Experience Simon and Garfunkel Unplugged in Live From New York City 1967

Back in 2002, Simon and Garfunkel released a live album from a concert that they performed at Philharmonic Hall in January of 1967. I'd never seen Simon and Garfunkel in concert, and the chances of them reuniting for a tour seemed increasingly remote, so I was excited to get my hands on this official, pristinely preserved recording. Little did I know then that I'd get to see them the following year. I eagerly snatched up my copy, admiring the shiny packaging and lyrical liner notes by Anthony DeCurtis. I confess that in my years as an avid Simon and Garfunkel fan, I've tracked down some unofficial recordings, so I wasn't entirely new to the experience of the duo performing live in the '60s. But the recording quality here is much more consistent, and besides, it's on the up and up.

Knowing of those recordings makes me just a little wistful that they had recorded something during this particular concert that wasn't from their albums. But there's no changing now what they did then, so that complaint would be more pertinent for the 1969 album, which draws from several concerts. Among the several rare gems I unearthed, my favorite is The Lightning Express, an old folk tune once recorded by the Everly Brothers, sung by Simon and Garfunkel in Paris in 1970. Live From New York City 1967 includes no such surprises. Nonetheless, it's exciting to hear Paul and Art singing together in such intimate harmony, with nothing to come between their voices except Paul's guitar. Additionally, about half of the tracks include some sort of introduction from either Paul or Art; they divide the speaking duties pretty evenly, and though there are few revelations here for the die-hard fan, it's great to hear them offer these nuggets themselves.

Following the opening number, He Was My Brother (an rather surprising choice for the first song but a reflection, I suppose, of the prevalence of the Civil Rights movement), Art, in a blissed-out tone, breathes, "Wow! Carnegie Hall!" before launching into Leaves That Are Green. Paul's the one who introduces Sparrow, earning a laugh as he does so; a couple tracks later, he describes You Don't Know Where Your Interest Lies as "almost finished". Paul takes the lead again on A Most Peculiar Man, explaining its genesis in a four-line article in a newspaper in England that struck him as "a very bad way to go out".

Art describes The Dangling Conversation as the song that took the longest to write and record and also claims it as their favorite at that particular time, though the highly intellectual number was never especially popular. While that song references Emily Dickinson and Robert Frost, Richard Cory is practically lifted right from the Edward Arlington Robinson poem Art says was "written many years ago and studied by myself in junior high school." It was high school for me, but I can relate!

Before For Emily, Paul laughingly tells an unruly audience to tone it down, which is odd since the same thing happens just before For Emily on the 1969 album. By the end of the set, he seems to be in a thoroughly goofy mood, doing a Beatles impersonation before launching into Wednesday Morning, 3 A.M. and concluding the song - and concert - with a brief guitar homage to Yankee Doodle. But the best spoken bit on the album has to be Art's recollection of the photo shoot for the Wednesday Morning, 3 A.M. album cover. This live track was included in the Old Friends boxed set, so it won't be new to everyone, but I never get tired of hearing Art, by way of introducing Poem on an Underground Wall, tactfully mentioning "the old familiar suggestion" that none of them had noticed plastered all over the wall where against which they had been standing.

The songs without banter are, of course, lovely as well. I was particularly surprised by Benedictus, which doesn't seem like it would be a concert selection, but they perform it gorgeously. Other tracks include Homeward Bound, Feelin' Groovy, A Hazy Shade of Winter, Blessed, Anji, I Am a Rock, The Sound of Silence and A Church Is Burning. If you're a fan of Simon and Garfunkel, particularly unplugged, then Live From New York City 1967 is for you.