Art Garfunkel says John Lennon spoke of McCartney reunion

John Lennon. Photo / Supplied

John Lennon once turned to Art Garfunkel for advice about a possible Beatles reunion in the mid-1970s.

Garfunkel had set aside his ongoing feud with Paul Simon for a series of reunion concerts and Lennon wanted to pump him for information about the get together after revealing he was receiving offers to team up with Paul McCartney.

The Bridge Over Troubled Waters singer recalls his chat with Lennon - in the bedroom of the Dakota building home he shared with Yoko Ono.

"Incredibly disarmingly, he said to me, 'Artie, you worked with your Paul recently ... I'm getting calls ... that my Paul wants to work with me and I'm thinking about it ... How did it go when you worked with Paul?'

"He was measuring his situation - the great John Lennon with Paul McCartney - with Paul and Artie and testing me out as if to make sure that my ego is fully established as a colleague of his," he said.

A thrilled Garfunkel felt that his answer could be the catalyst for a Beatles reunion and he responded, "John, remember that there was a musical blend that was a great kick; if you can return to the fun of that sound and musical happenings with your old buddy and ignore the strands and complications of history, what I found with my Paul is the harmony and the sound happenings are a full agenda. They'll keep you busy and you'll have fun."

Garfunkel left the meeting feeling confident that Lennon and McCartney would reunite. Appearing in new movie Beatles Stories, he says, "The subject seemed very straightforward and uncomplicated."

But the songwriting super-duo never did work together again - and Lennon was shot dead outside the Dakota building five years later.

-AAP