Old Friends

On January 19, 2012 I attended a multimedia presentation tracing the career of Simon & Garfunkel by legendary New York rock and roll disc jockey Pete Fornatale. The event, which was titled “How Terribly Strange to be 70,” was held before a capacity crowd of about 300 people at the Budarz Theater inside the Ossining Public Library.

Mr. Fornatale, who graduated from Fordham University in 1967, played video clips of the famous duo, both of whom turned 70 recently. The title was taken from one of their songs, Old Friends, from their Bookends album: “Can you imagine us years from today, sharing a parkbench quietly. How terribly strange to be seventy.”

Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel met when they were students at a Forest Hills, Queens high school and began singing together in the early 60s as “Tom and Jerry.” By 1965 they had a number one single, “The Sounds of Silence” under their real names. Towards the end of the decade, Fornatale was teaching English at a Catholic high school (“in order to avoid the draft,” he admitted). One day he read the poem Richard Corey to his students. They were unimpressed. The next day, he brought in a Simon & Garfunkel album and played their musical version of the poem. From that day forward, Fornatale said, he had the attention of his students, one of whom was Mike Francessa, the radio “sports pope.”

After the video clips, Mr. Fornatale introduced a special guest – Art Garfunkel himself. Garfunkel had been having throat trouble for about a year and wanted to practice singing before a live audience. I was sitting in the front row, having arrived late and been fortunate enough to snag one of the new seats that were set up in front to accommodate the overflow crowd. Accompanied by someone on piano and another fellow on guitar, Garfunkel sang about six songs, but sadly, his voice was that of a 70 year old man with a throat condition. He also looked like a 70 year old man. The top of his head, which once sported a white man’s afro, was now bald and the hair on either side was short. He wore sneakers, jeans and a white dress shirt that was not tucked in, presumably to cover his moderate stomach paunch.

Fornatale had quoted James Taylor, who said that the secret of life was enjoying the passage of time.

To that I might add, “and remembering the good times.”

Being 70 may be inevitable, but reveling in it is not much fun.