Album Details

• Artist: Simon And Garfunkel
• Album: The Concert In Central Park
• Label: Geffen
• Year of Release: 1982
• ME Rating:
• Reviewed by: charlesmartel on 2011-08-29

What is incredible is the fact that in spite of this they must have rehearsed enough to make this concert work, so they must have been alone together in the studio enough times to achieve this. There are times when I would have loved to have been a fly on the wall to see how they interacted with each other. The sad thing is that, in spite of the fact that their voices created an incredible and powerful oneness when sung together, they are now two voices, miles apart. At times, such as when Garfunkel introduces his own song to the audience, his barbed reference to Simon renders the air so thick with barely concealed tension that you can feel your skin crawl. You almost expect Paul Simon to creep up being him in the middle of his song and smack him over the back of the head with a guitar.

As I said, it could only have been money which drew them back to this. An enormous concert in Central Park is, I suppose, the best way to repay as many of the faithful as possible without having to spend too much time in the company of people you loathe. Rumours that an album were to follow were, of course, completely false, and if you listen to the album you can barely imagine how anyone could have given such rumours any credence at all.

Still, they had made some good music over the years, classics of their style and generation, and in spite of whatever went on between them, the songs themselves could not be held back. Listening to some of those old classic tracks being played here is still enough to send a tingle down the spine, especially when the two men can bring the harmonies together as only they can do. And apart from anything else the audience seemed to love it, even if the performers found the whole experience personally excruciating. Although the songs are played out ever so slightly faster in some cases than on the original studio recordings, the result is nonetheless worthwhile.

If you are a fan of the duet this album is pretty much a must-have. If you are not a deep fan, or are new to the music (I was in the former category when I bought it), then buy this album for the moment in time it represents and wish that these two would bury the hatchet elsewhere than in each other's back. I cannot say that I have paid much attention to the careers of either man since they split, and would prefer to remember them as the duet which made some of the most beautiful songs of the late sixties and early seventies.

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