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.
Planning and rehearsals for the concert took about three weeks in a Manhattan theater.[8] The rehearsals were characterized by past tensions that resurfaced between the performers under the intense time pressure. Paul Simon later said: "Well, the rehearsals were just miserable. Artie and I fought all the time."[13] An early concept was for each singer to give a solo performance, with Simon allotted the greater amount of time, and to conclude with the duo performing their joint works. This idea was rejected because, according to Garfunkel, "It didn't seem right to either of us that Paul should be the opening act for Simon & Garfunkel, and for him to follow Simon & Garfunkel didn't make show-business sense".[16] The two decided to perform most of the show together, with room for each to showcase some solo material.[8] Simon, who had resumed songwriting after a long hiatus, interrupted a series of studio recording sessions for the concert preparations. He used the live show as an opportunity to test one of his new songs in front of an audience. Garfunkel also planned to present a new song, "A Heart in New York", from his soon-to-be released album Scissors Cut.[8]
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The musical arrangements for the concert were written by Paul Simon and David Matthews. Some songs differed significantly from their original versions; for example, "Me and Julio Down by the Schoolyard" featured more prominent Latin elements and included a salsa break, while the folk rock "Kodachrome" was set as a harder rock song and played together with the Chuck Berry classic "Maybellene" as a medley.[15]
Garfunkel had difficulties in the rehearsals. Both men easily recalled their songs from the 1960s, but Garfunkel had to learn the harmonies and arrangements for Simon's solo songs, as modified for the reunion concert.[19] He was also uncomfortable that Simon had rewritten some of the lyrics for their old songs. Despite the need to adapt to Simon and his style, Garfunkel enjoyed some of the songs, and was glad to perform a duet version of Simon's "American Tune".[17]
Simon & Garfunkel played twenty-one songs in total: ten by the duo, eight by Simon, one by Garfunkel, a cover of The Everly Brothers' "Wake Up Little Susie", and the medley version of "Maybellene". Each performer sang three songs alone, including one new song apiece. Garfunkel sang the Simon & Garfunkel classic "Bridge Over Troubled Water" and "April Come She Will", and "A Heart in New York", a song written by Gallagher and Lyle that appeared on his album Scissors Cut, which had been released the previous month. Simon's solo performances were the title song of his 1975 album Still Crazy After All These Years, the number-one single "50 Ways to Leave Your Lover", and the unreleased "The Late Great Johnny Ace", which would appear on his 1983 album Hearts and Bones.
A recording of the concert was released five months later, on February 16, 1982. The audio tracks were processed in postproduction, but Rolling Stone magazine wrote that they were not completely polished, and preserved the roar and the fuzziness of live rock music heard through a loudspeaker.[15] Two songs were not included on the album: the interrupted "Late Great Johnny Ace", and the encore reprise of "Late in the Evening". The album was an international success.[33] It peaked at number six on the Billboard 200 chart, and was certified 2Multi-Platinum with sales of over 2 million copies in USA. The album sold more than 1,270,000 copies in France, where it was certified Diamond. It was also successful in seven other countries, including New Zealand. The album was released as a double LP and as a single Compact Cassette. In 1988 it was issued as a single CD. Various reissues in different formats have occurred, including, alongside the DVD, a 2-CD-release also containing the two missing songs from the original album.[34][35]The Concert was recorded by Roy Halee on the Record Plant NY Black Truck with David Hewitt Director, assisted by Phil Gitomer, Steve Barash and John Mathias.
