Vocal Gentry: Art Garfunkel 85

Art Garfunkel - I Only Have Eyes for You

Welcome back, my friends, to the OH NO! that never ends. Let's kick off November with a milestone berfday for an iconic vocalist and actor.

He's 85 today, but he must have been about 32 that day in 1973.

Of course, I'd have never heard a word of this tale, had the Simon & Garfunkel song Homeward Bound not come on my dad's favorite Sirius XM channel that time back in 2014 in the car on the way to the Fairway supermarket.

My dad told it this way, as I sat there in stunned, celebritized silence.

It happened in the old E.J. Korvette's department store -- if you're not familiar, think a slightly less trashy K-Mart -- in Douglaston, Queens.... not coincidentally the hometown of our hero.

See, my parents used to take us kids there (and other boring, no-fun-for-kids places like Orbach's and Fortunoff's in the Roosevelt Field mall) for dreadful, days-long shopping excursions.

Korvette's was one of the cooler spots, as it had this glass-walled, separate vinyl record room with millions of LPs just waiting for 7-year-old Joshy to scour. Yes, I was a Music Freak even then.

This particular event took place, according to my pops, in the summer of 1973. I was out of school and my little brother was home with my mom, as he remembered it.

We got to the store about 1pm and he let me off, as he always did, on my own at the Record Room. Then he went off to do his stuff and returned to collect me, as he recalled the time lapse, roughly half an hour later.

When he had left me there, there were just two people in the room: the guy behind the counter and me. When he came back, there was one more.

The new guy approached my father as I hungrily bashed through the bins and said to him, as they shook hands, "You must be a great parent. Your son sure seems to love music." And then the dude walked out.

My dad, obviously a huge fan and stunned out of his shoes, grabbed me and off we went. When, decades hence, I incredulously pounded the dashboard and implored him as to why he had never told me about the time Art Garfunkel -- born this day in 1941 -- and I were record shopping together, he simply said, "I dunno, it just never came up!"

Art Garfunkel

Artpark

Lewiston, NY

8.29.1994

01 Kathy's Song

02 A Heart In New York

03 (What A) Wonderful World

04 Homeward Bound

05 American Tune

06 I Only Have Eyes for You

07 Skywriter

08 Scarborough Fair

09 A Poem On the Underground Wall

10 The Water Is Wide

11 Cecilia

12 El Condor Pasa (If I Could)

13 All I Know

14 Mrs. Robinson

15 Bridge Over Troubled Water

16 The 59th Street Bridge Song (Feelin' Groovy)

17 April Come She Will

18 The Sound of Silence

Total time: 1:13:46

Art Garfunkel - vocals

Eric Weisberg - guitar

Richie "Gajate" Garcia - drums & percussion

David Biglin - synthesizers, percussion & vocals

Craig Doerge - keyboards

Bob Glaub - bass

Kim Cermak - vocals & percussion

mono soundboard cassette capture of indeterminate origin

edited, repaired & remastered by EN, November 2026
324 MB FLAC/direct link

OK, was that a fun storytime? If that damn song hadn't come on the box, I'd have never known it had happened. Thanks Dad... you were a great parent, at least with a turntable and a stack o'wax to occupy the mind!

I told this story at his funeral, rest his soul and my poor baby bro's too. And, oh yes... before I forget. A most Happy 85th birthday to the Maestro Arthur Ira Garfunkel from Douglaston! Long may he scrape the corners of Queens for the finest LPs.--J.