Live 1969 [Digipak]

Performer: Simon & Garfunkel
Engineer: David Stoller
Producer: Bob Irwin
Distributor: Sony Music Entertainment

Notes: Personnel: Paul Simon (vocals, guitar); Art Garfunkel (vocals); Fred Carter Jr. (guitar); Larry Knechtel (keyboard, keyboards); Joe Osborn (bass guitar); Hal Blaine (drums). Recording information: Sony Music Studios, NY. For folk legends Simon & Garfunkel, 1969 was both a peak year and the beginning of the end. They had achieved most of their hits and were about to record their classic final album at the time of this recording, which took place on a lucrative six-city U.S. tour. While other celebrated live albums by the duo have been released, and this tour in particular produced many bootlegs, this is the first official live concert album of that period, and is invaluable to fans. The duo's singing is stellar and the musical rapport is strong here, with no indication of the rupture that would take place soon after. Listeners will be amused by references to "new songs" like "Bridge Over Troubled Waters."

Rolling Stone (p.69) - 3.5 stars out of 5 -- "The audiences gathered for these sets were hearing 'Bridge Over Troubled Water' for the first time, and their amazement at its beauty is palpable." Dirty Linen (p.77) - "LIVE 1969 captures the duo at its peak....[The recording allows] Simon's poetic lyricism and acoustic mastery and Garfunkel's angelic harmonies to be heard as they were intended to be." Pitchfork (Website) - "For all their politeness, they still took risks, still tried to innovate, as this document of their short 1969 tour proves....Part of the pleasure of listening to LIVE 1969 is hearing early versions of 'Why Don't You Write Me' and 'Song for the Asking' and imagining what it would have been like to hear them with fresh ears..." Record Collector (magazine) (p.96) - 5 stars out of 5 -- "There are the expected hits....Happily, the pair are also in a conversational mood, adding to the overall warmth of an engaging performance."

New Yorkers Paul Simon & Art Garfunkel began as a late-1950s doo-wop group called Tom & Jerry. In the '60s, they turned to folk, with an extended stay in London bringing a heavy British folk influence into Simon's work. When a rock band was overdubbed onto the original acoustic version of their single "The Sounds of Silence," a hit resulted and helped further the then-nascent folk-rock movement. The pair's subsequent albums produced a long stream of catchy-but-brainy hit singles and also explored various musical styles, foreshadowing the eclecticism of Simon's solo career. Although the duo split after 1970's BRIDGE OVER TROUBLED WATER, they have reunited for performances on a few occasions, including a tour in 2003.

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