Some Enchanted Evening - Art Garfunkel

When I was in middle school, my dad introduced me to a remarkable invention known as the Internet. I was enthralled, but though we had a computer, I never got online much in the next few years unless I had a research paper that needed a few more sources. Then, just at the tail end of high school, I got my own e-mail address and started wading into the unfamiliar waters of the Internet. Half a year later, I discovered Epinions, which probably more than anything else is what brought my online activity to something far beyond e-mailing relatives and close friends. But if there is one other website to which I can attribute my current level of addiction, it's www.artgarfunkel.com.

I became a frequenter of the site in spring of 2000 when the general love of Simon and Garfunkel that I'd harbored for about ten years developed into an unwieldy obsession with the second half of that duo. Art's website provided me with pages upon pages of interviews and articles, and in the Guest Book I found that I was not alone, even in my hip generation, in my admiration for the man. When I had the fortune of meeting him later that year, it cemented him as my favorite living singer and his site as an indispensable haven. It was through this site that I formed my first online friendship; many more followed when the webmaster added a message board.

Beyond that, fellow fans came out of the woodwork in every corner of the Internet I visited. I once felt almost entirely isolated in my fandom, with only my immediate family and a few stray friends sharing my appreciation while the vast majority looked at me funny if I brought up my favorite duo, let alone Art by himself. But venturing online has opened up a world of kindred spirits, folks every bit as obsessed as I am with this tender tenor, and so when I realized my thousandth posting here on Epinions was looming, I could think of no better way in which to celebrate it than by reviewing Art Garfunkel's new album, Some Enchanted Evening.

It's a shame that the general public does not find Art nearly as enchanting as I do, as evidenced by the fact that two stores I visited today didn't even get the album, and when I did find it at Best Buy, the employee informed me that it was the only copy they'd received. Art Garfunkel simply does not seem to be in high demand; in fact, more people than I'd like to recall have mused that they thought he was dead, or at least that he'd stopped making music decades ago. Gah! The poor guy has been just as busy as his more highly regarded former singing partner, but barely anyone pays any attention. His last album was entitled Everything Waits to Be Noticed; he's still waiting.

But among his core group of loyal fans, this latest album comes highly anticipated, with tantalizing hints coming along from time to time until we finally were afforded a glimpse of its contents. When I saw that the theme was to be songs Art grew up with, I hoped fervently for Unchained Melody, a recording I've longed for since I heard him sing a few seconds of it on Across America. Alas, when the track listing arrived, that song was absent, but I still happily counted down the days with my fellow fans, secure in my conviction that whatever was on the album, it would be a triumph. Today, I finally got my confirmation.

1. I Remember You (Victor Schertzinger / Johnny Mercer) - Funny, I don't remember this song... Actually, while I am an oldies buff, these tunes are all a bit before my time; those that are familiar are from musicals. A search on the song reveals that this was unveiled in a 1942 film entitled The Fleet's In, but I've never heard of that, and I'm only familiar with a couple of other songs written by Mercer. At any rate, it's a good start to the album, and Art sounds right at home in this genre, his voice huskier than in years past but no less affecting. The fact that we can hear the way the years have added layers to his voice actually increases the poignancy of an album that is largely nostalgic, stepping into the songs of his youth from the other end of the spectrum.

I get the sense that this is a young love, maybe one that continues throughout a lifetime and maybe just a fleeting romance, but the youthful earnestness coupled with a wistful anticipation of the distant future makes it an ideal bookend for If I Loved You. Musically notable are the harmonica and saxophone solos (by Chris Smith and Doug Webb) and Art's harmonization with himself toward the end of the song. "When my life is through / And the angels ask me to recall / The thrill of them all / Then I shall tell them I remember you."

2. Someone To Watch Over Me (George Gershwin / Ira Gershwin) - I'm familiar with this song not because of its original context - a musical I'd never heard of called Oh, Kay! - but because of Mr. Holland's Opus, an outstanding film in which it played an integral role. The movie aside, it's a jazz standard that's been covered by dozens of artists, so I know I've heard it a number of times, most recently when Katharine McPhee performed it on American Idol last year. It seems I always hear this song performed by a female vocalist, so hearing Art sing the song with gender-alternated lyrics is a bit novel for me. "Although I may not be the man some / Girls think of as handsome / To her heart I carry the key" doesn't sit quite right with me; though it starts out with a self-deprecating air, the proclamation that he carries the key to her heart seems to negate the vulnerability of the rest of the song. So lyrically, I think this works better when sung by a woman, but vocally Art's right on target, with understated percussion and an undercurrent of strings backing him up.

