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Hearts and Bones
Studio album by Paul Simon
Released	November 4, 1983
Recorded	1981–1983
Studio	Warner Bros., Hollywood Atlantic, New York City Power Station, New York City Sigma Sound, New York City Regent Sound, New York City Mediasound, New York City
Genre	Pop, rock
Length	40:53
Label	Warner Bros.
Producer	Roy Halee Paul Simon Russ Titelman Lenny Waronker
Paul Simon chronology
One-Trick Pony (1980) Hearts and Bones (1983) Graceland (1986)

Hearts and Bones is the sixth solo studio album by American singer-songwriter Paul Simon. It was released in 1983 by Warner Bros. Records.

Background

The album was originally intended to be called Think Too Much, but Mo Ostin, 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's The Concert in Central Park in 1981, and the world tour of 1982–1983. Several songs intended for Think Too Much were previewed on tour, and Art Garfunkel 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, 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.

On "Think Too Much (a)", Steve Ferrone was contacted by Nile Rodgers to attend a recording session at the Power Station to record drums. After the initial attempts at recording the song were met with silence from Simon, Rodgers experimented with various effects on his rhythm guitar, which made the instrument out of synch with the original drum track. Despite Rodgers' insistence that the effects would render it difficult to overdub a new drum track, Ferrone eventually achieved a satisfactory take.

Reception

Professional ratings

Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic
The Boston Phoenix
Chicago Tribune
Entertainment Weekly	B
The Guardian
PopMatters	8/10
Rolling Stone
The Rolling Stone Album Guide
Uncut
The Village Voice	B+

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 compared to Simon's other recordings.

Don Shewey of Rolling Stone 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 of The Village Voice referred to the album as being "a finely wrought dead end."

In retrospective reviews, William Ruhlmann of AllMusic 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 and rock and roll roots with contemporary styles. David Bloom of PopMatters 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 Paul Simon, except for closing of "The Late Great Johnny Ace", composed by Philip Glass.

Side one

1. "Allergies" – 4:37
2. "Hearts and Bones" – 5:37
3. "When Numbers Get Serious" – 3:25
4. "Think Too Much (b)" – 2:44
5. "Song About the Moon" – 4:07

Side two

6. "Think Too Much (a)" – 3:05
7. "Train in the Distance" – 5:11
8. "René and Georgette Magritte with Their Dog after the War" – 3:44
9. "Cars Are Cars" – 3:15
10. "The Late Great Johnny Ace" – 4:45

2004 CD reissue bonus tracks

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

Personnel

Musicians

• Paul Simon – 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 – guitar solo (1)
• Anthony Jackson – contrabass guitar (1–5, 7, 8, 9)
• Steve Gadd – drums (1, 2, 4, 5, 10)
• Steve Ferrone – additional drums (1), drums (3, 6)
• Greg Phillinganes – Fender Rhodes (1, 5, 10)
• Rob Sabino – synthesizers (1, 9), acoustic piano (8)
• Rob Mounsey – synthesizers (1), vocoder (5)
• Airto Moreira – percussion (1–4, 7)
• Richard Tee – Fender Rhodes (2, 7, 8), keyboards (3), acoustic piano (4), synthesizers (8)
• Mike Mainieri – vibraphone (2, 7), marimba (2, 4),
• Eric Gale – electric guitars (3)
• Tom Coppola – Synclavier (3–6)
• Marcus Miller – bass guitar (4, 7)
• Nile Rodgers – electric guitars (6, 9), LinnDrum programming (9)
• Bernard Edwards – bass guitar (6)
• Jeff Porcaro – drums (7)
• Jesse Levy – cello (7)
• Peter Gordon – French horn (7)
• Mark Rivera – alto saxophone (7)
• Wells Christie – Synclavier (8)
• The Harptones – backing vocals (8)
• Sid McGinnis – electric guitars (10)
• Michael Boddicker – synthesizer (10)
• Michael Riesman – synthesizers (10)
• Carol Wincenc – flute (10)
• George Marge – bass clarinet (10)
• Marin Alsop – violin (10)
• Frederick Zlotkin – cello (10)
• Jill Jaffe – viola (10)
• David Nichtern – Synclavier programming

The uncredited horn section on "Allergies" and "Cars Are Cars" are Mark Rivera (saxophones), Jon Faddis and Alan Rubin (trumpets).

