It was big news when Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel announced
in September 2003 that they would be getting back together for a reunion
tour. It was the 50th
anniversary of their friendship and they were going out on the ‘Old Friends
Tour.’ I was very excited and got to see
them twice on this tour, once on the first leg and once on the second leg. The second leg was much better than the
first. On June 11, 2004 my mother and I
drove to Mohegan Sun Casino. She would
gamble and I would go to the concert. We
had dinner at the old buffet. Keep in
mind this was before the days when they had a lot of causal dining, and the
casino was about half it’s current size.
After dinner, we went our separate ways and I found myself
sitting on the floor, 8 rows from the stage where Simon & Garfunkel would
re-unite for one last hurrah. The show
started about 40 minutes late. The opening
film showcasing an instrumental version of America started playing, I was too
close to see the screen, it was like if you’re in the first row of a movie
theatre. So I actually watched the
action in front of me, and not on the screen all night. After the film ended, the lights came up on
Paul and Artie, just two old friends live in the flesh.
Paul was in a red shirt with a collar and black pants, while
Artie was wearing a white shirt and a purple tie, tied in a knot (not a tie
knot, but a regular knot). After the
applause died down, Paul started the opening phrase of Old Friends. After a
perfectly phrased version of Old Friends,
the lights when down once again. In the dark, Jamey counted off for Hazy
Shade of Winter and the band launched into it. Paul strapped on his 12-string and away they
went. The good thing about the band was
that it was an amalgam of both Art’s and Paul’s bands--it wasn’t just Paul’s
band with Art. The two guitarists from
different camps worked well together.
Mark Stewart is Paul’s new sideman, much like Richard Tee used to
be. Mark has a great technical sense and
is a very good musical director, while Larry Saltzman has a fond appreciation for
the recordings and makes his playing sound true to the original recordings. Paul even said at later shows that Larry can
play the songs better than he can. Larry
played the lead riff on a 12-string electric guitar and Mark played the solo.
I heard (because I was close enough) Art
say to Paul that “we sound good,” and they did. Paul started the next song. I am a Rock had a
shaky start, Jim Keltner the drummer, came in late with the bass drum and threw
off the rhythm a bit. After a few
phrases and a nasty look from Paul, it was corrected and the song came off great. After this song, Art said it was “great to be
here.” Art then quipped, "be honest, this is a whole lot more hair than you thought I was gonna have isn't is?" Although he wears a hairpiece, it was still quite amusing. Then Paul started America
on his signature Martin guitar. The
arrangements were very close to the recording, they added the humming found on
the original recording. In the middle of
the song, there was a break down where Warren
played the piano and Art sang about the bow tie really being a camera. I find that Paul arranges the songs quiet
well, and it’s nice when they don’t sound exactly like the recording.
At the Zoo/Baby Driver
was a great choice and I was a bit upset when it was dropped for the mini
reunion tour in 2009. By the way, the
2009-10 tour was so much better. I had
tickets for the 2010 tour, but it was canceled because of Art’s voice
problems. I wish I could have seen
that. Paul started At the Zoo, but talked his way through the opening line. It was kind of funny listening to a 62 year
old man singing that song. During the
second chorus, the piano and the rest of the band came in. Mark played a small guitar, that looked like
a Ukulele, but I wasn’t sure if it was. Then the band went right into Baby Driver, a forgotten gem from the “Bridge Over Troubled Water”
album. They actually added a vocal part
that was missing from the first leg.
That was a nice surprise for me. Don’t
know if anyone else realized. I still
don’t know how Larry played that complex guitar intro, I’ve been trying to learn it for a long
time. This was only the second gig of
the 2nd leg after opening the tour in Albany the night before. It was the same band,
except, Pino Paladino was not available so they got a session player named
Freddie Washington to cover the bass part.
He was having a rough night, I don’t know if his monitors were working,
but he kept fiddling with buttons on the amp and bass in between songs. He also had a microphone so he added backup
singing, which is something Pino did not do.
The band left the stage after Baby Driver and Art was telling the story about busking in Europe to the next song.
He dedicated Kathy’s Song to his wife Kim who was in the audience. “Where are you honey?” he asked. I saw her, she was all dolled up, I did have
a better seat than her, except I had to pay for mine, and she didn’t. I also noticed that the good seats were 40
dollars more for this tour. My ticket
cost 265 dollars US! I thought 225 was
exorbitant for the 2003 tour. After Kathy’s Song, they did the usual banter
about being friends for 50 years and how Paul was the white rabbit. Paul said that he had “just finished his 5th
grade production of ‘Death of a Salesman,’ and I was looking for something
light to do, so when the role of the White Rabbit came along, I lept at
it.” Paul was in a good mood and joked a
lot more than usual. Maybe because it
was only the 2nd night and the tedium of being on the road hadn’t
set in yet. The second leg was much
smaller, I think it was only about 15 dates in the US,
and 20 or so in the Europe. Paul made another joke about it being their
50th anniversary. He said “we
should have a party, you can book Simon and Garfunkel for entertainment, it
would cost a fortune though.” They
finally got around to singing their first song called Hey Schoolgirl. Paul started
the song, but his monitors cut out, he looked down and strummed and motioned to
the engineer that something was wrong.
He sang most of the rest of the show without monitors. Art doesn’t really use them either, I think
he uses fill on each side, but doesn’t really have direct monitors on the
floor.
