You’re not sitting there going, ‘That didn’t rhyme, wait a second.’ It’s not an issue.” We’re oblivious to that being an ingredient because we’re so involved in the story. There’s not one line that rhymes and I will tell some of the best songwriters you’ve ever met that particular element and you can see them stop and go through it in their head. In his Songfacts interview, Gerry Beckley of America (no relation) broke it down: “The entire song is prose. There are no rhymes in this song, which is quite a feat of songwriting. We come from the identical place in our attitude, and the spine that’s holding us up, we are the same person. Garfunkel is especially fond of the section where they sing, “And walked off to look for America.” To told Paul Zollo in 1993: “That has a real upright, earnest quality because we both have the identical soul at that moment. The song is a great example of Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel singing in unison, which was a hallmark of their sound. It is also about the “American Dream” – the guarantee that you will make it if you stumble upon this country. Paul is deeply confused and unsatisfied, but he doesn’t know why. In this song, Paul Simon and his longtime girlfriend Kathy Chitty (from “Kathy’s Song”) are coming to America (moving from England).
The first Simon and Garfunkel album I bought was the Greatest Hits in the 80s. The song was originally on the album Bookends released in 1968 but this record was released as single in 1972 to promote their Greatest Hits. This song peaked at #95 in the Billboard 100 and #25 in the UK in 1972.
Paul Simon is on a different level than other songwriters. I could listen to this song on a tape loop for eons and eons and be happy.
0 kommentar(er)
