Paul Simon - Queen's College, London, Britain, 1964

As part of my overall BBC project (check out my post about that), I took at look at what BBC sessions Simon and Garfunkel did. There's some, though barely enough for one album. However, that led me to, or reminded me of, some other interesting stuff worth posting.

I have a particular interest in very early bootleg recordings of famous musicians. Here's a special one for Paul Simon, dating all the way back to 1964. Exactly where and when this is from is a contentious issue that I will get to in a minute. But I think it's highly likely this concert took place before the first Simon and Garfunkel album was released in October 1964. Yet it seems to be a soundboard that sounds remarkably good for such an early bootleg.

As to the where and when this happened, note that most versions of this bootleg floating around the Internet claim it took place at Queens College in New York City some time in 1964. At first, that would make sense, because Simon graduated from Queens College in 1963 with a major in English. But I've seen extensive lists of all the places he played in 1964, with or without Art Garfunkel, and it looks like he didn't play in public in the US at all that year. He spent most of the year trying to start a music career in England, only occasionally coming back to the US to record or mix the first Simon and Garfunkel album, "Wednesday Morning, 3 A.M." By contrast, he played dozens of venues in England in 1964, and one of them was a girls' school in London called Queen's College. So I strongly suspect there was a confusion between the two places with the similar names (one with an apostrophe and one without).

There are more clues as to the place this happened. At the time, Simon was torn between pursuing a solo music career, or sharing a partnership with Garfunkel. One problem was that they weren't appreciated in the pivotal New York City folk scene. That was centered in Greenwich Village, and Simon and Garfunkel were looked down upon as coming from "the wrong side of the tracks" in Queens. By contrast, Simon found a very receptive audience when he played in England, where he was only seen as an American, which was unusual and cool for the British folk scene at the time. So he lived in England for nearly all of 1964 and 1965. But Garfunkel was still going to college in the US, and only occasionally made some visits to Simon in England. That said, they definitely wanted to play together whenever they were in the same place. So had Simon put on a concert in New York City, where Garfunkel was going to college, why would it have only been a solo show?

As for the time this concert took place, there are some clues there too. The main one is that the song list better fits the songs Simon was playing in 1964, not 1965. He had written "The Sound of Silence" and four others early enough for them to be included on the "Wednesday Morning, 3 A.M." album, which was recorded in March 1964. By the start of 1965, he'd written some more classics that he certainly would have wanted to show off at any concert, like "I Am a Rock," "Kathy's Song," and "April Come She Will." (We know this because he played them at a January 1965 BBC session.) Whereas in mid-1964, he didn't have that many excellent original songs yet, so he had to rely more on covers. 

One key clue is that two of the songs he performed at this concert, "Goin' to the Zoo" and "I Can't Help but Wonder Where I'm Bound," were written by Tom Paxton. "Goin' to the Zoo" was first released in 1962, and then both songs was put on the "Ramblin' Boy" album, released in October 1964. However, it's very possible that Simon knew them already after repeatedly crossing paths with Paxton in the New York City folk scene, where Paxton was a major figure. But in any case, they were widely known songs in the folk music world that were fresh to audiences in 1964, but would have been a bit old well into 1965. (Simon also played "I Can't Help but Wonder Where I'm Bound" in a January 1965 BBC session.)

Another factor is that Simon played "Scarborough Fair" in this concert, and it is known he learned the song from folk singer Martin Carthy after moving to England. But all that really tells us is this had to have taken place at some point after early 1964, when he first moved there. 

One bootleg version I've found of this show claims it took place on May 1st, 1964, in Queen's College in London. However, that has the caveat that the date is uncertain, and I have no idea how they got that date. If I had to guess, I think it's probably a little later than that, from the summer or fall of 1964, but that's just a guess.

One problem in figuring out the date and location is that there's very little banter between songs. I'm fairly certain Simon spoke a lot more, but the taper turned the recording device off as soon as the songs ended, in order to save tape. This was common practice in those days, when tape was much more expensive. One can tell this because the applause was cut off after a couple of seconds for all but two or three of the songs. So we don't get any "It's great to be in England" type comments that could give us more clues. 

We also aren't sure if this is the full concert or if there was more at the start, although I suspect this was the whole thing. At least we know this recording has the proper end, since he commented that he wasn't going to do an encore.

Although the sound quality is really good, I edited virtually every song due to that applause problem I just mentioned. For the many songs where the applause was cut off, I patched in more applause from elsewhere in the recording to give the impression of complete applause after all the songs.

I've already posted two albums of Simon and Garfunkel rarities. I included four of the performances from this exact show on the first rarities album: "House Carpenter," "Gospel Ship," "Pretty Boy Floyd," and "Goin' to the Zoo." Those are all covers where these are the only known recordings. That said, it's definitely worth hearing the full concert and not just those four songs.

This album is 39 minutes long.

01 Scarborough Fair (Paul Simon)
02 House Carpenter (Paul Simon)
03 Gospel Ship (Paul Simon)
04 Pretty Boy Floyd (Paul Simon)
05 A Church Is Burning (Paul Simon)
06 The Sound of Silence (Paul Simon)
07 Leaves that Are Green (Paul Simon)
08 The Sun Is Burning (Paul Simon)
09 I Can't Help but Wonder Where I'm Bound (Paul Simon)
10 talk (Paul Simon)
11 Goin' to the Zoo (Paul Simon)
12 He Was My Brother (Paul Simon)
13 talk (Paul Simon)

https://www.upload.ee/files/16700334/SIMNNGRFNKL1964_QuensCollgeLondnBritin__1964_atse.zip.html

I'm pleased as punch at the cover art, which I feel evokes the feeling of listening to Simon in a small club very early in his career. It's a photo of Simon performing at the Jacquard Club in Norwich, England, in August 1965. Even at that relatively late date, Simon was a relative unknown, playing small clubs all over England. But one month later, a version of "The Sound of Silence" with full band instrumentation was released in the US and started climbing the charts, eventually hitting number one. Simon quickly moved back the US, reunited with Garfunkel, and continued to have massive success. So this photo could have just as easily been taken at any other English club in 1964 or 1965. Other photos from the same series show he was playing in a small basement to about 60 people (according to an article that goes with the photos). I've included one here so you can see what I mean.

Unfortunately, the photo was in black and white. So I used the Pixbim program to colorize it.