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Concert In Central Park
(released in 1982)

Concert In Central Park

Songs on this album:
Mrs. Robinson
Homeward Bound
America
Me And Julio Down By The Schoolyard
Scarborough Fair
April Come She Will
Wake Up Little Susie
Still Crazy After All These Years
American Tune
Late In The Evening
Slip Slidin' Away
A Heart In New York
Kodachrome
Maybellene
Bridge Over Troubled Water
Fifty Ways To Leave Your Lover
The Boxer
Old Friends/Bookends
The 59th Street Bridge Song (Feelin' Groovy)
The Sound Of Silence

This album has been reviewed.


Mrs. Robinson (3:52) MIDI
(From the motion picture The Graduate)
P. Simon, 1968
Released on Bookends

We'd like to know a little bit about you for our files
We'd like to help you learn to help yourself
Look around you, all you see are sympathetic eyes
Stroll around the grounds until you feel at home

And here's to you, Mrs. Robinson
Jesus loves you more than you will know, wo wo wo
God bless you please, Mrs. Robinson
Heaven holds a place for those who pray, hey hey hey
Hey hey hey

Hide it in a hiding place where no one ever goes
Put it in your pantry with your cupcakes
It's a little secret, it's just the Robinsons' affair
Most of all you've got to hide it from the kids

Coo coo ca-choo, Mrs. Robinson
Jesus loves you more than you will know, wo wo wo
God bless you please, Mrs. Robinson
Heaven holds a place for those who pray, hey hey hey
Hey hey hey

Sitting on a sofa on a Sunday fternoon
Going to the candidate's debate
Laugh about it, shout about it
When you've got to choose
Every way you look at it you lose

Where have you gone, Joe DiMaggio?
Our nation turns its lonely eyes to you, woo woo woo
What's that you say, Mrs. Robinson?
Joltin' Joe has left and gone away, hey hey hey
Hey hey hey


Homeward Bound (4:22) MIDI
P. Simon, 1966
Released on Parsley, Sage, Rosemary, and Thyme
(On the Australian release, this is the studio version.)

I'm sittin' in the railway station
Got a ticket for my destination, mmm
On a tour of one night stands
My suitcase and guitar in hand
And every stop is neatly planned
For a poet and a one-man band

Homeward Bound, I wish I was
Homeward Bound
Home, where my thought's escaping
Home, where my music's playing
Home, where my love lies waiting
Silently for me

Every day's an endless stream
Of cigarettes and magazines
And each town looks the same to me
The movies and the factories
And every stranger's face I see
Reminds me that I long to be

Homeward Bound, I wish I was
Homeward Bound
Home, where my thought's escaping
Home, where my music's playing
Home, where my love lies waiting
Silently for me

Tonight I'll sing my songs again
I'll play the game and pretend
But all my words come back to me
In shades of mediocrity
Like emptiness in harmony
I need someone to comfort me

Homeward Bound, I wish I was
Homeward Bound
Home, where my thought's escaping
Home, where my music's playing
Home, where my love lies waiting
Silently for me

Homeward Bound, I wish I was
Homeward Bound
Home, where my thought's escaping
Home, where my music's playing
Home, where my love lies waiting
Silently for me
Silently for me


America (4:57) MIDI
P. Simon, 1968
Released on Bookends

"Let us be lovers, we'll marry our fortunes together
I've got some real estate here in my bag"
So we bought a pack of cigarettes and Mrs. Wagner pies
And walked off to look for America

"Kathy," I said as we boarded a Greyhound in Pittsburgh
"Michigan seems like a dream to me now"
It took me four days to hitchhike from Saginaw
I've come to look for America

Laughing on the bus
Playing games with the faces
She said the man in the gabardine suit was a spy
I said "Be careful, his bowtie is really a camera"

"Toss me a cigarette, I think there's one in my raincoat"
"We smoked the last one an hour ago"
So I looked at the scenery, she read her magazine
And the moon rose over an open field

"Kathy, I'm lost," I said, though I knew she was sleeping
"I'm empty and I'm aching and I don't know why"
Counting the cars on the New Jersey Turnpike
They've all come to look for America
All come to look for America

Counting the cars on the New Jersey Turnpike
They've all come to look for America
All come to look for America
All come to look for America


