''Hearts and Bones'' is the sixth solo studio album by American singer-songwriter

Paul Simon Paul Frederic Simon (born October 13, 1941) is an American musician, singer, songwriter and actor whose career has spanned six decades. He is one of the most acclaimed songwriters in popular music, both as a solo artist and as half of folk roc ...

. It was released in 1983 by Warner Bros. Records.

Background

The album was originally intended to be called ''Think Too Much'', but

Mo Ostin Mo Ostin (born Morris Meyer Ostrofsky; March 27, 1927 – July 31, 2022) was an American record executive who worked for several companies, including Verve, Reprise Records, Warner Bros. Records, and DreamWorks. He was chairman and chief ex ...

, president of Warner Bros. Records at the time, persuaded Simon to change it to ''Hearts and Bones''. The album was written and recorded following

Simon & Garfunkel Simon & Garfunkel were an American folk rock duo consisting of the singer-songwriter Paul Simon and the singer Art Garfunkel. They were one of the best-selling music groups of the 1960s, and their biggest hits—including the electric remix of ...

's ''

The Concert in Central Park ''The Concert in Central Park'' is the first live album by American folk rock duo Simon & Garfunkel, released on February 16, 1982, by Warner Bros. Records. It was recorded on September 19, 1981, at a free benefit concert on the Great Lawn in ...

'' in 1981, and the world tour of 1982–1983. Several songs intended for ''Think Too Much'' were previewed on tour, and

Art Garfunkel Arthur Ira Garfunkel (born November 5, 1941) is an American singer, poet, and actor. He is best known for his partnership with Paul Simon in the folk rock duo Simon & Garfunkel. Highlights of Garfunkel's solo music career include one top-10 h ...

worked on some of the songs with Simon in the studio, with an intention that the finished product would be an all-new Simon & Garfunkel studio album. The album, particularly the title song, was a reflection on Paul's relationship with actress

Carrie Fisher Carrie Frances Fisher (October 21, 1956 – December 27, 2016) was an American actress and writer. She played Princess Leia in the ''Star Wars'' films (1977–1983). She reprised the role in'' Star Wars: The Force Awakens'' (2015), ''The Last ...

, and Paul felt that it was too personal to be a Simon & Garfunkel album, instead deciding that it should be a solo album. This greatly annoyed Garfunkel and ensured that there would never again be another Simon & Garfunkel album. Garfunkel left the project and Simon erased all his vocals and reworked the material into a solo album.

Reception

''Hearts and Bones'' charted for 18 weeks on the ''Billboard'' 200, peaking at No. 35, although it is considered to be a relative commercial failure. Don Shewey of ''

Rolling Stone ''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner, and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. It was first known for its ...

'' concluded that the album "is all about heart versus mind, thinking versus feeling, and how these dichotomies get in the way of making music or love." He went on to call the songs "subtle", but added that "the music has a certain playfulness that matches the album's cerebral self-consciousness." In 1986,

Robert Christgau Robert Thomas Christgau ( ; born April 18, 1942) is an American music journalist and essayist. Among the most well-known and influential music critics, he began his career in the late 1960s as one of the earliest professional rock critics and ...

of ''

The Village Voice ''The Village Voice'' is an American news and culture paper, known for being the country's first alternative newsweekly. Founded in 1955 by Dan Wolf, Ed Fancher, John Wilcock, and Norman Mailer, the ''Voice'' began as a platform for the cr ...

'' referred to the album as being "a finely wrought dead end." In retrospective reviews, William Ruhlmann of

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online database, online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on Musical artist, musicians and Music ...

called ''Hearts and Bones'' Simon's "most personal collection of songs, one of his most ambitious, and one of his best." Ruhlmann praised the lyrical handling of the subject of romance and the music's blending of

doo-wop Doo-wop (also spelled doowop and doo wop) is a genre of rhythm and blues music that originated in African-American communities during the 1940s, mainly in the large cities of the United States, including New York, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Chica ...

and

rock and roll Rock and roll (often written as rock & roll, rock 'n' roll, or rock 'n roll) is a genre of popular music that evolved in the United States during the late 1940s and early 1950s. It originated from African-American music such as jazz, rhythm ...

roots with contemporary styles. David Bloom of ''

PopMatters ''PopMatters'' is an international online magazine of cultural criticism that covers aspects of popular culture. ''PopMatters'' publishes reviews, interviews, and essays on cultural products and expressions in areas such as music, television ...

'' found the album to be "riskier, both musically and lyrically," than its predecessor, '' One-Trick Pony'' (1980), "and more engrossing for it." He observed that the album was "so tied to Simon's escalating preoccupation with physical and emotional remoteness that it's hard to imagine anyone being surprised when it failed to move a fan base waiting for the next 'Late in the Evening'."

