Who else was there? What are your memories?

I was there...took the train in from Darien,CT. First time going to a concert w/ out parental supervision. Didn't know our way around the city that well...just followed the crowd from Grand Central to Central Park.

I took the Long Island Railroad in from Port Washington with a friend of mine. We got to the park at around 2 PM and the concert wasn't supposed to start until 6. The Great Lawn was already almost filled, but there were no opening acts, and we weren't gonna just sit there for 4 hours and do nothing, so we spent a couple hours at the Museum of Natural History and then headed back over to the concert.

I was there -- got there early and was fairly up front and a little to the west side. Half way through the show I had to pee so bad and decided to bail. Pretty much when I realized big shows were no longer for me. Sadly it caused me to miss the Diana Ross "wilding" show a year or so later!

I love this concert, only saw it for the first time about a year ago. Some people were critical about Artie singing on Paul's solo hits, but I thought it was wonderful. Hell, Art Garfunkel singing almost anything is good news to me. He did an especially sublime job on "Slip Slidin' Away" and "American Tune."

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Wry Cooter
I was there -- got there early and was fairly up front and a little to the west side. Half way through the show I had to pee so bad and decided to bail. Pretty much when I realized big shows were no longer for me. Sadly it caused me to miss the Diana Ross "wilding" show a year or so later!

If you have the original double vinyl album, it was was somewhere around the end of Side One that I told my friend that I had to go take a leak, and somewhere around the beginning of Side Four that I caught up with him again. I spent literally half the concert looking for a place to pee, and then returning from that place. I'm glad I was there, though. It's still the only Woodstock-sized crowd I've ever been a part of.

I wasn't there but I love the film and album.

Marv Peck

Y'all remember that rubber legged boy

Originally, it was supposed to be a Paul Simon concert, with a guest appearance by Artie for a few S&G songs at the end. But when they got together for rehearsals, they kept adding more and more S&G songs to the setlist. Finally, it got to a point where S&G were going to be half the show. Paul didn't want to be the opening act for Simon and Garfunkel, so he said, @#$%& it, let's just make it a Simon and Garfunkel concert.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2011-09-20 02:58 by tatters.

Yeah, I wanted to go to this one, turns out it was a lost great event as I assumed it would turn to be. Can't be in two places at once.

This is unbelievable. I played the Double LP yesterday, without knowing it was 30 years ago.

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Keep On Rolling

It was announced on very short notice. If I remember correctly, the announcement was made on Fri, Sept 11, just eight days before the concert. DJ on a radio station I was listening to at work said, "This is pretty weird. We just learned that Simon and Garfunkel are doing a free concert in Central Park next Saturday". It was pretty weird. They hadn't performed together since appearing on SNL in '75. Last time before that had been at a McGovern For President rally in '72. I don't think they had done a full concert together since 1969. It was just so unlikely, so out of the blue, and so sudden. There was a full page ad in the NY Times that Sunday, there was a press conference, at which a typically morose Paul worried that S&G's quiet, intimate music might not work in such a big outdoor setting, that he expected a lot of people to come out and see them, mainly because of the concert's "free aspect", and that was it. 500,000 people showed up the following Saturday.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 2011-09-20 13:48 by tatters.

I'm a writer working on an article (and eventually a book) about Simon and Garfunkel's 1981 Concert in Central Park--not about Art and Paul, but about the people who attended the concert, the people who set it up, New York, and the changing culture of the time. Would you have any interest in discussing that night with me? My email address is centralparkconcert@gmail.com. If you know anyone else who was there, please pass my information along.

Thanks very much for your help.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2012-02-24 19:26 by nellins.

Wow, 30 years ago...

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nellins
I'm a writer working on an article (and eventually a book) about Simon and Garfunkel's 1981 Concert in Central Park--not about Art and Paul, but about the people who attended the concert, the people who set it up, New York, and the changing culture of the time. Would you have any interest in discussing that night with me? My email address is centralparkconcert@gmail.com. If you know anyone else who was there, please pass my information along.

Thanks very much for your help.

Not sure if there's a whole book there, but I will be in touch ....

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tatters
It was announced on very short notice. If I remember correctly, the announcement was made on Fri, Sept 11, just eight days before the concert. DJ on a radio station I was listening to at work said, "This is pretty weird. We just learned that Simon and Garfunkel are doing a free concert in Central Park next Saturday". It was pretty weird. They hadn't performed together since appearing on SNL in '75. Last time before that had been at a McGovern For President rally in '72. I

In late '75 Paul was touring to promote his new album, "Still Crazy After All These Years" which included the new S&G track "My Little Town" (which was a single that was also featured on Garfunkel's just released second solo album "Breakaway."

Garfunkel appeared with Paul on SNL (which had just started the month before and was then still called "NBC's Saturday Night" ) in October and sang three songs--including their new single--with him.

In November '75, Garfunkel joined Simon onstage on the second of his two nights at the Santa Monica Civic. This was an unbilled, "surprise" appearance. I don't know if there were rumors in the air, or because of the SNL thing I thought it might happen, but I decided to go the second night. (Here's the memorable part: I bought tickets at a ticket agency for the Thursday show because the seats they had for Thursday were closer. When I got home, I started thinking that if Art were to drop in, it would more likely happen the second night, so I called the agency and asked if I could trade them for Friday, and they were fine with that. The night of the show, when Garfunkel walked out, all I could think was Whew! Best move I ever made!!)

It was just a great vibe in the place, even before the show started. We had floor seats, and Jack Nicholson walked by us, about 15 feet away. (Cuckoo's Nest had just come out and he was on top of the world ) Mid-show when Art walked on the place went nuts...and they did a whole bunch of songs. After awhile requests were being shouted out...one wag yelled out for "Red Rubber Ball" and got a big laugh (it was a mid-60's hit by The Cyrkle that Paul co-wrote, whose fruity organ hook already sounded like a million years earlier )

Somebody else then shouted, "Do 'em ALL!!" A request which got also got a laugh, but also a cheer. They could have. And everyone would have stayed till the last note.

It was a great place to be.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 2012-02-25 03:52 by loog droog.

That's an awesome story. Thanks! Did you make it to the Central Park concert?

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tatters
Who else was there? What are your memories?

Shiite, I'd just left fer school an' this wuz announced ...
PROBABLY THE BEST SHOW THEY EVER DID ... ugh ...

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nellins
That's an awesome story. Thanks! Did you make it to the Central Park concert?

No, I'm West Coast and the only group I've traveled East to see is NRBQ...



Besides, after seeing Simon & Garfunkel up-close in the 3,000 seat Santa Monica Civic, I'd want to go stand with a huge crowd in a park?

Had a very enjoyable conversation with "nellins" yesterday. Shoot him an email if you think you've got any insights that might help him with his writing project.

I always wondered if the '81 S+G concert actually was an untitled "Concert to Heal NYC"
following the spectacular murder of John Lennon in NYC a little over six months previous ...

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TheDailyBuzzherd
I always wondered if the '81 S+G concert actually was an untitled "Concert to Heal NYC"
following the spectacular murder of John Lennon in NYC a little over six months previous ...

My own cynical view is that Paul saw an opening (there can never be a Beatles reunion) and filled it (there can be a Simon & Garfunkel reunion). I think Lennon's murder had a lot to do with why there was an almost irrational aura of hysteria surrounding the 1981 Rolling Stones tour. It was like, "Elvis is gone. The Beatles are gone. At least we still have the Rolling Stones .... but for how much longer? They're in their late 30s after all. No way 1981 isn't their last tour." Or so we thought.