SHAME ON YOU, ART GARFUNKEL !

He's not my favorite of the duo. I've always considered Paul Simon one of the genius poets/songwriters of my generation. I would run down South Salina Street buck naked for a chance to see Paul Simon in concert....well, maybe. When friends invited us to see Art Garfunkel in concert, we said, yeah, ok, why not? And it wasn't horrible. His voice was good most of the time. The songs were familiar and after awhile you got used to the lack of Simon harmony. He developed a rapport with the audience at first. The band was good. We settled in for a nice evening.

And then he read a prose poem from his new book, a clear reminder to me that he's still out there singing Simon and Garfunkel songs because he's NOT a writer after all. I wanted to say, "Just sing, Art. Sing another song."

He didn't. "What are those noises?" he asked, glaring over the top of his reading glasses into the audience. I wasn't sure if it was a part of the disjointed prose poem he was reading or not at first, until I heard the noises, too. He continued with the reading. Then he stopped and made another comment. "Is everything alright over there?" A couple more comments like that came from him before someone in the front row told him where the "noises" were coming from.

Art Garfunkel stood at the microphone, holding his book up, peering over his glasses and said, "I try to be kind to the handicapped, but I'm trying to put on a show here." Now, if you'll imagine the sound of a dozen Catholic nuns cracking wooden rulers down on desks, you'll get the tone of his voice as he delivered this message to his audience just about right.

He continued reading his insipid verse from his little book while the "noise maker" was wheeled out of the audience, the clanging of the door echoing in the room behind them, changing the mood for the remainder of the show, completely ruining the version of Mary Chapin-Carpenter's "Dreamland" that he sang next. (You owe MCC an apology, too, Artie.) And every song that followed the departure of the "noise makers" rang false; Art sang the wrong lyrics to "Mrs. Robinson" and "Sounds of Silence", although I doubted that he was feeling the least bit guilty for his bad behavior. He was simply rushing through the songs to get off the stage.

I hope the Turning Stone Casino refunded that customer's money. I hope that "Bridge Over Troubled Waters" wasn't the only song that once put that child to sleep and the family hadn't saved pennies to be able to hear the song sung live just once. I hope the Turning Stone Casino never invites Art Garfunkel back to perform. I hope you never buy his book or CD.

The arrogance, the ego.

My husband put it best......we saw Paul Simon's back up singer last night.