Track listing

All songs written by

, except for closing of "The Late Great Johnny Ace", composed by

Philip Glass Philip Glass (born January 31, 1937) is an American composer and pianist. He is widely regarded as one of the most influential composers of the late 20th century. Glass's work has been associated with minimalism, being built up from repetitive ...

. ;Side one #"Allergies" – 4:37 #"Hearts and Bones" – 5:37 #"When Numbers Get Serious" – 3:25 #"Think Too Much (b)" – 2:44 #"Song About the Moon" – 4:07 ;Side two #"Think Too Much (a)" – 3:05 #"Train in the Distance" – 5:11 #" René and Georgette Magritte with Their Dog after the War" – 3:44 #"Cars Are Cars" – 3:15 #"

The Late Great Johnny Ace "The Late Great Johnny Ace" is a song by Paul Simon, which appears on his 1983 '' Hearts and Bones'' album. History The song initially sings of the rhythm and blues singer Johnny Ace, who died of a self-inflicted gunshot injury in 1954. Folklore ...

" – 4:45 ;2004 CD reissue bonus tracks #

"Shelter of Your Arms" (Unreleased Work-in-Progress) – 3:11 #"Train in the Distance" (Original Acoustic Demo) – 3:13 #"René and Georgette Magritte with Their Dog after the War" (Original Acoustic Demo) – 3:46 #"The Late Great Johnny Ace" (Original Acoustic Demo) – 3:22

Personnel

;Musicians *

– lead vocals, background vocals, acoustic guitar (1, 2, 4, 5, 10), electric guitars (8), LinnDrum programming (9) * Dean Parks – electric guitars (1, 4, 5, 7, 10), hi-strung guitar (2) *

Al Di Meola Albert Laurence Di Meola (born July 22, 1954) is an American guitarist. Known for his works in jazz fusion and world music, he began his career as a guitarist of the group Return to Forever in 1974. Between the 1970s and 1980s, albums such as ...

– guitar solo (1) * Anthony Jackson –

contrabass guitar A contrabass guitar is a low-register bass guitar with four, five or six strings. It is often called, simply, a ''six string bass guitar''. The ''five string bass guitar'' is rarely called a contrabass guitar, even though it typically has the sam ...

(1–5, 7, 8, 9) *

Steve Gadd Stephen Kendall Gadd (born April 9, 1945) is an American drummer, percussionist, and session musician. Gadd is one of the best-known and highly regarded session and studio drummers in the industry, recognized by his induction into the '' Modern ...

– drums (1, 2, 4, 5, 10) * Steve Ferrone – additional drums (1), drums (3, 6) *

Greg Phillinganes Gregory Arthur Phillinganes (born May 12, 1956) is an American keyboardist, singer-songwriter, and musical director based in Los Angeles, California. A prolific session musician, Phillinganes has contributed the role of keyboards to numerous alb ...

–

Fender Rhodes The Rhodes piano (also known as the Fender Rhodes piano) is an electric piano invented by Harold Rhodes, which became popular in the 1970s. Like a conventional piano, the Rhodes generates sound with keys and hammers, but instead of strings, t ...

(1, 5, 10) * Rob Sabino – synthesizers (1, 9), acoustic piano (8) *

Rob Mounsey Rob Mounsey (born December 2, 1952) is an American musician, composer, and arranger. Music career Mounsey was born in Berea, Ohio, and grew up in Seattle, Washington, spending a few years each in Findlay and Granville, Ohio. At the age of 17 ...

– synthesizers (1),

vocoder A vocoder (, a portmanteau of ''voice'' and ''encoder'') is a category of speech coding that analyzes and synthesizes the human voice signal for audio data compression, multiplexing, voice encryption or voice transformation. The vocoder ...

(5) *

Airto Moreira Airto Guimorvan Moreira (born August 5, 1941) is a Brazilian jazz drummer and percussionist. He is married to jazz singer Flora Purim, and their daughter Diana Moreira is also a singer. Coming to prominence in the late 1960s as a member of the B ...

– percussion (1–4, 7) *

Richard Tee Richard Edward Tee (born Richard Edward Ten Ryk; November 24, 1943 – July 21, 1993) was an American pianist, studio musician, singer and arranger, who had several hundred studio credits and played on such notable hits as "In Your Eyes", " Sl ...

