“Desperate for Money Tour” tickets cost $1,262 a pair for a group who haven’t been together since the 1970

Old rock acts are getting pretty desperate for aging baby boomers to support their extravagant lifestyles and drug habits. The best one this year is Simon and Garfunkel who are leading the way on greed and gouging the audience.

Toronto tickets are $1,262 a pair. Halifax is a staggering $325. That gets you 2 hours of Simon and Garfunkel Greatest Hits. Save your money. Buy the DVDs Old Friends and Concert in the Park for less than $30 watch then over and over at home.

Don’t get me wrong. I really like Simon and Garfunkel. I’ve followed them from the first album, before Sounds of Silence. I have the Concert in Central Park and Graceland laser discs – yeah ask me what those are!  I play and sing their songs. Some of it is classic. 

But they are not The Beatles, nor are they Bob Dylan who both charge less for concert tickets. They are probably not The Eagles who gave us a great show in Moncton with John Fogarty and a whole day of music for $160 a pair.

These guys are just greedy old musicians who are too lazy to tour regularly so they want to get-rich-quick.

The second reason I recommend the DVD purchase is – hate to say it – Simon and Garfunkel can be boring over a two hour stretch. Paul Simon lacks dynamics. He’s sort of sleepy. If you go to the concert, take No-Doze or I’ll bet your mind in wandering through most of it. Or if you do a joint you can forget the whole thing.

The Concert in Central Park is the best concert the duo recorded. They had a full horn section, two drummers and percussionists and lots of guitar/bass backing. They have never done anything better than the NY Central Park free concert for 500,000 people in 1981. It really shows how Paul Simon leans on a strong rhythm section to build any audience excitement.

He did the same thing in the Graceland concert by using the South African musicians as his rhythm section. Otherwise he is – ah – rhythmically challenged. They say when he toured with Dyan in the 90s it was pretty pathetic. Dylan, who was not at his best then, made Simon look muted. Which is one of the reasons Kodachrome is popular. He used the Muscle Shoals rhythm section to make the music come alive.  This is rock and roll after all.