Al 04:40
07 - Under African Skies 03:37
08 - Homeless 03:48
09 - Crazy Love Vol II 04:19
10 - That Was Your Mother 02:52
11 - All Around The World Or The Myth Of Fingerprints 03:18
Bonus Tracks:
12 - Homeless (Demo) 02:30
13 - Diamonds On The Soles Of Her Shoes (Unreleased Version) 04:41
14 - All Around The World Or The Myth Of Fingerprints (Early Version) 03:17
15 - You Can Call Me Al (Demo) 02:04
16 - Crazy Love (Demo) 02:32
17 - The Story Of 'Graceland' (As Told by Paul Simon, Recorded January 2012) 09:38

Though he recorded the album's prominent percussion tracks in Brazil, Paul Simon fashioned The Rhythm of the Saints as a deliberate follow-up to the artistic breakthrough and commercial comeback that was the South Africa-tinged Graceland. Several of the musicians who had appeared previously were back, along with some of the New York session players who had worked with Simon in the 1970s, and the overall sound was familiar to fans of Graceland. Further, Simon's nonlinear lyrical approach was carried over: he continued to ruminate about love, aging, and the onslaught of modern life in disconnected phrases and images that created impressions rather than telling straightforward stories. But where Graceland had seamlessly merged its styles into an exuberant whole, The Rhythm of the Saints was less well digested.

Tracklist:

01 - The Obvious Child 04:10
02 - Can't Run But 03:36
03 - The Coast 05:04
04 - Proof 04:39
05 - Further To Fly 05:36
06 - She Moves On 05:03
07 - Born At The Right Time 03:48
08 - The Cool, Cool River 04:33
09 - Spirit Voices 03:56
10 - The Rhythm Of The Saints 04:20
Bonus Tracks:
11 - Born At The Right Time (Original Acoustic Demo) 03:50
12 - Thelma (Outtake) 04:14
13 - The Coast (Work-In-Progress) 05:13
14 - Spirit Voices (Work-In-Progress) 03:49

Ten years after playing a free concert in New York's Central Park with Art Garfunkel, Paul Simon returned, backed by the New York session musicians and the native musicians from South Africa and Brazil who had enlivened his solo work. The show was filmed and recorded, and the audio release was a 23-track double-disc set running nearly two hours. Half the selections came from his Graceland and The Rhythm of the Saints albums, but unlike the Graceland Tour of 1987, the Born at the Right Time Tour of 1991 made room for Simon's earlier solo work as well as a few Simon & Garfunkel songs.

Tracklist:

Disc One

01 - The Obvious Child 04:38
02 - The Boy In The Bubble 05:59
03 - She Moves On 06:26
04 - Kodachrome 04:13
05 - Born At The Right Time 05:11
06 - Train In The Distance 04:45
07 - Me And Julio Down By The School Yard 03:14
08 - I Know What I Know 04:45
09 - The Cool, Cool River 05:41
10 - Bridge Over Troubled Water 05:16
11 - Proof 05:40

Disc Two

01 - The Coast 07:06
02 - Graceland 05:31
03 - You Can Call Me Al 05:10
04 - Still Crazy After All These Years 03:42
05 - Loves Me Like A Rock 02:54
06 - Diamonds On The Soles Of Her Shoes 09:31
07 - Hearts And Bones 06:18
08 - Late In The Evening 04:45
09 - America 03:23
10 - The Boxer 04:18
11 - Cecilia 03:24
12 - The Sound Of Silence 05:46

During the production of The Rhythm of the Saints, Paul Simon latched upon the idea of turning the story of Salvador Agron – a '50s Puerto Rican hoodlum nicknamed the Capeman – into a musical. (Agron was convicted of stabbing two kids to death during a New York street fight; during his prison term, he educated himself and turned into a poet and activist.) Collaborating with poet Derek Walcott on the lyrics and book, Simon worked on the musical for seven years, writing a set of songs that evoked doo wop, '50s rock & roll, and Puerto Rican music.

