On April 3, 1968, one of the Sixties' defining albums was released. Bookends by Simon & Garfunkel, with its trio of classic singles, Mrs Robinson, A Hazy Shade of Winter and At the Zoo, reached the top of the charts in both the United States and the UK.
It hit the shelves one day before the assassination of Martin Luther King, and less than six weeks after the deadliest phase of the Vietnam War for US forces convinced commentators that the war was lost. The album’s beautifully crafted song structures, with harmonies that contained nostalgia for the Fifties, and lyrics that spoke of disillusionment with wryness and warmth, struck a chord with a generation.
Its hushed melancholy comforted at a...