Me And Julio Down By The Schoolyard (3:22) MIDI
P. Simon, 1971

The mama pajama rolled out of bed
She ran to the police station
When the papa found out, he began to shout
And he started the investigation

And it's against the law, it was against the law
What the mama saw, it was against the law

The mama looked down and spit on the ground
Every time my name gets mentioned
The papa said, "Oy, if I get that boy
I'm gonna stick him in the house of detention"

Well, I'm on my way
I don't know where I'm going
I'm on my way
I'm taking my time but I don't know where

Goodbye to Rosie, the Queen of Corona
See you, me and Julio down by the schoolyard
See you, me and Julio down by the schoolyard

In a couple of days they come and take me away
But the press let the story leak
Now when the radical priest came to get me released
We was all on the cover of Newsweek

And I'm on my way
I don't know where I'm going
But I'm on my way
I'm taking my time but I don't know where

Goodbye to Rosie, the Queen of Corona
See you, me and Julio down by the schoolyard
See you, me and Julio down by the schoolyard
See you, me and Julio down by the schoolyard


Scarborough Fair (3:52) MIDI Read the song on which this is based!
P. Simon/A. Garfunkel, 1966
Released on Parsley, Sage, Rosemary, and Thyme

Are you going to Scarborough Fair?
Parsley, sage, rosemary, and thyme
Remember me to one who lives there
She once was a true love of mine

Tell her to make me a cambric shirt
Parsley, sage, rosemary, and thyme
Without no seam nor needlework
Then she'll be a true love of mine

Tell her to find me an acre of land
Parsley, sage, rosemary, and thyme
Between the salt water and the sea strand
Then she'll be a true love of mine

Tell her to reap it in a sickle of leather
Parsley, sage, rosemary, and thyme
And to gather it all in a bunch of heather
Then she'll be a true love of mine

Are you going to Scarborough Fair?
Parsley, sage, rosemary, and thyme
Remember me to one who lives there
She once was a true love of mine


April Come She Will (2:37) MIDI
P. Simon, 1965
Released on Sounds of Silence

April come she will
When streams are ripe and swelled with rain
May, she will stay
Resting in my arms again

June, she'll change her tune
In restless walks she'll prowl the night
July, she will fly
And give no warning to her flight

August, die she must
The autumn winds blow chilly and cold
September I'll remember
A love once new has now grown old


Wake Up Little Susie (2:19) MIDI
F. Bryant/B. Bryant, 1957

Wake up, little Susie, wake up
Wake up, little Susie, wake up

We both fell sound asleep
Wake up, little Susie, and weep
The movie's over, it's four o'clock, and we're in trouble deep
Wake up, little Susie
Wake up, little Susie

Well, what are we gonna tell your Mama?
What are we gonna tell your Pop?
What are we gonna tell our friends when they say "Ooh la la"?
Wake up, little Susie
Wake up, little Susie

Well, I told your Mama that you'd be in by ten
Well, Susie baby, looks like we goofed again
Wake up, little Susie
Wake up, little Susie
We gotta go home

Wake up, little Susie, wake up
Wake up, little Susie, wake up

The movie wasn't so hot
It didn't have much of a plot
We fell asleep, our goose is cooked, our reputation is shot
Wake up, little Susie
Wake up, little Susie

Well, what are we gonna tell your Mama?
What are we gonna tell your Pop?
What are we gonna tell our friends when they say "Ooh la la"?
Wake up, little Susie
Wake up, little Susie
Wake up, little Susie


Still Crazy After All These Years (3:55) MIDI
P. Simon, 1974

I met my old lover on the street last night
She seemed so glad to see me; I just smiled
And we talked about some old times and we drank ourselves some beer
Still crazy after all these years
Still crazy after all these years

I'm not the kind of man who tends to socialize
I seem to lean on old familiar ways
And I ain't no fool for love songs that whisper in my ears
Still crazy after all these years
Still crazy after all these years

Four in the morning, tapped out, yawning
Longing my life away
I'll never worry; why should I?
It's all gonna fade

Now I sit by my window and I watch the cars go by
I fear I'll do some damage one fine day
But I would not be convicted by a jury of my peers
Still crazy after all these years
Still crazy, still crazy
Still crazy after all these years


