REUNION Simon & amp; Garfunkel tour again as friends

Simon predicts this will be the duo's last time on the road.
NEW YORK (AP) -- Fans couldn't help but be curious last fall when Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel strode onstage to open their reunion concerts with the song "Old Friends."
Old friends, yes. But still friends?
The boyhood chums have been famously estranged through the years, the classic example of a duo that made sweet music onstage and hit sour notes when the lights went down.
Now, however, "my friendship with Artie is back to where it was when we were 12 years old," Simon told The Associated Press. "We're laughing and kidding around all the time. It's a lot of fun."
Agreed Garfunkel: "We are remarkably like brothers in our musical calling and our senses of humor."
Good vibes. Without them, Simon & amp; Garfunkel probably wouldn't be going out on the road again this summer. The $64.5 million in ticket sales for the first leg of the "Old Friends" tour probably helped their mood, too.
They may be friends again, but that doesn't mean they always see eye to eye. In separate interviews, they disagreed on whether Simon & amp; Garfunkel has a recording future, a touring future beyond this summer and whether a change in their show for Europe was politically motivated.
Last fall, during the song "America," a video montage ran on screens behind the two singers, showing images of the nation during the past 40 years. That will be either changed or eliminated when the tour moves to Europe.
"It's what an artist does when he feels the name of his country speaks too loudly and too provocatively (that) it pushes the music aside," Garfunkel said, somewhat cryptically. He wouldn't comment further.
Simon said it will be altered to be more appropriate to Europeans.
"It's not a political statement," he said. "It's a geographic reality."
Tickets aren't cheap
Seeing the duo isn't a cheap date. The average ticket price for a Simon & amp; Garfunkel show last fall was $136.90, well above the industry average of around $50, according to Pollstar magazine.
"It's a hard subject," Garfunkel said. "It puts me on the defensive. I didn't make the ticket price. I'm involved in it, my profit is related to it. Am I squeezing the American people? Well, if they show up and say we're happy to buy your ticket price and come see the show, who am I to say you shouldn't be happy?"
Garfunkel said he's had great fun with the reunion, which he called "an open-ended experience." The idea of new recordings from Simon & amp; Garfunkel is "a very interesting and feasible possibility," he said.
That may be wishful thinking.
Although they're preparing a CD and DVD recording of their Madison Square Garden show from last fall, Simon doesn't expect any new music from the duo.
"I think we're about what we were," not what we could be in the future, he said. Simon is halfway through a new album, an intriguing partnership with soundscape engineer Brian Eno.
He also predicted it would be the last time on the road for Simon & amp; Garfunkel.
"If it was an ongoing act where there was new material being recorded and you were working that into the repertoire, maybe there would be some justification," Simon said. "But I think this is a good example of the music that we made and I don't really see any powerful reason to do it again, because we did it. It's not a Shermanesque declaration. It's just how I feel."