Art Garfunkel

Greatly Appreciated

ART GARFUNKEL
 
 
Art Garfunkel  (born November 5, 1941) is an American singer, poet and actor.  He partnered in his earlier years with Paul Simon in the folk rock duo Simon & Garfunkel.  Highlights of his solo music career include a top 10 hit, three top 20 hits, six top 40 hits, 14 Adult Contemporary top 30 singles, five Adult Contemporary number ones, two UK number ones and a People’s Choice Award.  Through his solo and collaborative work, Garfunkel has earned six Grammys, including the Lifetime Achievement Award.  In 1990, he and former musical partner Paul Simon were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.  (More from Wikipedia)
 
 

Anyway, in its initial release in October 1964Wednesday Morning, 3 A.M. was unsuccessful, possibly overshadowed by the Beatles.  Of one song on the album, “The Sounds of Silence” – performed acoustically, like all the rest – Art Garfunkel wrote in the liner notes:  “‘The Sounds of Silence’ is a major work.  We were looking for a song on a larger scale, but this is more than either of us expected.” 

 

Wikipedia describes what happened next:  “On June 15, 1965, immediately after the recording session of ‘Like a Rolling Stone’, [Tom] Wilson took the original acoustically instrumented track of Simon and Garfunkel’s 1964 version [of The Sounds of Silence], and overdubbed the recording with electric guitar (played by Al Gorgoni and Vinnie Bell), electric bass (Joe Mack), and drums (Buddy Saltzman), and released it as a single without consulting [Paul] Simon or [Art] Garfunkel.  The lack of consultation with Simon and Garfunkel on Wilson’s re-mix was because, although still contracted to Columbia Records at the time, the musical duo at that time was no longer a ‘working entity’.  Roy Halee was the recording engineer, who in spirit with the success of the Byrds and their success formula in folk rock, introduced an echo chamber effect into the song.  Al Gorgoni later would reflect that this echo effect worked well on the finished recording, but would dislike the electric guitar work they technically superimposed on the original acoustic piece.” 

 

(June 2013/2)

 

Last edited: March 22, 2021