Monday, February 28, 2011

American Tune

Not meaning to be rude in the face such a lovely piece, but aside from the title, in what sense is this tune "American?" The melody is borrowed from Bach. And nothing American-- a grand old flag, amber waves of grain, or even a baseball-- appears until the end of the chorus.

Let us now, in the words of Simon's previous "America," "walk off to look for America" in this song.

The first two verses are almost identical to each other in content, although the first speaks of the self and the second of the other. Rather than repeat the first four lines of the first two verses, let us again quote the earlier song: "I'm lost/ I'm empty and I'm aching." The sentiment seems remarkably similar.

Then, the speaker's response was the knowledge that all those with him on the highway were fellow seekers, all equally trusting what was at the end of "The New Jersey Turnpike," i.e.: America itself.

Yet, our song seems to begin where the last left off. Now, he reports, he is "weary" from travel and not yet at his destination. "Still," he accepts his fate as expected, and even throws in a French phrase to show how "far away from home" he still feels. Verdict? "I'm all right."

But when the song shifts to the "shattered dreams" of others, he is not as accepting: "I wonder what went wrong." Things were going well and they seemed to be chugging right along... but then, why so much misery?

Perhaps the answer lies not in this world, he muses. He dreamed that, in an out-of-body experience, his soul "reassured" him. And then an entirely new dream began and he himself flew.

The Turnpike must end where the land ends. The Statue of Liberty is on an island. From his perspective of height, he realizes that the goal remains ever elusive, as the island drifts out "to sea."

Which, not to put a point on it, would be eastward. In the next line, what comes westward but an early wave of immigrants, much too early to even be welcomed by Lady Liberty's torch: "We come on a ship they call the Mayflower."

And... more! We don't need dreams to fly, we can fly into outer space on "a ship that sailed the Moon."

When you come to "look for America," you might try to find it in New York. Then, maybe at the place others came to find it-- the legendary Plymouth Rock. Then, the spot millions journeyed to: Ellis Island. Yet, even an island can drift.

You will never find America in a place, concludes the speaker. It might as well be on that lunar plot where the grand old flag stands. America is the answering of a question with a question.

At "the age's most uncertain hour"-- insert your historic milestone here-- we ask, "Well, now what can we do?" Run out of land? Build a boat. Run out of Earth? Fly to the Moon. We're there. Now what? Cyberspace. Next? String Theory.

This is the answer to the "broken" and "shattered" dreams and souls mentioned earlier. America was the answer to monarchy and communism... and everything in between and after. It can be the answer for a person, too. "You can't be forever blessed," by a Deity, but you can rely on yourself and be reassured by your soul.

America is not about finding. It's about seeking. As tautological as it seems, America is about "looking for America."

"Resting" along the journey, yes, as our speaker begs to do in the last line. But only because "tomorrow is another working day." Tomorrow, the quest begins anew.


IMPACT: The song reached #35 in the US. The Brits, evidently, did not find it resonant... perhaps this is more proof of it being an American tune.

After the actual Statue of Liberty itself underwent restoration for its 100th anniversary, there was an unveiling. Two songs were played at it: "The Star Spangled Banner" and "American Tune."

Many covers have been done from across the musical and political spectrum. One of the most lovely is that done by The Indigo Girls, who are somewhat heirs to S&G altogether. It was also covered by their contemporary singer-songwriter, Shawn Colvin, and by rocker AnnWilson (of Heart).

It is one of Simon's signature songs, even today, and has become part of the fabric of American culture. It would be interesting to see if it is included, today, in songbooks of American-themed choral works alongside "America the Beautiful" and "God Bless America." Interesting... but not surprising. (Surprising would be if Simon's naturalistic "America" made it.)

NOTE: The melody is... borrowed. As Wikipedia explains:
The tune is based on the melody of the hymn "O Sacred Head, Now Wounded" (German: "O Haupt voll Blut und Wunden," text by Paul Gerhardt). The common name for this hymn tune is "Passion Chorale."
The well-known hymn is itself a reworking of an earlier secular song, "Mein G'müt ist mir verwirret," composed by Hans Leo Hassler
.

Next Song: Was a Sunny Day

12 comments:

  1. I find interesting the song structure.
    It begins telling of a personal crisis.
    Then it goes to a greater circle, his circle of friends.
    It goes back to a personal point of view.
    Then, the whole country ("We come on the ship etc.).
    And finally ends with the original personal crisis (I´m trying to get some rest, that´s all).

    Joshua.