The concert was filmed for television broadcast and the home video market. It was produced by James Signorelli, and directed by Michael Lindsay-Hogg, a specialist in music documentaries who had worked on The Beatles' film Let It Be, and executive produced by Lorne Michaels, who had recently departed the NBC-TV comedy/variety series Saturday Night Live. Simon himself financed the US$750,000 cost of the staging and the video recording.[23] It is unknown how much HBO paid for the television and video rights of the recording; US$1 million according to some sources,[18][27] over US$3 million according to others.[36] The film includes the two songs that had not appeared on the album, and at 87 minutes, runs 12 minutes longer.[37]
The concert and recordings were positively received by music critics. Stephen Holden praised the performance in The New York Times the day after the concert;[47] he subsequently praised the live album in Rolling Stone magazine.[15] He wrote that Simon and Garfunkel were successful in reviving their sound, that the backing band was "one of the finest groups of musicians ever to play together at a New York rock concert",[47] and the rearrangements of Simon's solo material were improvements over the originals.[15] Despite the risks in performing so many acoustic ballads in an open-air concert on a cool night, the songs "were beautifully articulated, in near-perfect harmony."[47]
When they were not on the road, the duo went into the studio to work on what was to be a reunion Simon & Garfunkel album, tentatively entitled Think Too Much, with Garfunkel adding harmony vocals to a bunch of new songs for which Simon had already laid down some backing tracks. They set a release date of spring 1983 to coincide with their planned North American tour, but after increasingly acrimonious delays and disagreements, Simon told Warner Brothers he could no longer work with Garfunkel and that the project as an S&G album was cancelled. Thus Garfunkel dropped out of the project, which then became Simon's November 1983 solo album Hearts and Bones.[52]
Ilona Bártfai (Bártfai Imrene Páloji Ilona), born in 1930, discusses her relationship with a Jewish acquaintances and classmates in Hajdúhadház, Hungary; the peaceful relationship between the Jewish and non-Jewish community before the war; the implementation of antisemitic laws, such as the restriction against Jewish children attending the local middle school; hearing young boys sing antisemitic songs; hearing about a separate shelter for Jews during air raids; her memories of Jewish-owned stores closing and being looted; people from the town moving into vacant houses; seeing members of the Arrow Cross and Leventes guarding the ghetto; hearing about searches of Jewish-owned homes and businesses; the escape of a Jewish family; seeing Jews being taken to the ghetto by members of the Arrow Cross; her midwife aunt assisting in a childbirth in the ghetto after another midwife refused; watching the new mother with her baby walk to the train station from which they would be deported; recalling her aunt give care advice to the new mother; seeing a soldier threaten her aunt with deportation if she did not leave the area; her memory of women being forced to undergo body searches for valuables; seeing Jews crying and saying goodbye to onlookers; hearing onlookers voice their opposition to the deportation; her memory of trains full of people looking through windows, crying, and waving; the postwar return of some Jewish survivors; how some of the returning Jews received their belongings, houses and businesses back; hearing about the relocation of survivors to other cities; and learning about postwar trials of Hungarian war criminals in Debrecen.
Sára Lovas (Lovas Istvanne Varga Sára), born in 1929 in Őcsény, Hungary, describes the peaceful relations between the different residents in her village before the war; wartime actions taken against the Jewish population, including the closing of Jewish shops; the deportation of the Jews in 1944 to the ghetto in Tolna; the looting of Jewish homes; the ostracising of Arrow Cross Party members by the village; anti-Jewish songs sung by Arrow Cross Party members; and the aftermath of the war.
Tibor Kolosi, born in 1933, describes life in Szécsény, Hungary before the war; the good relations between Jews and non-Jews; living with his family on Próféta street, where there were many Jewish families; his Jewish friends; the gathering of Jews in the courtyard of the synagogue, where they were guarded by gendarmes; Jewish boys not being allowed to play football; seeing Jews wearing the Star of David; witnessing a deportation of Jews via truck; the Levente (paramilitary youth organizations) training, which was often held near his football training area, and hearing them sing anti-Jewish songs; and several Jewish families he knows who survived the war.
Ferenc Géró, born on November 17, 1925 in Kecskemét, Hungary, describes moving to the village of Tiszavárkony, Hungary at the age of 12; working as a peasant and servant to rich farmers; at the age of 14, working at a sugar factory owned by Jewish people in Szolnok, Hungary; antisemitism beginning with people singing Nazi songs, including members of the fascist Iron Guard political organization, when Transylvania was assigned from Romania to Hungary; moving to Budapest, Hungary in 1942; American air raids starting in spring 1944 and being trained to put out fires; Jews having to wear a yellow star and being put in homes that had stars; walking by a building on Wesselényi Street in Budapest that was designated for Jews and seeing a grenade thrown out of one of the windows at a German guard, and the building being empty the next day; and leaving the fire brigade unit because they had become fascists. 2ff7e9595c
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