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"The '60s," it has been argued, began in earnest with The Twist. Or The Pill. Or the Port Huron Statement.
But perhaps they began with another momentous event: the moment that Art Garfunkel was allowed to keep his name.
"I was out of town when the executives at Columbia [Records] finally said, 'We're gonna call you Simon & Garfunkel,' " the famed singer recalls. " 'Hell, it's already the '60s.' Meaning we're into the future, you can get away with anything now."
Until then – 1963 – Garfunkel had performed under a variety of names, including "Tom Graph" and "Artie Garr." When Garfunkel was allowed to keep, not only his wild name, but also a gloriously wild head of hair, it signaled the dawn of a new era when all bets were off, and the only norm was to question the norm.
"I'm a child of James Dean, you know, I'm Lenny Bruce's son," Garfunkel says. "Hypocrisy is the name of America's game. The delight for my whole generation was to tear the face off of falsehood in society."
Today, 47 years later, the influence of Garfunkel and partner-in-song Paul Simon is everywhere – from the soundtrack of the classic film "The Graduate" to high school English classes where songs like "The Boxer" and "The Sound of Silence" are mined for essay questions.
"We've played a lovely role in the history of pop music," Garfunkel says.
Their album "Bridge Over Troubled Water," which contained such iconic tunes as "Cecilia," "The Boxer," and the epic title track, was meant to be the duo's "Sgt. Pepper." Many consider it S&G's finest achievement.
"In those days in the 1960s we were very inspired by the Beatles," he says.
"One of the great things they did is expand what an album could be. They made it more artful. That's when I got very excited and we slowed things down in the process of making an album so we could dwell on it with care. We conceived of songs as connected with each other."
The 1970 release was also a turning point: the last Simon & Garfunkel studio album.
The partners went on to solo careers punctuated by reunions – Simon to such high points as the Grammy-winning 1986 "Graceland" album, Garfunkel to acting roles in films like "Carnal Knowledge" and song hits like his 1978 hit cover of Sam Cooke's "What a Wonderful World."
The relationship of the two performers, who met in sixth grade (PS 164, Queens) and first began appearing together as "Tom & Jerry," is – many suspect – complicated.
From time to time, there have been rumors of discord, leading to sniping from partisans on both sides – first in the 1960s when the sweet-voiced Garfunkel was judged the more popular of the duo, and later when Simon was deemed the creative heavyweight, leaving Garfunkel in the seeming role of the lucky tagalong.
The fact that the two men still periodically perform together, despite the fact that neither needs to (they'll be at the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival in April), tells its own story. Garfunkel will only say that their relationship is "deep."
"This friendship interests the world, and it interests me," Garfunkel says. "It has deep colors. We're both, I think, really interesting men with a real third dimension. We're both very musical, both committed to growth in life. We both think the world of each other as heavyweight cats. And we're both funny. … But you put us in a studio, and we're real individuals with strong feelings. We hate to see a record that's developing go in the wrong way. So we're excellent partners of strong musical dueling. We duel out our choices."
Garfunkel has plenty of his own irons in the fire. He does Art-only concerts, like the one at NJPAC on Saturday (he'll be backed by a five-piece band). He releases albums: including his collection of American Songbook tunes, "Some Enchanted Evening," which came out in 2007. He's appeared on the cult TV series "Flight of the Conchords." He's a marathon reader: Every book he's read since 1968 is posted on his Web site. He's a marathon walker: He's hoofed it 3,000 miles across America – in increments — Japan, and large parts of Europe.
But after all these years, the odyssey that amazes him the most is the marathon half-century trek he's made with his longtime friend and collaborator. Simon & Garfunkel will go on, or his name isn't Art Garfunkel. Which – strange to relate — it is.
"I stand there in the middle of the show and I go, 'I don't get Simon & Garfunkel, but they're amazingly compatible when they harmonize,' " he says. "And I'm one of them."
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