Simon, Garfunkel End 20-Year 'Silence'

By Stephen M. Silverman

Friday October 17, 2003 10:45 AM EDT

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After a two-decade live-concert silence, Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel took to the stage in Wilkes-Barre, Penn., on Thursday night and received a standing ovation that helped kick off their two-month, 40-date tour -- their first such trek since 1983, reports the Associated Press.

Mid-way through the appearance, says the news service, the two headliners started to play "The Sound of Silence," except the 9,000, mostly middle-aged fans in the hall grew so frenzied that their boisterous reaction to it froze the singers. Simon, smiling, improvised on guitar until the din died down.

The two opened the show with the song "Old Friends" – which also happens to be the name of the show, despite the team's widely reported squabbles in the past.

The newly reunited partners, who have sold 40 million albums in the United States, played such crowd favorites as "Scarborough Fair," "America" and "Mrs. Robinson." Alone, Simon belted out "Bridge over Troubled Water," while Garfunkel easily hit the high notes on "The Boxer," the AP reports.

The duo also spoke about their long history together. "We met when we were 11, we started to sing when we were 13, and we started to argue when we were 14," Simon joked to the crowd in Pennsylvania.

Sounding more serious, Garfunkel said that the two (who are both 62) met in the sixth grade in 1953. "And it occurs to me that it's been 50 years of this thing we do," he said.

There were also surprises at the show. The Everly Brothers, Don and Phil, 66 and 64, respectively, dropped in on stage during the show, reports Reuters. Afterwards, the headliners said that the "Wake Up Little Susie" duo, who had their greatest success in the 1950s, would become a permanent fixture on this new tour.

"Art and I learned to sing as a duo by listening to Everly Brothers records and practicing their harmonies. We're both great fans of their singing and guitar playing," Simon said in a statement.