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 Newtons have continued preparing their Cambridge Exam. They have studied Since/For.

More information: Since/For 

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.

More information: Ultimate Classic Rock

 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

SUZANNE VEGA: JUST DON'T ASK ME HOW I AM

Suzanne Nadine Vega

Suzanne Nadine Vega (born July 11, 1959) is an American singer-songwriter and record producer, best known for her eclectic folk-inspired music.

Two of Vega's songs reached the Top 10 of various international chart listings: Luka and Tom's Diner. The latter was originally an a cappella version on Vega's album, which was then remade in 1990 as a dance track produced by the British dance production team DNA, and was the song used as a test during the creation of the MP3 format.

More information: Suzanne Vega

Vega has released nine studio albums to date, the latest of which is Lover, Beloved: Songs from an Evening with Carson McCullers, released in 2016.

Suzanne Vega was born in Santa Monica, California. Her mother, Pat Vega, née Schumacher, is a computer systems analyst of German-Swedish heritage. Her father, Richard Peck, is of Scottish-English-Irish origin. They divorced soon after her birth. Her stepfather, Edgardo Vega Yunqué, also known as Ed Vega, was a writer and teacher from Puerto Rico. 

Suzanne Vega in Barcelona (2008)

When Vega was two and a half, her family moved to New York City. She grew up in Spanish Harlem and the Upper West Side. She was not aware of having a different biological father until she was nine years old. They met for the first time in her late 20s and remain in contact.

She attended the High School of Performing Arts where she studied modern dance and graduated in 1977. Suzanne discovered the music of Laura Nyro who was a huge influence on her.

At the age of nine she began to write poetry. She was encouraged to do so by her stepfather. It took her 3 years to write her first song, Brother Mine, it was ready at the age of 14. It was first published on Close-Up Vol. 4, Songs of Family, along with her other early song, The Silver Lady.

More information: The Guardian

Vega hasn't learned to read musical notes, she sees the melody as a shape and chords as colors. She focuses on lyrics and melodic ideas, for advanced features, like intros or bridges, she relies on other artists she works with. Most of her albums, except the first one, was made in such cooperation. She claims that 80% of the songs she started writing get finished.

The most important artistic influence on her work comes from Lou Reed, Bob Dylan and Leonard Cohen. Some other important artists for her are Paul Simon and Laura Nyro.

I loved the atmosphere of the dance studios, the wooden floors, the big mirrors, everyone dressed in pink or black tights, the musicians accompanying us, and the feeling of ritual the classes had. 

Suzanne Vega