SIMON & GARFUNKEL, THE CONCERT IN CENTRAL PARK

Today, The Grandma has been walking across Central Park. She loves this place, and she has remembered when she was there on September 19, 1981 listening to Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel in an unforgettable concert where they played one of her favourite songs, A heart in New York.

Meanwhile, The Grangers have continued preparing their Cambridge Exam. They have studied Too/Enough and Comparative of Equality.

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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 an audience reported at the time as 500,000 people.

Later estimates determined that the maximum number of people who could fit in the park space was 48,500. 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 hit songs from their years as a duo, their set-list included material from their solo careers, and covers.

The show consisted of 21 songs, though two were not used in the live album. Among the songs performed were the classics The Sound of Silence, Mrs. Robinson, and The Boxer; the event concluded with a reprise of Simon's song Late in the Evening. 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.

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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; it peaked at number six on the Billboard 200 album charts and was 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, which reached No. 27 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1982; it is the duo's last Top 40 hit.

New York City's Central Park, an oasis that functions as the city's green lung, was in a state of deterioration in the mid-1970s. Though Central Park had been designated a National Historic Landmark in 1962, at the start of the 1980s, the city lacked the financial resources to spend an estimated US$3,000,000 to restore or even to maintain the park. The nonprofit Central Park Conservancy was founded in 1980, and began a successful campaign to raise renovation funds.

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 the United States in history. Later estimates determined that the maximum number of people who could fit in the park space was 48,500.

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 New York, to that tall skyline I come, flyin' in from London to your door

New York, lookin' down on Central Park

Where they say you should not wander after dark

New York, like a scene from all those movies

But you're real enough to me, but there's a heart

A heart that lives in New York

A heart in New York, a rose on the street

I write my song to that city heartbeat

A heart in New York, love in her eye, 

an open door and a friend for the night
New York, you got money on your mind
And my words won't make a dime's worth a difference, 

so here's to you New York.

 

Paul Simon & Art Garfunkel