plorentz's Full Review: Old Friends: Live on Stage by Simon & Garfunkel
I dont get to see nearly as many concerts as Id like to, but this year Ive been lucky in that the few concerts I have seen have all been event shows for me artists Ive been wanting to see for years, and finally got the chance to. (In all but one case, they were marquis-name artists whose tickets have been prohibitively expensive, but I managed to land a free seat). In 2004, I saw Anita Baker (traded some small paintings for the ticket); Prince (thanks again, Kristina!), Sting & Annie Lennox together (courtesy of the now temporarily? defunct OutLowd.com), and Wilco, which I actually bought myself. Wooo-hooo!
Still, for every show I saw this year, there are at least a couple hot tickets I missed. Just last week, I missed Lunas last Wisconsin show ever. The week before, I missed The Pixies on their reunion tour. Last month, I missed Morrissey in Milwaukee, and last Spring, I missed Belle & Sebastian in Chicago. I could be well into my forties before either act swings back into my neck of the woods.
Sigh.
I missed Brian Wilsons Smile show at Madisons newly opened Overture Center for the Arts, but perhaps my greatest recent disappointment was missing Simon & Garfunkels recent reunion tour (not to mention Arties solo show at the Overture in September). Thats why its nice if not unexpected that Warner Bros. has seen fit to release a two-disc document of the reunion (at the height of this years Christmas shopping season): Old Friends: Live on Stage.
And fittingly, I got my copy of this album you guessed it for free. (Thanks Mike.)
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My parents foisted a lot of music on us as kids. While cleaning the house, we were forced to listen to Helen Reddys Greatest Hits (not to mention my mothers Big Bird-ish renditions of those greatest hits), and it was mandatory that all family members be present for the viewing of every single Peter, Paul & Mary PBS concert broadcast. And when we got our first CD player, Dad subjected us to repeated performances of Grofes Grand Canyon Suite (with real digitally recorded thunderclaps!) at structure-leveling volumes.
But, there were a few artists in my parents record collection that I discovered and came to love without the benefit of their musical totalitarianism.
At some point, I remember Casey Kasem (whom I listened to religiously) play Cecilia as an American Top 40 extra, and I instantly loved it. When I later came across my parents copy of Simon & Garfunkels Bridge Over Troubled Water LP, I was delighted to find the song listed there. I didnt realize, of course, what I was getting myself into, when, one Saturday afternoon, feeling bored after having spent the day with the Smurfs, Dick Clark, and Don Cornelius, I finally played the whole record instead of just my then-favorite song.
Id like to take this moment to apologize to my parents.
Mom, Dad, Im so very, very sorry. I murdered that record.
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I like the title of this new live record a lot. Not just because it seems to carry with it the suggestion that whatever differences Paul and Artie have had over their fifty-year acquaintance are truly secondary not just to their magnificent legacy as recording artists, but also to their personal friendship; but also because, more than twenty years after we first met, I have come to think of these songs, and particularly these songs sung by these voices, as old friends too. (Which is why I bristle whenever I even think of Clay Aiken covering them.)
Ill never meet Paul or Artie in person, but you can be damned well sure that they were with me the summer that my family lost our house
When youre weary
When youre out on the street
They were with me that weird, strange, scary-but-liberating night when I came out to my Dad over the phone from my dorm room at Carroll College
Sail on, silver girl, sail on by
Your time has come to shine
They were with me and my sister and my Dad when we took that little (little?) road trip down to Savannah
All your dreams are on their way
And Cecilia always shows up towards the end of the night at wedding receptions and company holiday parties.
.heeyyyyyyyy.
The music of Simon and Garfunkel is as much a part of my general consciousness as, say, Paddock Lake, Wisconsin, the little town where I grew up. Its music that, in some ways, has shaped who I am as a person, and its music that I will always hold sacred. And if anything, Old Friends: Live on Stage serves as a grand testament to the immense power of these songs, and the transformational effect they have on their fans.
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Before theyve sung a note, the audience has hushed over the simple acoustic guitar figures that open Old Friends/Bookends. Suddenly, a lone voice from the audience shouts rapturously maybe even cathartically - I LOVE YOU! And the tsunamic applause that follows is like a single gigantic exhale, as if everyone had been holding their breath for this particular moment. (And really, could you blame them if they were?)
