Finding harmony after all these years

So, naturally, the cynics are wondering if the new S&G reunion, which features sold-out shows at the FleetCenter on Thursday and Saturday, is just an attempt to cash in on old glories. There are whispers that both artists might need the money. After all, Simon lost a fortune on his ill-fated Broadway staging of "Capeman" a few years ago (it cost a reported $11 million to produce, much of it put up by Simon, but the show bombed), and Garfunkel's solo career hasn't exactly been going through the roof.

Wait a minute, though. We're not talking about Kiss or Cher -- two acts whose "farewell" tours have stretched on for years with the cash registers ringing at every stop. We're talking about two of the most idealistic and humanistic artists that pop has ever produced -- and it's time to cut them some slack. Yes, they have shown a penchant for drama in their relationship and yes, both are fussy perfectionists who like to do things their own way, but there is a genuine love between the two that makes the title of the tour, "Old Friends," seem honest and not manipulative.

"We're like two guys that have a lot of feelings that often differ. We're both loath to give up our strong feelings and say, `Well, the solution is to just do it your way.' So we tug an awful lot," Garfunkel told the Globe before the duo played a stadium date in Foxborough in 1983. "You just have to trust that there's love there."

The love has kept tugging them back together. In fact, they literally are old friends, having first met in a class play of "Alice in Wonderland" in Queens when they were both 11 years old (they're now 62). Simon played the White Rabbit and Garfunkel the Cheshire Cat. In the late '60s, they formed the backbone of the folk-rock movement by scoring eight top 10 hits and selling 40 million albums in the United States alone. Simon's rapier-edged lyrics about modern life and Garfunkel's high tenor were essential listening on college campuses. The hits ranged from "The Sound of Silence" (which referenced graffiti artists in the verse, "The words of the prophets are written on the subway walls") and the ironic "I Am a Rock" (about an intellectual who hides behind his books) to "Mrs. Robinson" (the centerpiece of the "The Graduate" soundtrack) and the buoyant "Cecilia," which hinted at Simon's later world music interests.

The new reunion comes at a time when singer-songwriters are back in vogue, from Norah Jones and John Mayer to Damien Rice and Josh Ritter. Neither Simon nor Garfunkel has given an interview on the new tour, but their comments from a pretour press conference in New York in September revealed how they've angled back to each other.

"It was time to just say forgive and forget and move on. It's not like you have forever in life," said Simon, who added this was "probably" the last time they would tour.

"It's family, the two of us," Garfunkel said. "There has been a deep, buried affection for the last decade or so, and it was the Grammys that forced it out of burial."

The duo received a lifetime achievement Grammy in February at Madison Square Garden. They opened the show by singing "The Sound of Silence," and the magic had clearly returned. They then greeted the media and deflected talk of a reunion but said they had rekindled their friendship. They remarked that they were going out to dinner together again -- a nice change from the sound of silence that marked their late '90s period -- and this encouraging news has been sustained.

"They're getting along great," says Steve Conte, a singer who attended six weeks of rehearsals and subbed for Simon or Garfunkel when one needed a break.

"You'd hear all the stories about how they wouldn't be able to get along, so I was ready for anything," Conte said of the rehearsals at the Capitol Theatre in Port Chester, N.Y. "But they were putting their arms around each other, and it was beautiful. And every day we'd sit down at lunch . . . and we'd all be talking and laughing. It was totally relaxed and cool. They really are like old friends again. The name [of the tour] is fitting. They've been through a lot together."

That's a profound change from the disarray of the last reunion tour. After it ended, Simon told the Globe that Garfunkel "doesn't like to sing with a band and doesn't like to sing outdoors. . . . So I wound up having a guy who didn't want to be doing what he was doing, and that means you're going to have a miserable time." Simon also scrapped a reunion album by removing Garfunkel's vocals and releasing it as a solo disc, "Hearts and Bones," a mostly cerebral exercise that probably wouldn't have been saved even by Garfunkel's voice.

But Simon's career then took off with the world music explorations of his African-influenced "Graceland" and Brazilian-spiced "Rhythm of the Saints." The albums sold a combined 13 million copies. Meanwhile, Garfunkel For photos of Simon and Garfunkel through the years, visit www.boston.com.found he enjoyed touring with a band -- witness his fine Symphony Hall appearance in 1984, though he acknowledged he felt "exposed" without a harmony singer. Simon & Garfunkel reunited for a few songs at their Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction in 1990, but it took old friend Mike Nichols (who directed "The Graduate") to spark their interest in more concerts. Nichols got them together for an AIDS benefit in New York in 1993, the same year the duo reunited for 21 shows at the Paramount (the 5,300-seat theater in the Madison Square Garden complex). The concerts were really a Simon career retrospective (he played with his

"Graceland" and "Rhythm of the Saints" bands during the performances, which opened and closed with S&G tunes), but the reunion with Garfunkel was what most deeply touched the crowd; some people wept as the show culminated with the poignant, hopeful "Bridge Over Troubled Water," a title adopted by a Boston social agency that helps runaway youths and the homeless. Garfunkel later recalled some advice Nichols gave him before the Paramount run: "I know you have problems working with Paul, but he suggested I call you because he wants to work with you if you can work with him. May I just offer you this notion to help you bridge the gap? I had a couple of friends that I had a falling-out with, then a couple of years went by and they died on me."

Asked at the time if there was a future beyond the Paramount shows, Garfunkel said, "Well, we've done a lot of work to reawaken the songs. So there it sits as a potential crowd-pleaser."

It took a while longer to get that crowd-pleaser back on the road, but we should be glad, not cynical, that's it's here again. Simon & Garfunkel make music that doesn't rely on smoke bombs, costume changes, or phony stage theatrics. Isn't that something to be thankful for?