GARFUNKEL DECIDES TO FACE THE MUSIC

Art Garfunkel put his worst foot forward right away at a recent interview, showing off his sarcastic, snooty side. The singer, who is as intelligent and articulate as any artist in the business, was coming on like an uppity professor holding court with a student. He was polite, but in a gently combative way--it was like a verbal jousting session.

“You guys want to get things out of me, things I don’t necessarily want to reveal,” he said, referring to the press. “You use your assorted tricks very cleverly. A person has to be on guard.”

The Manhattan resident was in town recently to be a guest on “The Tonight Show.” After being a recluse for most of the ‘8Os, he’s looking for media attention. Primarily, he wants everyone to know that he’s been working on a new album that’s due out in late summer.

With his old partner Paul Simon in the news so much lately with his acclaimed “Graceland”’ album and tour, people have been wondering what ever happened to Garfunkel.

“I want people to know I’m out of the shell,” he explained. “I’m no dummy. If I want people to know about my album and that I’m working again, I have to play ball with the media--like it or not.”

Coolly smoking a cigarette, he was enjoying the sun and the invigorating breezes on the balcony of his Bel-Air hotel suite. Though he started off like a haughty stuffed shirt, it didn’t really take long for his warmth, affability and humor to seep through. His armor is easily pierced.

If you’re Garfunkel, maybe you learn to be aloof, defensive and combative in self defense.

Since Simon & Garfunkel emerged in the mid-’60s, it’s been open season on the man who has always been considered the expendable half of the duo.

As the songwriter, Simon was the big gun. Without him, there would be no “At the Zoo,” “Mrs. Robinson” or “Sounds of Silence.” Garfunkel, some have always charged, was along for the ride, just a guy with the frizzy hair who was great at singing wispy, angelic harmony lines.

These days, Garfunkel probably feels he’s really vulnerable to attack. Musically, he hasn’t done much this decade. His big credits are a reunion tour with Simon in the early ‘80s and a Christmas album last year with Jimmy Webb and Amy Grant that hardly anyone knows about. There’s also a minor credit--his last solo pop album, “Scissors Cut,” which was sunk by inferior material.

He also made two movies in the ‘80s, but you can’t really call him a movie star. One, “Bad Timing: A Sensual Obsession,” came out at the dawn of the decade. And no one saw the other, last year’s “Good to Go,” about a crusading reporter in Washington. Though he’s in the market for projects again, studio execs aren’t exactly banging on his door loaded down with scripts.

Assessing the end of his reclusive period, Garfunkel explained:

“I don’t like going public. But I have to. And being out there, I have to deal with the media. I have to let them take their shots at me. Hiding out was nice, but it’s time to let the world in.”

What happened to Garfunkel in the ‘80s? Apparently, the problem began in June of 1979. “I’ve had trouble getting over the death of the only woman I’ve ever loved,” he said somberly. (His 26-year-old companion, Laureen Bird, died of a drug overdose in their New York penthouse apartment.) “In the early ‘80s, things were really rough. I was really devastated. This is a key fact about where I’m at.”

In this decade, he’s spent most of his time in peaceful, reflective activities, like traveling in Europe and writing poetry. But then he started to miss making music. Recording an obscure Christmas album wasn’t enough.

“Years ago, I thought I could walk away from this business and leave it behind me. But that’s hard to do. What happens is that I take a rest and come back to it. I seem to need it. I don’t like that. There’s something that feels unhappy about that.

“But I do want the respect of my peers that comes from working in this business and doing well at it. That becomes more important as you get older.”

Age is a sore point with him. “Must I tell how old I am?” he asked, smiling grimly. “I suppose I should. I’m 45. I’m starting not to like my age. I feel I’m starting to sink slowly into the sunset.”

But he obviously feels he has enough mileage left to handle solo stardom. So far his solo career, which includes five albums and a 1977 tour, has only been so-so and not nearly as successful as Simon’s.

Here’s an obvious question: Did Simon’s recent success inspire Garfunkel to return to the pop jungle?

“Paul had nothing to do with it,” he replied. “It was just time.”

Though apparently eager to publicize it, Garfunkel was reluctant to reveal too many details about his upcoming album, due on Columbia Records--his label since the Simon & Garfunkel days (Simon is now with Warner Bros. Records). He would only reveal that it’s a pop album produced by Goeff Emerick--the Beatles’ engineer--and that many writers are contributing material. Garfunkel, however, isn’t one of them.

“I have this block against songwriting,” he explained. “People tell me I could write great lyrics, but I don’t believe them.”

Then he added with a touch of sarcasm, “You don’t suppose that Paul Simon could have something to do with that block, do you?”

Simon, the elder of the pair by 23 days, and Garfunkel have been pals since they were 11-year-olds in New York. According to Garfunkel, there’s a bond between them that stretches but doesn’t seem to break: “We’re bound to each other. We’re soul-connected. There’s nobody in the world who knows me as well as Paul knows me. I don’t want to speak for him, but I suspect he regards me in the same way. But we don’t always get along.”

Explaining the current status of their friendship, Garfunkel said: “We have warm years and cool years. These are the cool years. We’re not talking to each other these days.”

They split up while making their famed album “Bridge Over Troubled Water” in 1970. “Anyone who has been married and divorced knows what happened to us,” Garfunkel explained. “It just stopped being enjoyable for us to make records, so we stopped. We’re two strong-willed people. I want to do things my way and he wants to do them his way. It’s been an abrasive relationship. Maybe we can only work together for just so long. Maybe getting together for a tour once in a while is the best way now.”

Garfunkel would like to do another reunion tour but Simon isn’t interested.

“He’s busy denying Simon & Garfunkel and hating those songs and trying to be an artist who’s outgrown the old stuff,” Garfunkel said wearily. “But fans are always saying they love the old stuff and asking if there’s a possibility of seeing us do it again. I’m with the fans.”

That’s a surprise, considering that Garfunkel wasn’t too happy about the last reunion tour. He didn’t like playing ballparks and giant arenas. “We did it Paul’s way. We had brass and a much stronger band and made this big show-biz spectacle. You sacrifice the music at those high volumes. I used to sing those shows at high volume, close to a semi-scream actually. It was bloody painful for me.”

What’s even more surprising is that a few times, according to Garfunkel, they’ve been close to recording some songs as a duo: “There’ve been nights when we’ve hung out together and been a step away from going into the studio to cut some tracks. At a certain level, we’re always an inch away from doing that.”

Though he’s somewhat bitter about Simon, who still says negative things about him in interviews, Garfunkel is optimistic about their friendship: “No bridges have been burned. One of us hasn’t really decimated the other through the media. He makes me crazy sometimes, but I know I’ll always like the guy. I really miss him as a friend.”