Art Garfunkel Part II

A Living Legend

By the end of the incredible 60’s Art found himself acting in films such as Catch-22 in 1969 and Carnal Knowledge in 1971, the new decade was underway and we continue with part two of a very brief history.

It was two years later in ’73 that Angel Clare, his  long-awaited first solo album was released. Produced by  himself and Roy Halee, it included the Top 10 hit, "All I Know" written by Jimmy Webb.  Van Morrison's "I Shall Sing," and Paul Williams' "Traveling Boy," were also released as singles.  This established a pattern for Art, who unerringly choose the finest compositions by the best songwriters for his future LPs.

A couple of years later in ‘75,  Breakaway featured the hits "I Only Have Eyes For You" which went to Number 1 in the UK, plus "My Little Town", a reunion with Paul Simon, both helping to push the album to achieve Platinum status. By ‘78 he had recorded the excellent Watermark and embarked on a 50-city US tour, his first performances since the Simon & Garfunkel farewell concerts of 1970. 

Yet another decade was to end on a high when in ‘79, the album Fate For Breakfast went to Number 2 in the UK.  Returning to acting, he co-starred alongside Theresa Russell and Harvey Keitel in Bad Timing: A Sensual Obsession and many will have fond memories of his Number 1 hit single with Mike Batt's "Bright Eyes," which became a British million-seller from the soundtrack of the animated feature film Watership Down.

Art started the 80’s with the album Scissors Cut and in ’81 Simon & Garfunkel reunited for one of the largest free open-air concerts in New York history. An incredible 500,000 fans crowded into Central Park, while millions more viewed it later on film and the resulting double-LP, was an immediate million seller.  Overwhelming response to both the concert and the album resulted in an international tour which ended in the summer of '83.

Art Garfunkel's next project, The Animals' Christmas, is a cantata composed by Jimmy Webb and was staged over Christmas '83 at the London Royal Festival Hall, then a year later in New York at the Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine.  That same month, initial recording of the Columbia LP began featuring Amy Grant.  Sessions with the London Symphony Orchestra and the Kings College School Choir continued through all of ‘85, in New York, Nashville, England and Montserrat in the West Indies.  With more than three years in the making, The Animals' Christmas was released in ’86 and took its place alongside the great Yuletide recordings.  Also in ‘85, Art spent several months working on Blaine Novak's film, Good To Go which starred himself and was released in 1986.

The next year Art started on the next album, Lefty, but this was interrupted by a European tour in the Autumn.  Working with a band organised by the late keyboardist Nicky Hopkins, the highlight of the tour took place on the 4th December at the London Palladium, with Art joining Elton John, Phil Collins, Robin Williams, James Taylor and the Royal Family for the prestigious annual Prince's Trust Concert. Issued three months later, Lefty included a startling remake of Percy Sledge's anthemic "When a Man Loves a Woman" and a duet with Kenny Rankin on "I Wonder Why."

In the mid ‘80's, his obsession with long-distance walking began to come into focus, which had started with a three and a half-week hike across the rice paddies and back roads of Japan in 1982 and by 1984, his walk across America was a major part of his annual schedule. Art’s writing skills blossomed, "I became a writer for the first time in my life," he says, "not a songwriter, but a literary guy."  A collection of his prose poetry, Still Water, was published by Dutton in 1989, but the decade ended with Art still on the road and a solo concert tour of England.

If you like big concerts you should have been around in 1990 when at the request of the US State Department, Art performed before 1.4 million people at an outdoor rally to support and promote democracy in Sofia, Bulgaria.  Earlier that year, Simon & Garfunkel were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and reunited again briefly in 1992 for a special charity event on Broadway with Mike Nichols and Elaine May. 

It was the same year that Art recorded "Two Sleepy People" for the soundtrack of A League Of Their Own, the Penny Marshall film and the theme song for the television series, "Brooklyn Bridge," with music by Marvin Hamlisch and lyrics by Marilyn and Alan Bergman. Still with itchy feet, Art did his first solo tour of Japan with every date sold-out in advance.

By 1993, Art was again acting, this time cast in director Jennifer Lynch's controversial film, Boxing Helena. Meanwhile the album Up ‘Til Now was distinguished by two songs done with James Taylor, "Crying In the Rain" and "It's All In the Game." Among the album’s four Jimmy Webb compositions is "Skywriter," which Webb wrote as an autobiographical tribute to Art and the rarely-heard original acoustic version of "The Sound Of Silence". The album's release in October coincided with a series of 21 sold-out reunion shows with Paul Simon at New York's Paramount Theatre.

During the next few years, Art continued his globe trotting and his recording including the commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the end of World War II in Europe when Alan Parsons organised a special concert in Arnheim, Netherlands, with Walter Cronkite, Joe Cocker, Cyndi Lauper and Art who sang the very moving "Bridge Over Troubled Water" at the conclusion of the event.

Art Garfunkel's long awaited new CD, Everything Waits To Be Noticed was released last October featuring Buddy Mondlock and Maia Sharp who will also be with him on his forthcoming UK concerts. The album has received very high praise from the critics and more importantly, the record buying public. During the concert, Art and his band will continue to perform material from the Simon & Garfunkel catalogue as well as his solo material. Buddy and Maia will join him to perform five or six songs from the new album.

At the Grammy Award’s at the end of February, Art was once again on stage with Paul Simon and sang The Sound Of Silence. Art Garfunkel has very much stood the test of time with hardly any time away from the work he clearly loves. Art appears at the Newcastle Opera House on Saturday 15th March for what promises to be a very special occasion. Seeing Art Garfunkel is special in itself, but seeing him in such an intimate, acoustically wonderful venue is extra special.