– Fender Rhodes (2, 7, 8), keyboards (3), acoustic piano (4), synthesizers (8) *

Mike Mainieri Michael T. Mainieri Jr. (born July 4, 1938) is an American vibraphonist, known for his work with the jazz fusion group Steps Ahead. He is married to the singer-songwriter and harpist Dee Carstensen. Biography Mainieri was born in The Bronx, Ne ...

–

vibraphone The vibraphone is a percussion instrument in the metallophone family. It consists of tuned metal bars and is typically played by using mallets to strike the bars. A person who plays the vibraphone is called a ''vibraphonist,'' ''vibraharpist ...

(2, 7),

marimba The marimba () is a musical instrument in the percussion family that consists of wooden bars that are struck by mallets. Below each bar is a resonator pipe that amplifies particular harmonics of its sound. Compared to the xylophone, the timbre ...

(2, 4), * Eric Gale – electric guitars (3) *

Tom Coppola Thomas Wilkinson Coppola (born June 6, 1945) is a pianist and arranger, known for being a principal member of the group Air. He also formed Evans and Coppola with vocalist Lucianne Evans and performs with the Tom Coppola Trio. Tom Coppola began w ...

–

Synclavier The Synclavier is an early digital synthesizer, polyphonic digital sampling system, and music workstation manufactured by New England Digital Corporation of Norwich, Vermont. It was produced in various forms from the late 1970s into the earl ...

(3–6) *

Marcus Miller William Henry Marcus Miller Jr. (born June 14, 1959) is an American musician, songwriter, and record producer. He is best known for his work as a bassist. He has worked with trumpeter Miles Davis, pianist Herbie Hancock, singer Luther Vandros ...

– bass guitar (4, 7) *

Nile Rodgers Nile Gregory Rodgers Jr. (born September 19, 1952) is an American musician, record producer and composer. The co-founder of Chic, Rodgers has written, produced, and performed on records that have sold more than 500 million albums and 75 million ...

– electric guitars (6, 9), LinnDrum programming (9) *

Bernard Edwards Bernard Edwards (October 31, 1952 – April 18, 1996) was an American bass player and record producer, known primarily for his work in disco music with guitarist Nile Rodgers, with whom he co-founded Chic. In 2017, Edwards was selected as the 5 ...

– bass guitar (6) *

Jeff Porcaro Jeffrey Thomas Porcaro (; April 1, 1954 – August 5, 1992) was an American drummer, songwriter, and record producer. He is best known for his work with the rock band Toto but is one of the most recorded session musicians in history, working o ...

– drums (7) *Jesse Levy – cello (7) * Peter Gordon –

French horn The French horn (since the 1930s known simply as the horn in professional music circles) is a brass instrument made of tubing wrapped into a coil with a flared bell. The double horn in F/B (technically a variety of German horn) is the horn most ...

(7) *

Mark Rivera Mark Rivera (born May 24, 1953) is an American saxophonist, multi-instrumentalist, singer, musical director and corporate entertainment provider who is mostly known for his work with Billy Joel. In addition to playing soprano, alto, tenor and b ...

– alto saxophone (7) *Wells Christie – Synclavier (8) *

The Harptones The Harptones are an American doo-wop group, which formed in Manhattan in 1953. The group never had a top forty pop hit, or a record on the US ''Billboard'' R&B chart, yet they are known for both their lead singer Willie Winfield and their pi ...

– backing vocals (8) *

Sid McGinnis Sidney Foster "Sid" McGinnis (born October 6, 1949) is an American musician and guitarist, best known for his work on the CBS television show ''Late Show with David Letterman'', as part of the CBS Orchestra. The Pittsburgh-born guitarist made h ...

– electric guitars (10) *

Michael Boddicker Michael Lehmann Boddicker (born January 19, 1953) is an American film composer and session musician, specializing in electronic music. He is a three times National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences (N.A.R.A.S.) Most Valuable Player "Synthe ...

– synthesizer (10) *

Michael Riesman Michael Riesman is a composer, conductor, keyboardist, and record producer, best known as Music Director of the Philip Glass Ensemble and conductor of nearly all of Glass' film scores. Biography Michael Riesman studied composition with Peter Stear ...

– synthesizers (10) *

Carol Wincenc Carol Wincenc ( ) born June 29, 1949 is an American flutist based in New York City. She is known for her solo and chamber music performances and her support of new music for the flute. She is on the faculty of the Juilliard School and Stony Brook U ...

–

flute The flute is a family of classical music instrument in the woodwind group. Like all woodwinds, flutes are aerophones, meaning they make sound by vibrating a column of air. However, unlike woodwind instruments with reeds, a flute is a reedles ...

(10) *George Marge –

bass clarinet The bass clarinet is a musical instrument of the clarinet family. Like the more common soprano B clarinet, it is usually pitched in B (meaning it is a transposing instrument on which a written C sounds as B), but it plays notes an octave ...

