Comment on Singer-songwriter Paul Simon on road with his Homeward Bound Farewell Tour

LONDON — Honey or vinegar. The carrot or the stick. Art or politics. Over an extraordinary weekend in London, two groups of emissaries from America brought drastically distinct ways of relating to international constituencies, approaches that cast into sharp relief Robert Frost’s timeless poem about diverging roads in the metaphorical wood. Along one path came President Donald Trump, whose visit to Britain en route to his summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin motivated thousands to take to the streets of the English capital in protest. Down the other path, however, came three beloved veteran American musicians: Paul Simon, James Taylor and Bonnie Raitt, who gathered Sunday in Hyde Park before an estimated 60,000 fans, harmoniously united in their admiration for artistry that transcends political and geographical boundaries. The performance closed the annual two-weekend British Summer Time-Hyde Park festival, which began July 6 with Pink Floyd’s Roger Waters — who must have taken a certain pride in the Floyd-like giant balloon that flew over London during Trump’s visit, satirizing him as a diaper-clad infant — and also featured headlining performances by Eric Clapton, Bruno Mars, the Cure and Michael Buble. Simon’s stop was part of his Homeward Bound Farewell Tour, the London visit carrying special resonance, given the formative years he spent here in the early ’60s. “I can’t begin to say how much this means to me,” Simon, 76, said near the end of his 2 1/2 -hour set, just before singing “Homeward Bound,” an early song inspired by his travels abroad and his yearning to return home. Neither Simon, Taylor nor Raitt mentioned Trump by name, but each alluded to the divisive effect he has had at home and abroad, and sought to quietly assure the thousands spilling out in front of the festival’s main stage that he does not speak for everyone in the U.S. “I feel I have to say something, there are so many of you out there,” Taylor, 70, said in the middle of his hourlong set.