Simon and Garfunkel monos

Hi guys,

I've read a lot about how the mono mixes of the Beatles, Stones and Bee Gees are different to the stereo mixes.

But what about early Simon & Garfunkel?

I've just acquired a mono Wednesday Morning, 3am vinyl (but can't play it just yet). Would this be a different mix to my stereo CD?

 

The Mono mixes are different mixes and they are not fold-downs. With the singles, I like the Mono mixes better but, to my knowledge, they have never been released on CD...

Bob

 

Re: Re: Simon and Garfunkel monos

Hi Bob:
I've found several S&G 45s but they're all so worn that it's hard to hear the music. Must be that crappy Columbia 45 vinyl or my bum luck I guess.
Do you know if the Bookends LP was ever mixed in true mono? That would be a fascinating listen I think.

Dan C

 

Re: Re: Re: Simon and Garfunkel monos

Hi Dan,

I few a few vinyl dubs of the singles taken from near mint 45's and they sound just as I remembered them on the Radio ('I Am A Rock' is fantastic in Mono!). There was definitely a Mono mix of 'Bookends' yes, but I never had one...

Bob

 

I have the Bookends lp in mono. The 45's on it are the mono mixes of course. The only other really different mix I hear on there is Punky's Dilemma, which has extra background vocals.

 

I wasn't aware that there was a mono Bookends. I thought they stopped at "The Graduate" soundtrack. Wern't the BOTW singles in pure mono as well?

Sundazed needs to do S&G monos next, if the tapes still exist...

 

An engineer gave me a NR'd copy of the 45 single "I Am A Rock". I smoothed it back out by putting it on analog 30 ips tape via Sound Forge Accoustic Mirror.

 

I have "I Am A Rock" Mono 45 on CDR...It's wonderful
Definitely the one I remember on the Radio

 

Did you dub your 45 to CD-R?

 

The S&G mono LP's must have been a short run, you rarely see them. I know there was more mono covers than LP's pressed. Because for a short time stereo records were put in mono covers.

Does anybody know it the Columbia 45 reissues are the mono masters or did they slip in the stereo mixes?

 

Yeah, that's what I figured, because two of the time's I've seen "Parsley, Sage, Rosemary & Thyme" in mono, stereo records were in them!

 

And, mono singles, for most labels, wre almost done with at the end of 1972.

 

S&G reissue 45s

Hey Joe,
My Hall of Fame reissue 45s are both original mixes. "I Am a Rock" has a mix which differs even from the mono lp! The opening line appears to be a different vocal take than the mono lp. At "I am alone..." it syncs up with the mono lp version, which still, at this point, differs from the stereo version. Whew!
My Hall of Fame version of "Fakin' It" even keeps the 2:72 timing.
By the way, did all lp copies of Greatest Hits have that cool mono mix of "Cecilia"? My friend's CD of GH has the lp version.

I'll stop blathering now.

the other Wes

 

Some LP's from around that time had cover slicks which had a stereo label on one end and a mono on the other which would be pasted in the appropriate position, depending on which disc was to be enclosed. Sometimes you can see these peeking through...

 

Re: S&G reissue 45s

Hey Wes,
That's good to know about the reissue 45's. They maybe a little easier to obtain than the originals.
Don't know about the S&G "GH's" LP. I always passed on picking that one up, as a matter of fact, I just recently picked the CD up for the first time.

 

Hey Grant,
Nope, My friend gave me a copy

 

Friends are nice to have!

 

I have a mono Bookends, and Save The Life Of My Child is a radically different mix.

 

One of my CD-R projects is called "Simon & Garfunkel: The Sounds of Mono." I did a "singles A and B" starting with "The Sounds of Silence" and going to their last stock mono single, "Cecilia" backed with "The Only Living Boy in New York." (All later S&G singles were in stereo, at least to the general public.)

Some of my S&G 45s are near mint, others are near trashed , but all are listenable. A few noticeable differences:

"The Sounds of Silence" 45 mix is slightly faster than the LP version (it comes it at 3:01), plus the instruments are mixed much higher than in stereo versions of the same track.

"I Am a Rock" has already been mentioned. Probably a different vocal, at least at the start of the song.

"A Hazy Shade of Winter" doesn't have the abrupt cut-off it does on Bookends in stereo; it decays naturally.

"At the Zoo" has a shorter fade in mono, plus it doesn't have that psychedelic "phasing" over the "mm mm mm"s, just a more natural strum.

"Fakin' It" is a radically different mix in mono.

I think "Mrs. Robinson" is slightly longer on 45 than on stereo LP.

"Baby Driver" (the B-side of "The Boxer") on 45 doesn't speed up or modulate at the end of the song, the way the LP version does.

"Cecilia" on mono 45 is a quite different mix than the LP version, and it's slightly shorter (on LP, the song virtually segues into "Keep the Customer Satisfied").

 

Thanks for the info Tim on the 45 versions on S&G. I guess I'll be off hunting for these 45's. Boy, this hobby never ends!!