In my introduction to the first part of this 1975 interview
yesterday I mentioned that Art Garfunkel gave a press conference at the Savoy
Hotel. I was there, as was my old pal Charles Shaar Murray from NME. A
long-time Ramones fan, Charlie asked Art whether he thought his music might
benefit from a Ramones' influence. Everyone laughed, embarrassed. Art was lost
for words.
Here’s
part two of my interview, which contains no Ramones' references whatsoever.
Among the
musicians who have worked with Art Garfunkel on his new album Breakaway are Andrew Gould, who plays “everything”,
Larry Knechtel, Jim Keltner, Klaus Voorman and Graham Nash and David Crosby who
sing back-up vocals. Beach Boy Bruce Johnson is also featured singing in the
background.
But it was Perry’s idea to cut ‘I Only
Have Eyes For You’. “Oh, what a song,” murmured Garfunkel in some awe when the
subject was raised. “Richard has been wanting to do it for years, in fact,
almost half the cuts on the album were specifically brought to my attention by
him.
“There was a big difference, night and
day, in fact, between working with Perry and Halee. Richard is a bolder, more
adventurous producer. He’s like a cowboy – he takes more chances and he’ll set
things up and cut them straight away. Roy Halee would spend far more time
miking the foot pedal or whatever and trying all the variations.
“In one sense you could say that
spending all the extra time makes him a more careful artist, but Richard makes
terrific records in a faster, shoot from the hip, style. Roy comes out of the
masterworks department of Columbia Records so he’s an engineer and particularly
a sound man. He’s very conservative. It would be unheard of for him to accept a
tape with ticks or pops or anything like that.”
While Paul Simon has appeared live in
concert both in America and Europe since their split, Garfunkel has yet to make
an appearance before the public on stage. Live work, he said, is not his first
priority. “I’ve had my mind on other things. Firstly, I have a rich and active
personal life and secondly, musically, I’ve chosen to spend my time in the
recording studio. If I was going to do any touring, I would have had to take
something away from that.
“I have a rough idea of what kind of
show I’d do, but I haven’t worked on it yet. But there’s a chance of it
happening next year. Probably a tour of small places.”
Bridge
Over Troubled Water, the album, has
to date sold more than nine million copies. Currently it’s vying for the biggest
seller ever slot with Sound Of Music which, of course, was
released some years before. Had Garfunkel ever wondered why this particular
album should register such freak sales figures.
“I didn’t think it was that much better
than our other albums. I thought Bookends was a good album
too. I don’t think Bridge was so different from the others to
justify the extra sales. I have to say that diversity of appeal might have
accounted for it. I know that some of the people who bought it are mums and
dads types and some others are 12 year olds. It was cognisant of a lot of
different kinds of tastes and it had a wide appeal. ‘Celia’ was an up-tempo
song, ‘Bridge’ itself was an anthem-like ballad, ‘Frank Lloyd Wright’ was a
kind of bossa nova and there was brass on some tracks. It just appealed to all
kinds of different people.”
Had Art, the original ‘Bridge’ vocalist
any opinions on Paul’s live version which has been recorded? “I know if I say
anything at all and it’s not tactful you’ll lift it out of context and it’ll be
the headline,” he said with a grin. “You want me to say something that is in
the least possible taste... well, I like our version of ‘Bridge Over Troubled
Water’ better than Paul’s solo version.”
How come Paul has been more active
since the break-up. “First of all Paul’s heart-beat is a lot faster than mine.
He is more neurotic than I am and he needs to achieve new things more than I
do. I can sit back and eat a peach and I don’t have the urge to work that he
does.
“I miss him not writing songs for me to
sing, although I never felt he was writing for me specifically in the past.
When I make an album now, I miss the quality of his lyrics and his chord
changes and melodies. I still have a great regard for his writing.”
Which brought us back to THAT question.
“Well, I definitely would not rule out the possibility of us appearing together
again, but at the present I don’t have any specific plans to do a tour with
Paul so it’s one of those things where there’s no reason why not but there’s
just no plans to do it.
“I feel confident on my own. I did not
feel that I was missing anything when I started working on my own three years
ago on the first recordings on Angel Claire. I would have enjoyed
Paul’s musical attributes and it would have been a much better record if I
could have used the resources he would have brought, but I didn’t feel the lack
of Paul.”
Why did you break up in the first
place? A long pause... “Well, something to do with the movie Catch 22 and
Mike Nichols, something to do with two different schedules, something to do
with a little bit of excitement being off the album-making process... it was a
little less fresh than it used to be... something to do with us thinking ‘why
not split up?’... everybody out there thinks it’s a crazy thing to do, but why
not, it seems like an interesting thing to do separate things for a while.
“We never set out to accomplish
anything as Simon & Garfunkel. We had no conscious goal except to make
records and hope that they were popular. We worked very hard and some of the
things that amazed me were how one gets so popular and how the popularity
process works. I must also say that it amazed me that some of our records sold
as much as they did, that they were that popular. It seemed sort of freakish,
but it didn’t amaze me that we caught on and became a popular act, because I
simply thought we were good.”
Immediately after the split Garfunkel
played leading roles in two films, Catch 22 and Carnal
Knowledge. Did he intend to carry on his film career? “In a broad way, yes,
but I have no specific plans. I wasn’t all that satisfied with my performances
in the films and, in fact, I preferred Two Lane Black Top of
them all.
“I’m still offered scripts, but I used
to be offered more than I am now because I’ve kept turning everything down. It’s
just another form of expression that I am really happy to avail myself of. To
express yourself in the creative arts by going and making a film is a terrific
change from making records and I’d love to do it again.
“I do prefer singing, though.”
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