{"id":38442,"date":"2023-01-06T19:25:40","date_gmt":"2023-01-07T00:25:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/?p=38442"},"modified":"2023-01-06T19:27:18","modified_gmt":"2023-01-07T00:27:18","slug":"the-bootleg-files-paul-simon-art-garfunkel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/2023\/01\/06\/the-bootleg-files-paul-simon-art-garfunkel\/","title":{"rendered":"The Bootleg Files: Paul Simon & Art Garfunkel"},"content":{"rendered":"

BOOTLEG FILES 824:<\/strong> \u201cPaul Simon & Art Garfunkel\u201d (1967 special for British television). <\/p>\n

LAST SEEN: <\/strong>On YouTube.
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\nAMERICAN HOME VIDEO:<\/strong> None.<\/p>\n

REASON FOR BOOTLEG STATUS: <\/strong>Rights clearance issues and a perceived lack of commercial viability.<\/p>\n

CHANCES OF SEEING A COMMERCIAL DVD RELEASE:<\/strong> Not likely.<\/p>\n

In March 1967, Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel traveled to England for a brief concert tour that included London\u2019s Royal Albert Hall and venues in Birmingham and Manchester. While in Manchester, they taped a television special at Granada TV where they performed their songs before a small audience.
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The special, titled \u201cPaul Simon & Art Garfunkel,\u201d was shot in black-and-white and was broadcast on May 2, 1967. The monochrome production was strictly because color television was not introduced in England until July 1967, two months after the special aired. The lack of color might have resulted in the production never being shown on U.S. television, where the majority of prime time broadcasting \u2013 particularly variety specials \u2013 already made the transition into color.<\/p>\n

For many years, \u201cPaul Simon & Art Garfunkel\u201d was unavailable for screening and there was a fear the production was lost \u2013 a great deal of British television from the 1960s was not preserved. However, the extant production survived and is available in unauthorized YouTube postings. And while Simon and Garfunkel fans view this work as an important record of the duo\u2019s output prior to their superstardom elevation via \u201cThe Graduate\u201d soundtrack, it is a mostly mild and, perhaps, a slightly dull affair.<\/p>\n

The show starts off with one of the pair\u2019s least successful songs: \u201cHe Was My Brother,\u201d a heavy-handed elegy about a young man who was killed when he went to Mississippi to help in the civil rights movement. The song was meant as a tribute to Michael Schwerner, James Chaney and Andrew Goodman, who were murdered by the Ku Klux Klan during the Freedom Summer Project to encourage disenfranchised Black Americans to register to vote. Which obviously created in sincerity, the song\u2019s unsubtle composition and strident presentation gets the show off on the wrong foot.<\/p>\n

Simon and Garfunkel take turns introducing each song, with Garfunkel starting on their second tune by identifying his partner as the songwriter of the numbers. \u201cLeaves That Are Green\u201d is performed and it quickly compensates for the unsubtle first song, with Simon\u2019s masterful guitar playing and the brilliant blending of the pair\u2019s voices creates a memorable experience.<\/p>\n

Simon introduces the next song, \u201cA Most Peculiar Man,\u201d which he explained was inspired by a strange obituary he read in a newspaper while he was living in London \u2013 Simon tells the story with a slight English accent, a slight residue of his residence in British capital.<\/p>\n

For the rest of the special\u2019s first part, Simon and Garfunkel glide through some of their most memorable creations \u2013 \u201cHomeward Bound,\u201d \u201cFor Emily, Whenever I May Find Her,\u201d \u201cThe Dangling Conversation,\u201d \u201cThe 59th Street Bridge Song (Feelin’ Groovy)\u201d and \u201cRichard Cory.\u201d Despite the cramped stage where they are placed, director John Sheppard frames the special with a quietly innovative manner with tracking shots, smart lighting and a clever way of using the considerable height difference between the pair for frame compositions.<\/p>\n

Sadly, the special hits another pothole with the last song of the first part, an updated version of \u201c7 O\u2019Clock News \/ Silent Night\u201d \u2013 Simon and Garfunkel are in silhouette against a bloated moon while a British newscaster reads a new U.K.-focused slate of disastrous headlines rather than U.S. news from the original recording. On the video copy that is posted to YouTube, the British newscaster\u2019s voice lacks the urgency of the American original \u2013 and it is a bit difficult to make out what he is saying.<\/p>\n

The special took an intermission at this point and returned for its second half. This offered a mix of their better known songs \u2013 \u201cA Hazy Shade Of Winter,\u2019 \u201cAt The Zoo,\u201d \u201cI Am a Rock\u201d \u2013 and tunes that are better known to Simon and Garfunkel addicts than the general public, such as \u201cCloudy,\u201d \u201cBenedictus,\u201d \u201cBlessed\u201d and \u201cA Poem on the Underground Wall.\u201d Simon goes Garfunkel-less in guitar instrumental of \u201cAnji\u201d for the second-to-last number and the pair close the show with the song that propelled them to attention, \u201cThe Sounds of Silence.\u201d<\/p>\n

By contemporary standards, the special is a bit too polite for comfort. Simon and Garfunkel don\u2019t interact with the audience and they seem too serious for most of the show \u2013 one exception is when a string on one of Simon\u2019s guitars abruptly snaps and he quips \u201cWow, there\u2019s a ghost on the stage, man.\u201d The audience, which appears to be in their twenties, never acknowledge the beginnings of the songs with applause and are reserved in their handclapping when the tunes have run their course.<\/p>\n

Still, watching this offering is an interesting time capsule experience that Simon and Garfunkel fans will enjoy. And as there are no plans to make this available for commercial home entertainment sale, the only way to enjoy this is via online bootlegged video viewing.<\/p>\n