![simon garfunkel bookends bonus tracks simon garfunkel bookends bonus tracks](https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-X76-pxe_4rI/UGL-aDvqvzI/AAAAAAAABUQ/XYqlmkUHNVY/s1600/yd059-front-498x498.jpg)
Undoubtedly the album’s biggest audience puller, the endearing, folk-pop staple “Mrs. A track that is littered with aspects of British psychedelic-pop, “Punky’s Dilemma” is a finely crafted happy-go-lucky piece that includes lines like “I wish I was an English muffin / ‘Bout to make the most of a toaster / I’d ease myself down / Coming up brown / I prefer boysenberry / Than any other jam”, and is really just Simon tipping his hat to groups like Small Faces and The Zombies in a very appropriate and charming way. Kicking off Side B, “Fakin’ It” is evidence that Simon also found a lot to like in particular strands of American popular music, in this instance borrowing heavily from the psychedelic-folk sounds of Love’s Forever Changes, making use of a strong, recurring acoustic riff as well as handclaps and brief, otherworldly bursts of horns and strings. Pepper’s) was all the rage in 1968, but leading in from the superb “America” and “Overs”, it disrupts the flow of the album, acting as a bizarre and unnecessary segue into the sentimental, dreamy acoustic ballads “Old Friends” and “Bookends”. I can appreciate what they were both trying to accomplish here, as the whole ‘concept’ approach (thanks Sgt. Then there’s “Voices of Old People”, a track that has me completely stumped as to why it was included – it’s literally two minutes of recordings that Garfunkel had made, interviewing elderly people from (I’m assuming) his neighbourhood. A sombre number, the track deals with a sort of helplessness and inevitability that usually accompanies a dying relationship, in this case being Simon’s lover Kathy Chitty, who was earlier referenced in “America”. The next track does sound like Simon & Garfunkel however, but not completely – “Overs” is a bare, pure acoustic piece which separates the two’s vocal duties, including a verse of Garfunkel singing solo, which is a rarity to hear. It’s the first song with a real and distinctive sense of character that the pair had recorded, pulling in a range of influences but not really sounding like anybody else. Following a smooth transition, “America” is perhaps the first indication in Bookends of Simon’s growing admiration for British music, featuring drum fills that sound like they were pulled straight from The Beatles’ “A Day in the Life” (courtesy of legendary Wrecking Crew session musician Hal Blaine) along with psychedelic-tinged keyboards and incessantly pleasant double-tracked acoustic guitar, all providing a backdrop for vocal harmonies by the pair which range from soft and airy to emphatic and prolonged.