One Night Stand

Backstage extended into the streets. A huge van, a completely equipped recording studio, was parked in the lot adjacent to Carnegie Hall. Crews of technicians were carting microphones and cables and TV monitors inside the Hall to tape the 8 o'clock concert. Crowds of people had gathered. It was a night in the birth of an album. It was a Noel-in and Paul-out.  At the box office, the action was slow. "I stopped people on the streets today. Everybody wondered who Noel Stookey was. They thought he might be Paul Stookey's brother." Noel, the overnight stranger, had a new statement he wanted to make to a new public. 1400 tickets were handed out to fill the Halls 2784 seats. Passerby's were invited in. The warmth and inclusiveness that would typify the performance had begun. Noel was linking arms with a new audience, rather than with Peter and Mary, and escorting them through his personal world - tonights songs would mirror the man.