3. Let’s Fall In Love (Harold Arlen / Ted Koehler) - This sprightly tune was the first of the songs from the new album available for fans to listen to on Art's MySpace page, as well as his official site. I resisted the urge, wanting to hear the song for the first time along with the rest of the album. When I came to it, I was surprised, as I was when I first heard What a Wonderful World on Watermark, because I had been expecting another song of the same title. I hadn't looked closely enough at the writing credits to notice that this was not the famous Cole Porter ditty, and I was rather disappointed because I find those lyrics quite droll, but this 1933 song has its own charms. Accentuating by a bit of smooth sax (provided by EWTBN's Maia Sharp) and a lot of rhythmic finger-snapping, it speaks of adolescent exuberance and puts me in mind of the doo-woppish So Much in Love from Lefty. "Let's fall in love. / Why shouldn't we fall in love? / Now is the time for it / While we are young. / Let's fall in love."

4. I’m Glad There Is You (Paul Madeira / Jimmy Dorsey) - There's a just-shy-of-minor tone to this that is highly reminiscent of Breakaway's 99 Miles From LA. Bandleader Dorsey's presence is felt in the form of the prominent trumpet strains. The instrumentals are a little heavier here than on most tracks, giving it a rather over-the-top feel that matches the lyrics, with Art's voice serving as the treasure in the midst of many distractions. "In this world of overrated pleasures / and underrated treasures / I'm glad there is you."

5. Quiet Nights Of Quiet Stars (Corcovado) (Antonio Carlos Jobim / Gene Lees) - This moody Brazilian composition boasts a tempo that somewhat recalls Bridge Over Troubled Water's So Long, Frank Lloyd Wright. The flute and percussion carry this song along while Art puts just the right nuances into his richly textured vocals. "This is where I want to be, / Here with you so close to me / Until the final flicker of life's ember."

6. Easy Living (Leo Robin / Ralph Rainger) - Webb's smooth clarinet enhances this easy-going ode about contentedness in love. There's a slightly more mature tone to this than Let's Fall in Love but it's just as enthusiastic; it seems this could be the same guy expressing his adoration to his ladylove ten or twenty years down the line. I'll never regret the years I'm giving. / They're easy to give when you're in love. / I'm happy to do whatever I do for you."

7. I’ve Grown Accustomed To Her Face (Alan Jay Lerner / Frederick Loewe) - This also speaks of a more mature love, of affection unexpectedly born of familiarity. It's been long enough since I've seen My Fair Lady that I can't really comment on the deviations from the melody, but the general tone is very different, unabashedly warm and tender rather than self-important and exasperated like good ol' Henry Higgins. (Of course, it helps that half the lyrics, the really juicily petulant and bitter - and unapologetically in-context - ones, have been excised.)

Lullaby-like with layers of wispy vocals, it reminds me of The Things We've Handed Down, arguably my favorite track on the exquisite Songs From a Parent to a Child, in which a father-to-be muses, "We've been doing fine without you, / But we could only go so far." I suppose prior familiarity with the song and fondness for My Fair Lady has something to do with it, but this is one of my favorite tracks on this album, an exultant revelation of how love sometimes creeps up on us and takes us by surprise - in the most ordinary of ways. "I was serenely independent and content before we met; / Surely I could always be that way again - / And yet / I've grown accustomed to her look; / Accustomed to her voice; / Accustomed to her face."

8. You Stepped Out Of A Dream (Gus Kahn / Nacio Herb Brown) - I love the little brushes of chimes that surface once in a while here to give the song a celestial air. I don't know a thing about the song or its writers, but it makes me think of Rodgers and Hammerstein's Cinderella, and in particular the words, "Are you the sweet invention of a lover's dream / or are you really as beautiful as you seem?" The saxophone kicks in again to add to the dreaminess, and Art's doo-wop background vocals create a sense of nostalgia. "You / Stepped out of a cloud, / I want to take you away / Away from the crowd, / And have you all to myself, / Alone and apart. / Out of a dream / Safe into my heart."

9. Some Enchanted Evening (Richard Rodgers / Oscar Hammerstein II) - This title song features a considerably altered melody from the South Pacific version, but it really works. There's a breezy, almost calypso feel to this one, and the vastly re-worked arrangement makes it sound like a totally new song, so that there's the certain comforting sense of familiarity with the lyrics but not a trace of staleness. I really like it because it threw me for a loop, and Art's vocals have a walking-on-air quality that demonstrates that feeling of enchantment more effectively than the original. "Some enchanted evening / You may see a stranger, / You may see a stranger / Across a crowded room / And somehow you know, / You know even then / That somewhere you'll see her / Again and again."

