Simon and Garfunkel - Bridge Over Troubled Water (1970)

In an attempt to contribute something worthwhile to my blog rather than just links to stuff I like I've decided my recent quest to begin collecting vinyl might provide just the kinda thing I'm looking for.
Having just sorted myself out with a proper deck hooked up to my Hi-if I've started getting classic albums that I've never had on CD. So god bless the charity shops, second hand stores and car boot sales.

For some reason my parents never had this album which seems pretty strange considering just how ubiquitous it has become. In all honesty when I got hold of this I thought I only knew title track and didn't expect a huge amount from it.
anyways a track by track run down

1. Bridge over troubled water
I doubt there's much about this that I can say that hasn't been before, it's about as beautifully powerful as it can get and is a prime example of how Popstars/Pop Idol/The Xfactor isn't all bad. It's the kinda song that inadvertently is impossible to avoid and has a place in the conscious of society but it wasn't until the accapella version by those who would become Hear'say and Liberty X , that I truly understood the sentiment and emotion of the song. Sometimes it takes something like that to truly appreciate a song that's "just there"

2. El candor pasa
For some reason this track is filed in my brain as a Christmas song rather than the hypothetical option a or option b it really is. The minds a strange thing.

3. Cecilia
The first track on the album I didn't realise I already knew, and Ive got Suggs to thank for that, his first solo album had a cover of this one there. That album was one of the first that I actually bought with my own money, and its got a strong place in my heart. I defiantly appreciate the original, show just how simple a song can be, to me like the great early Beatles Singles but with out repeated infinitum nature that inevitably goes with anything penned by John and Paul.

4. Keep the customer satisfied
A bombastic horn line crashing drums and a clever catchy lyric a pleasant surprise.

5. So long Frank Lloyd Wright
More what I expected of the album, gentle and plantive, but it's always gonna be hard to make a stormer about dedicated to an architect

6. Boxer
This song is all about three little word lie-la-lie a proper moment in a song, they don't come along like that often. The only kinda bit like that were I sit waiting for a certain point in a song recently is the breakdown in Take me Out By Franz Ferdidnand, who knows in 30 odd year people might be writing about that moment in the song...

7. Baby driver
Intro reminds me of hey little schoolboy or summin by Rod Stewart which is probably a slur on Art and Simon, though probably not as bad as an insult as the fact I think modern bands like the Libertines et al would love for a song like this. (though prob not admit it)

8. Only living boy in New York
An album were you have well crafted tracks like this reasonably late on proves to me just how lacking some albums are. I mean its not as great as some of the earlier tracks on the album, but that's the difference between a good album and a classic album where there is no weak tracks.

9. Why don't you write me
The dual harmonies get me everytime, there's a few punk bands out there like Twofold that sucker punch me with four part vocals but I'm still a sucker for a pair.

10. Bye bye love
Another one I knew, but didn't know I know. That's something I maybe a bit lacking in in songs at the moment, handclaps basic guitar and vocals that's all you need.

11. Song for the asking
Quite a romantic little sketch at the end, apparently this wasn't intended to be the final track and it's abrupt end certainly seems a bit of a disappointing end