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  2. Joshua-- a very astute observation! I had not noticed that, possibly because so many songs (including Simon's) focus on one relationship, so we don't think to look at that as a factor of the overall structure (unless the author calls attention to it, as with Yehuda Amichai's The Diameter of the Bomb). Thanks so much for the insight!

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  3. I love that "American Tune" acts as a response to "America." I do think that it is a very American tune. It reminds us that what makes us American is our will to persevere even though it may seem hopeless, even though all we must rise the next day and do it all over again. To persevere in the hope of a better life, for the wellbeing of our families, in the belief that work is good, to have something to do with our weary bodies. Perhaps "American Tune" is a human tune sung by an American tongue.

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  4. Anon-- I would tend to agree with your last sentence, that determination is not exclusively an American trait, but that this song is an American expression of it.

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  5. I LOVE this song. I love the ironies in it - he wrote it, I believe, in London inspired by Bach and then called it "American Tune". I love how the weariness and despair of the first two lines is tempered by the "brave face" of the second two lines creating a push-pull through the song, the moods being reversed for the last verse. When I am trying to sing it at sing songs I can never get the second halves of the verses in the right order which irritates me intensely but I still always want to sing. It is a beautiful ode of love and concern for his country, an understanding of the wonderful things humans can do individually and collectively and a questioning of why, given these amazing feats, the American people are not a happier race. I find it a very global song and a very sad and beautiful song. And one without an answer - the "tomorrow's gonna be another working day" reference seems to me to be equally about getting rest before going to work but also the work of figuring out the conundrum within the issues of the song continuing, one of Paul Simon's finest.

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  6. JDB, thanks for your comment. I agree, this is one of Simon's signature works. And I agree that we Americans can be both amazing and disappointing... sometimes in the same day... yet we always seem to get up the next day and try again.

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  7. Nice blog!

    Side side notes here:

    Although known today as a Bach chorale (re-purposed in several of his works), the music was originally written by Hans Leo Hassler and published around the year 1601.

    Also, I read somewhere that Art Garfunkel was the one who came up with the idea of using this music for a modern song.

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  8. Ola-- Thank you! I guess we shouldn't be surprised that even Bach was not above being "inspired" by other artists of his time. It is somehow fitting that the song Simon took and reused was itself a reused melody...
    And while Art may have picked this melody in particular, it is far from the first time (let alone last) a classical melody or motif for pop-music purposes.

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  9. American Tune is a lament about (amongst other things) America's involvement in Vietnam.
    We come on a ship they call "Mayflower"
    We come on a ship that sailed the moon
    We come in the age's most uncertain hour
    and sing an American tune...
    He's pointing out how America is an established society with the technology to do extraodrinary things - Apollo is still fresh in everyone's mind - yet they arrive at a time of great political unrest and impose and American view - it's a prptest song

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  10. Simon-- First, since you refer to the songwriter as "He" I assume you are not Paul Simon but "another Simon," the same way I am "Another Paul" (my screen name).
    Yes, the song is about the age in which it was created, as are all works of art (and, I suppose, science)... but he does not say "our" age's most uncertain hour, or "this" age's. It's just "the" age's-- whatever age you can name, from (as he says) the Age of Exploration to the Space Age.
    People have been looking to America for answers in tough times since there has BEEN an America. I just watched a movie in which Churchill, facing the crisis at Dunkirk, called FDR for help. We are the world's Superman-- and so we must sometimes be that for ourselves, too. We must sing an American Tune for others, and to our ourselves, is what I believe he means, "when times get rough, and pain is all around/ like a bridge over troubled water [we] will lay [us] down."

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  11. There's actually an interview with Paul you can find on YouTube that iirc was originally aired on MTV in which he described this as his McGovern sore loser song because that was the direct impetus for him writing it & the feelings.the song conveys

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  12. Anon-- Thanks for the insight. For those not in the know, George McGovern (thanks, Wikipedia!) "was at three-term U.S. senator, and the Democratic Party presidential nominee in the 1972 presidential election... McGovern lost to incumbent Richard Nixon in one of the biggest landslides in U.S. electoral history." This album came out in 1973, so that tracks as far as the timeline goes.
    In an earlier comment, I said the song-- like all songs-- comes out of its own time and place. And it may very well have been written in response to a given election or candidate.
    But, I continued, it was written to apply to America in any age, from the "Mayflower" to now. In ANY age's "most uncertain hour," we "sing an American tune."
    It's very timely, again, in fact... as I write this, in the Spring of 2024, America will soon decide to whom to give a second term: Biden or Trump. Which is sort of a "here we go again" of 1972. But also other elections, like Gore vs Bush in 2000.

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