The Concert for New York City

The Concert for New York City was a benefit concert that took place at Madison Square Garden in New York City in response to the September 11 attacks. Aside from performing for charity, the concert was an attempt to honor the first responders from the New York City Fire Department and New York City Police Department, their families, and those lost in the attacks and those who had worked in the ongoing rescue and recovery efforts in the weeks since that time.

The concert was organized by

Many athletes also appeared between the acts including Joe Torre, whose Yankees were on their way to competing in their fourth consecutive World Series. The concert also included several short films made by New York City's most notable filmmakers such as Woody Allen, Martin Scorsese, Spike Lee, and Kevin Smith.

Over 60 stars that participated in the concert signed unique memorabilia backstage at Madison Square Garden that were later auctioned off to support the Robin Hood Foundation. The autographed items included three large posters of the concert and three customized 24" drumheads. Other items included a complete drumset and guitar.

Audience reaction

Much of the crowd itself was extremely emotional, with victims' families and colleagues holding up portraits of the dead. Three speakers were booed: actress Susan Sarandon (for plugging New York mayoralty candidate Mark Green), actor Richard Gere (for speaking about non-violent tolerance), and Hillary Clinton (for her perceived anti-police views). Gere did acknowledge the crowd's jeering at his pacifist stance, stating, "That's apparently unpopular right now, but that's all right." Sarandon nearly fell when she was intentionally tripped by the wife of a missing police officer, whose foot came through the barricade fence at the most opportune of moments.^[1]

When Pete Townshend and Roger Daltrey, the two surviving members of The Who, were given the Kennedy Center Honors in December 2008 for their contributions to American culture, a tribute performance of "Baba O'Riley" was delivered by Rob Thomas. In the end refrain of "teenage wasteland", a full choir of FDNY firemen was revealed behind a curtain - bellowing the refrain - in gratitude for The Who's performance at The Concert for New York City, seven years prior.

Lineup and songs

In order of appearance:^[3]

Short films

The following short films were shown during the concert, here sorted by director:^[3]

• Woody Allen – Sounds from a Town I Love
• Edward Burns – Lovely Day
• Ric Burns – New York: A Documentary Film
• Christian Charles
   – The Greatest City on Earth
• Spike Lee – Come Rain or Come Shine
• Martin Scorsese – The Neighborhood
• Jerry Seinfeld – The Greatest City on Earth
• Kevin Smith – Why I Love New #*$%!&@ York

Sounds from a Town I Love

Sounds from a Town I Love (sometimes incorrectly referred to as Sounds from the Town I Love)

John Cusack introduced the film with a message from Woody Allen: "I apologize in advance for my short movie. The cause was so worthwhile that I could not say no when approached to contribute something to this wonderful show. I did the best I could. If you hate it, I will try to make it up to you somehow in the future." In addition to longtime Allen collaborators Marshall Brickman and Tony Roberts, among the people seen in the film are Austin Pendleton, Griffin Dunne, Michael Emerson, Bebe Neuwirth, and Celia Weston.^[8]

Critical reaction

In 2004 Rolling Stone magazine selected this concert, along with the earlier America: A Tribute to Heroes telethon, as one of the 50 moments that changed rock and roll.^{[citation needed]} It was also voted the #4 greatest moment in the history of Madison Square Garden.^[9] On December 7, 2008, Pete Townshend and Roger Daltrey of The Who received Kennedy Center Honors from the President of the United States, and after several musicians performed their music, the finale was a surprise chorus of New York City police officers and rescue personnel who had been touched by their performance.^[10]

Broadcast

The concert was broadcast live on VH1 October 20, 2001, and over $35 million was raised. An additional $275,000 was also raised with a connecting auction. The five-hour broadcast was executive produced by Greg Sills and Fred Graver. The producer was Paul Flattery and the director was Louis J Horvitz (who has directed many of the Academy Award broadcasts). It was written by Stephen Pouliot and Paul Flattery. The concert was recorded by David Hewitt and Mark Repp on Remote Recording's Silver Truck. The entire uncut version of the 51⁄2 hour concert was rebroadcast on

A one-hour highlight show was broadcast on CBS the following month. An album and DVD of the event was released in January 2002.^[3]

An encore of the entire concert ran on September 11, 2011, to commemorate the 10th anniversary, commercial free and unedited, from 4 to 10pm.

Another encore of the concert aired on October 20, 2021, on MTV Classic and MTV Live in celebration of the 20th anniversary of the concert, commercial free.

CD release

A double CD of the event was released by Sony on November 27, 2001, containing 32 tracks. The compilation has not been available on streaming and digital services, as of 2020.

Home video release

The concert was released by Sony both on DVD and VHS on January 29, 2002, both only in NTSC format for the US/Canadian market. The two-tape VHS set has a total running time of 296 minutes, while the double DVD runs a shorter time of 245 minutes.

Charts

See also

• America: A Tribute to Heroes
• United We Stand: What More Can I Give
• Come Together: A Night for John Lennon's Words and Music, a New York charity concert in October 2001 which became largely a tribute to New York in the wake of 9/11
• The September Concert
• The Who Tours and Performances

Notes