Live From New York City, 1967

Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com
Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel were the apotheosis of the '60s folk revival, bringing the music to the mainstream via Top 40 radio and network TV. This live set was recorded before a rapt audience at New York's Lincoln Center in January of 1967, just as their Parsley, Sage, Rosemary, and Thyme album was carrying them to superstardom, and there's a palpable pre-Woodstock/Altamont sense of boundless possibilities in these performances. Carried by just their bittersweet, magnificently interlocking voices and Simon's acoustic guitar, the duo showcases its already impressive slate of hits ("Homeward Bound," "I Am a Rock," "The Sounds of Silence") and its stylistic diversity that was already confident enough to encompass breezy pop ("The 59th Street Bridge Song (Feelin' Groovy)"), madrigal influences ("Benedictus"), and the introspective impressionism of "A Hazy Shade of Winter." Simon takes a jazz-folk solo instrumental turn on Davey Graham's "Anji," while Garfunkel showcases his angelic pipes on "For Emily, Wherever I May Find Her." It's a remarkably crisp live recording as well, one whose digital remastering was overseen--but not artistically tweaked--by the musicians and their original engineer Roy Halee, ensuring the performance remains as true as the cold yet invitingly warm evening on which it was recorded. Their subsequent albums Bookends and Bridge over Troubled Water may have expanded their creative instincts and their fame, but, like the Beatles, their partnership eerily paralleled the decade's demise, its optimism and promise imploding in a swirl of cynicism and ego. Those facts make this find from the vaults all the more compelling. --Jerry McCulley

Tracks:

He Was My Brother
Leaves That Are Green
Sparrow
Homeward Bound
You Don't Know Where Your Interest Lies
A Most Peculiar Man
The 59th Street Bridge Song (Feelin' Groovy)
The Dangling Conversation
Richard Cory
A Hazy Shade Of Winter
Benedictus
Blessed
A Poem On The Underground Wall
Anji
I Am A Rock
The Sound Of Silence
For Emily, Whenever I May Find Her
A Church Is Burning
Wednesday Morning, 3 A.M.

Amazon.com

Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel were the apotheosis of the '60s folk revival, bringing the music to the mainstream via Top 40 radio and network TV. This live set was recorded before a rapt audience at New York's Lincoln Center in January of 1967, just as their Parsley, Sage, Rosemary, and Thyme album was carrying them to superstardom, and there's a palpable pre-Woodstock/Altamont sense of boundless possibilities in these performances. Carried by just their bittersweet, magnificently interlocking voices and Simon's acoustic guitar, the duo showcases its already impressive slate of hits ("Homeward Bound," "I Am a Rock," "The Sounds of Silence") and its stylistic diversity that was already confident enough to encompass breezy pop ("The 59th Street Bridge Song (Feelin' Groovy)"), madrigal influences ("Benedictus"), and the introspective impressionism of "A Hazy Shade of Winter." Simon takes a jazz-folk solo instrumental turn on Davey Graham's "Anji," while Garfunkel showcases his angelic pipes on "For Emily, Wherever I May Find Her." It's a remarkably crisp live recording as well, one whose digital remastering was overseen--but not artistically tweaked--by the musicians and their original engineer Roy Halee, ensuring the performance remains as true as the cold yet invitingly warm evening on which it was recorded. Their subsequent albums Bookends and Bridge over Troubled Water may have expanded their creative instincts and their fame, but, like the Beatles, their partnership eerily paralleled the decade's demise, its optimism and promise imploding in a swirl of cynicism and ego. Those facts make this find from the vaults all the more compelling. --Jerry McCulley

Customer Reviews:

My favorite!.......2007-03-08

I am an avid Simon and Garfunkel LP collector - which I unfortunatly don't get to listen to as often as I'd like, but this is the CD I listen to when I need my S&G fix! I love love love live and acoustic versions of music because to me, an artist is not a true artist unless he or she can perform live and still rock it! This is the CD to buy if you want to hear the true art of Simon and Garfunkel. Another suggestion is the Greatest Hits album which I have to admit, at the age of 22, I made fun of my mom for owning this CD up until I turned 17 and discovered their brilliance!

cautivante intimidad..............2006-12-22

corrian los años del amor...del sentir que era posible cambiar algo..y esta edicion refleja simplemente una noche de ese particular año, 1967....nada mas y nada menos...un momento de una de las tantas noches que derramo ese año..y casualmente tocaban simon & garfunkel, derritiendo la apatia, la desesperanza y la monotonia....todo envuelto en una pristina calma y sensibilidad exasperante...canciones fragiles, por momentos arrolladoras o delicadas..pero que al final de cuentas hicieron historia. OBRA ALTAMENTE RECOMENDABLE!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It's hard to be humble..........2006-09-18