But things get off to a slow start. On what is perhaps their fastest song, the two seem to be struggling against each other through the verses of Hazy Shade of Winter Paul, whose singing has grown more idiosyncratic (and indulgent) in his advanced years, sings the song like the solo artist he always wanted to be, almost like hes deliberately trying to throw Arties harmony parts off. And a lumbering rendition of I Am A Rock does little to assuage this listeners fears. Both singers sound well really, really old. And neither sound like their having much fun.
And in fact, thats the way the album goes until about half way through the first disc, during the only banter reproduced for this set, in which the two relate stories about how they met and how they got started. And in the telling, you can hear the both of them loosening up, while poking fun at each others (and especially Pauls) egos:
PAUL: We started singing when we were thirteen years old. We started arguing when we were fourteen. So that makes this the 47th anniversary of our arguing
ARTIE: I wanted to call us Garfunkel & Simon. But Paul convinced me that they should go alphabetical.
The audience eats it up, and this segment, which includes a quick rendition of their first song Hey Schoolgirl, In the Second Row, and a rip-roaring version of Bye Bye Love (with the Everly Brothers, no less!), not only had me belly-laughing, alone, in my car, on my way to work, at an obscene hour of the morning, but its also the point on this record at which the individuals Paul and Artie morph back into the duo Simon & Garfunkel. And damned if they dont sound married.
From there, they deliver a steady stream of their biggest hits, from the delicate Scarborough Fair, and a climactic, lump-in-throat extended version of The Sound of Silence, which, like many of these songs, has taken on a whole new dimension of resonance in light of current events; to an appropriately explosive take on the epic The Boxer. And each new (old) song is rendered in vivid, captivating colors.
Still, Pauls egoism occasionally gets in the way. The fact that there are three songs from Pauls solo career included here and nothing from Arties wonderful recent album Everything Waits to Be Noticed - is almost forgiveable, especially since, with the exception of Slip Slidin Away, they arent predictable choices; and American Tune and My Little Town both fit well in this particular setting.
I can live with that.
What I cant handle is Paul mauling the second verse of what is perhaps his greatest composition Bridge Over Troubled Water. In an otherwise breathtaking performance of the song, which ends in an endlessly swirling cacophony of ringing cymbals and piano crashes, Pauls soulful belting (i.e. struggling to hit those high notes he specifically wrote for his partner) rings false and clumsy.
Also clumsy is the lone new studio track, Citizen of the Planet, a pleasant, but utterly inconsequential (especially given what its appended to) topical ditty about, you know, peace and love and stuff. Its understandable that Warner Bros. might want to release a studio track unavailable elsewhere for this album. After all, its been 35 years since Simon and Garfunkel released a new studio recording, and any new song would be a selling point, especially for a holiday release like this. But we shouldnt be fooled. The real selling point of this album is the old stuff, and Citizen of the Planet simply feels anticlimactic.
This isnt the first Simon & Garfunkel live album, and its not the first Simon & Garfunkel reunion live album. But, it may be the most powerful Simon & Garfunkel live album, because its the live album on which these songs have reached the most people. They have been living and breathing on our record players and radios for forty years now, and to hear them living and breathing once again (once and for all?) in the voices of these two men together is truly an awesome sound.
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BECAUSE YOU NEED TO KNOW:
Old Friends: Live on Stage by Simon & Garfunkel
Warner Bros. Records
Released 11/30/04
96 min.
SONGS:
DISC ONE: Old Friends/Bookends Hazy Shade of Winter I Am A Rock America At the Zoo Baby Driver Cathys Song Tom and Jerry Story Hey, Schoolgirl in the Second Row Everly Brothers Intro Bye Bye Love Scarborough Fair Homeward Bound The Sound of Silence
DISC TWO: Mrs. Robinson Slip Slidin Away El Condor Pasa The Only Living Boy in New York American Tune My Little Town Bridge Over Troubled Water Cecilia The Boxer Leaves That Are Green Citizen of the Planet
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