(10) *

Marin Alsop Marin Alsop ( �mɛər.ɪn ˈæːl.sɑːp born October 16, 1956) is an American conductor, the first woman to win the Koussevitzky Prize for conducting and the first conductor to be awarded a MacArthur Fellowship. She is music director laureate ...

– violin (10) *Frederick Zlotkin – cello (10) *Jill Jaffe – viola (10) *

David Nichtern David Nichtern (born 19 February 1948) is an American songwriter and television composer, soundtrack artist and Buddhist teacher of the Shambala tradition of Chögyam Trungpa. Biography Born and raised in Manhattan, Nichtern is the son of Sol Nic ...

– Synclavier programming The uncredited horn section on "Allergies" and "Cars Are Cars" are Mark Rivera (saxophones),

Jon Faddis Jon Faddis (born July 24, 1953) is an American jazz trumpet player, conductor, composer, and educator, renowned for both his playing and for his expertise in the field of music education. Upon his first appearance on the scene, he became known ...

and

Alan Rubin Alan Rubin (February 11, 1943 – June 8, 2011), also known as Mr. Fabulous, was an American musician. He played trumpet, flugelhorn, and piccolo trumpet. Early life and education Rubin was born in Brooklyn. He began attending Juilliard S ...

(trumpets). ;Technical *Paul Simon – producer * Russ Titelman – producer *

Roy Halee Roy Decker Halee (born 1934) is an American record producer and engineer, best known for working with Simon & Garfunkel, both as a group and for their solo projects. Early life He grew up on Long Island, New York. His father, also named Roy Ha ...

– producer, engineer, mixing *

Lenny Waronker Lenny Waronker (born October 3, 1941) is an American record producer and music industry executive. As the president of Warner Bros. Records, and later, as the co-chair of DreamWorks Records, Waronker was noted for his commitment to artists and ...

– co-producer (1, 5, 10) *Lee Herschberg – additional engineer *Jason Corsaro – additional engineer *

Mark Linett Mark may refer to: Currency * Bosnia and Herzegovina convertible mark, the currency of Bosnia and Herzegovina * East German mark, the currency of the German Democratic Republic * Estonian mark, the currency of Estonia between 1918 and 1927 * Fin ...

– additional engineer * Gene Paul – additional engineer *James Dougherty – additional engineer *Eric Korte – second engineer *Andy Hoffman – second engineer *Terry Rosiello – second engineer *David Greenberg – second engineer *Stuart Gitlin – second engineer *Ken Deane – second engineer *Dan Nash – second engineer *Jim Santis – second engineer *

Greg Calbi Gregory Calbi (born April 3, 1949) is an American mastering engineer at Sterling Sound, New Jersey. Biography Greg Calbi was born on April 3, 1949, in Yonkers, New York, and raised in Bayside, Queens, New York. He graduated in 1966 from Bishop ...

– mastering *Tom Bates – digital engineer *Wayne Yurgelin – digital audio facilities *Julie Hooker – production assistant *Kimberly Boyle – production assistant * Jeffrey Kent Ayeroff – art direction *Paula Greif – art direction *Jeri McManus – design *E.K.T.V. – cover photo *

Arthur Elgort Arthur Elgort (born June 8, 1940) is an American fashion photographer best known for his work with ''Vogue'' magazine. Life and career Elgort was born in Brooklyn, to Sophie (née Didimamoff) and Harry Elgort (April 10, 1908 – October 23, 1998) ...

– inner photo * David Matthews – horn arrangements (1, 9) *The Harptones – background vocal arrangements (8) * George Delerue – orchestration (8) *

– orchestration (10) *Michael Riesman – orchestra conductor (10)

Chart positions

References

External links

''Hearts and Bones''
(

Adobe Flash Adobe Flash (formerly Macromedia Flash and FutureSplash) is a multimedia software platform used for production of animations, rich web applications, desktop applications, mobile apps, mobile games, and embedded web browser video players. Flash ...

) at

Spotify Spotify (; ) is a proprietary Swedish audio streaming and media services provider founded on 23 April 2006 by Daniel Ek and Martin Lorentzon. It is one of the largest music streaming service providers, with over 456 million monthly active use ...

(streamed copy where registered) {{DEFAULTSORT:Hearts And Bones Paul Simon albums 1983 albums Albums arranged by David Matthews (keyboardist) Albums recorded at Sigma Sound Studios Albums produced by Lenny Waronker Albums produced by Russ Titelman Albums produced by Roy Halee Albums produced by Paul Simon Warner Records albums