10. It Could Happen To You (Johnny Burke / Jimmy Van Heusen) - This was another song whose title led me to expect a different tune, in this case Frank Sinatra's Young at Heart. I don't know this song, but it's another nice exuberant young romance sort of song about falling in love in spite of one's best intentions. There's a cautionary note about this that makes me think of the wise old owl's twitterpation warnings in Bambi, but we are left with the sense that falling in love probably isn't such a grim fate after all. "Keep an eye on spring, run when church bells ring. / It could happen to you. / All I did was wonder how your arms would be / And it happened to me."

11. Life Is But A Dream (Raoul Cita / Hy Weiss) - Aside from knowing the titular phrase from Row, Row, Row Your Boat, I had no prior experience with this drowsy tune, the only one on the album to feature back-up vocals from someone other than Art himself. Richard Perry, who produced this album as well as Breakaway, provides some terrific bass that contrasts Art nicely, but the vocal that really makes me sit up and pay attention is Art's super-high final note. "Life is but a dream; / It's what you make it. / Always try to give; / Don't ever take it. / Life has it's music, / Life has it's songs of love. / This one's for you."

12. What’ll I Do (Irving Berlin) - This sedate, woebegone song is driven by electric guitar and gentle percussion. It reminds me of EWTBN's Perfect Moment, which plaintively asks, "But wasn't I supposed to let you go / Into the blue? / But still I'm holding you, / Though you're a million miles away." This is a song of loss that serves as an ideal segue into the final song, which in context speaks of a lost opportunity and, evading that, serves as a precursor to another type of loss. There's a sadness to this song, but it's gentle rather than overbearing, and we get the sense that this fellow will survive outside of this relationship, however hard it may seem now. "What'll I do / When you are far away / And I am blue? / What'll I do?"

13. If I Loved You (Richard Rodgers/Oscar Hammerstein II) - I have somewhat mixed feelings about this song because I so wanted You'll Never Walk Alone to be included in this collection. Because this turned out to be a collection of love songs, that wouldn't have made much sense, but I really would love to hear Art perform that inspirational ballad, which he also mentioned on the Across America DVD as one he often sang as a schoolboy. Still, this is a remarkable song, one of three that deeply affected me when I saw Carousel at the Erie Playhouse my freshman year of high school. I soon fell into an obsession just as profound as the Art obsession that followed four years later, so this music certainly holds a special place in my heart.

Tough-guy Billy Bigelow is trying to break down and tell golden girl Julie Jordan that he loves her, but he can't stand being in such a vulnerable position and we're not sure if he's going to take the opportunity in front of him or not. It's a climactic romantic moment, and I remember the wave of nervous, almost nauseous anticipation it evoked, the same sort I felt when reading Jane Eyre as she agonized over whether to express her feelings to her mysterious boss or Frasier whenever Niles almost told Daphne he'd adored her for years. It's a weighing of risk and regret, and unfortunately it's a song Art can relate to all too well, given his hesitancy in committing completely to Laurie Bird, his ladylove throughout much of the 70s who committed suicide while he was filming the prophetically titled Bad Timing. He is, of course, very happily married now with two children, but I get the sense that it's something that still haunts him.

From the beginning, sparse acoustic guitar and an undercurrent of strings accompany Art's tentative vocals here, while some lovely legato piano comes in about halfway through. It's my favorite song on the album, and while that's partly because I liked the song a lot to begin with, it's also because it feels very intimate and it's performed exquisitely, initially with halting phrasing that melts into transcendently wistful vocals on the chorus. "Longing to tell you, / But afraid and shy, / I'd let my golden chances / Pass me by."

The packaging of the album is nice, with a sturdy cardboard case, though the liner notes leave much to be desired; there's no commentary aside from two quotes from Art: "In this album, I confess I am under the sway of two magnificent singers, Chet Baker and Johnny Mathis" and "It wasn't Monet, it was France; / It's not what we say but the dance we're in; / Therein lies the mysterious glue / In this set of songs I sing to you." That, and three photos, two showing Art in a classy suit and one featuring a close-up of his face as he gazes serenely out from a more casual position. I would've liked more, but I guess it's up to us fans to ferret out our own insights this time around. I don't know that Some Enchanted Evening will win Art many new fans, except perhaps in the over-70 demographic, but those who've grown accustomed to his rich vocal stylings will find plenty of enchantment here.

P.S. Since buying the album, I've learned that Target carries a version with an extra track, so if there's a Target near you, I'd check there first!