SIMON & GARFUNKEL : THE CONCERT IN CENTRAL PARK

  1. Mrs. Robinson
  2. Homeward Bound
  3. America
  4. Me And Julio Down By The Schoolyard
  5. Scarborough Fair
  6. April Come She Will
  7. Wake Up Little Susie
  8. Still Crazy After All These Years
  9. American Tune
  10. Late In The Evening
  11. Slip Slidin' Away
  12. A Heart In New York
  13. the late great Johnny ace
  14. Kodachrome / Mabellene
  15. Bridge Over Troubled Water
  16. Fifty Ways To Leave Your Lover
  17. The Boxer
  18. Old Friends
  19. bookends
  20. The 59th Street Bridge Song (Feelin' Groovy)
  21. The Sound Of Silence
  22. Late in the evening

Label : Columbia

Venue : Central Park, New York City, New York, USA

Recording Date : September 19, 1981

Release Date : 2003

Length : 86 minutes

NTSC : 4:3

Review (AllMusic) : Simon & Garfunkel reunited on September 19, 1981, to perform a free concert in Central Park, New York City. This two-record set presents some of the duo's biggest hits in a live context, and also allows listeners a chance to hear what many Simon solo numbers could sound like in S&G mode.

Review (Wikipedia) : 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 Central Park, New York City, where the pair performed in front of 500,000 people. A film of the event was shown on TV and released on video. Proceeds went toward the redevelopment and maintenance of the park, which had deteriorated due to lack of municipal funding. The concert and album marked the start of a three-year reunion of Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel. The concept of a benefit concert in Central Park had been proposed by Parks Commissioner Gordon Davis and promoter Ron Delsener. Television channel HBO agreed to carry the concert, and they worked with Delsener to decide on Simon and Garfunkel as the appropriate act for this event. Besides hits from their years as a duo, their 21-song set list included material from their solo careers, and covers. Amongst them were "The Sound of Silence", "Mrs. Robinson", "The Boxer" and Simon's "Late in the Evening", with the show concluding with a reprise of the latter. Ongoing personal tensions between the duo led them to decide against a permanent reunion, despite the success of the concert and a subsequent world tour. The album and film were released the year after the concert. Simon and Garfunkel's performance was praised by music critics and the album was commercially successful, peaking No. 6 on the Billboard 200 album charts and being certified double platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). The video recordings were initially broadcast on HBO and were subsequently made available on Laserdisc, CED, VHS and DVD. A single was released of Simon and Garfunkel‘s live performance of The Everly Brothers‘s song "Wake Up Little Susie". It reached No. 27 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1982 and is the duo's last Top 40 hit. The concert took place on Saturday, September 19, 1981, on the Great Lawn, the central open space of Central Park. The first spectators, many carrying chairs or picnic blankets, arrived at daybreak to secure a good spot. The Parks Department originally expected about 300,000 attendees. Although rain fell throughout the day and continued until the start of the concert, an estimated 500,000 audience members made this the seventh-largest concert attendance in United States history. The stage backdrop depicted an urban rooftop with water tank and air outlet, symbolic of New York's skyline. At twilight, the backing band went onstage, followed by New York's mayor, Ed Koch, who announced, "Ladies and gentlemen, Simon and Garfunkel!" The duo entered through a side stage door, took center stage amid audience applause, shook hands, and began the concert with their 1968 hit "Mrs. Robinson". After the second song, "Homeward Bound", Simon delivered a short speech which began, "Well, it's great to do a neighborhood concert." He then thanked the police, the fire department, the park administration and finally Ed Koch. Some of the audience booed at the mention of Koch but applauded as Simon continued by tongue-in-cheek thanking "the guys who are selling loose joints [for] giving the city half of their income tonight." Simon & Garfunkel played twenty-one songs in total: ten originally recorded by the duo, eight from Simon's solo career, one recorded by Garfunkel, a cover of The Everly Brothers' "Wake Up Little Susie", and the medley version of "Maybellene". Each performer sang three songs alone, including one new song apiece. Garfunkel sang the Simon & Garfunkel songs "Bridge over Troubled Water" and "April Come She Will", as well as "A Heart in New York", a song written by Gallagher and Lyle that appeared on his album Scissors Cut, which had been released the previous month. Simon's solo performances were the title song of his 1975 album Still Crazy After All These Years, the number-one single "50 Ways to Leave Your Lover", and the unreleased "The Late Great Johnny Ace", which would appear on his 1983 album Hearts and Bones. "The Late Great Johnny Ace" was interrupted when an audience member ran to the stage and shouted at Simon: "I need to talk to you!" The man was carried away by security, and Simon finished the song. The incident provoked associations to the song's lyrics, in which Simon speaks of the deaths of Johnny Ace, John F. Kennedy, and John Lennon. Lennon's murder by an obsessed fan had taken place less than a year previously, not far from the concert site. Despite this association, Simon said that he was not afraid of any on-stage incidents. In May 1982 as a guest on Late Night with David Letterman, he explained that while it is not unusual for fans to jump onto the stage with flowers, this action was new to him, but also felt that the man simply appeared intoxicated. His greater concern was that the song's premiere was ruined. Lyrics referring to the New York area produced audience applause, such as Garfunkel's ode to his home city, "A Heart in New York", which describes from a New Yorker's point of view the first glimpse of the city when returning there by air: New York, lookin' down on Central Park, where they say you should not wander after dark. Applause broke out during "The Sound of Silence", when the narrative voice refers to a large crowd of people in the dark: And in the naked light I saw ten thousand people maybe more. After the 17th song, "The Boxer", which contained an additional stanza not included in the album version, Simon & Garfunkel thanked the audience and left the stage, but returned to deliver an encore of three songs – "Old Friends / Bookends Theme", "The 59th Street Bridge Song (Feelin' Groovy)", and "The Sound of Silence". Simon then said that their planned use of pyrotechnics had been disallowed, and told the crowd, "Let's have our own fireworks!" Many spectators sparked lighters. The duo then introduced the members of the backing band and gave a final encore, a reprise of "Late in the Evening".