WONDERFUL WORLD

It's no doubt sacrilege to compare Art Garfunkel's cover of "(What A) Wonderful World" with Sam Cooke's much-beloved original recording, but what the hell—someone's got to do it.

Back when I was a kid, I went through the inevitable Simon and Garfunkel stage of music listening—especially their Concert in Central Park, which I used to play before going to sleep at night. I would try to imagine (pre-Internet) what Central Park looked like, using the sheer atmospherics of the recording to visualise the scene in my mind’s eye. Years later, when I saw the concert on YouTube, I was amazed at how close it was to what I had imagined—though Garfunkel's hair was even bigger than I thought possible.

Somewhere along the line, I decided to pick a side in the Simon vs. Garfunkel debate (like choosing a favourite parent in a divorce battle), and though it was probably far less hip to do so, I sided with Garfunkel—mostly by mere virtue of him singing the theme song of my favourite rabbit movie, Watership Down.

Actually, while I’m on the subject of Watership Down, I remember visiting a couple of my dad’s gay friends (Eric and Vince) in London one time. Thinking back now, they seemed like characters—Roger De Bris and his assistant—from Mel Brooks's The Producers (lots of white carpets, etc.). I happened to mention how much of a fan I was of Watership Down to Eric, which I’d mostly experienced through a storyboard book of the film (with pages falling apart from its thickly glued binding) that included practically every frame for me to pore over obsessively. Eric explained that he had the film in his collection and that they had two VHS video recorders, which meant they could make a copy for me. This kind of blew my mind back in the mid-’80s, as you had to record a copy in real time—so we waited a few hours for them to produce a video facsimile.

"Bright Eyes" had become hugely significant to me as the anthem of my Watership Down obsession (I later named my pet rabbit Hazel), leading me to invest in a Best of Art Garfunkel compilation. In fact, on a later trip to London with my dad, we walked past a restaurant called Garfunkel’s, which I believed—in my innocence—had something to do with Art himself. We sat down at our table, and I was hugely disappointed not to hear Bright Eyes, or indeed any track by the curly-headed artist, playing through the speakers—though the pizza and Coke were much appreciated.

Of course, now that I’m older, I realise Simon was the brains of the operation. But when you're a kid, you tend to go with emotion—and Art was winning in that department, easily. In my naivety, I actually thought he wrote most of the songs he covered, including Stevie Wonder's "I Believe (When I Fall in Love It Will Be Forever)," Gallagher and Lyle's "Breakaway," and, of course, Sam Cooke's "What a Wonderful World"—only to later learn that he didn’t.

It turns out he was just a pretty voice.

Then, just the other day, out of a fleeting sense of nostalgia, I picked up copies of Garfunkel's Breakaway and Watermark albums from a “free to take” box in a local record shop and gave them a spin. They're no masterpieces by any stretch, but playing those songs took me back to a place in my childhood—a place that formed the bedrock of my lifetime soundtrack.

Hearing Garfunkel's version of "What a Wonderful World," accompanied by James Taylor, really got me in the feels. With its slowed-down, prayerful groove, it creates a more laid-back interpretation of the song, in which the narrator admits to not knowing much about anything at all—but knowing more certainly that he loves the subject of his affection.

As a perpetual daydreamer at school, I think I had already pretty much conceded defeat early on when it came to being any kind of academic type (the autodidactic path of self-education was far more my bag), and so the song aligned perfectly with a kind of life philosophy that suited my ragtag sensibility.

And of course—The Groove—that magical portal of escape from the tyranny of muggle reality, which my dad handed down to me (and my friends) like a form of tradition.

Somehow, along with John Lennon's "Watching the Wheels," Garfunkel's cover of Sam Cooke's classic epitomises the vibe of someone who used to spend more time staring at clouds than at the blackboard.

Don't know much about history
Don't know much biology
Don't know much about a science book
Don't know much about the French I took

But I do know that I love you
And I know that if you love me, too
What a wonderful world this would be