American Tune (4:33) MIDI
P. Simon, 1973

Many's the time I've been mistaken
And many times confused
Yes, and I've often felt forsaken and certainly misused
Ah, but I'm all right, I'm all right
I'm just weary to my bones
Still, you don't expect to be bright and bon vivant
So far away from home
So far away from home

And I don't know a soul who's not been battered,
I don't have a friend who feels at ease
I don't know a dream that's not been shattered or driven to its knees
But it's all right, it's all right
For we lived so well so long
Still, when I think of the road we're traveling on
I wonder what's gone wrong
I can't help it, I wonder what's gone wrong

And I dreamed I was dying
I dreamed that my soul rose unexpectedly
And looking back down at me
Smiled reassuringly
And I dreamed I was flying
And high up above, my eyes could clearly see
The Statue of Liberty
Sailing away to sea
And I dreamed I was flying

We come on the ship they call the Mayflower
We come on the ship that sailed the moon
We come in the age's most uncertain hours and sing an American tune
But it's all right, it's all right, it's all right
You can't be forever blessed
Still, tomorrow's going to be another working day
And I'm trying to get some rest
That's all, I'm trying to get some rest


Late In The Evening (4:09) MIDI
P. Simon, 1978

The first thing I remember I was lying in my bed
I couldn't have been no more than one or two
I remember there's a radio comin' from the room next door
And my mother laughed the way some ladies do
Well, it's late in the evening and all the music's seeping through

The next thing I remember I am walking down the street
I'm feeling all right, I'm with my boys, I'm with my troops, yeah
And down along the avenue some guys were shootin' pool
And I heard the sound of a cappella groups, yeah
Singing late in the evening, and all the girls out on the stoops, yeah

Then I learned to play some lead guitar, I was underage in this funky bar
And I stepped outside to smoke myself a J
And when I came back to the room, everybody just seemed to move
And I turned my amp up loud and I began to play
And it was late in the evening, and I blew that room away

The first thing I remember when you came into my life
I said I'm gonna get that girl no matter what I do
Well, I guess I'd been in love before, and once or twice I been on the floor
But I never loved no one the way that I loved you
And it was late in the evening and all the music's seeping through

The first thing I remember when you came into my life
I said I'm gonna get that girl no matter what I do
Well, I guess I'd been in love before, and once or twice I been on the floor
But I never loved no one the way that I loved you
And it was late in the evening and all the music's seeping through


Slip Slidin' Away (4:54) MIDI
P. Simon, 1977

Slip slidin' away
Slip slidin' away
You know the nearer your destination
The more you're slip slidin' away

I know a man, he came from my home town
He wore his passion for his woman like a thorny crown
He said "Delores, I live in fear
My love for you is so overpowering
I'm afraid that I will disappear"

Slip slidin' away
Slip slidin' away
You know the nearer your destination
The more you're slip slidin' away

I know a woman, became a wife
These are the very words she uses to describe her life
She said "A good day ain't got not rain"
She said "A bad day's when I lie in bed
And I think of things that might have been"

Slip slidin' away
Slip slidin' away
You know the nearer your destination
The more you're slip slidin' away

And I know a father who had a son
He longed to tell him all the reasons for the things he had done
He came a long way just to explain
He kissed his boy as he lay sleeping
Then he turned around and he headed home again

Slip slidin' away
Slip slidin' away
You know the nearer your destination
The more you're slip slidin' away

God only knows, God makes his plan
The information's unavailable to the mortal man
We're working our jobs, collect our pay
Believe we're gliding down the highway
When in fact we're slip slidin' away

Slip slidin' away
Slip slidin' away
You know the nearer your destination
The more you're slip slidin' away

Slip slidin' away
Slip slidin' away
You know the nearer your destination
The more you're slip slidin' away


A Heart In New York (2:49)
B. Gallagher/G. Lyle, 1977

New York -- to that tall skyline I come
Flyin' in from London to your door
New York -- lookin' down on Central Park
Where they say you should not wander after dark

New York -- like a scene from all those movies
But you're real enough to me, for there's a heart
A heart that lives in New York

A heart in New York arose on the street
I write my song to that city heartbeat
A heart in New York -- the love in her eyes
An open door and a friend for the night

New York -- you got money on your mind
And my words won't make a dime's worth of difference
So here's to you, New York


Kodachrome/Maybellene (5:51) MIDI
P. Simon, 1973/C. Berry, R. Fratto, and A. Freed, 1955
(On the U.S. version, these songs are on one track together; on the import version, they are two consecutive tracks.)

