Arts council

Art Garfunkel (83) is on the phone singing “Old Friends” to his son, Art Garfunkel Jr (33). “The old men,” he whispers, easing into a gentle croon, “lost in their overcoats, waiting for the sun. You know the little niceties, Junior? One of us sings ‘waiting for the sun’. The other sings ‘waiting for the sunset’…” Art Sr slides into the melody again: “The sounds of the city/ Sifting through trees…”

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The voice is more seasoned than on Simon & Garfunkel’s 1968 LP, Bookends. Art Sr is singing to illustrate how the words have acquired a new inference on Garfunkel & Garfunkel’s collaborative album, Father And Son. “It’s challenging in the middle-eight,” Art Sr admits. “I won’t go for it now”.

“Sharing a park bench quietly,” sings Art Jr, a high tenor coming down the line from Germany, “how terribly strange”.

“Easy for you to sing,” says Art Sr.

It is a disorienting thing, listening to this father and son. The voice that sounds like Art Garfunkel is Junior’s; Art Sr’s singing has acquired what his son calls “a rounder, golden, warm tone”. Their album is an orchestrated exercise in reframed nostalgia, mixing Art Jr’s 1980s favourites with the songs that inspired his dad. Art Jr has enjoyed success in Germany as a schlager singer, rendering Simon & Garfunkel songs in German. Father And Son aims to expand his audience.

Representing Jr are Eurythmics’ “Here Comes The Rain Again” and Cyndi Lauper’s “Time After Time”. The melancholic tone of “Time After Time” is, says Art Jr, a result of thinking about “the meaning of life and the value of time together”.

“Don’t say ‘the meaning of life’,’ says Art Sr. “It’s too great.”

Art Jr’s musical education came via oldies tapes compiled by his father. “I made sure he knew Little Richard,” says Art Sr. “Jerry Lee Lewis, Fats Domino. He knew early R’n’B from my records, I never gave him classical. I never showed him Debussy.”

Art Sr’s request for the album was Nat King Cole’s “Nature Boy”. “I love this melody, it kills me,” Art Sr says, launching into the verse. “There was a boy/ A very strange enchanted boy…”

“Alright, so you like the song,” says Art Jr.

“I got a little carried away,” replies Art Sr. “I tell you what. I’ll be the pinball machine and you just jam it when it’s time for the flippers to play.”

There is, of course, an imbalance in the relationship between father and son, caused by Art Sr’s fame, and his uneasy relationship to it. “You used to say, ‘Daddy, does everybody in the world know who you are?’ And my answer to you was: ‘about half’.”

“I thought, ‘Wow! What an incredible amount’,” says Art Jr. “And I guess those figures are probably spot on.”

Fame, says Art Sr, “throws every day into improvisation. What will you do with the days? My profession, and being on the star trip, has made me feel like real life is the shows and the records, and everything else is backstage waiting to go on, smoking imaginary cigarettes.”

Would he welcome a Simon & Garfunkel reunion? “I’m at a stage with Paul Simon where I miss him. I haven’t spoken to him in quite a while, and I have no idea why not. But Paul Simon is a very funny man who plays beautiful rhythm guitar.”

“When you say funny, I think you’re saying he has a great sense of humour,” says Art Jr.

“That’s what I mean,” confirms Art Sr. “I would be interested.”

Father And Son is available on BMG

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