Timeless Art: Garfunkel Without Simon
Still Interesting After All These Years
June 18, 1999
Cincinnatti Enquirer
Written by Ben Wener
Times are tough for a legendary pop vocal interpreter - so many hit makers, so few great hits, let alone timeless songs. At least, that's the perspective of Art Garfunkel, whose angelic tenor has soared in classics such as Simon & Garfunkel's "Sound of Silence" and "Bridge Over Troubled Water" as well as his own solo renditions of "I Only Have Eyes for You" and "Since I Don't Have You," staples of easy-listening radio.
But, Mr. Garfunkel said recently from his apartment that overlooks the spot in Central Park where he and Paul Simon reunited for a free concert in 1981, "I find the current field of songwriters thin, if you want to know the truth. I don't know if it's that the old heroes intimidate people away or what.
"It reminds me of the phenomenon: How come there are so few cover versions of Simon & Garfunkel tunes? We didn't necessarily do the definitive versions. We've had many coverable songs, but I can only think of Harpers Bizarre (who did 'The 59th Street Bridge Song' in 1967) and the Bangles (who did "A Hazy Shade of Winter" in 1988)."
There's also the Lemonheads, who reworked 'Mrs. Robinson' some years back, but none of those three examples could be considered definitive - and none outranks the originals.
Yet Mr. Garfunkel has a point: It seems that the large-looming shadows of the '60s - and perhaps the singer-songwriter boom of the '70s - has kept many songwriters from developing into easily interpreted writers. If anything, that sort of talent has shifted away from Mr. Garfunkel's milieu and toward R&B, where Babyface and R. Kelly pen song after song for scores of performers.
Mr. Garfunkel, then, continues to draw on the past and his childhood favorites for inspiration. When we talked, he was about to embark on yet another tour. He will perform with the Cincinnati Pops Orchestra at Riverbend this weekend. A European tour that starts June 28 will take him to eight countries.
'Still fresh to me'
Naturally, the bulk of the Rock and Roll Hall of Famer's shows consist of the old standbys, both from his numerous solo albums and his S&G days, but Mr. Garfunkel, 57, doesn't consider what he does a nostalgia trip.
"It's not about revisiting for me," he explained. "These songs have been with me all these years, and I've put a professional lock on their aging process. When I perform them, they're still fresh to me. I'm just trying to make it come alive again. For me, it exists as a pleasure outside of time."
Yes, but surely the audience that craves another airing of "April Come She Will" or "Kathy's Song" is hoping to be transported back in time.
"It has that extra layer, sure, that's what my audience tells me. Often they'll say that it brings them back to that time, or re- illuminates that time. But they add that time factor themselves. I don't. This is always about now for me."
"Now" for Mr. Garfunkel is a busy time. He's working on a new solo album, though he won't divulge anything about it except that it's "a new direction for me." He's also helping to update a Web site devoted to him (www.artgarfunkel.com), which even includes a month-by-month list of books he has read dating back to 1968.
'Call it exercise'
And then there's his walking. Several years ago Mr. Garfunkel walked the width of Japan in three weeks, just to see the sights. Then he decided to walk the continental United States - in segments, of course - giving new meaning to the lyric, "And he walked off to look for America."
It took him a few years, but when he finished, Mr. Garfunkel held a concert at Ellis Island (where his relatives had come through) to celebrate. It resulted in his last album, Across America.
Now he's walking Europe, from Shannon Airport in Ireland to Istanbul. So far, he's made it to Limerick, Ireland, where the film version of Angela's Ashes is being made. He walked half way across Wales, too, and plans to return to Great Britain later this year.
"Call it exercise," Mr. Garfunkel good-naturedly admonished, "and don't paint me too much as a nut, although I'm nutty enough. It's simple: I walk because I'm a New Yorker, and I like to get out of town."
But will there be a finale at Istanbul?
"It's a nice thought, but you can't trust people's sense of hoopla about these things. It can go from corny to commercial. It can take a lot of wrong turns."
Regardless, Mr. Garfunkel's plate is full, and it's more than enough to remind that he's an artist in his own right, like his old partner. It's something most articles on him fail to do.
"Look, if you say you can't think of Garfunkel without saying Simon, that's true. I'm aware, outside of myself, how that is. I'm forever linked to that name and I'm not unhappy about it. You're talking about an enrichment of my life and music I'm proud of.
"But it's when it becomes an overemphasis on that . . . that's when it gets tiresome. Just make sure you hear what I'm doing now, that's all I ask. I can fill up your interest very fast."