...when you're Simon and Garfunkel. And what reason does this duo have to be? Even as early as January 22 of 1967, when this concert was recorded, Paul and Arti were able to stack the setlist with three Top Ten selections ('Homeward Bound', 'I Am a Rock', and 'Sounds of Silence') and two other Top 40 numbers, 'Hazy Shade of Winter' and 'The Dangling Conversation', which Garfunkel introduces as their personal "favorite". Songs already in the works for later in 1967 included the likes of 'Fakin' It', 'Feelin' Groovy' and 'Scarborough Fair'. But chart success is far from what Simon and Garfunkel were all about at this most influential time in their careers.

Much is made in the liner notes by Anthony DeCurtis, and other reviewers here at Amazon, about the remarkable rapport between audience and performers on this disc. It's almost spellbinding in our day and age, when people come to concerts and all but ignore the performers, to hear the sounds of silence emanating from this reverant crowd at Philharmonic Hall in Philadelphia. Certainly not all 1967 performances were accorded such stature. It's hard to believe that the management of the auditorium went to the unheard of length of seating people on the stage behind the performers to accomodate the demand for tickets, and that Simon and Garfunkel would consent to such an unusual configuration for their performance. When listening to this disc, it is hard not to place yourself in one of these choice seats and imagine how it must have felt to hear these enigmatic performers unleash one poignant tune after another. I imagine you would be able to feel as though it was just you and them sharing these transcendent musical performances together.

And the music to this day remains glorious. Snippets of lyrical genius can be gleened with regularity from each and every song, and with each listen, some new image or combination of words or ideas will catch your attention. On one recent listen, 'Leaves That Are Green' left me with the brief aliteration "...and they wither with the wind", while 'You Don't Know Where Your Interest Lies' emphasized its point by having each word in the title claim its own note. 'The Dangling Conversation' contrasts two people unable to connect with "we are verses out of rhythm, couplets out of rhyme, in sycopated time". 'Blessed' expands on the poor and the meek to include "meth drinkers" and the "groovy lookin'" before admitting "I've tended my own garden much too long". The writing of graffiti artists in 'Poem On the Underground Wall' is rendered as "a gently tapping litany". And in 'I Am a Rock', the self-isolated subject becomes "like a freshly fallen silent shroud of snow", capsulizing his unaffected and unaffecting nature. 'The Sounds of Silence' caress us with "a vision softly creeping" that "left its seeds while I was sleeping", while Garfunkels incredible vocal abilities illuminate images like "I kissed your honey hair with my grateful tears" from the first encore, 'For Emily, Whenever I May Find Her'. The pair sing "I won't be a slave anymore" in the heyday of the Civil Rights Movement, adding the defiant "you can burn down my churches, but I shall be free" in the second encore, 'A Church Is Burning'. Garfunkel tells the enthused crowd before the final number "Shut up, you've had your fun!", before performing the odd choice, 'Wednesday Morning, 3 A.M.', the title song from their first disc, ending with "the morning is just a few hours away" before fading into an out-of-tune coda from Simon's frets. You could fill the auditorium with the lyrical gems that grace this concert with aural, literary, musical, cultural, and political and social import. While Simon was quite reserved regarding his vocal capabilities at this point in his career, his harmonies only enrich Garfunkel's leads, and his guitar work seems the perfect complement throughout, laced with both emotional expression and punctuation.

The recording is less than perfect. While everything that should be there is there, there is also an annoying buzz from the recording equipment (less pronounced after 'A Hazy Shade Of Winter', the middle track), but which cannot be ignored throughout the performance. Today's remastered, digital listener is less likely to be forgiving of such imperfections, but the perfection of these songs, performed live at the height of their influence demands that the good be taken with the bad. This is musical history, as well as a window into the best of what America was in perhaps its most turbulent and revolutionary of decades, save the 1770's and the 1860's. Even if you are not a Simon and Garfunkel aficionado, this concert should be taken in at least once to gain a better insight into who we were in the 1960's.

