Art Garfunkel Remembers Don Everly – Five Years After His Passing
On August 21, 2021, Don Everly passed away at the age of 84. For Art Garfunkel, Don Everly was a musician whose influence reaches back to his earliest years as an artist and whom he would encounter again on stage in a very special way many decades later.
When Art Garfunkel and Paul Simon began making music together in 1957, Don and Phil Everly were their musical role models. The extraordinary harmony of the two brothers left a lasting impression on the young musicians and became an important part of their own musical development.
“We tried to sound like them. When Paul and I started in 1957, there was only one model for us: Don and Phil.”
— Art Garfunkel
Many years later, Art Garfunkel recalled Don Everly and their time together on tour in his book “What Is It All But Luminous.” As Art remembers, Don had a deep understanding of the authentic country sound. Phil Everly was, to him, the high voice, while Don provided the foundation, rhythm, and grounding of the duo.
The connection to the Everly Brothers did not remain simply a memory of their music. When Art Garfunkel and Paul Simon returned to the stage in 2003 with their “Old Friends” tour, Don and Phil Everly joined them as special guests.
It brought together musical paths that had begun decades earlier. Art Garfunkel now stood on stage with the two artists whose music had accompanied and inspired him since 1957.
Don and Phil Everly performed together with Art Garfunkel and Paul Simon at several concerts during the tour. Among the special stops were Madison Square Garden in New York, Continental Airlines Arena in East Rutherford, and the FleetCenter in Boston. In Boston, the Everly Brothers performed “Wake Up Little Susie,” “All I Have to Do Is Dream,” and “Let It Be Me” before Art Garfunkel and Paul Simon joined them for “Bye Bye Love.”
The Madison Square Garden concerts in December 2003 were also recorded. The recordings were later released as “Old Friends: Live on Stage,” preserving a special moment in Art Garfunkel’s musical history: Art Garfunkel and Paul Simon together with Don and Phil Everly on the same stage. “Bye Bye Love” became part of the live release.
For Art Garfunkel, a special circle had come full turn. The musical role models of his youth had become, decades later, fellow performers on stage.
Many years later, another connection to this story emerged within the Garfunkel family. “Let It Be Me,” one of the Everly Brothers’ great classics, was recorded for the album “Father and Son” by Art Garfunkel and Art Garfunkel Jr.
When father and son later performed the song together, a piece of Art Garfunkel’s musical history was passed on to the next generation. A song that had accompanied him since the early years of his own musical development became part of the shared music of father and son.
In this way, “Let It Be Me” now connects several generations: Don and Phil Everly, who inspired Art Garfunkel musically in his younger years; Art Garfunkel himself; and finally, his shared performance of the song with his son, Art Garfunkel Jr.
Five years after Don Everly’s passing, a musical connection that began more than six decades ago remains. For Art Garfunkel, Don Everly was first a musical role model and later a fellow performer on stage—and his music remains part of the story that Art Garfunkel has written throughout his own life and passed on to the next generation.
