S&G live CD/DVD out Nov. 23?

September 29, 2004 at 5:44 pm · Filed under Paul Simon

From Billboard Magazine online today:

Although details were scant at deadline, Simon & Garfunkel are eyeing a Nov. 23 release for a DVD and deluxe CD chronicling their wildly successful Old Friends reunion tour. The sets will be issued by Warner Bros., which previously released Simon & Garfunkel’s landmark 1981 “Concert in Central Park.”

The Old Friends tour ended in Rome on July 31; no announcement has been made regarding the possibility of future dates. Paul Simon is at work on his next solo album with producer Brian Eno and will, as previously reported, perform Monday (Oct. 4) at the ACLU-sponsored Freedom Concert at New York’s Avery Fisher Hall.

– Jonathan Cohen, N.Y.

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9/11 plus three

September 12, 2004 at 10:22 pm · Filed under Paul Simon

The first anniversary of September 11th passed with an around-the-clock vigil atmosphere to it. Broadcast television networks suspended regular programming, giving us a break from the trials and tribulations of the stars of Days of Our Lives and other regular fare. Perhaps out of a sense of fear - of the other shoe dropping, a sense that lingers still today, the feeling was mournful. Last year’s anniversary seemed less emotional - 9/11 had somehow moved a little further from our personal memory and a little closer to our collective memory. The relatively quiet commemoration this year (or so it seemed) has spoken less and less to our sense of impending doom, and more and more to our sense of compassion, sadness and hope. Though 9/11 may not have changed everything (though that seems to be all we ever hear about it), it has given many of us a profound, personal experience that, above all, teaches us to cherish the fragility of life and the beauty that can be wiped out without warning.

How is this relevant to Paul Simon? Well, Paul gave two of his most touching performances in the wake of 9/11. He sang Bridge Over Troubled Water as if it were a hundreds-year-old hymn in the days following the attacks (you can purchase it at any music shop or at http://www.tributetoheroesmusic.org/) and he did an incredibly resilient version of The Boxer to kick off Saturday Night Live’s season. Paul also contributed this to the New York Times on September 23:

The events of recent days, as unbearable as they were to witness, were ameliorated by the almost total absence of popular culture from the nation’s airwaves. Award ceremonies and concerts were cancelled. No blockbuster movies opened. No new television shows premiered. It was a temporary respite from the cultural din. Hyperbolic and aggressive selling was not only muted but also seemed, when one stumbled upon it, to belong to an already distant past made irrelevant by the tragedy of Sept. 11. Within this chaos, there was a deep if momentary silence that encouraged us to re-examine ourselves as a people and a culture.

What changes could and should occur?

The nihilism and violence that are often found in our music and film should be recognized as the cynical entertainment that they are when contrasted with the reality of Sept. 11. The firefighters and police who worked 24-hour shifts were real-life heroes, completely alien to the popular culture’s idea of heroism. Artists should feel comfortable with this non-show-biz reality, and let it be reflected in their work. The marketplace can accommodate these truths without losing money.

Our notions of profit and value could be adjusted to allow for a greater degree of artistic questioning without an implication that such actions would automatically have adverse economic consequences. Artists could hold themselves to a higher standard of honesty.

Corporate America should allow more voices to reach our ears. We are saturated with music and videos that have no relationship to anything but the bottom line. We should encourage the compassion and generosity that flowed reflexively to victims’ families and communities in the last week to permeate our everyday lives.

It’s too soon to predict the ways that the arts will change, but change is inevitable, catastrophe or not. We should recognize that seismic events impact on the creative process and that artistic and spiritual rebirth can follow a shattering experience.

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Quick Hits

September 7, 2004 at 11:26 pm · Filed under Paul Simon

From the newswire…

• Paul Simon will be performing at the American Civil Liberties Union’s Freedom Concert in New York City at Carnegie Hall on October 4th. Sharing the bill with Paul are, among others, Lou Reed, Edie Brickell, Sarah Jones, Philip Glass and Mos Def. For tickets, call (212) 721-6500.