a time capsule with added trace elements and vital minerals.......2006-01-30

Simon & Garfunkel
Live From New York City 1967
Columbia/Legacy (CK6I 513)
Arrives in stores July 16th, 2002
Simon & Garfunkel's records had many strengths, not least of which was recording quality decades ahead of its time. We don't think about this sort of thing today, when every tiny burg boasts half a dozen digital studios capable of recording anything most musicians can envision, but aural depth exponentially greater than that achieved by, say, the Rolling Stones or Bob Dylan, was a large part of the impression and respect Simon & Garfunkel had at the time. They spent 800 hours in the studio mixing "Bridge Over Troubled Waters." Of course, it was impossible to get that quality out of a live recording in 1967, and so the first thing one notices about this new Columbia release is that it lacks one of the duo's greatest strengths.
It isn't a bad recording; not for a live recording from 1967, but it in no way compares to the duo's studio output. There are unique strengths to the release as well, but whether they make up for audio-deficit is up to the individual listener.
The strengths are these -- Simon's guitar work, unadorned by whatever he did to sound so respectful of the highest standards of folk in the studio, sounds earthy, even bluesy at times, on this release, and that adds a rawboned power to protest songs that, let's face it, originally sounded as if they weren't going to lead to any solutions, because those anemic, turtlenecked geeks weren't ever going to win any battle with the military/industrial complex they were warning us about. On this live album, oddly, they sound as if they might actually have a chance. Second, like most concert sets, this one represents the best and/or most popular material the act has released to date. Included here are "He Was My Brother," "Sparrow," "Homeward Bound," "Feeling' Groovy," "The Dangling Conversation," Benedictus," "I Am A Rock," "The Sound of Silence" and Wednesday Morning, 3AM," along with ten other potential favorites from their catalog and stage banter. For sensitive folkies, you will find these guys to be quite entertaining between songs as well as while producing those irreplaceable harmonies.
... a time capsule with added trace elements and vital minerals ...

Saw this Concert at Carnegie Hall...............2006-01-12

Hi people. Metamorpho has had a busy day - reflecting mostly. Anyway children - before all this technology hit and digital sound bytes infiltrated everyone's craniums- we actually had some purity to the music. If you've been following my reviews - when we last left Metamorpho - someone gave him a free ticket to see Simon and Garfunkel at Carnegie Hall. Essentially this program was pretty much the same- as presented here as being at Philharmonic Hall. But who can quibble? I do remember distinctly coming away with amazement that they could be so mesmerizing by utilizing only vocals and one guitar. And the audience REALLY listened to them! And it was all real!
These tunes are essentially from the beginning of their career. It is amazing how good Paul is on guitar and practically makes you forget the embellishments that were added in the studio. You have the angelic voice of Art Garfunkel perfectly juxtaposed against Paul's vocals. The enunciation, the precision, the timing of the harmonies is about as perfect as you can get. One can see easily the effect that The Everly Brothers had on them. This live recording is a pure joy. It reminds us that - at one time - we didn't have the need for alot of musicians when the material was this good. Dylan also was able to weave his magic this way. But, everybody plugged in electric guitars and things became different. Mind you, Metamorpho is fine with all this because it is transition and progress - but isn't it good to hear this nugget, that preserves a moment in time which will always be precious?
You can see what songs they do under the song select on this page. What I will say is that they are sung expertly and you will be stung by the sheer beauty of the balanced harmonies. It is good to have them both - forever preserved in their prime. Believe me people, if Metamorpho had been given more tickets back then, I would have gladly brought you along. But, since that didn't happen, just imagine yourselves sneaking into New York City with me to see this. Close your eyes, put on this c.d., and you are there! You see them, don't you? Artie and Paul on stage with just a chairstool, microphones and a guitar. Metamorpho is proud of your efforts to tune in to the collective unconcious! Alright Alright. Enough babbling from Metamorpho. But, when I say it's a treasure .... it's a TREASURE! I wouldn't steer you wrong or get you to drink tainted Kool-Aid. Trust me................ Metamorpho

Live from New York City, 1967 (Deluxe Packaging)

Average customer rating:

Paul and Artie sing some of their songs in NYC in 1967
A Hazy Shade Of Lackluster
This is the one
Superb document of S&G's mid-60s form
Superb!

