Is this its own song, or a coda of sorts to "Old Friends"? It has its own title, its own track listing... and its own melody, the intrumental version of which opens the album. So we're going to say it's perhaps Simon's shortest song, but still its own, self-contained song.
If this is an epilogue to "Old Friends," the implication is that one of them has died, and the other is now remembering them, perhaps spurred to do so by the photo mentioned.
The first two lines are a pun of sorts. "Time it was" is another (and old-fashioned/literary) way of saying "There was a time," or "There once was a time when..." Meanwhile, "What a time it was," means, in the words of the Weavers' album title, "Wasn't that a time!" The first version is wistful; the second victoriously recalls past glories.
Then there is a slant rhyme: "innocence/confidences." The first implies having nothing to hide; the second implies secrets. The slant rhyme indicates a trying to make sense of something that might not, in fact, make sense. Life is like that, and so are relationships.
Adding to the muddle is that fact that this was "long ago," plus the slipping of memory with age, echoed in the inverted half-thought, "Long ago, it must be..."
The next two lines have confused me for most of my life. "I have a photograph, perserve your memories." OK, fine, the friend has a picture, and alone remembers the things that they both used to, since the other has passed on.
Then the next line, "They're all that's left you." Surely, Simon meant "They (the memories) are all that's left of you." After a person has died, all that is left of them is the memory of them, yes?
But, scrutinizing it now, I see that yes, both the printed lyrics and the song itself leave out the "of."
So we have "Memories... [a]re all that's left you." The memories have left the friend, not the other way around...? But then, shouldn't it be "They're all that've (that have) left you"?
Maybe we can't expect someone admittedly "old" and lost in reverie to adhere to perfect grammar, one way or the other.
"Your memories... [a]re all that's left you." Maybe we will never know what this line means. Maybe some things, in life, relationships-- and music-- are our beyond our ability to make sense of them.
Musical Note: In the biography, Paul Simon: A Life, author Marc Eliot posits that the flow of Side A of Bookends traces the line from youth to age: "Save the Life of My Child," then the young romance in "America" and "Overs," and then "Old Friends." In between these bookends is the story of a life.
IMPACT: The album was nominated for "Album of the Year."
Next song: Fakin' It
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Just read your note to me (I have to admit that I'm not reading your blog regularly); you're most welcome. One thought about "They're all that's left you": I always heard this as meaning that memories are all that are left *to* a surviving person, using the word "you" not to mean the person who has departed, but to mean what's more properly expressed as "one." To put it another way, "They're all that's left you" means the same as "That's all ya've got," "They're all one has left [after someone dies or leaves]," etc.
ReplyDelete--Jim Bennighof
Absolutely; this is how I hear this line.
DeleteAnon-- Thank you for adding to the consensus. As you can see by my May 2021 comment, I have come around to see this as the correct reading.
DeleteThe Paul Simon Project is a collection of videos sung by various Irish musicians over the last two years (and ongoing once all the Corona Virus has settled down and we can leave our houses again). Thanks to Another Paul for allowing me post links to songs as appropriate here. Hope you enjoy. Feel free to share..
ReplyDeletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ETJNsI7m4QQ
Orlaith De Burca sings Old Friends with the Bookends Theme as a coda.
I always thought "they're all that's left you" was possibly referring to someone with Alzheimer's whose memories have left them.
ReplyDeleteAnon.-- Thanks for your comment. That the memories have done the leaving is a possibility I had considered (see the third-last paragraph of the post).
ReplyDeleteI think I have to go with Mr. Bennighof's comment of 2010-- which I have JUST realized somehow got posted without any response from me more than a decade ago, to my chagrin.
"They're all that's left you" means "they are all that is left TO you." And the "you" here means not the other Old Friend, but to "a person, in general"... as in "You get what you pay for"-- not just YOU, to whom I am speaking, but anyone.
I was mourning the death of a very dear friend just now when this song came to my mind. Was this his response to me? I feel like life was so much more ii nnocent back then. We did not focus on the pain of thinking our friendship could ever end. I knew him very closely for 40 years. Because of all my health problems, I never considered he would die before me. It was definitely a time of innocence. Both survivors of difficult childhoods, we had trouble ever fully trusting one another and we should have known better. Again, in a way, you could say we were innocently unaware of what truly loving someone meant until they were gone. Now we know. So much pain. I feel he is telling me that even though we cannot directly see oir talk to one another and least I have the photographs to remember him by, symbolically an imprint on my heart. I believe the song also reflects similar feelings, despite differing circumstances, for others.
ReplyDeleteAnon-- This was beautifully said, and sorry for your loss. It is hard to trust, to become vulnerable, especially when one becomes old enough, and aware that all relationships end in one way or another, and that all can be disappointing at times even as they endure. So it is very heartening to see that the two of you grew past the hesitation created by your childhoods, and formed a true bond.
ReplyDeleteIn my experience, I am so steeped in music that when a song suddenly bubbles up in my mind, I have become convinced that it is my subconscious mind trying to send a message to my conscious mind. This may be what happened to you-- that your memory of your friend helped you recall a song that dealt with the loss of a friend.
There are not too many songs about grief, and many of those deal with the loss of a romantic partner. How meaningful that Simon has given us a song about the loss of a friend, which can cut just as deeply. I hope you can find comfort in your memories.