1981 · performance
A free reunion on the Great Lawn connects Simon & Garfunkel’s performance to the care and restoration of New York’s park.
Simon & Garfunkel performed on Central Park’s Great Lawn on 19 September 1981. The reunion had a civic purpose as well as a musical one: city officials wanted a free concert that would help the Central Park Conservancy raise awareness and funds for renovations. The park was both the concert’s setting and the reason for staging it.
Markers identify buildings or documented location references. They do not mark an exact recording room, stage position or camera angle.
Legacy Recordings describes a set combining the duo’s songs with selections from their solo work, arranged for an expanded band. Richard Tee, Anthony Jackson and Steve Gadd were among the players. The familiar partnership therefore returned within a broader live sound. The Great Lawn made space for that public reunion, and the concert’s later double album and HBO broadcast carried the performance beyond the people who had stood in the park. Its location remained part of the title through those changes of medium. [2]
The Conservancy’s history describes how heavy use and large concerts over several decades damaged the Great Lawn, earning it the nickname Great Dust Bowl. A two-year restoration was completed in 1997. The benefit concert belongs within this longer history of public use and care; it should not be treated as the sole cause of the damage or the sole source of the repair. Recovering that context makes the lawn more than a convenient open-air stage. It is an urban landscape whose ability to host gatherings depends on continued maintenance. [1]
Central Park, between 79th and 85th Streets
19 September 1981
Simon & Garfunkel gave a free reunion concert on Central Park’s Great Lawn on 19 September 1981, conceived to help the Central Park Conservancy raise awareness and money for park renovations. [2]
The Great Lawn remains a managed park landscape. Follow the Conservancy’s current access guidance and any lawn closures. No exact 1981 stage position or present concert programme is implied.