Live from New York City, 1967 (Deluxe Packaging)
Simon & Garfunkel
Manufacturer: Sony
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

Folk Rock | Rock | Styles | Music

General | Rock | Styles | Music

Folk Rock | Live Albums | Rock | Styles | Music

General | Live Albums | Rock | Styles | Music

Pop Rock | Pop | Styles | Music

General | Classic Rock | Styles | Music
ASIN: B000069JIP
Release Date: 2002-07-16

Tracks:

He Was My Brother
Leaves That Are Green
Sparrow
Homeward Bound
You Don't Know Where Your Interest Lies
A Most Peculiar Man
The 59th Street Bridge Song (Feelin' Groovy)
The Dangling Conversation
Richard Cory
A Hazy Shade Of Winter
Benedictus
Blessed
A Poem On The Underground Wall
Anji
I Am A Rock
The Sound Of Silence
For Emily, Whenever I May Find Her
A Church Is Burning
Wednesday Morning, 3 A.M.

Amazon.com

Customer Reviews:

Paul and Artie sing some of their songs in NYC in 1967.......2005-10-14

In contemporary parlance this would be an "unplugged" concert since all you have is Paul Simon on acoustic guitar while he and Artie Garfunkle blend their voices in sweet two-part harmony. But that misses what I think is the key point of this 1967 concert in New York City, which is that Simon & Garfunkle were originally folk singers. That is clear from the start when they open their concert with "He Was My Brother" and sing about a Freedom Rider killed in the South. Both of the songs Simon & Garfunkle produced during their relative few years recording together, "You Don't Know Where Your Interest Lies" and "A Church is Burning," are definitely in that tradition as well. Fortunately, I like Simon & Garfunkle as folk singers.

I actually remember seeing Simon & Garfunkle when they appeared on network television for the first time on "The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour," but then we moved to Japan, which meant the end of American television and it was not until "The Graduate" came out that I started to check them out in terms of tracking down their albums. That meant the "Bookends" album was their newest release and I remember reading about what it was like in the studio with Simon trying to find the right instruments and the exact blend of tracks and takes to get the effect that he wanted with each song. The simplicity of the duo singing on this album stands in stark contrast to what they were doing at that point in their careers, on the cusp of going out in a blaze of glory with the triump of the "Bridge Over Troubled Water" album.

What will stand out here for Simon & Garfunkle fans are the stripped down version of songs like "A Hazy Shade of Winter" and "I Am a Rock." We already knew from their first greatest hits collection that "Homeward Bound" and "For Emily, Wherever I May Find" would work fine in this setting. But clearly some songs lend themselves better to this format than others. A passionate "Sparrow" and a rather hushed version of "A Most Peculiar Man" work just fine, but "Blessed" does not click. There are a few moments when Simon is banging away on the guitar a bit too much (e.g., "A Most Peculiar Man"), but those are few and far between. Overall, fans of the duo will truly appreciate an opportunity to go back to the early days and the simple single of long familiar songs.

The concert provides a nice balance of tunes from Simon & Garfunkle's early albums, with five tracks each from "Wednesday Morning, 3 A.M.," "Sounds of Silence," and "Parsley, Sage, Rosemary & Thyme," and one from "Bookends." What stands out in the end is the rather unique niche the duo had in folk revival of the Sixties. I have been trying to think of another "group" that consisted of two guys singing with only one playing the guitar and I am drawing a blank. Then you toss into the mix the fact that Simon's lyrics meet the requisite standard for poetry just like it was written by Edwin Arlington Robinson or one of the crowd.

A Hazy Shade Of Lackluster.......2003-07-08

As a longtime S&G fan and owner of several live recordings from 1967 to 1969 (many of which are officially unreleased), I figured if this disk was blessed and sanctioned by the masters themselves, it must be about the best in the vault. Well, about 1/4th the way through it, I realized I'd apparently erred. Not to say it's a lousy performance: It just sounds very flat and lackadaisical compared with other S&G concert performances. Five songs from this show are available on the "Old Friends" boxed set--including "Red Rubber Ball," not on this cd for whatever reason)--and as it turns out those songs are played and sung with the most spirit and gusto of the bunch (particularly "A Church Is Burning," maybe the cream of the crop.) Yes, you'll get a few songs here that are difficult to find any other live versions of, but the only standouts of that group are "The Dangling Conversation" and "A Hazy Shade Of Winter," the latter being the duo's most recent hit at the time--so they likely weren't yet tired of singing it. Also, sometimes the key in which a song is played can make a difference: In the duo's performance at the legendary Monterey Pop Festival just five months after this concert, "Benedictus" and "For Emily, Wherever I May Find Her" were played and sung in a higher key than they are in this New York show--and I prefer the Monterey versions. I cannot, in good conscience, rate this cd lower than 3 stars--simply on the strength of the songs and the performers, but collectively, this is a pretty flat, going-through-the-motions performance. The 12-string guitar sounds OK, but when Paul is playing 6-string, the guitar and microphone sound like they're separated by a beach towel! If S&G and Sony were out to counter the bootleggers with this show, I'm afraid they came up a megabytes short. My alternative suggestion to those of you considering purchasing this cd is the following: First, get the "Old Friends" box if you don't already own it, for along with all the other excellent material contained therein (including two studio cuts "The Complete Columbia Studio Recordings" does not have), it boasts ten live cuts total--all very good! Then track down the seven tracks from S&G's set at the Monterey Festival which were allowed out of Lou Adler's vault for a great 1988 radio special and subsequently bootlegged. Finally, track down the widely bootlegged November 1969 performance at Miami (of Ohio) University. There's more out there, but those three sources will give you a sufficient serving of S&G performing live and on the very top of their individual' and collective game.

