Music Feeds’ Love Letter to a Record series asks artists to reflect on their relationship with the music they love and share stories about how it has influenced their lives. Here, Naarm singer-songwriter Hassall shares a heartfelt ode to Simon & Garfunkel’s fourth studio album, 1968’s ‘Bookends’.
It comes as Hassall releases ‘Overpopulator’, the latest cut of her forthcoming album ‘MEANS MORE TO ME THAN IT DOES TO YOU’, which is slated for release on Friday, 3rd July. Hassall describes ‘Overpopulator’ as a song for “anyone who, like me: a) drinks too much coffee and b) can’t decide whether they want kids or not (due to environmental reasons, of course), and c) is head over heels in love with at least one person 24/7”. You can take her new single for a spin – and read her love letter to Simon & Garfunkel’s ‘Bookends’ – down below.
Hassal – ‘Overpopulator’
Hassall: The first time I heard Simon & Garfunkel, I was in the lounge room at Dad’s house. I got to pick the record that night – Bookends. (Probably for the cool cover art, a black and white picture of a young, close-up Paul and Art in turtlenecks). I laid there, my back on the carpet, first listen. The inner-leaf lyric sheet was clutched in both hands above me, blocking the big light. I followed each song word for word.
It was the first time I understood what songwriting was, I think. Or maybe, what it had the potential to be. This hit me a little during the song ‘America’ and then a LOT during the song ‘Overs’. Man alive, those lyrics are good. Listening to Paul Simon’s songwriting, I remember thinking it sounded like a poem that someone had designed music around so that every little word and line felt exactly the way the words intended it to. Later on, I learned that it’s called prosody, and I’m forever in the pursuit of it. The way he toys with tempo, and the entire arrangement is so well shaped and placed – it just makes sense.
Side A of Bookends is made up of six songs and one recording of old people talking (Garfunkel’s contribution). It’s a concept half-album that follows the human lifecycle chronologically and it is heartbreaking. The ‘Bookends Theme’, which plays at the start and end of the side (fittingly) is the thickest nostalgia I’ve ever felt in music, and it makes me so weepy in a good way. Side B is a collection of songs that were written for the film The Graduate (including ‘Mrs Robinson’). These songs are so bouncy and lyrically whacked-up, yet relentlessly clever in a way that completely cuts the fat.
Top tracks if I’m at gunpoint:
1. ‘Bookends Theme – Reprise’
2. ‘Overs’
3. ‘Punky’s Dilemma’
Special shoutout: When I saw Zooey Deschanel’s character gift her brother the Bookends 12″ in the movie Almost Famous I fell in love (with her). It’s probably why I have a fringe now.
Further Reading
Simon And Garfunkel’s ‘The Sound Of Silence’ Is Climbing The Charts Again, Thanks To ‘Sad Affleck’
triple j Announces ‘Hottest 100 Of Australian Songs’ For 50th Anniversary
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