The Concert In Central Park Oak Park IL

The Concert In Central Park

Simon & Garfunkel

Warner Brothers Records, 1982

REVIEW BY: Christopher Thelen

ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED: 05/29/1998

In 1981, the reunion that many thought would never happen,actually did. Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel reunited for one night,in front of a large audience in New York's Central Park, performingmany of their old favorites and some selections from their solocareers.

Ah, but reunions, even one-shot deals, are fickle things; onedoesn't know what the passage of time will do to the music you knowand love. In the case of The Concert In Central Park, the two-record set from thisshow, much is lost in the translation from studio efforts of over adecade past to such a large setting.

Sometimes, the case is a slight shift in the originalarrangement of a song ("Mrs. Robinson"). Other times, it's the lackof instrumentation that one remembers on the track ("Bridge OverTroubled Water"). And while I might not have been alive when thesesongs were in their prime, I did grow up listening to them, andfound these live versions to pale next to their studio brethren.I'm sorry, but the rich arrangment of "Bridge Over TroubledWaters", a song that can still bring me to tears, is sorely missedhere.

Another problem I have with The Concert In Central Park is that it often does not seemlike a true collaborative effort by Simon and Garfunkel, insteadturning into the Paul Simon show. No less than eight of thenineteen songs on this set are Simon solo pieces... uh, last time Ichecked the spine of the record jacket, it didn't say Paul Simon only! Garfunkel does get one or two pieces from his solocareer in there as well - a number that's a little easier tohandle.