Tracklist:

01 - Adios Hermanos 04:42
02 - Born In Puerto Rico 05:03
03 - Satin Summer Nights 05:45
04 - Bernadette 03:33
05 - The Vampires 05:14
06 - Quality 04:18
07 - Can I Forgive Him 06:02
08 - Sunday Afternoon 03:25
09 - Killer Wants To Go To College 01:51
10 - Time Is An Ocean 05:23
11 - Virgil 02:49
12 - Killer Wants To Go To College II 02:09
13 - Trailways Bus 05:22
Bonus Tracks:
14 - Shoplifting Clothes 03:38
15 - Born In Puerto Rico (Demo With Jose Feliciano) 05:02
16 - Can I Forgive Him (Original Demo Recorded March 1993) 01:56

The disaster of Songs from the Capeman hit Paul Simon particularly hard, so he decided to quickly record a new album, his first proper collection of songs since 1990's The Rhythm of the Saints – his first album in ten years, really. Nevertheless, if this album has a relative, it's 1982's Hearts and Bones, since it's a deliberately low-key, insular record, especially when compared to the sweeping worldbeat explorations of Graceland and Rhythm. But where Hearts and Bones was a singer/songwriter album, no two ways about it, You're the One illustrates the influence of its predecessors, but it's not showy about it.

Tracklist:

01 - That's Where I Belong 03:12
02 - Darling Lorraine 06:38
03 - Old 02:19
04 - You're The One 04:27
05 - The Teacher 03:36
06 - Look At It 03:54
07 - Senorita With A Necklace Of Tears 03:41
08 - Love 03:50
09 - Pigs, Sheep And Wolves 03:58
10 - Hurricane Eye 04:11
11 - Quiet 04:25
Bonus Tracks:
12 - That's Where I Belong (Live) 03:42
13 - Old (Live) 02:40
14 - Hurricane Eye (Live) 06:00

The obvious surprise of Surprise, Paul Simon's tenth solo album and his first since 2000's underrated You're the One, is that the singer/songwriter has enlisted Brian Eno as his collaborator. At first glance the pairing seems odd, even awkward, since they seem to come from opposing backgrounds: Simon the folk-rock troubadour and Eno the avant-garde art rock adventurist. Dig a little deeper, and the similarities do surface. For one, there is the mutual shared interest in world music – most evident in Eno's productions/collaborations with Talking Heads at the turn of the '70s and on Simon's 1986 Graceland and its 1990 follow-up, The Rhythm of the Saints, but there are undercurrents running as far back as Simon & Garfunkel's "Cecilia." But more than any other singer/songwriter of his generation, Paul Simon has demonstrated a keen interest in having his albums sound unique and distinct from each other, using each album as an opportunity to explore a different sonic characteristic, so working with a sonic landscaper (as his back-cover credit on Surprise calls him) is not out of character.

Tracklist:

01 - How Can You Live In The Northeast? 03:42
02 - Everything About It Is A Love Song 03:57
03 - Outrageous 03:24
04 - Sure Don't Feel Like Love 03:57
05 - Wartime Prayers 04:49
06 - Beautiful 03:07
07 - I Don't Believe 04:09
08 - Another Galaxy 05:22
09 - Once Upon A Time There Was An Ocean 03:55
10 - That's Me 04:43
11 - Father And Daughter 04:11

Touted as Paul Simon’s return to traditional songwriting – Simon writing alone with a guitar and a pen instead of constructing songs around rhythmic loops the way he’s done since Graceland – So Beautiful or So What doesn’t feel like a return to the ‘70s. From the moment the record kicks in with the heavy blues stomp and samples of “Getting Ready for Christmas Day,” it’s evident that while Simon may have changed his style of composing, he’s not abandoning his method of record-making, which is distinctly engaged with the present.

Tracklist:

01 - Getting Ready For Christmas Day 04:06
02 - The Afterlife 03:40
03 - Dazzling Blue 04:32
04 - Rewrite 03:49
05 - Love And Hard Times 04:09
06 - Love Is Eternal Sacred Light 04:02
07 - Amulet 01:36
08 - Questions For The Angels 03:49
09 - Love & Blessings 04:18
10 - So Beautiful Or So What 04:08





Note that there is no artwork included in the music archives. JPEG and PNG are available as separate files.
All files are fully tagged.
5% recovery record
-NF-

I do not get comment notifications with Disqus like I did with the old format, therefore, I am not likely to see comments because I have hundreds of posts and will not open each one to see if there is a comment. Please PM me instead.

All thanks go to ALLexxess!!