Paul Simon: The Final Concert

An unpublished essay, because why go to a concert and not write about it?

It was a gorgeous day in New York when Paul Simon gave his final concert at Flushing Meadow Park in Queens, NY, less than three years ago. My daughter Liz, who is very good at this kind of thing, had acquired six tickets for my wife and I, she and her sister Jackie, and the young men who are now their husbands. I had trepidations: since I stopped reviewing concerts for a living, I did not like to go out very often, especially big, crowded events. So I brought a notebook and took notes, because that is how I am trained to attend concerts. I didn’t have any place to write for, but it all went well. Simon, Bruce Springsteen, and Jennifer Hudson are set to headline a "New York is Back" concert on August 22 on the Great Lawn in Central Park. I hope we have not declared victory prematurely. The New York Post's Page Six gossip column says Simon and Springsteen are wrangling over who gets to close the show. How could they not? Perhaps Dr. Fauci will mediate. In the pre-Fauci era, there was th…