Simon & Garfunkel are such fixed constants in our musical and cultural landscape, it’s hard to imagine a time when they were ever in doubt.

But…

…their debut album together was a commercial dud when it first came out.

…they presented themselves as folksingers when in fact what they really wanted was to sing rock and roll like their heroes The Everly Brothers.

…in an era when artists typically released two albums a year, songwriter Paul Simon had a case of writer’s block which prevented the duo from releasing anything new for over a year.

…Simon was initially reluctant to write any songs for the film The Graduate since he considered it would mean he was “selling out.”

…as time went on, the harmonized melodies this duo were celebrated for began to appear less often in their recordings, and more of the songs were sung solo.

…for all their success, Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel have long been known for not being able to get along with each other.

Yet, as a duo they’ve been able to draw an audience of close to half a million people (Central Park, New York City, 09/19/81), they became the first artists of the rock and roll generation to win a significant Grammy Award (“Mrs. Robinson,” Record of the Year, 1968), and they went on to earn their place among the best-selling artists of all time (with sales of more than 100 million records).

Clearly, when we pay tribute to this remarkable duo, we’ve got a lot of ground to cover!

Join us at The Venue on Sunday, September 17th when Great Moments in Vinyl plays the music of Simon & Garfunkel.  This time around we’ll be featuring the talents of Phil Angotti, Greg Woods, Daniel Rausch, and Jonathan Reed with stories about the music and the musicians who created it from William Lindsey Cochran.