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I’m still going through my CD collection, and the other night I was listening to Paul Simon’s Graceland, from 1986. In the liner notes, Simon says that due to its fretless bass and guitar parts, the title track “almost has the feel of American country music.” Funny, I never thought of “Graceland” as a country song, especially because it’s embedded within some really crazy-cool, South African-influenced tracks. But now it makes sense - road trip, Elvis Presley, first marriages, tumbling in turmoil. The later addition of steel guitar, Simon writes, “also contributes a musical texture that is common to both American country music and West African music.” Interesting. I never would have made that connection myself (because I know nothing about West African music).

On a side note, this CD is so old that there are two paragraphs in the booklet dedicated to explaining how to care for this “small, convenient disc.” You mean besides just sticking it back in the case? “If you follow these suggestions,” it concludes, “the Compact Disc will provide a lifetime of listening enjoyment.” Well, I’m definitely holding onto this particular disc, so we’ll see…

Photo: Lisa Haun/Michael Ochs Archives

Photo by Zach Baron

Consider the slack, orgasmic vagueness that invades Paul Simons face as, down below, his right hand twitches, by reflex alone, into the first four chords of “Me and Julio Down by the Schoolyard”–a song that appears, even when being played by the man who wrote it, to have written itself. At times like this, in an overfilled, over-stimulated Beacon Theater, our evening’s entertainment just gets out of the way. For that handful of seconds, Simon is an instrument, a conduit, nothing more, the place where inchoate nostalgia gathers, takes form, and is applauded. Читать далее »

Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel joined forces for a surprise reunion last night (Feb. 13) at New York’s Beacon Theatre, which was hosting its first event after a seven-month renovation by Madison Square Garden Entertainment.

The pair performed “The Sound of Silence,” “The Boxer” and “Old Friends” during the encore, marking what is believed to be just their third appearance together since concluding a 2004 reunion tour. Garfunkel had flown in from Florida, where he played in Key Largo the night before and was scheduled to play in Fort Pierce tonight. Читать далее »

Though he had put on a great show for nearly 90 minutes up to that point, Paul Simon thrilled the celeb-heavy crowd on hand to toast the grand re-opening of the lovingly restored Beacon Theatre Friday night with the words they longed to hear: “Ladies and gentlemen, my old friend Art Garfunkel.” Читать далее »

Paul Simon fans who went along to his show on Friday night at New York`s Beacon Theater were treated to a rare surprise. They got Art Garfunkel as well.

Simon & Garfunkel were together again on stage performing their old hits ‘The Sounds of Silence’, ‘The Boxer’ and ‘Old Friends’. Читать далее »

How do you electrify an audience that includes such stars as Paul McCartney, Jon Bon Jovi and teen-scream gods the Jonas Brothers?

At the restored Beacon Theatre’s re-opening concert Friday, Paul Simon did it with eight words: “Ladies and gentlemen, my old friend, Art Garfunkel.”

Simon already had the audience captivated after a greatest-hits set, but they roared when the legendary duo reunited.

More than 40 years later, the poetry of the lyrics and beauty of their harmonies remarkably remained the same.

Their popular song of struggle, “The Boxer,” unglued the audience from their seats and even ever-stiff Mayor Bloomberg kind of shimmied to the music.

Their concert finale, “Old Friends,” was the most emotional moment of the performance.

While the performers are certainly older than they were, the theater itself looked better than it has in years, and Simon called the $16 million renovation “a gift to New York City.”

His performance, especially with Art, matched that gift.

Richard Perry/The New York Times

To welcome the new president Paul Simon played “American Tune,” a sigh of exhaustion reportedly written in response to Richard M. Nixon’s re-election in 1972: “I don’t know a dream that’s not been shattered/or driven to its knees.” Читать далее »

Allocca/AP

Paul Simon made an apt and graceful host for two ribbon-cutting concerts at the once bedraggled Beacon Theatre this weekend. In sprawling shows held Friday and Saturday night, Simon celebrated the completion of a badly needed, seven-month, $16 million cleanup job on this formerly sticky-floored, paint chip-strewn theater. Читать далее »

CINDY SKOP/ THE LEDGER 2009

LAKELAND - ‘I’ve been singing this song since I was a child, and for years I’d never really thought about what the lyrics meant,” Art Garfunkel said of “Scarborough Fair” midway through his performance Tuesday night in The Lakeland Center’s Youkey Theater. Читать далее »

Fred R. Conrad/The New York Times

There were dozens of quasiarchaeological discoveries during the seven-month renovation of the 80-year-old Beacon Theater in Manhattan. The most telling, though, was the Folgers coffee can.

It had long been thought that a sparkly, 10-inch-wide, cut-crystal ball — the principal ornament at the tip of the 900-pound chandelier in the rotunda of the former movie palace — was attached with a sturdy bronze fixture. Читать далее »