Paul Simon - Hearts and Bones

Gee, I just found a mint vinyl copy a few weeks back for a buck but never listened to it - yet.

I'm happy to hear it's a great album and will listen to it this weekend.

Thanks

 

another thing that just came to mind...The Dakota building is just yards away from where S&G played that night.

 

Thought I'd revive this thread...

I'm discovering Hearts and Bones for the first time, and it just keeps growing on me. I have so much stuff to listen to, but it's backlogged because this one won't be leaving my player anytime soon.

Upon first listen I thought, "meh... it's okay". But it just becomes so much more powerful, so much more achingly emotional, upon each listen... I just can't stop. Favorites for me are the title track, "Song About The Moon", "Train In The Distance", and "Rene and Georgette Magritte..."

Wow! Great album!

 

One of the first CD's I ever bought, and I bought when it first came out in the early 80's. Sounded amazing to me back then, and the music was some of Paul's best. The remaster to my ears was not worth the purchase, as the original was pretty good.

 

A great album.Any comments on the difficult to find dvd-audio-it's my favorite version.

 

I guess you are thinking of the DVD-Audio of "You´re the One"...

If not I would be a very happy man...

It is a shame that Paul Simon's work is not available in HiRez, other than YtO. His music and the way it is recorded is VERY suitable for this IMHO.

//Uffe

 

oops!You're right ,for some reason I was sure I had this on dvda,but alas it was the one you mentiones.

 

I just got my hands on the Target CD of H&B, and it's a lovely sounding album--a lot better than I was expecting. Personal without being confessional.

 

BTW this (Citizen of the Planet)is really a nice little S & G tune that should have gotten more exposure.

 

which is the "grail" for this album? i'd like to have the Target, but if there is 32XD or some other that is the forum favorite, I'd like it also....

 

Heart and Bones is an excellent LP.

Simon was correct to wipe Garfunkel's vocals. His singing contributed nothing and actually was annoying. It wasn't like this was at one time a Simon & Garfunkel album or anything like that.

 

One of the very few Targets I own. I recall using it as a test disc for sound quality back in the 80's. And the title song and "Train in the Distance" compete for my favorite Paul Simon song.

 

I just found this page this morning and zoinks...it purports the whole album was pretty much finished. I'd love to see a version come out someday...just to clear the vaults. They could do it, adding in "Citizen Of The Planet", and then have another CD of unreleased & live tracks & give us one final double S & G CD...maybe to go along with the last tour next year, I hope...
Here's the link to the last of a four page long piece...
http://www.musicangle.com/feat.php?id=183&rpage=4
And here's the big news...while some claim it was largely unfinished, others claim it was almost completely done!!
"But what is on the tape? Certainly not a finished, mixed and mastered album. There’s definitely a rough mix of the album with Garfunkel on it, although whether or not he appears on the whole album is unclear, as is the question of whether or not his vocals were actually finished.



The only firm evidence is a bootleg of studio rough mixes, on which Garfunkel’s voice is clearly discernable on two tracks – his harmonies on “Train in the Distance” and a gorgeous vocal solo (the “laughing boy” section) on “Song About the Moon.” There are also a handful of live recordings from the 1983 tour, on which Garfunkel joins Simon to sing “Cars Are Cars,” “Think Too Much” (the fast version), and “Allergies.



The Think Too Much album would almost certainly have featured the same 10 tracks that appeared on Simon’s Hearts and Bones album. Another contender for the album, “Citizen of the Planet,” a folky tune that recalled the duo’s early ‘60s sound, was considered but had certainly been dropped from the album by the summer of 1983. (“Citizen” finally appeared, a decade later, as a Simon and Garfunkel reunion track on the Old Friends concert album.)



The prospect of hearing the Think Too Much album is a tantalizing (if unlikely) prospect. Dan Nash, one of the dozen or so engineers who worked on the album, says, “The entire thing was finished with Artie on it, without a doubt. I have a copy. When Paul made the decision [to make it a solo album], he had Roy Halee make rough mixes of the whole thing.”



According to Nash, all that was missing was some backing vocals, but the lead vocals by Simon and Garfunkel were complete. “If you heard the rough mixes you’d know all it needs is to be mastered.”

