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The Paul Simon Songbook. Homeward Bound Story. Art Garfunkel arrives in UK.
07/01/2024
The Paul Simon Songbook. Homeward Bound Story. Art Garfunkel arrives in UK.
With the release by CBS REcords, UK of the extended player version of WEdnesday Morning 3am I finally had some decent promotional material that I could use to advance Paul's career and eventually Simon & Garfunkel to another level. Shortly after Paul's return to the UK. in January 1965 he had recorded some his his original material for the BBC which they finally decided to use on their "Five to Ten" religious broadcast daily. This gave us a small promotional boost and brought his songs to the ears of a wider UK audience than just the folk club attendees.. It also helped me to persuade CBS Records to make an album of his original material. In May 1965 CBS agreed they would record a solo Paul Simon album entitled The Paul Simon Songbook. Paul Simon's music publisher Alan Paramour had been a great support to me in my quest for a new recording by Paul. It was also a very good boost to Paul's UK finances as he stood to earn a good sum provided that the album sold well. Prior to recording this new album I sent Paul on a rather gruelling tour of one night stands to the folk clubs in Northern England. The last date was in Widnes, not too far from LIverpool. It was on Widnes Railway Stationin the early hours of the morning that Paul composed his future monster hiit record "Homeward Bound" based entirely on his experiences of this latest trip. He had unfortunately missed his last train back to London and decided to use the time composing a new song. Paul called me when he arrived back early the next day and asked me to pick him up and take him to his music publishers so we could record a rough demo of the new song. As I remember when we were going up the stairs to his publishers office we were passed and briefly exchanged greetings with Peter and Gordon who also used the same publisher. It was ironic that Paul offered to let Peter and Gordon record this song before doing so himself. At the time they were big stars and the performance royalties would have been significant. The fact that they turned Paul down allowed Simon & Garfunkel to enjoy the future benefits of this song. I remember Paul and I going to record at Levy's Studio in New Bond Street, London where CBS Reconds UK made many of their recordings. We were greeted at the door by two middle aged gentlemen who introduced themselves as Reg Warburton & Stan West who told us they would be the producers. Both Paul and I were a little dissappointed hoping that we would be able to work with someone a tad yunger who would be more in touch with the music. Nice as they both were, it did not seem to us that they were knowledgeable or particularly interested in our project. They were either dozing off or talking during our session as opposed to providing some meaningful input. The result was that in reality Paul, I and the recording engineer were for all practical purposes making this lalbum. We were also not told until we arrived that we would need twelve songs, a bit odf a problem, as Paul only had eleven songs prepared. So Paul and I had to sit down throw some words together while Paul also quickly came up with a melody that worked. That is how " A Simple Desultory PHillipic" was born. If I had been smarter I should have claimed some song writing credits and would have probably been a few hundred thoudsand dollars richer today. For the purposes of history it has been variously claimed that Al Stewart was present at this session. The truth is it was only Paul, the engineers, so called producers and myself. On May 25th 1965 Paul came to my house , on one of the few evenings we were able to socialise. The occasion was the second Clay/Liston fight which Paul did not want to miss. He and my father spent a little time before the fight wondering how it would go. When it ended abruptly in Clay's favour I remember Paul calling the whole thing "a fix", a sentiment shared by many at the time. In early JUne Art Garfunkel flew in to the UK. I found Art to be a really pleasant, easy going guy with a good sense of humour. A very different type of person than Paul who always tended to be on the moody side. I booked a couple of club appearances and went along to one myself to hear the duo. To say I was impressed might possibly be an understatement. After all it is not everyday that such talent falls into your lap. I booked a television show for them on Discs A Go Go with BBC Wales. My friend Rob Cherry kindly offered to drive us all down to their studios in Bristol for what was their first UK tv date. The journey was very enjoyable as Paul and Art spent most of the time giving us their best Everly Bros renditions while Paul threw in a few Doo Wop tunes he was familiar with. Our own private Simon & Garfunkel concedret from the back seat of our car! When we arrived at the studios we discovered that the othwer American guest performer was singer Cathy Carr who was enjoying success with her "Ivory Towere" hit. Paul and Art chose to perform Sounds of Silence for the show and it came off flawlessly. Even the studio personnel were impressed. The journey back to London was again enjoyable as more great songs came from our back seat passengers. I was very confident that I could propel Simon and Garfunkel to great popularity in the UK as well as Europe. What was America's loss could prove to be Europe's gain in my eyes but that is another story. Thank you for listening.
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