Simon & Garfunkel

by Spencer Leigh

  There are close to 100 musicians on The Rhythm of the Saints. They include the blues guitarist J. J. Cale, Ringo Starr (name misspelt on the sleeve and playing guitar but it must be him) and Ladysmith Black Mambazo. Take ‘Proof’, which Roy Halee likened to the United Nations. The Cameroonian rhythm section was cut live in Paris, and Simon added some horn players. Back in New York he added a South African bass player, an American drummer and an accordion player from New Orleans. Then it went back to Brazil for more percussion. After that, the tape was taken to New York for female singers from Cameroon and a shaker player from New York, Ya Yo. After all that, Paul Simon put on his vocal.

  The reviews for The Rhythm of the Saints were good but some critics saw it as Graceland-lite or Graceland Jr. None of them said that it was better. In the US, The Rhythm of the Saints went to No. 4 and was on the charts for twenty-six weeks. The Rhythm of the Saints was a No. 1 album in the UK and ‘The Obvious Child’ made No. 15.

  Simon dropped one song, ‘Thelma’ from the album, feeling that listeners would be tired by the time they got to it. Enough was enough. He might be right but it was an attractive song about childbirth which deserved to be heard, perhaps with a softer arrangement. He recorded a duet of ‘Vendedor de Sonhos (Dream Merchant)’ with the Brazilian singer and composer Milton Nascimento, a song that Nascimento performed on TV with James Taylor.

  I was half expecting Simon’s next album to be made in Cuba as that would have been logical, but then he might have run into Ry Cooder. The interest in world music was intensifying and one could imagine a comedy sketch in which Paul Simon, Ry Cooder, David Byrne and Sting found themselves in the same location.

  The singer and guitarist Ry Cooder has worked with many musical cultures. Talking Timbuktu, his 1994 album with Ali Farka Touré, is well known and three years later, he created a phenomenon by releasing Buena Vista Social Club, largely featuring elderly Cuban musicians. These musicians toured in various combinations in Britain and America and the original album, which sold three million, was followed by several others. Ry Cooder made a telling remark which could easily have been said by Paul Simon: ‘The music is alive and is not just some museum we have stumbled upon.’

  In 1989 Paul Simon was one of the collaborators on Joan Baez’s album Speaking of Dreams and together they sang a delightful medley of ‘Rambler Gambler’ and ‘Whispering Bells’ with instrumentation similar to Graceland.

  In August 1991 Simon gave his own solo Concert in the Park with a seventeen-piece band. Many of the old favourites were there but he had rearranged them to accommodate the African and South American musicians. This didn’t always improve on the songs because ‘America’ was perfection anyway. They performed an extended version of ‘Diamonds on the Soles of Her Shoes’. The following year Paul performed in the MTV Unplugged series, although he happened to be very plugged. The set included a strange, jazzy arrangement of ‘Bridge Over Troubled Water’.

  Both Paul and Art had cameo roles, as Simple Simon and Georgie Porgie, in a TV movie, Mother Goose’s Rock ’n’ Rhyme, which featured Shelley Duvall, Cyndi Lauper, Slim Jim Phantom, Van Dyke Parks and Debbie Harry. It’s good to see Little Richard whooping it up but his song is nonsense, and the best thing about Paul Simon’s performance is his snatch of Willie Nelson’s ‘On the Road Again’. I found it lamentable but then it was made for young children.

  Art performed Randy Newman’s ‘Texas Girl at the Funeral of her Father’ on The Tonight Show. He performed a graduation song, ‘We’ll Never Say Goodbye’, for the film Sing and a beautiful choral version of ‘O Come All Ye Faithful’ for the multi-artists collection Acoustic Christmas. In June 1990, Art performed at an outdoor rally to promote democracy in Bulgaria with 1.4m people attending, said to be the largest live audience ever.

  In 1994 it was me and Julio as Garfunkel and Iglesias performed the Everly Brothers’ ‘Let It Be Me’ for Julio’s album Crazy. The stilted English of the Everlys’ version was because it was a translation of a French song. Iglesias’ European accent sounded right in context.

  In 1997 Art with a male chorus sang Eric Idle’s ‘Always Look On the Bright Side’ on the soundtrack for the Jack Nicholson film As Good as it Gets. In 1998 he was a narrating moose who sang a bit on the cartoon series Arthur.

