Soundcheck
Simon, Garfunkel, and 'Bookends'
The classic Simon & Garfunkel album "Bookends" was released in 1968, an election year filled with social turmoil and an increasingly unpopular war. Forty years later, the political landscape in the United States is filled with the rhetoric of "change," some of it aimed at the war in Iraq. But can music play a role in that change? Longtime radio host Pete Fornatale joins us to share how "Bookends" resonated in 1968 and still does today.
Never liked Bookends. Compared with 'Sounds of Silence' or 'Parsely, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme,' 'Bookends is a mediocre effort. It is like comparing "Another Side of Bob Dylan," "Bringing it all Back Home", with "Planet Waves" or "Self Portrait" and "Street Legal."
As you probably know, Duke Ellington didn't write "A Train" but his long time arranger and sax player, Billy Strahorne did (I'm not sure of the spelling.)
Music cannot change the world where the powers of co-option de-politicize everything. Remember the Beatles' "Revolution" in the Nike commercial?
Music has not lost the power to change the world. I think that young people today feel unempowered to change anything. We were raised with a gene Roddenbury optimism to overcome the Six o'clock war reralities. I was born in '57,tail-end of the boom, and we had the advantage of sheer numbers. Maybe it's up to us 'old folk' to use that again,with the goal of improving our kids and grandkids future. Go back Neal, and write us something to do that by!
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