When I think back on all the crap I learned in high school
It's a wonder I can think at all
And though my lack of education hasn't hurt me none
I can read the writing on the wall

Kodachrome
They give us those nice bright colors
They give us the greens of summers
Makes you think all the world's a sunny day, oh yeah
I got a Nikon camera
I love to take a photograph
So Mama don't take my Kodachrome away

If you took all the girls I knew when I was single
And brought them all together for one night
I know they'd never match my sweet imagination
Everything looks better in black and white

Kodachrome
They give us those nice bright colors
They give us the greens of summers
Makes you think all the world's a sunny day, oh yeah
I got a Nikon camera
I love to take a photograph
So Mama don't take my Kodachrome away
Mama don't take my Kodachrome away
Mama don't take my Kodachrome away
Mama don't take my Kodachrome away

Mama don't take my Kodachrome
Mama don't take my Kodachrome
Mama don't take my Kodachrome away

Mama don't take my Kodachrome
Leave your boy so far from home
Mama don't take my Kodachrome away

Mama don't take my Kodachrome
Mama don't take my Kodachrome away

Maybellene, why can't you be true?
Oh, Maybellene, why can't you be true?
You've started back doing those things you used to do

As I was motorvatin' over the hill
I saw Maybellene in a Coup de Ville
A Cadillac rollin' on the open road
But nothing will outrace my V8 Ford
The Cadillac doin' 'bout ninety-five
Bumper to bumper and side by side

Maybellene, why can't you be true?
Oh, Maybellene, why can't you be true?
You've started back doing those things you used to do

The heat cooled down, the motor cooled down
That's when I heard that highway sound
The Cadillac sittin' like a ton of lead
Hundred and ten half a mile ahead
The Cadillac lookin' like it's standin' still
And I caught Maybellene at the top of the hill

Maybellene, why can't you be true?
Oh, Maybellene, why can't you be true?
You've started back doing those things you used to do

Maybellene, why can't you be true?
Oh, Maybellene, why can't you be true?
You've started back doing those things you used to do


Bridge Over Troubled Water (4:48) MIDI
P. Simon, 1969
Released on Bridge Over Troubled Water
(On the Australian release, this is the studio version.)

When you're weary
Feeling small
When tears are in your eyes
I will dry them all
I'm on your side
When times get rough
And friends just can't be found

Like a bridge over troubled water
I will lay me down
Like a bridge over troubled water
I will lay me down

When you're down and out
When you're on the street
When evening falls so hard
I will comfort you
I'll take your part
When darkness comes
And pain is all around

Like a bridge over troubled water
I will ease your mind
Like a bridge over troubled water
I will ease your mind

Sail on silver girl
Sail on by
Your time has come to shine
All your dreams are on their way
See how they shine
If you need a friend
I'm sailing right behind

Like a bridge over troubled water
I will ease your mind
Like a bridge over troubled water
I will ease your mind


Fifty Ways To Leave Your Lover (4:23) MIDI
P. Simon, 1975

"The problem is all inside your head," she said to me
"The answer is easy if you take it logically
I'd like to help you in your struggle to be free
There must be fifty ways to leave your lover"

She said "It's really not my habit to intrude
Furthermore, I hope my meaning won't be lost or misconstrued
So I'll repeat myself, at the risk of being crude
There must be fifty ways to leave your lover
Fifty ways to leave your lover"

Just slip out the back, Jack
Make a new plan, Stan
Don't need to be coy, Roy
Just listen to me
Hop on the bus, Gus
Don't need to discuss much
Just drop off the key, Lee
And get yourself free

Just slip out the back, Jack
Make a new plan, Stan
Don't need to be coy, Roy
Just listen to me
Hop on the bus, Gus
Don't need to discuss much
Just drop off the key, Lee
And get yourself free

She said, "It grieves me so to see you in such pain
I wish there was something I could do to make you smile again"
I said, "I appreciate that, and would you please explain
About the fifty ways?"

