What Is It All But Luminous (Notes From an Underground Man) is the title of the forthcoming memoir from Art Garfunkel, the golden-voiced half of the massively popular duo Simon and Garfunkel. He’ll be doing a book tour for the title coming via Penguin Random House on Sept 26. (See dates below.)
A press release for the book states: “From the golden-haired, curly-headed half of Simon & Garfunkel–a memoir (of sorts): artful, moving, lyrical; the making of a musician; the evolution of a man, a portrait of a life-long friendship and collaboration that became one of the most successful singing duos of their time.”
The blurb continues: “Art Garfunkel writes about his life before, during, and after Simon & Garfunkel … about their folk-rock music in the roiling age that embraced and was defined by their pathbreaking sound. He writes about growing up in the 1940s and ’50s (son of a traveling salesman), a middle class Jewish boy, living in a red brick semi-attached house in Kew Gardens, Queens, a kid who was different–from the age of five feeling his vocal cords ‘vibrating with the love of sound’ … meeting Paul Simon in school, the funny guy who made Art laugh; their going on to junior high school together, of being twelve at the birth of rock ’n’ roll, both of them ‘captured” by it; going to a recording studio in Manhattan to make a demo of their song, “Hey Schoolgirl’ (for $7!) and the actual record (with Paul’s father on bass) going to #40 on the national charts, selling 150,000 copies.”
Related: When “Mrs. Robinson” went to #1
Finally, it says, Garfunkel “writes about their becoming Simon & Garfunkel, taking the world by storm, ruling the pop charts from the time he was sixteen, about not being a natural performer, but more a thinker … touring; sex-for-thrills on the road, reading or walking to calm down (walking across two continents–the USA and Europe). He writes of being an actor working with directors Nicolas Roeg (Bad Timing) and Mike Nichols (‘the greatest of them all’) … getting his masters in mathematics at Columbia; choosing music over a PhD; his slow unfolding split with Paul and its aftermath; learning to perform on his own, giving a thousand concerts worldwide, his voice going south (a stiffening of one vocal cord) and working to get it back … about being a husband, a father and much more.”
Pre-order the 256-page hardcover book here.
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The singer has added new concert dates into spring 2018. For tickets go here.
Art Garfunkel Tour Dates
Book Tour
Sep 25 – Doylestown, PA – Doylestown Books
Sep 26 – New York, NY – Barnes & Noble
Sep 27 – Cambridge, MA – Brattle Theater
Sep 28 – New York, NY – 92nd St. Y
Oct 02 – Washington, DC – Politics & Prose at St. Paul’s Church
Oct 04 – Dallas, TX – Highland Park Public Library
Oct 06 – St. Louis, MO – St. Louis County Library
Oct 09 – Seattle, WA – Neptune Theatre
Oct 11 – San Francisco, CA – Castro Theater
Oct 13 – Los Angeles, CA – Scripps Institute @ Grand Perforances
Oct 15 – Miami, FL – Books & Books at Miami Dade College
Concert Tour
Sep 11-12 City Winery New York, NY
Oct 26-27 City Winery Boston, MA
Oct 28 Stadium Theater PAC Woonsocket, RI
Nov 6 Shi Kyoiku Bunka Kaikan Sapporo, Japan
Nov 8 Kyra Hall Morioka, Japan
Nov 10 Tohoku Gakuen Kawauchi Hagi Hall Sendai, Japan
Nov 13 Aster Plaza Hall Hiroshima, Japan
Nov 14 Archaic Hall Osaka, Japan
Nov 16-17 Orchard Hall Tokyo, Japan
Jan 25 The Palladium Carmel, IN
Jan 26 Mendel Center Benton Harbor, MI
Mar 9 Elgin Community College Arts Center Elgin, IL
Mar 10 Wentz Concert Hall Naperville, IL
Apr 17 Gallo Center for the Arts Modesto, CA
Apr 19 Fox Theatre Redwood City, CA
Apr 20 Golden State Theatre Monterey, CA
Apr 21 The Uptown Theatre Napa, CA
Watch Art Garfunkel sing “Kathy’s Song” and “Bridge over Troubled Water”