However, Nash isn’t sure whether the duo had agreed on whether the lead vocals were supposed to be final or just “scratch” vocals.



Nash feels that the Simon solo version suffered from an attempt to over-compensate for Garfunkel absence. “[Paul] had a clear sense of the structure of the record. But to make the songs sing, he had to come up with musical accoutrements to make it fly. So there were a lot of extra musical parts added – things that were clever, but that weren’t organic.”



In Nash’s opinion, the Simon and Garfunkel version, even in rough-mix form, is “100 times better than the album that came out.”



“I recall, and still have somewhere, the rough mixes of the album with Artie on it,” says Arlen Roth. “He was on almost every song, as I recall, and we were all so excited about this being a true S&G "reunion" album, as well as reunion tour! Live, we performed 'Cars are Cars", "Allergies" and "Hearts and Bones".”



Mark Linett worked briefly on the album in its early stages, at Warner Bros Recording Studios in Los Angeles. At that point, Linett understood the sessions were for a Paul Simon solo album. Garfunkel was at the sessions but in the role of backing vocalist. Another engineer who worked on the album, Jimmy Santis, remembers it as a Simon solo album and doesn’t recall Garfunkel’s involvement being mentioned.



Korte remembers that during his time on the album, only a few songs appeared to have been finished with Garfunkel.



17 years later, the Think Too Much album surely deserves to be dusted off and unleashed in some form, whether it’s finished or not. It seems unlikely that Paul Simon would have much of an appetite for it, and maybe Garfunkel wouldn’t either; but Simon and Garfunkel fans surely deserve the chance to hear it for themselves - especially for all those who caught the duo on their 1983 tour, heard the new songs and were disappointed when he album didn’t come out."

 

Rene and Georgette Magritte with their Dog After the War......for some reason that song always gets me.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F-Zdm1vLpfk

Here's a link to the version of Song about the Moon with Art prominent

 

Another vote for fave Simon album....saw him on his solo 84 tour & he did a bunch of the tunes & had some funny stories about the songs...one of my fave concerts of all time,actually!...

....the boot version with Art's vocals on a few tunes dont really sound all that different....but that said,I'd LOVE to see a release of the album as a S&G effort....

Fave tunes:
Think Too Much (both versions!)
Hearts & Bones
When Numbers Get Serious

 

Any thoughts on the most recent 2011 re-issues of Paul Simon's works: Hearts & Bones, One Trick Pony remastered by Dan Hersch and Bill Inglot. Are they worth buying? Are they really new 2011 remasters or just re-issues of 2004 remasters? Can anobody make it clear for me? I bought on ebay an old WB edition of Hearts & Bones. Waiting for delivery. Thinking about buying these 2011 Sony re-issues for bonus tracks.

P.S. I already own the original WB edition of One Trick Pony (no bonus tracks), and it sounds great, imho.

 

The 2011 releases, are, so far, just re-issues of the 2004 releases...the only exception being "Live Rhymin'"- which wasn't issued in 2004 & now has been both remastered & had a couple bonus tracks added to it. Hope this helps...

 

Great album. Great memories, like listening to Train in The Distance in my old walkman under a snowfall. Late Great Johnny Ace is an underrated masterpiece, I almost went mad trying to learn it with the guitar. Some drums sounds are pretty dated, but wow...what a fantastic lp!

 

Thanks a lot for respond. Now it's clear to me. I'll probably grab these for the sake of bonus tracks.

 

H&B is one of my favorite Paul Simon albums. How does the Target CD sound compared to the remastered CD?

 

I compared them once and thought they both sounded good, but it was a long time ago, possibly on different equipment, so I can't say anything definitive. I don't think you'll experience a night and day difference between the two, but I could be wrong. . .

The album sounds great on vinyl by the way. IIRC mastered by Greg Calbi @ Sterling.

 

For vinyl, track down a promo copy on Quiex translicent brown vinyl.

 

I listened to the regular Warner vinyl release last night. Sounded pretty good to me. Mastered at Sterling by Greg Calbi.

 

Now its coming out Blue Spec ,for what its worth