  In 1990 Simon and Garfunkel were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. They sang ‘Bridge Over Troubled Water’ and ‘The Boxer’ together. In 1992 he and Paul played a charity show at the Brooks Atkinson Theatre in New York to benefit the terminally ill. Another one-time duo, the comedians Mike Nichols and Elaine May, were on the bill.

  Paul Simon’s new relationship was with the singer and songwriter Edie Brickell (pronounced Bree-kell) from Oak Cliff, Texas. When she was a waitress in Dallas she had sung with the New Bohemians and things had taken off from there. Their 1988 album Shooting Rubberbands at the Stars was No. 4 in the States and they had a Top 10 single with ‘What I Am’. Their second album, Ghost of a Dog, was a Top 40 album. They toured with Bob Dylan, Don Henley and the Grateful Dead, and appeared on Saturday Night Live which is where she met Paul Simon. They were married on 30 May 1992. Their first son, Adrian, was born later that year.

  Simon and Halee co-produced a solo CD for Edie called Picture Perfect Morning in 1994 with a single of ‘Good Times’. Simon played acoustic guitar on several tracks and guest musicians included Art and Cyril Neville, Dr John and Steve Gadd plus, strangely, the deep vocal tones of Barry White. The stellar musicians are framing the songs rather than overshadowing them.

  In 1992 Simon and Garfunkel gave a series of twenty-one concerts at the Paramount Theatre in New York called The Concert of a Lifetime, which featured Phoebe Snow, the Mighty Clouds of Joy and Ladysmith Black Mambazo. By now Ladysmith were enjoying international success and had their own popularity through ‘African Alphabet’ and ‘Put Down the Duckie’ on Sesame Street. In the UK, in 1997, they were used to sell Heinz Baked Beans. In 1999 they recorded a beautiful, a cappella medley of ‘Amazing Grace’ and ‘Nearer My God to Thee’, arranged by Paul Simon with the group.

  From now on, you might be in virgin territory. We have now covered all the Simon and Garfunkel tracks, both individually and collectively, that the public know. Both Simon and Garfunkel have recorded solo albums since 1990 but, until 2016 there have been no hit singles or hit albums to speak of. What has gone so dramatically wrong, and are there good tracks which should be recognised? What have Simon and Garfunkel being doing for the past twenty-five years?

  Art was concentrating on family life; his son James Arthur was born in December 1990. He played a concert in Japan in 1992 and introduced James to the audience. Whether James wanted it or not, he was in the spotlight as he was pictured with Art on the cover of his next album. He presumably wanted it as he has often appeared with his father since then.

  Garfunkel sang the theme for the TV series Brooklyn Bridge, which was written by Marvin Hamlisch and he then recorded Hoagy Carmichael’s ‘Two Sleepy People’ for the baseball film A League of Their Own, with Tom Hanks and Madonna and directed by his old flame Penny Marshall. James Taylor and Billy Joel also recorded oldies for the soundtrack.

  The director Jennifer Chambers Lynch made an erotic, surreal film, Boxing Helena, in 1993, which was on a par with anything her father David Lynch did. It tells of a surgeon who has fallen out with his girlfriend but then holds her captive by amputating her limbs. This is entertainment? Art Garfunkel had a small role as one of the other doctors in the film.

  Garfunkel had already released a solo compilation and his new CD in 1993, Up ’Til Now, was a curious affair. The thirteen tracks included a comic recording of a radio promotion with Paul Simon for a concert tour. There is an outtake from Scissors Cut, ‘One Less Holiday’, written by Stephen Bishop; an early take of ‘All I Know’; and a great live version of ‘Skywriter’ with Jimmy Webb from the Royal Albert Hall in 1988, a song that Webb had written about Garfunkel. Said Art, ‘Jimmy wrote it with my life in mind, so it’s auto
biographical.’ (No, it’s biographical. This from a man who has read the dictionary.) ‘I did it recently at the Royal Albert Hall and we recorded it there with Nicky Hopkins on piano. It is a really meaty, new Jimmy Webb song, very romantic with a lot about my private pain.’

  The real gems are two tracks that Art recorded with James Taylor in March 1993, the Everly Brothers’ sublime ‘Crying In the Rain’ and Tommy Edwards’ ‘It’s All in the Game’. Paul Simon loved James Taylor as well, saying, ‘With James Taylor, I think of his songs as part of the package – he has a very pleasant voice and he sings very well.’

