Simon & Garfunkel - America
I'm skipping a couple songs to blog about this one, but it's the most important. Given this week's earlier "controversy" over a Paul Simon song I don't even think is Great, I thought I'd post one of his that I do indeed give that "rating." And "America" is that song. It's probably my second favorite S&G song ever, actually. Yes, above "The Sounds of Silence" and "I Am a Rock" and "Bridge Over Troubled Water."
Bear with me...
It's a song that dispenses with the potential melodrama of the aforementioned pieces while retaining all the emotion - a time when Simon "practices restraint" and it works perfectly. A song about running away and not running away, about the United States and yet neither patriotic nor revolutionary, the song also sounds much more lonely than anything else Simon's recorded (that I've heard, at least).
"Cathy I'm lost, I said/though I knew she was sleeping" the fourth verse begins. This seems to me to be such an honest line, an expression of deep emotion to someone who can't hear. This is a song that avoids the drama of confrontation - the narrator and Cathy are losing each other while they've "gone to look for America," but we never hear this - it's an inexpressible loss, made all the more powerful by the fact that it's left out. The song ends unresolved, uncertain, pointing toward a bleak future but leaving it quiet. Could it be any better?
I'm skipping a couple songs to blog about this one, but it's the most important. Given this week's earlier "controversy" over a Paul Simon song I don't even think is Great, I thought I'd post one of his that I do indeed give that "rating." And "America" is that song. It's probably my second favorite S&G song ever, actually. Yes, above "The Sounds of Silence" and "I Am a Rock" and "Bridge Over Troubled Water."
Bear with me...
It's a song that dispenses with the potential melodrama of the aforementioned pieces while retaining all the emotion - a time when Simon "practices restraint" and it works perfectly. A song about running away and not running away, about the United States and yet neither patriotic nor revolutionary, the song also sounds much more lonely than anything else Simon's recorded (that I've heard, at least).
"Cathy I'm lost, I said/though I knew she was sleeping" the fourth verse begins. This seems to me to be such an honest line, an expression of deep emotion to someone who can't hear. This is a song that avoids the drama of confrontation - the narrator and Cathy are losing each other while they've "gone to look for America," but we never hear this - it's an inexpressible loss, made all the more powerful by the fact that it's left out. The song ends unresolved, uncertain, pointing toward a bleak future but leaving it quiet. Could it be any better?
posted by Odorless Boatman at 1:41 AM
4 Comments:
BEFORE HEARING THIS SONG: yaaaaawwwwwn.
i'll post the after comments soon.
oh i've heard this song before. it's good, but i think you focus too much on the "love" quality of simon and garfunkel (and this is the only time you'll hear me arguing for their diversity), this song is about that, but the line that really sticks with me (probably because it's the loudest line and the line with the title in it and the line that comes with drum crash sounds) is "i've gone to look for america." it gives you the sense of "what is america?" and honestly, at least according to paul simon, it's nothing. but what was america? although i can't attest firsthand, i would guess nothing. it's always been one of those countries without its own real identity. all politics aside, it's a great song, and i think a primary theme is searching, which ties up what i like and what you like nicely.
now you listen to my simon and garfunkel song, bitch.
Oh, I definitely like the "What is America aspect of the song, and I think it ties in wonderfully with the relationship part. I just didn't feel like writing an essay, so I picked one aspect to focus on.
fair enough. it's a good song, regardless.
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