• Paul recently performed a short, surprise set at, as the New York Post’s Hamptons Diary carefully reported in its August 31st edition:

  
  

  SINGER Paul Simon appeared as the special guest Sun day at an impromptu Amagansett charity concert for local chef Sean Rafferty, who was diagnosed with a bladder tumor two weeks ago.

  Simon joined two local bands, Little Head Thinks and The Nancy Atlas Project, at the Stephen Talkhouse, wearing a Yale baseball cap, black T-shirt and jeans. He said he was there to help out a “friend of the family,” while confiding to staffers he wanted to give back to the East End community, which has treated him so well.

  For a suggested donation of $25, hundreds of guests packed the bar in support of Rafferty and wound up hearing an acoustic quartet of Simon classics: “Homeward Bound”, “America,” “Me and Julio Down by the Schoolyard” and “The Boxer.”

  The enthusiastic crowd caught Simon off guard when they began singing in unison the “lie-la-lie” chorus of “The Boxer,” his last song of the evening.

  The singer grinned and then pointed to the bartenders and declared, “Literally, everyone can have a beer on me.”

  Before wrapping up his act, Simon looked at the audience and quipped, “I have to figure out how to pay for the beers now.”

  He walked off stage and immediately offered up his credit card.

  Simon showed up at the request of Sean’s older brother, Ron Rafferty, who was the former caretaker of Simon’s Montauk estate and is now leading the charge to help his sibling, who’s already facing bills of $20,000 and has no medical coverage.

  When the concert finished, Sean, 37, a chef at Nichol’s, summed up the evening: “It was really wonderful - I have a lot more friends than I realized.”

  As Simon was leaving the building, Sean’s wife, Kathryn, rushed out to thank him for playing at the event, which raised about $10,000 through donations and the evening’s bar profits, which the Talkhouse gave to the cause.

  The good-hearted Simon replied, “Your husband’s going to be fine . . . When he’s fine, I’ll come sing again.”

  Donations for Sean can be made by calling him at (631) 267-7619.

• The Post also reported on Paul’s son Harper doing his best Art Garfunkel impression - we’ll leave it at that.

• Finally, Edie, also known as Paul’s better half, also performed recently, as reported, again, by the Post here:

  
  

  RECLUSIVE Edie Brickell charmed a packed room at the Guild Hall Saturday night after being asked to join a double-bill lineup by her pal, former “Saturday Night Live” bandleader G.E. Smith.

  But the ever-modest songstress, who was performing for the first time since ending a tour in April, told the crowd she’d had anxiety dreams about the show, and later admitted to Diary she feared she was a little rusty.

  “I was feeling anxious. It was a while since I’ve played. But then, when I got onstage, I thought to myself: When I’m 90, I won’t be able to do this, so I’m just going to enjoy myself,” said Brickell.

  She confessed she’d even banned hubby Paul Simon from attending because of her nerves. They’re spending a few days in their Montauk home, and Simon’s distinct 12-string guitar was onstage during Brickell’s set, leading eagle-eyed fans to believe he might join her for a song, as he has in past gigs.

  “I asked him not to come. I didn’t have a great sense of confidence,” said Brickell, who was nevertheless all smiles backstage after the sold-out gig.

  “Get out!” he screamed. “Get out of my theater! I’ve got a million dollars worth of art in here. What the hell are you doing?”

  In a very unrock-’n'-roll moment, the gentle musician, her bemused band and the cigarette-holding culprit all stood looking horrified as the stage manager continued to scream at them before everyone shuffled out.

  Brickell headed home soon after, but Diary can report she got some A-list praise from Richard Gere, who sneaked in to watch the show because he’s a good pal of Smith’s wife, Taylor Barton.

  “She was great, absolutely great,” said the mellow movie star.

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