Paul Simon's Concert in the Park

Paul was fully into his world music by this time. His fusion work was losing the initial excitement and was slowly losing me by then. Grunge was exploding and alternative was mainstreaming. In a way, his music is from another era. I do love the live music and the Central Park crowd. As the afternoon turns into night, he does start doing more of his old classic hits. I have no big complaints. This was released as an album but it didn't get very far. This is still well worth a visit especially for fans.

This is a long concert, almost two hours, but it's an excellent one filled with a lot of very good songs. Paul Simon's post-Simon & Garfunkel sound is a little different: a mellow sound but still with a beat. Some songs feature a quiet guitar, some have drums and other percussion instruments you wouldn't normally associate with the old Simon & Garfunkel sound.

For me, the best part of this concert are the first eight songs, most of which I was not familiar with before this concert. The best of those eight, to me, was "Train In The Distance" with some wonderful solo guitar work by Vincent Nguini. The latter is just one of many African musicians who back up Simon. In fact, most of the band is from somewhere in Africa. There also is a pretty darn good jazz saxophonist named Michael Brecker. Anyway, with a pro like Simon you're going to get top-flight musicians.

There are 22 songs in this concert and only three I didn't care for: "The Cool, Cool River," "Proof" and a horrible version of a great song "Bridge Over Troubled Waters." Hey, 19 good songs out of 22 is still a good percentage of winners!

This concert is worth watching again and again and again. The show is high energy. Paul Simon at his very best, backed by a very large assortment of artists including unmatched South African musicians. The gigantic Central Park crowd only adds to the magic. All of the songs are great. These are now my favorite versions of these songs. The original versions now fall flat without the great accompaniment of the awesome assemblage of musicians. The only downside is that this was shot for TV before the HD era. But still, it was well shot, and beautiful to not just hear, but see. If you can find a copy, grab it! You won't be sorry. I had to donate over 80 bucks to public television to get my hands on this on DVD. Worth every penny.