Paul Simon. A lesser light to Dylan? The Bob Seger to the more talented and famous Springsteen?
Maybe.
But, he’s an undeniably important American voice. And always it seemed that America (and who exactly she was) can be found haunting his songs. Twice he explicitly sung to her. Addressed her. Wondered who she was.
When he was with Art Garfunkel he wrote “America,” (1968).
Then when he was on his own he wrote, “American Tune,” (1973).
In the song “America,” he wrote this:
“Kathy, I’m lost,” I said,
Though I knew she was sleeping.
“I’m empty and aching and
I don’t know why.”
Counting the cars
On the New Jersey Turnpike
They’ve all come
To look for America,
All come to look for America.
Two kids run away, play silly games on the bus, and then smoke their last cigarette. And it all sets in. He doesn’t know where he’s going or why. And the idea of “America” seems to be something constantly out of reach. Now he’s lost.
When he wrote “American Tune,” he seems to have embraced the feeling of being lost and come to terms with it. He writes,
And I don’t know a soul who’s not been battered
I don’t have a friend who feels at ease
I don’t know a dream that’s not been shattered
Or driven to its knees.
But it’s all right, it’s all right.
We’ve lived so well so long.
Still, when I think of the road
We’re traveling on
I wonder what went wrong.
After this he has a vision. While he is still below, he sees his soul fly up and smile down on him. Does he imagine himself dying and yet being content? Perhaps.
He ends the song with this:
We come in the age’s most uncertain hour
And sing an American tune.
But it’s all right, it’s all right
You can’t be forever blessed
Still, tomorrow’s going to be another working day
And I’m trying to get some rest.
“You can’t be forever blessed.” The American Ideal will give out. You will get lost. You’ll run out of cigarettes. And what’s left? Tomorrow. That’s the American Tune. Not making America more than she is, but being grateful just for tomorrow. Being grateful for a chance to work. Being grateful for a little sleep.
Paul Simon’s generation, for all their efforts toward peace and revolution, were guilty of trying to make more out of America than she was able to bear. There was something deeply true and resilient about the Mom and Pop lifestyle that they rebelled against. Mom and Dad worked, had a family, had tomorrow, and died well. That a good life. Paul Simon seems to acknowledged that (after all he, like Dylan, moved away from the folk/protest scene) “Tomorrow’s going to be another working day. And I’m trying to get some rest.”
Maybe that’s something to consider in our own era’s search for America?