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The Concert in Central Park by Simon and Garfunkel (Vinyl record album review)

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Record basics

  • Album name: The Concert in Central Park
  • Group name: Simon and Garfunkel
  • Year: 1982
  • Number of discs: two discs / four sides
  • Collection: Selman

The Concert in Central Park

My review

Level of familiarity before listening

I know Simon and Garfunkel pretty well as my parents used to play their music when I was very young, and The Graduate is one of my favorite movies. I had heard that they did a famous concert in Central Park, but am not sure if I ever heard the record before.

What I expected

A mix of Graduate-era Simon and Garfunkel and also some of their later work that was nowhere near as good.

What it was actually like

My expectation was more or less accurate, but I definitely didn’t anticipate how solid the performance would be, and how great they were at those harmonies when outside of a studio setting.

There were definitely parts of the performance that didn’t excite me, like a chunk of side two, and also Bridge Over Troubled Water, which I think must be their worst song, but overall, this was an outstanding record. A highlight for me was their medley of Kodachrome and Maybellene, but that may have been because Maybellene is my favorite Chuck Berry song.

Weirdly, I distinctly recall reading that either Paul Simon or Art Garfunkel is widely known to be a Grade A asshole (I’m pretty sure it’s Simon), but that didn’t come out at all in this record. They even thanked the New York Police Department and Mayor Ed Koch for the city arrangements, and then thanked Ed Koch again on the back of the album.

Grade

4/5

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The Concert For Bangla Desh by Various Artists (Vinyl record album review)

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Record basics

  • Album name: The Concert for Bangla Desh
  • Group name: Various, including George Harrison, Ravi Shankar, Ringo Starr, Bob Dylan and Eric Clapton
  • Year: 1971
  • Number of discs: three discs / six sides
  • Collection: Selman

The Concert for Bangla Desh

My review

Level of familiarity before listening

I had heard of the benefit concert (as well as the war that led to it), and knew that the album existed, but had never heard it before. I’ve long been a fan of the Beatles, Bob Dylan, Ravi Shankar and Eric Clapton’s early work.

What I expected

Some celebrity soapboxing and some great late 1960s / early 1970s rock music.

What it was actually like

Charitable concern for victims of war and famine is an admirable trait and I’ll never criticize anyone for caring about one’s fellow man (and starving children), but with half a century’s hindsight, can we not all agree that there’s a certain exploitative posturing to which celebrities seem inclined, and that this album may have kicked off the trend, or contributed to it significantly?

That said, one redeeming quality of George Harrison (the second best Beatle) is that he really seems to have lacked meaningful stage presence, which enables me to regard him as having a certain sincerity towards his weird religious and political beliefs that I don’t think was shared by his former bandmate (and third best Beatle) John Lennon.

Speaking of which, many people cite John Lennon’s Imagine as the worst song ever composed by a member of the Beatles (and to some, it’s the worst song of all time) and that’s a fair point of view, but in my opinion must go to My Sweet Lord, George Harrison’s adaptation of a (Christian) gospel melody to an anthem of praise for Krishna, Vishnu’s eighth avatar (whose birthplace I once visited in Mathura).

On the other hand, how many people out there, even diehard Bob Dylan fans, can name Dylan’s greatest song? Is it Mr. Tambourine Man? No. Blowin’ in the Wind? No. Like a Rolling Stone? No. His greatest song is It Takes a Lot to Laugh, It Takes a Train to Cry, and he performed it at the concert for inclusion on this album, which is great, even though his performance was kind of weak.

As I might have predicted as a Ravi Shankar fan, his performance on side one (of six) stole the show.

Grade

3/5 (but Ravi Shankar gets 5/5)

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