Recently I was able to add 2 new dates in 1965 to the llst.
1965-00-00 Isleworth, Borough Road College 1965-00-00 Coggeshall (near Essex) played here often in a pub
The info from Facebook was put there by the person who booked Paul Simon and drove him to the tube after the gig: “I put Paul Simon on in West London in 1965 . Great show. Ran him to Isleworth tube after the gig. Paid him £12.00.” The gig was at the Borough Road Collge in Isleworth. Another Facebook-reader mentioned seeing paul Simon perform often in a pub in Coggeshall.
The album was recorded in the summer of 1965. Earlier that year Paul Simon was to be heard on the BBC Light morning radio programm called “ Five to Ten ” and listeners were looking for records to buy from this singer they had heard. There was none available in the UK. So CBS England got interested in doing a record with Paul Simon.
Under the guidance of producers Reginald Warburton and Stanley West 12 songs made it to the album. The recordings came from the following 3 days: June 17, 1965, June 23, 1965 and July 5, 1965.
Many takes were done and it resulted in the use of the following takes:
from the June 17th session: I am a rock [ Take 4 ] Leaves that are green [ Take 11 ] A most pecliar man [ Take 4 ] Kathy’s song [ Take 1 ] Patterns [ Take 3 ]
from the June 23 session: April come she will [ Take 2 ] The sound of silence [ Take 1 ]
from the July 5 session: A church is burning [ Take 3 ] He was my brother [ Take 2 ] The side of a hill [ Take 4 ] A simple desultory Philippic etc [ Take 1 ] Flowers never bend with the rainfall [ Take 8 ]
The above info come from CD release of the album, which also has 2 bonus tracks, from the June 23 session: A church is burning [ Take 4 ] I am a rock [ Take 6 ]
As you can see a Take 4 of ‘A church is burning’ was done before Take 3, which was recorded almost 2 weeks later. Probably there will have been more days in the studio before June 17th, when he recorded down take 11 of “Leaves that are green”. We don’t know this for sure, so we can only assume it. Just like it can be assumed that there were more session days after July 5?
A few notes about earlier recordings of some of the songs that appeared on the “Songbook” album:
Topic Records: In [early] 1964 Paul Simon also recorded a version of ‘The Sound Of Silence‘ and ‘April Come She Will‘ for the UK label Topic Records. The songs was never used maybe because Paul Simon was under contract of Columbia and / or CBS? The planned album “New Voices” with, besides Simon, Leon Rosselson, Sydney Carter and Cyril Tawney never saw the light.
Oriole Records: Oriole Records in the UK released a 45rpm single with Carlos Dominquez and He Was My Brother in 1964 [May 8th] as well. Not under his real name, but Jerry Landis:
This was also released [ already in 1963 ] in the US on the Tribute label [#128] using the name of Paul Kane. If you wanted to gain in on the success in the folk-circuit, having to us other names because of earlier contracts, this would and did not help.
Through the years I have collected many version of The Paul Simon Songbook. Released in 1965 in the UK and later also in other countries when Simon & Garfunkel became more and more famous.
The cover is most of the time (!) like this:
Columbia Records in Canada also released the album but with a totally different cover and album-title:
Columbia EL 111 [Monaural]:
Titled “The Sounds Of Simon” and sub-titled “The Paul Simon Songbook”.
Probably in December of 1966 CBS in Japan released an album called:
“Last night I had the strangest dream” by Simon and Garfunkel.
This album was released in 1965 in the US as ” Wednesday Morning, 3 A.M.” The rest of world, at least Europe, had to wait until 1968 for it became available. But here it already is in Japan, late 1966.
The songs are in different sequence as on the original.
Side A:
Last Night I Had The Strangest Dream Bleecker Street Sparrow Benedictus You Can Tell The World The Sounds of Silence
Side B:
The Times The Are A-changing Pegg-O Go tell It On The Mountain The Sun Is Burning He Was My Brother Wednesday Morning, 3 A.M.
The album was released with the sketche picture of Simon and Garfunkel, often used on their concertposters in 1966. Not with the usual picture of Simon & Garfunkel in the New York subway.
Social worker Judith Piepe was very fond of Paul’s music as we know and took care of him a lot. It was Piepe who managed to get him to sing his songs in the BBC radio – program “Five To Ten”.
Here’s the schedule of the broadcasts:
1965-03-08 He Was My Brother 1965-03-09 A Church Is Burning 1965-03-10 On The Side Of A Hill 1965-03-11 Sparrow 1965-05-01 The Sound Of Silence 1965-05-08 I Am A Rock 1965-05-15 A Most Peculiar Man 1965-05-22 Bleeker Street 1965-07-19 1965-07-20 1965-07-21 1965-07-22
For the last 4 dates we have no information which song(s) he sang. In the list of his performances in 1965 we have also listed a Five To Ten performance as early as January 21st, but this now has become uncertain.
The performances in May ‘ 65 were commented by Judith Piepe.
Have been able to collect some more folkclub venues where Paul Simon played during 1964 / 1965. Many were found on the MUDCAT.org platform where those who visited the clubs in the mid-60’s share their memories. Not always an exact year or date could be found to be added.
Here are the new finds:
The Castle
Cecil Sharp Hous (CSH)
St Mary’s College, Folk Club (Simon is mentioned as a regular guest)
Blackmore Folk Club
RAOB Rooms Folk Club (??)
Catford, The Railway Tavern
Chiselhurst, Chiselhurst Caves
London, Blackheath, The Green man
Cleethorpe
In 1965 Paul Simon played on July 13th at Exeter Jolly Porter Folk Club. The organisers had tried to get Donovan, “but he pulled out at the last minute so we got Paul Simon who we had never heard of. Until then there was the Dylan crowd and the traditionalists, somehow Paul united the two groups that evening and influenced both playing and song writing in the area” [Source: Dudley at Mudcat.org on Feb 20, 2011]
With thanks to Joe McMichael we were happy to get the info in 2013 that Simon & Garfunkel appeared in Indiana, in the state of Pennsylvania.
The Red Rooster had just opened a couple of days earlier before the Simon & Garfunkel concert took place on December 26th.
And today JMPaull commented: We were visiting my family in Latrobe, PA, and my older cousin took me to the Simon & Garfunkel concert at the Red Rooster. It had just turned 14, and it was my first “live” concert. I had no idea who they were, or what was going on, but I do remember thinking that “The Sounds of Silence” sounded pretty cool.
It was Michael Bender who brought Simon & Garfunkel to recently opened Red Rooster, late 1965. In an article of 2017. when Bender had passed away recently, his friend Greg Flave mentions the fact and states that it was probably the most famous band he had booked. As we can see there were more bands of fame being booked like The Cooasters, The Isley Brothers and singer Lou Christy.
Paul Simon - 'Time it was...it was' 