Thursday, August 23, 2018

Parsley, Sage, Rosemary & Thyme Machine

I return after a week sitting shiva for The Queen with a 50th anniversary showstopper.
This one's another tape where you ask yourself, how has this never been officially issued, after all this time?
I guess it's a little hot in places and homeboy's guitar hits the mic stand a handful of times, but does that mean it should gather dust in the unissued vaults? I think not.
I mean, this is one of the most beloved groups of all time, no? Perhaps the most beloved duo ever to harmonize, outside of Phil and Don Everly, whom they idolized and whom they cover in this stunner of a set.
This 70+ minutes of 1960s vintage agitprop was taped in the Hollywood Bowl down L.A. way precisely 50 years ago this evening.
It was recorded by famed muso Al Kooper, with a view towards the official live document these cats never came out with until their Central Park sojourn at the onset of the '80s.
I suppose the slightly rough spots in it prohibited it from being released then, but now there are no more excuses and every note these two recorded ought to see the light of day.
Yes, they hate each other. Or profoundly dislike each other. Yes, one half of them is retiring after this year. Yes, they'll likely never share a stage together again. All the more reason to empty the vaults, if you ask me.
What really lends this tape its gravitas is the timing. It comes from smack dab in the middle of the Longest, Hottest Summer the Untied Hates of Amygdala has ever witnessed.
We all know the story of 1968 and how this country has never recovered from what went down. This little tape plays like a living document of those disturbing days.
It was issued long ago on a very famous bootleg called Voices of Intelligent Dissent, after the title Paul Simon bestows on the hecklers making a ruckus between tunes.
Ah, nothing like the inviolable friendship of boyhood chums torn asunder by the demands of the music industry and their own, Baby Booming egos, I always say. This recording is even cooler because they haven't begun to really get on each other's nerves yet.
Simon & Garfunkel
Hollywood Bowl
Los Angeles, California 
8.23.1968

01 Mrs. Robinson
02 Homeward Bound
03 intro
04 April Come She Will
05 Fakin' It 
06 Overs 
07 The 59th St. Bridge Song (Feelin' Groovy)
08 intro
09 America
10 A Most Peculiar Man 
11 I Am a Rock
12 At the Zoo 
13 Scarborough Fair
14 Bye Bye Love
15 Cloudy
16 Leaves That Are Green
17 Punky's Dilemma
18 intro
19 Benedictus
20 The Dangling Conversation
21 intro
22 For Emily, Whenever I May Find Her
23 A Poem On the Underground Wall
24 Anji
25 The Sound of Silence
26 Richard Cory
27 Old Friends 
28 Bookends
29 He Was My Brother

Total time: 1:10:27

Paul Simon - guitar & vocals
Art Garfunkel - vocals

soundboard capture by Al Kooper for a never-issued live record
I'll be back on the weekend with a big birthday thing for a true icon, but for now it's time to get in the thyme machine back to the height of the Swingin' Sixties to sample a sonic slice of just what the fuss was all about. Enjoy!--J.