He’s an interesting guy, a true bibliophile, who has gone so far as to read the Random House Dictionary cover to cover.  His website contains a year-by-year listing of every book he has read since 1968.  Both the first and thousandth listings are Rousseau’s Confessions.

A left-handed multi-instrumentalist who plays violin, piano and guitar, he has walked across the United States (in increments) on several occasions, writing poetry along the way.  He has also walked across Japan and has been incrementally working on Europe since 1998.

In the early ‘60s, prior to his incredible musical success, he earned a BA in Art History followed by a Masters in Mathematics, both from Columbia University.  Then at the very peak of that commercial success he received his doctorate in Mathematics Education, also at Columbia. And yet he is best known for his voice.

Arthur Ira “Art” Garfunkel was born in Forest Hills, Queens, New York in 1941.  When bar mitzvahed he performed as cantor, singing for his family for over four hours. By this time he had already met his future singing partner, Paul Simon after they’d both been cast in the same PS 164 production of “Alice in Wonderland” as sixth graders.  As legend has it, Simon first became interested in singing after hearing Garfunkel sing “Too Young” in a school talent show and in time the two began performing together as “Tom & Jerry” at high school dances.

Eventually they would take their rocky ride as one of popular music’s great acts (Simon & Garfunkel are ranked as #40 on Rolling Stone’s list of the 100 greatest artists of all time) and although there would be numerous reunions their final album would be 1970’s Bridge Over Troubled Water. Then Garfunkel would turn to acting, starring in Catch-22 and Carnal Knowledge, for which he was nominated for a Golden Globe.  He would also turn to teaching, serving as a mathematics teacher at a private school in Connecticut.

And in 1973 he would return to singing, releasing his debut solo album Angel Clare (named after a character from Thomas Hardy’s Tess of the d’Urbervilles) which reached Number Five on the Billboard Album charts. Written and first recorded by the British Afro-pop band, Osbisa in 1971, today’s World Music selection is the eighth track on the album.

LISTEN TO TODAY’S SELECTION – Sunday 29 April 

Woyaya

 We are going, heaven knows where we are going,

We’ll know we’re there.

We will get there; heaven knows how we will get there,

We know we will.

 It will be hard we know

And the road will be muddy and rough,

But we’ll get there; heaven knows how we will get there,

We know we will.

 We are going, heaven knows where we are going,

We’ll know we’re there.