Local history: Simon & Garfunkel packed Rubber Bowl in 1983

Forty years ago, the sound of silence filled the Akron Rubber Bowl.

Actually, it was “The Sound of Silence.”

“Hello, darkness, my old friend. I’ve come to talk with you again.”

Nearly 40,000 fans packed the stadium July 19, 1983, as folk rock duo Simon & Garfunkel reunited for their first North American tour in 13 years.

Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel, both 41, hadn’t toured the United States together since 1970, the year they broke up over artistic differences. The New York natives enjoyed a career resurgence in 1981 with a free concert at Central Park that attracted 500,000 people.

The comeback created a national sensation.

National tour began in Akron

Akron was the first stop on the 19-city tour in 1983. The last time the duo had played in town was May 6, 1966, in Memorial Hall at the University of Akron. Tickets for that show cost $1.75 in advance or $2 at the door.

The Rubber Bowl concert cost $16 (nearly $48.50 today), and fans camped overnight for the 10 a.m. sale June 13 at Ticketron outlets.

“Akron is going to receive an enormous amount of national media attention for this show, and we’re doing our very best to make sure it will all be favorable,” promoter Jules Belkin promised.

The university, which owned the stadium, was guaranteed $80,000 for the concert, plus proceeds from parking and concessions.

A 60-man road crew arrived in town with 18 tractor-trailers. It took three days to set up the 172-foot-wide stage and 100,000-watt sound system.

Tony Award winner Eugene Lee, the production designer for “Saturday Night Live,” created the whimsical stage, a pink-and-turquoise set that resembled a 1950s drive-in theater called The Star View. Its 660-square-foot screen would display live closeups of the performers.

Media swarm Quaker Square

Simon & Garfunkel had exclusive use of the stadium for 72 hours before the concert. On Monday evening, they rehearsed in the empty bowl.

The musicians sat down for a news conference Tuesday afternoon at the Quaker Square Hilton before a gaggle of 75 reporters, including TV crews from “Today” and “Entertainment Tonight.”

Simon said the tour was a natural progression from the New York reunion.

“We didn’t anticipate or plan it,” he told reporters. “We are reacting to an apparent demand, sort of a back-by-popular demand type thing, the reaction to the Concert in the Park.”

He acknowledged that he and Garfunkel still had creative differences.

“Art and I haven’t resolved anything,” Simon said. “What we’ve done is put them aside, at least temporarily. Although I suppose if you can extend ‘temporarily’ long enough, maybe you have solved the problem.”

They were recording a new album titled “Think About It” and planned to debut new songs that evening at the show.

Garfunkel told reporters that getting back onstage stirred a lot of feelings.

“There are a lot of different emotions that go through the mind when we’re out there,” he said. “Singing ‘Old Friends’ with an old friend is something.”

He said it wasn’t easy to create an intimate setting for 40,000 fans in a stadium, but he was up to the challenge.

“When it works, it can make a large house seem pretty cozy,” Garfunkel said.

Traffic jam at Rubber Bowl

Traffic backed up for miles as fans converged Tuesday night on the Rubber Bowl. The 8:30 p.m. concert was delayed 45 minutes as cars clogged Interstate 77 and U.S. 224. Tens of thousands of people filed into the stadium.

Finally, the drive-in screen began a countdown. “Ten minutes to showtime.” “Five minutes to showtime.” “One minute to showtime.”

The crowd roared as Simon & Garfunkel took the stage at 9:15 p.m. with an 11-piece band. Amid the sweltering humidity, the duo sported white T-shirts and blue jeans, and Garfunkel also wore a light red jacket.

They kicked off the concert with “Cecilia,” an energetic song that had the audience singing and clapping.

Beacon Journal music critic Mark Faris praised the 2½-hour show as “a satisfying and often exhilarating combination of music and nostalgia.” One of the greatest concerts in the stadium’s history, it was an unforgettable experience for those in attendance.

“It’s good to be back home,” Simon told the crowd before “My Little Town.”

Simon & Garfunkel play hits

The hit-packed set list included “Mrs. Robinson,” “America,” “Me and Julio Down by the Schoolyard,” “Scarborough Fair,” “Bridge Over Troubled Water,” “Homeward Bound,” “I Only Have Eyes for You,” “50 Ways to Leave Your Lover,” “Late in the Evening,” “Still Crazy After All These Years,” “American Tune,” “El Condor Pasa,” “The Boxer,” “The 59th Street Bridge Song (Feelin’ Groovy),” “Old Friends” and “Kodachrome.”

Sometimes the rust was apparent. The singers’ voices were scratchy on a few songs and they occasionally tripped over lyrics. A noticeable hum reverberated over the sound system. But nostalgic fans didn’t care.

The duo played four new songs, “Allergies,” “The Late, Great Johnny Ace,” “Song About the Moon” and “Think Too Much,” and performed three covers: the Everly Brothers’ “Wake Up Little Susie,” Chuck Berry’s “Maybellene” and The Danleers’ “One Summer Night.”

Among those spotted in the audience were Bette Midler, who was in town for a show at the Richfield Coliseum, and “Star Wars” actress Carrie Fisher, Simon’s soon-to-be wife. If Garfunkel’s girlfriend Penny Marshall was there, it wasn’t reported.

Three encores and epic finale

Thousands of fans raised cigarette lighters overhead for three encores. The audience knew what was coming for the final song.

Nearly 40,000 voices united: “Hello, darkness, my old friend.”

Simon & Garfunkel performed a poignant rendition of “The Sound of Silence” before taking their final bows and calling it a night in Akron. The show concluded with a dazzling fireworks show.

The following day, a cleanup crew hauled away a mountain of trash left behind by concertgoers.

Simon & Garfunkel continued to Pontiac, Michigan, for the next show, and then on to Toronto. The North American tour ended Aug. 30 in Boulder, Colorado.

Inevitably, the duo had another falling out. After the tour, Simon decided that the material he wrote for the reunion album was “too personal,” so he released it instead as a solo album titled “Hearts and Bones.”

Simon & Garfunkel set aside their differences for occasional reunions over the decades, and entered the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 1990. Their most recent performance together was in 2010.

Amid crumbling conditions, the Rubber Bowl closed in 2008. The city razed the north and west sides in 2018 and demolished the rest this year. Crews buried the eastern stands in soil to brace George Washington Boulevard.

Forty years later, it’s hard to imagine nearly 40,000 fans there.

All that’s left is a quiet hillside. Truly the sound of silence.

Mark J. Price can be reached at mprice@thebeaconjournal.com

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This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Simon & Garfunkel packed Rubber Bowl in 1983