This tour was special for many reasons, one for the reunion
of Simon & Garfunkel, but also because Paul got Don and Phil Everly back
together to do a few numbers halfway through the show. Paul introduced them, they came out wearing
black blazers with their matching black long haired lady Gibsons. They played Wake Up Little Susie. Don
did most of the singing. I thought it
was interesting that with over 50 years in the business, they still use a
double headed mic stand. All I Have to Do is Dream was next and it
brought a tear to the baby boomers in the audience. With only three songs to do, they had to pick
the best from their catalog. I think Let it be Me is a popular one, but one
of my favorite songs they did is a Carole King penned classic I’ll Do My Crying in the Rain. After Let
it be Me, S&G came back out to sing Bye
Bye Love. Paul played his black high
strung Yamaha guitar (from the Graceland days).
After Don and Phil left the stage, Mark got behind his cello
and Paul started the recognizable guitar part for Scarborough Fair. Homeward
Bound has a nice breakdown section where all the musicians have mini
solos. To close the first act of the
show, Paul opened with a new phrasing of the Sound of Silence. He plays a
lengthy introduction then the Paul and Art sing the first two verses by
themselves. After this, Larry comes in
with the rest of the band with his electric 12-string, like on the electric recorded version. A short film about the 60’s and 70’s plays
next featuring clips from the Graduate
film as well as Paul’s SNL appearances in the turkey outfit. The film ends with a scene from The Graduate and the lights come up as
Paul starts the opening on his guitar.
They do a jazzy loose version of Mrs.
Robinson, complete with the guitar solo in the middle that originated
during the Paul Simon/Bob Dylan tour in 1999.
Paul changed guitars to his trusty 12-string and Art got a
stool to sit down to sing Slip Slidin’
Away. This was one of my favorite
arrangements, up to that point in time.
Paul is always changing this song up.
Guess he never cared for the recording, and neither do I. Without missing a beat, the band went right
into El Condor Pasa, which starts
with the same chord Sliding ends
with. That Paul Simon is crafty. They both took turns singing solo verses. Paul once again strapped on his 12-string to
do another forgotten gem from BOTW, Keep
the Customer Satisfied. There is a
rocking guitar solo from Mark Stewart and a piano solo from Warren Bernhardt.
Paul tells the story about how Art went down
to Mexico
to film Catch-22 and left the group,
so Paul wrote The Only Living Boy in New
York. S&G used to go by Tom and
Jerry, and Paul used to use the name Jerry Landis. In this case Art is Tom--I hope this song now makes sense
to everybody. Coincidentally, Paul
recorded most of BOTW without Art, and Art overdubbed his vocal lines
later. Paul’s angelic higher register came out
during this song.
Art introduced American Tune, one of my favorite Paul Simon solo songs. This song featured a Fender Rhodes intro that
was new. Art and Paul each took verses
and Mark even played a cello solo. There
was a lot of feedback during this song, so much so that Paul didn’t sing a
certain line because of it. There was a lot of feedback all night come to think of it.
My
Little Town is my favorite Paul Simon, Simon & Garfunkel penned
songs. Its dark brooding quality makes
us all think about our little home towns.
Paul played his black Yamaha for this song. It’s got some tricky chord changes and fancy
finger picking. The horns were replaced
by Mark’s guitar and Warren’s
piano. This song went right into Bridge Over Troubled Water. The song was down a whole step, most likely
so Art could sing it. Paul sang the
second verse. There was a very obvious key change during
the bridge, right before the “sail on silver girl” part. Paul picked up his electric guitar and they
both belted out the rest of the song.
When it came time for Art’s final note, Paul receded into the shadows on
the side of the stage to give Art his shining moment. After this song, the band left the stage for
the encore.
A few minutes later, the band came back out
and Paul introduced Jamey Haddad who started the opening of Cecilia.
There is a nice section in the middle where Paul and Art swap vocals and
echo each other. After a standing
ovation, Paul started The Boxer. The
Boxer has a great Theremin solo by Rob Schwimmer, the multi instrumentalist
in the band and Mark Stewart's good friend. The Theremin replaced the trumpet solo in the original recording. After
this song, they left the stage again.
Simon & Garfunkel came back for the second
encore to sing Leave That Are Green. Paul said they hadn’t done this song since
1967. That was a lie, but it was a
gentle song with a lovely melody. The
band came back out for the last number.
Paul started Feelin Groovy. Mark Stewart was playing a
homemade instrument that looked like a big didgeridoo, google it. I was reading a review of this show I wrote a
day after it happened on a Paul Simon fan site, and I noted that the crowd was very
loud. And now I do recall this, they
were increadbily loud. Mind you the
arena was about 75% full this evening, so it was only about 5,500 people, but
it was very loud. I don’t want to blame
that all on the ticket prices, but I think it had a little part in it. After they left the stage, the house lights
came up, and the PA was playing What Is
Life by George Harrison while the crew was breaking down the stage. In 10 minutes they had over half the stage
broken down and packed away. They really
work fast after the show.
On the way out, I bought a program it cost 30
bucks, it was thick and nice, so I didn’t mind, but my Mother gave me a lecture
like “do you really need that?” On the
way home we were both tired and as she was driving, she swerved once, and there
just happened to be a trooper behind us.
She gave us a ticket for failure to maintain lane. Who would have thought that that was even a
valid excuse? I think she made is up to
meet her quota A bittersweet end to an enjoyable evening.
Old Friends
Hazy Shade of Winter
I Am a Rock
America
At the Zoo/
Baby Driver
Baby Driver
Kathy’s Song
Hey Schoolgirl
Wake Up Little Susie
All I Have to Do is Dream
Let It Be Me
Bye Bye Love
Scarborough Fair
Homeward Bound
Sound of Silence
Mrs. Robinson
Slip Slidin’ Away
El Condor Pasa
Keep the Customer Satisfied
The Only Living Boy in New York
American Tune
My Little Town
Bridge Over Troubled Water
Cecilia
The Boxer
Leaves That Are Green
Feelin Groovy
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