Posted on 05/25/2015 3:35:19 PM PDT by rickmichaels
Art Garfunkel has stunned fans by revealing he only became friends with longtime partner Paul Simon, because he felt sorry for him.
In one of his most candid interviews, the Bright Eyes singer tells Britain's Sunday Telegraph he initially quit Simon & Garfunkel and turned his back on showbusiness to become a teacher because he could no longer work with his sidekick Simon.
He says, "I don'€™t want to say any anti Paul Simon things, but it seems very perverse to not enjoy the glory and walk away from it instead. Crazy... (But) he was getting on my nerves. The jokes had run dry.
"A rest of a year was all I needed. I said, 'I'€™m not married yet. I want to jump on a BMW motorbike and tour round Europe chasing ladies'."
But it's his candid remarks about the start of his friendship with Simon, which led the duo to a recording deal as teenage act Tom & Jerry, that will surprise fans the most.
He admits he felt sorry for the singer/songwriter because he was so short, and adds, "That compensation gesture has created a monster.
"George (Harrison) came up to me at a party once and said, 'My Paul is to me what your Paul is to you'. He meant that, psychologically, they had the same effect on us - the Pauls sidelined us. I think George felt suppressed by Paul (McCartney) and I think that'€™s what he saw with me and my Paul.
"Here's the truth: McCartney was a helluva music man who gave the band its energy, but he also ran away with a lot of the glory."
During his interview with the Telegraph, Garfunkel also calls Simon a "jerk" and agrees with the interviewer that the You Can Call Me Al singer has a Napoleon complex, linked to short people hooked on power.
Despite his comments, Garfunkel, who last toured with Simon in 2010, is open to another Simon & Garfunkel tour: "Will I do another tour with Paul? Well, that's quite do-able. As far as this half is concerned, why not?"
I can’t visualize either of them (and I checked out their photo at the link) plus I can’t name or remember any of their songs, except that I didn’t like any of them.
I heard them long ago live. He had an amazing voice.
I preferred Ektachrome, but I took a lot of Kodachrome as well—with an Agfa camera. I now have two Nikons—a D200 DSLR and a Coolpix L4 point-and-shoot.
We’d like to know a little bit about you for our files
We’d like to help you learn to help yourself.
Look around you all you see are sympathetic eyes,
Stroll around the grounds until you feel at home.
Beautiful song.
“Now it looks like there may not be any film cameras or films before long.”
I’ve got a couple of cameras and a few rolls of film in my closet that I haven’t looked at in years. They’ll be on the future version of “Antiques Roadshow” I hope.
I guess short people are popular song writers.
KWIZ, at 1480 kcs out of Santa Ana, Calif. spliced out that word when they played "Kodachrome."
Back around 1970, my girlfriend’s favorite song was “Bridge Over Troubled Waters”. Looking back I don’t really know why I dated her. She was sort of cute tho.
One of the Mississippi State football players later told me she was president of Chi Omega there. Don’t know if he was right or not tho.
Driven personalities often aren’t.
I’ll still love “Obvious Child” regardless of Simon’s issues.
Garfunkel recently performed in our local theatre, and my son was in the audio crew.
My son called him a number of names, most of which were related to body parts and none of which indicated any fondness of any sort for the man. While on stage, he gave a very humble self deprecating show.... especially while explaining the loss of his voice. Much of the show was speaking.... telling stories of his life.
Off stage he was incredibly difficult to work with..... one of the worst he has encountered.
Thank you.
“He admits he felt sorry for the singer/songwriter because he was so short, and adds, “That compensation gesture has created a monster.”
Lotta’ latent anger here. Art’s only kidding himself.
“They don’t write ‘em like that anymore.”
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