Wednesday 14th March

I can’t really remember the song that well, but it was also the title of Simon and Garfunkel’s debut album; which was an acoustic folk album made up largely of Paul’s early songs.  It practically bombed on first release but then famously a DJ jazzed up the song ‘Sounds of Silence’ and it became a big hit and the album took off too.  It is really a lovely album, innocent and yet knowing at the same time.  I always loved the cover too, which has our duo sandwiched between speeding subway trains.  According to Art they had to reject many photo’s because of the rude graffiti on the subway walls.  But look closely and they do look quite out of place, Art is even wearing a tie, a definite no-no for any aspiring folkie back then.  Because the album had bombed, Paul came to England to try his luck on the folkie circuit here and recorded an album of his songs ‘The Paul Simon Songbook’; the songs on this little gem being plundered over the next two years as Simon and Garfunkel had to keep coming up with new material.  What none of us realized at the time was that Paul was the real creative genius, writing the songs and playing guitar.  Art was the voice, or part of the voice, part of the lovely harmonies they created.  I can remember in I think it was 1971, when Paul released his solo album ‘Paul Simon’; everyone was amazed at how good it was.  We were all expecting it to be only half as good as a Simon and Garfunkel album, but in fact it was just as good, even if going off in a quite different direction.  The rest is history, and Paul is still recording, and though his albums now are less exciting they are still pretty good.  And it all started with Wednesday morning 3 A.M. a really unassuming little album, but a gem too.