  So far I haven’t mentioned the walk, really because I didn’t want to bore the pants off you. This in a nutshell is it. In 1984 Art Garfunkel determined to walk across America. He started from New York and went through to Portland, Oregon, which is over 4,000 miles but he was doing it in 200-mile stages in twelve years. He talked to people along the way but he was not Bill Bryson: he never wrote a book or made a TV series about it, he did it for the pleasure of walking and the joy of getting to know America. Had Paul’s song spurred him into action? He must have sung it many times as he walked along.

  Art celebrated the end of the journey with two shows in the Registry Hall at Ellis Island, New York Harbor, condensed to an album called Across America. James Taylor joined him for ‘Crying In the Rain’ and Jimmy Webb for ‘All I Know’. Art recorded his first Beatles song, ‘I Will’ from the White Album, and there is a new ballad from John Bucchino, ‘Grateful’ about being appreciative for what you’ve got. The CD ends with the doo-wop lullaby ‘Goodnight, My Love’.

  Synthesizers were used for strings and the cutbacks might have extended to Art’s wardrobe. I know how the press makes fun of Jeremy Corbyn’s wardrobe, but how could a major star go out in loose tie, shirt outside his jeans, and a waistcoat? Still, his hair was less eccentric than usual.

  Most tellingly of all, Art sings ‘Homeward Bound’ but with a change in the lyric. He now says, ‘All his words come back to me in shades of mediocrity.’ Ouch! Who said that there were only fifty ways to leave your lover?

  Art brought out Kim and James for ‘Feelin’ Groovy’ which was well received on the night but it was ridiculous to put it on the CD. Considering how meticulous Garfunkel normally is about getting the sound right, it is odd that he succumbed to such self-indulgence.

  Meanwhile Paul was working with one of his heroes from the 50s, Carl Perkins, and the result was a fascinating song, ‘Rockabilly Music’, written by both of them. It is a celebration of the 1950s but combined with the sound of Graceland, but then the title track of that album was about visiting Elvis’s home. The musicians on the track included Harper Simon (guitar) and Stan Perkins (drums), two musical sons.

  In 1997 Art released a whole album, dedicated to Kim and James, although it was called, somewhat confusingly, Songs from a Parent to a Child. The songs were chosen to take you through the course of a day. The family likeness between father and son is spooky and James is even dressed in white shirt, waistcoat and jeans. This time round James sings the first verse of Elvis Presley’s ‘Good Luck Charm’. In 2005 Kim made her cabaret debut in New York to a standing ovation, so watch this space.

  The packaging and the concept of the album turned me off at the time and it was the first Garfunkel album that I hadn’t pursued. However, I heard a BBC broadcast of a concert from the London Palladium and heard Garfunkel singing a remarkable song about genetics, ‘The Things We’ve Handed Down’, by Marc Cohn. The lyric is so perceptive and so original that I am surprised that this has not found as big an audience as ‘Walking in Memphis’. Incidentally, Garfunkel thanked the audience for making it to the Palladium and not being misled by Garfunkel’s restaurant next door.

  The CD included yet another title from the Everly Brothers, ‘Who’s Gonna Shoe Your Pretty Little Feet?’, James Taylor’s ‘Secret O’ Life’ and the Lovin’ Spoonful’s ‘Daydream’ with John Sebastian playing guitar and harmonica and whistling. There’s a bit of Motown (‘You’re a Wonderful One’ with Billy Preston and Merry Clayton), a bit of Disney (‘Baby Mine’ from Dumbo), some country (Mary Chapin Carpenter’s ‘Dreamland’), a hymn (‘Morning Has Broken’ in the Cat Stevens setting) and Jimmy Webb’s arrangements of ‘Lasso the Moon’, first recorded by Steve Amerson, and a combination of ‘The Lord’s Prayer’ with ‘Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep’. It’s not my sort of album but it’s a good one.

  CHAPTER 14

  The Capeman

  The Story

  Abandoned by his father, Salvador Agron was born in Mayagüez, Puerto Rico on 24 April 1943. His mother Esmeralda worked in a poor house run by nuns, earning eight dollars a week, and he and his sister Aurea were raised there. He showed no interest in schoolwork.

  When his mother remarried, the family came to New York but he was mocked at school for being illiterate and then sent to an institution for disturbed children. At night he would see demons in his room and he was always hearing voices.

  His stepfather was abusive and he sought solace with his older sister who had moved to Manhattan. When he visited her he fell in with a street gang called the Vampires. He found a nurse’s black cape and they called him the Capeman. When one of the Vampires was attacked by the Norsemen from Hell’s Kitchen, Sal and his friend Tony Hernandez sought vengeance. On 30 August 1959, Sal borrowed a knife and off they went.

