Paul Simon - Paul Simon In Concert: Live Rhymin' (Live 1973) (2010) Hi-Res

Paul Simon in Concert: Live Rhymin' is a live album by Paul Simon, released in March 1974 by Columbia Records. It was recorded in the wake of the release of There Goes Rhymin' Simon, which produced a number of hit singles ("Kodachrome" and "Loves Me Like a Rock") and radio staples ("Something So Right" and "Take Me to the Mardi Gras"), at the University of Notre Dame in Indiana and Carnegie Hall in New York during Simon's 1973–74 tour.[1] The album featured both Latin and gospel influences, both in the arrangements and the performance style of the guests

Simon was joined by Urubamba for "El Cóndor Pasa (If I Could)", "Duncan", and "The Boxer", then brought out the Jessy Dixon Singers for the rest of the concert, before concluding with "America" on his own.

The album was Simon's first live release and showed him performing Simon & Garfunkel songs solo in concert for the first time, alternating with his solo songs.

Near the end of the album, an audience member calls out for Simon to "say a few words." He replies: "Say a few words? Well, let's hope that we continue to live."

The album was a moderate success. It reached No. 33 in the U.S. and was eventually certified gold by the RIAA. However, it failed to chart at all in the UK. Further, two of the live performances were released as a single as part of the promotion for the album: the breakthrough Simon & Garfunkel "The Sound of Silence" as the A-side, along with Simon's debut single "Mother and Child Reunion" on the B-side.

One thing Simon & Garfunkel never did much of was tour, so a Paul Simon solo tour, following two commercially successful solo albums, was one more way for Simon to distance himself from the duo and, simultaneously, by performing songs like "The Boxer" and "Homeward Bound," to reclaim his songwriting catalog. Reflecting the musical explorations he had pursued since S & G, Simon brought along Brazilian group Urubamba and gospel group the Jessy Dixon Singers. The result wasn't perfect: nobody needed to hear "Jesus Is the Answer" (a Dixons spotlight number) on a Paul Simon album, and if it was inevitable that he would try his own version of "Bridge Over Troubled Water," it was also predestined that he wouldn't come near to matching Garfunkel's original. Though the album was, like most live albums, artistically redundant (there was nothing new, and none of the live versions improved upon the studio ones), it served as a career statement and it had a marketing function, buying the relatively slow-working Simon time between new studio releases.