Simon & Garfunkel, The Concert in Central Park
At 11:15 p.m. on Arte
“It’s good to do a concert of neighbors. » This September 19, 1981, Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel look on in friendship at the crowd of half a million attentive people on the lawn of Central Park. New York, jubilant, celebrates the reunion of two kids from Queens, who, in five albums, regenerated pop with masterful clarity.
Eleven years after their breakup, Simon & Garfunkel write their legend with this serene concert. It will result in a double disc, their best. Rich in their most beautiful songs, carried in weightlessness by the melodious harmony of their pure timbres, this swan song seems to have fallen from the sky. Eleven brilliant musicians give an almost symphonic dimension to the sound captured to perfection by Phil Ramone.
A tribute to John Lennon
In great shape, Simon & Garfunkel are banging Mrs Robinson, Me and Julio Down by the Schoolyard et Late in the Eveningthe most rock titles of their repertoire signed Paul Simon, and even Maybellene by Chuck Berry. They soothe their song in perfect harmony to capture the melancholy and the hope of Homeward Bound, one of the most beautiful songs ever written about travel, or Slip Slidin’Awaymeditation on the passage of time.
The English polyphonies of Scarborough Fair, the flights of Bridge Over Troubled Water sung in a head voice by tenor Art Garfunkel, the folk anthem The Boxer, the sassy groove of 59th Street Bridge Song, the titles follow each other with meaning. Only the uncontrolled irruption of a spectator on stage when Paul Simon honors John Lennon, assassinated the previous year, disturbs the party for a moment. The incident and the song The Late Great Johnny Ace, visible on the screen, will be deleted from the disc.
Started under a bright autumn sun, the concert ends at night with The Sound of Silence, collected and powerful moment. Forty years later, he has lost none of his emotional strength, enhanced on the contrary by the test of time.
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