She said, "Why don't we both just sleep on it tonight?
And I believe that in the morning you'll begin to see the light"
And then she kissed me, and I realized she probably was right
There must be fifty ways to leave your lover
Fifty ways to leave your lover

Just slip out the back, Jack
Make a new plan, Stan
Don't need to be coy, Roy
Just listen to me
Hop on the bus, Gus
Don't need to discuss much
Just drop off the key, Lee
And get yourself free

Just slip out the back, Jack
Make a new plan, Stan
Don't need to be coy, Roy
Just listen to me
Hop on the bus, Gus
Don't need to discuss much
Just drop off the key, Lee
And get yourself free


The Boxer (6:02) MIDI
P. Simon, 1968
Released on Bridge Over Troubled Water

I am just a poor boy
Though my story's seldom told
I have squandered my resistance
For a pocketful of mumbles
Such are promises
All lies and jests
Still a man hears what he wants to hear
And disregards the rest

When I left my home and my family
I was no more than a boy
In the company of strangers
In the quiet of the railway station
Running scared
Laying low, seeking out the poorer quarters
Where the ragged people go
Looking for the places only they would know

Lie la lie...

Asking only workman's wages
I come looking for a job
But I get no offers
Just a come-on from the whores on Seventh Avenue
I do declare, there were times when I was so lonesome
I took some comfort there

Now the years are rolling by me
They are rocking evenly
I am older than I once was
But younger than I'll be
That's not unusual
No, it isn't strange
After changes upon changes
We are more or less the same
After changes we are more or less the same

Lie la lie...

Then I'm laying out my winter clothes
And wishing I was gone
Going home
Where the New York City winters aren't bleeding me,
Leading me, going home.

In the clearing stands a boxer
And a fighter by his trade
And he carries the reminders
Of every glove that laid him down
Or cut him till he cried out
In his anger and his shame
"I am leaving, I am leaving"
But the fighter still remains
Yes, he still remains

Lie la lie...


Old Friends/Bookends (2:52) MIDI
P. Simon, 1968
Released on Bookends

Old friends
Old friends
Sat on their park bench
Like bookends
A newspaper blown through the grass
Falls on the round toes
Of the high shoes
Of the old friends

Old friends
Winter companions
The old men
Lost in their overcoats
Waiting for the sun
The sounds of the city
Sifting through trees
Settles like dust
On the shoulders
Of the old friends

Can you imagine us years from today
Sharing a park bench quietly?
How terribly strange to be seventy

Old friends
Memory brushes the same years
Silently sharing the same fear...

Time it was, and what a time it was, it was
A time of innocence, a time of confidences
Long ago, it must be, I have a photograph
Preserve your memories; they're all that's left you


The 59th Street Bridge Song (Feelin' Groovy) (2:01) MIDI
P. Simon, 1966
Released on Parsley, Sage, Rosemary, and Thyme
(On the Australian release, this is the studio version.)

Slow down, you move too fast
You've got to make the morning last
Just kicking down the cobblestones
Looking for fun and feeling groovy
Ba da da da da da da, feeling groovy

Hello lampost, what'cha knowing
I've come to watch your flowers growin'
Ain'tcha got no rhymes for me
Doo-it in doo doo, feeling groovy
Ba da da da da da da, feeling groovy

I got no deeds to do
No promises to keep
I'm dappled and drowsy and ready to sleep
Let the morningtime drop all its petals on me
Life I love you, all is groovy


The Sound Of Silence (4:14) MIDI
P. Simon, 1964
Released on Wednesday Morning, 3 a.m. and Sounds Of Silence

Hello darkness, my old friend
I've come to talk with you again
Because a vision softly creeping
Left its seeds while I was sleeping
And the vision that was planted in my brain
Still remains
Within the sound of silence

In restless dreams I walked alone
Narrow streets of cobblestone
'Neath the halo of a street lamp
I turn my collar to the cold and damp
When my eyes were stabbed by the flash of a neon light
That split the night
And touched the sound of silence

And in the naked light I saw
Ten thousand people maybe more
People talking without speaking
People hearing without listening
People writing songs that voices never shared
No one dared
Disturb the sound of silence

"Fools," said I, "you do not know
Silence like a cancer grows
Hear my words that I might teach you
Take my arms that I might reach you"
But my words like silent raindrops fell
And echoed in the wells of silence

And the people bowed and prayed
To the neon god they made
And the sign flashed its warning
In the words that it was forming
And the sign said "The words of the prophets are written on the subway walls
And tenement halls
And whispered in the sound of silence"