New York City, early September, 1981. Newspapers and posters around town have announced that Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel will be performing together in Central Park next week.
A half million people showed up for the free benefit concert. Even more watched it on HBO, and money was raised to restore portions of Central Park. It didn’t matter that the two really didn’t like one another, or that Paul was a bit mean to Art during the show. The crowd loved it. I think this qualifies as one of the all-time great concerts, and is worth revisiting from time to time. The staging, with the rooftop associations, was brilliant.
Take it away, Mayor Koch.