  They made a mistake and attacked two innocent adolescents. Sal set to with his knife and killed them. Bystanders told the police of this boy with the black cape and red lining and in early September he was arrested. His guilt was never in question and he became the youngest criminal in New York to be sentenced to death. He said, ‘I don’t care if I burn. My mother could watch me.’

  The president’s wife, Eleanor Roosevelt, pleaded on his behalf and in 1962 Governor Nelson Rockefeller commuted his sentence to life imprisonment. He was locked up and he became a model prisoner. He learnt to read and write. He studied philosophy and he wrote poetry. In 1979 he was released on remand. He died at home on 22 April 1986 from a heart attack.

  Can you look at that story and say this could be a hit musical? It’s a tragic story with some redemption but where are the spots for the showstoppers? Furthermore, you are asking the audience to sympathise with a murderer. Maybe it would work as an arts centre musical but thinking in terms of a Broadway blockbuster was muddled thinking and ultimately madness.

  The Musical

  Simon remembered the newspaper stories very well and he saw how this could be a musical. He could explore his doo-wop heritage and he could incorporate Latin rhythms and gospel, thus making it a logical follow-up to The Rhythm of the Saints. It would be the third of his cross-cultural mixes.

  While Simon had been working on The Rhythm of the Saints, he had been impressed by the work of the Caribbean poet Derek Walcott from St Lucia. He was a Nobel Prize winner with theatrical experience and Simon asked him if he would like to be involved. Starting in 1993 Simon spent many days at Walcott’s home and they wrote over thirty songs for the show, as they wanted to explore many different angles. One song, ‘Virgil’, was from the point of view of a prison guard and Simon bought some gun magazines before he wrote the lyric.

  They appreciated the main problem. How could they have a killer at the centre of the show, someone who couldn’t possibly be sympathetic until he was redeemed? One possibility would be flashbacks, but they chose a curious route. Sal would be played at different ages by Latin American singer Marc Anthony and salsa star Rubén Blades. But how could an audience build any sympathy for a character if he kept morphing?

  Simon enjoyed writing the musical but he hated securing the investment. Schmoozing wasn’t for him but he had to do it and $7m was raised. When a backer pulled out, Simon increased his own investment to $2m but expenses escalated. The British stage designer Bob Crowley came up with some great ideas but the sets were way ahead of the budget and additional money had to be found. The final expenditure was $11m.

 
They chose a relatively new theatre, the Marquis, which had opened in 1986 with a short season by Shirley Bassey and could seat 1,500. Up to that point, the theatre had specialised in old-time musicals – Me and My Girl, Man of La Mancha and the baseball musical Damn Yankees, which marked the Broadway debut of Jerry Lewis.

  If The Capeman was a hit, it could be in profit within six months. Simon had the veto for the cast and the creative team and he was to sack the first two directors. He then asked the choreographer Mark Morris, who had no Broadway experience, to direct. Hence, the three key figures – Simon, Walcott and Morris – had no first-hand experience of Broadway.

  Simon determined that as these were his songs, he would record them and a cast album could follow later. The CD, Songs from The Capeman, was released in December 1997 and featured thirteen songs. Simon sang most of them and played several parts but he brought in three actors (Blades, Anthony and Ednita Nazario) in subsidiary roles. The result is confusing and anyone listening without the lyric sheet would be lost.

  Individually, some songs are great, but on the whole they are narrative songs. Simon regarded ‘Bernadette’ as his best song since ‘Graceland’ and said it had been influenced by the Cleftones. It’s very good but I prefer the fast and furious ‘Quality’ in which girls are discussing a teen idol. The mother’s plea, ‘Can I Forgive Him’, takes us back to the folk songs that Simon was writing in the mid-60s. ‘Trailways Bus’ is about a journey through America, and the comparison with ‘America’ is inevitable.

  The album had good reviews but the critics didn’t see hit singles. If Simon had written a huge blockbuster ballad, it might have made a difference. On the other hand, it would have been out of character for someone to suddenly belt out a new ‘Bridge Over Troubled Water’, but that’s the way musicals often are. Look at West Side Story, also set amongst the gangs of New York: is it really believable that they would have sung ‘Tonight’ and ‘Somewhere’ and that nobody spoke any bad language? Times had moved on but the language in The Capeman was as outlandish as gangsta rap and it wasn’t right for Broadway musicals. In short, the show wasn’t for coach parties and theatre groups.