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Another Great Music Lie Exposedby George Ziemann -- July 23, 2008 Every so often, someone throws a free concert in New York's Central Park and hundreds of thousands of people are reported to be in attendance. James Dwyer of the New York Times takes us through some of the high points: "Here is an official history of attendance at great public gatherings in Central Park: James Taylor played in Central Park's Sheep Meadow in the summer of 1979, and officials announced that 250,000 people came. A year later, Elton John performed on the Great Lawn, and the authorities said he drew 300,000 people. Then Simon and Garfunkel performed in September 1981, and city officials and organizers reported that 400,000 people had packed into the park. Ten years later, it was announced that Paul Simon drew 600,000. The biggest concert of all, it seems, was by Garth Brooks, on Aug. 7, 1997, at the North Meadow, with a reported attendance of 750,000 people." Ten days ago, Bon Jovi played in Central Park. For some strange, unknown reason, NYC decided to do something unheard of -- they had city employees stand at the entrance gates with clickers and actually counted how many people showed up. Apparently, Central Park's capacity is a little less than 50,000 people (48,538). Where did they put the other 700,000 people when Garth Brooks played? They didn't. It's just another heaping helping of bullshit, served regularly at Central Park for at least 30 years by our friends in the music industry. When you start lying, this presents several problems. If you stretch the truth once, you've got to keep "improving" on it, even after it has gone well into the range of fantasy. Some people call my attitude toward the record industry as "cynical". I suppose they're right. In my experience, however, this is the only approach that makes sense when you're dealing with pathological liars. Promoters, agents, record execs and the RIAA -- you have to assume that if they're talking, they're lying. The media will simply repeat what they say. You have to sort it out for yourself. No one in the New York media, ever seems to have ever previously questioned how many people could actually fit into 10 acres. At 750,000, that's about two people for every square foot of space, Add a stage, the backstage area, the sound gear, lighting crews, and there won't be enough room for anyone to have more than one foot on the ground. When I was a kid, one of our mantras was "Cheaters never prosper." The thing is, if no one questions them, the cheaters always prosper.
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