Technical

• Paul Simon – producer
• Russ Titelman – producer
• Roy Halee – producer, engineer, mixing
• Lenny Waronker – co-producer (1, 5, 10)
• Lee Herschberg – additional engineer
• Jason Corsaro – additional engineer
• Mark Linett – 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 – 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 – inner photo
• David Matthews – horn arrangements (1, 9)
• The Harptones – background vocal arrangements (8)
• George Delerue – orchestration (8)
• Philip Glass – orchestration (10)
• Michael Riesman – orchestra conductor (10)

Chart positions

References

1. "Hearts and Bones".
2. Marc Eliot (18 Oct 2010). Paul Simon: A Life. John Wiley & Sons. p. 181. ISBN 9780470433638. Retrieved 10 September 2012.
3. Jeffrey Perlah (30 May 1998). "Billboard review". Billboard. Retrieved 10 September 2012.
4. ^ Shewey, Don (November 24, 1983). "Hearts and Bones". Rolling Stone. New York. Retrieved January 22, 2018.
5. Marc Eliot (2010). Paul Simon: A Life. John Wiley & Sons. p. 180. ISBN 978-0-470-43363-8.
6. Greene, Andy (21 October 2020). "Drummer Steve Ferrone on His Years With Tom Petty, George Harrison, Duran Duran, and More". Rolling Stone. Archived from the original on 10 May 2024. Retrieved 17 August 2024.
7. ^ Ruhlmann, William. "Hearts and Bones – Paul Simon". AllMusic. Retrieved July 20, 2012.
8. Moses, Mark (December 20, 1983). "Off the record". The Boston Phoenix. Vol. 12, no. 51. sec. 3, p. 29. Retrieved February 25, 2022.
9. Kot, Greg (October 14, 1990). "The Evolution Of Simon's Diverse Solo Career". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved January 22, 2018.
10. Browne, David (January 18, 1991). "Rating Paul Simon's albums". Entertainment Weekly. New York. Retrieved February 17, 2016.
11. Sweeting, Adam (August 6, 2004). "Paul Simon, Hearts & Bones". The Guardian. London. Retrieved December 23, 2021.
12. ^ Bloom, David (January 13, 2012). "Paul Simon: One-Trick Pony / Hearts and Bones / Graceland / The Rhythm of the Saints". PopMatters. Archived from the original on January 14, 2012. Retrieved April 2, 2020.
13. Sheffield, Rob (2004). "Paul Simon". In Brackett, Nathan; Hoard, Christian (eds.). The New Rolling Stone Album Guide (4th ed.). New York: Simon & Schuster. pp. 736–737. ISBN 0-7432-0169-8.
14. Torn, Luke (October 2004). "St Paul's Gospel". Uncut. No. 89. London.
15. Christgau, Robert (January 24, 1984). "Christgau's Consumer Guide". The Village Voice. New York. Retrieved April 29, 2013.
16. "Paul Simon - Chart History". Billboard. Retrieved December 14, 2022.
17. Disco, Punk, New Wave, Heavy Metal, and More: Music in the 1970s and 1980s. Britannica Educational. December 2012. ISBN 9781615309122.
18. Christgau, Robert (September 23, 1986). "South Africa Romance". The Village Voice. New York. Retrieved June 15, 2015.
19. Kent, David (1993). Australian Chart Book 1970–1992. St Ives, NSW: Australian Chart Book. ISBN 0-646-11917-6.
20. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2015-11-18. Retrieved 2011-10-23.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
21. "dutchcharts.nl Paul Simon - Hearts And Bones". dutchcharts.nl. MegaCharts. Retrieved 2011-08-19.
22. "InfoDisc : Tous les Albums classés par Artiste > Choisir Un Artiste Dans la Liste : Paul Simon". infodisc.fr. Archived from the original on 2010-12-28. Retrieved 2011-08-19.
23. "Album Search: Paul Simon" (in German). Media Control. Retrieved 2011-08-19.
24. Oricon Album Chart Book: Complete Edition 1970-2005. Roppongi, Tokyo: Oricon Entertainment. 2006. ISBN 4-87131-077-9.
25. "norwegiancharts.com Paul Simon - Hearts And Bones". Retrieved 2011-08-19.
26. Salaverri, Fernando (September 2005). Sólo éxitos: año a año, 1959–2002 (1st ed.). Spain: Fundación Autor-SGAE. ISBN 84-8048-639-2.
27. "swedishcharts.com Paul Simon - Hearts And Bones". Sverigetopplistan. Retrieved 2011-08-19.
28. "Paul Simon - Hearts And Bones - hitparade.ch". Retrieved 2011-08-19.
29. "The Official Charts Company - Paul Simon - Hearts And Bones". Official Charts Company. Retrieved 2011-08-19.
30. Allmusic - Hearts and Bones > Charts & Awards > Billboard Albums

External links

• Hearts and Bones (Adobe Flash) at Spotify (streamed copy where registered)

• 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