This is the one.......2003-05-03

If you only ever own one Simon and Garfunkel CD, this is the one to have. The night captured on this disk is the best these two legends ever were, the best they could possibly be. Everything is perfect, the music is magical, the production is flawless.

If you have a special shelf where you keep ten or so CD's that are beyond everything else in recorded music, this disk will have a permanent home there.

Superb document of S&G's mid-60s form.......2003-03-30

Though a few of these tracks appeared on the 1997 Old Friends box set, it wasn't until 2002 that the bulk of this 1967 concert was made commercially available. Bootlegs of mid-60s S&G shows have circulated for years, but this is the first artist-and-label endorsed package, and it's about as fine a document of the era as one could hope for. The song selection includes the obvious hits, well-picked album tracks (e.g., "Leaves That Are Green") and a pair of obscurities ("A Church is Burning," from Simon's pre-S&G solo album, and a 1967 B-side, "You Don't Know Where Your Interest Lies"). The range of material that the duo had racked up by this point in their career, from charged social statements ("The Sound of Silence") to angry, introspective observations ("I Am a Rock") and jangly-pop ("The 59th Street Bridge Song (Feelin' Groovy)"), was (and remains) truly impressive.

Even more interesting is that the entire concert was recorded without additional accompaniment: Garfunkel sings and Simon sings and plays acoustic guitar. Their stripped-down (or, more accurately, not-built-up-and-electrified) arrangements of tunes from "The Sound of Silence" LP, as well as later songs like "A Hazy Shade of Winter," are both disconcerting and impressive. Simon's qualities as a guitar player were no secret by this point in his career (having been featured on the duo's albums), but his talent and feel as a live performer shows off an added dimension. The bent, plucked notes of "Blessed," the signature introductory lick of "Homeward Bound," and the instrumental run through Davey Graham's "Anji" are just some of the highlights.

This is a pitch-perfect document of folk-rock legends in their prime, capturing not only their artistry, but the freedom and intensity of the times itself. The recording and performance are both crisp and present - a must-have for all S&G fans.

Superb!.......2003-03-21

I bought this CD several weeks ago and thought it was absolutely superb! I was not only impressed by Paul and Artie's
harmonic interweaving, but Simon's folksy and innovative guitar playing was what hooked me to the folk guitar many years ago, and in this performance I was thrilled by his talents.
I didn't think 'The Borders of our Lives' would adapt to
a live recording, but they performed it with angelic presence.
I thoroughly recommend this CD. It exemplifies perhaps a dying breed of true artists who could
really perform music on stage (S&G used to busk in Leicester Square, London, in the early 1960's) and not the instant coffee variety of artists who are created and groomed by the PR wizadry of music companies.

Average customer rating:

Live From New York City, 1967
Simon & Garfunkel
Manufacturer: Sony/Columbia
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

General | Folk | Styles | Music

Singer-Songwriters | Pop | Styles | Music

Folk Rock | Rock | Styles | Music
ASIN: B00006C1TT
Release Date: 2002-09-02

Tracks:

He Was My Brother
Leaves That Are Green
Sparrow
Homeward Bound
You Don't Know Where Your Interest Lies
Most Peculiar Man
59th Street Bridge Song (Feelin' Groovy)
Dangling Conversation
Richard Cory
Hazy Shade of Winter
Benedictus
Blessed
Poem on the Underground Wall
Anji
I Am a Rock
Sound of Silence
For Emily, Whenever I May Find Her
Church Is Burning
Wednesday Morning, 3 A.M.

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