Fantasy, Science Fiction, and Young Adult Author
For this feature we’ve previously done Sweet Little Sixteen, Dancing in the Streets, Night Train, Rock’n Me, Pop Muzik, Girls, Girls, Girls, Fire Down Below, Truckin’, Everywhere That I’m Not, Mess Around, Back in the USA, and Back in the USSR.
Our song today is America, by Simon & Garfunkel. It came out in 1968 on their Bookends album, but was not released as a single until 1972, to promote their Greatest Hits album that came out that year. Oddly, it only hit #97 on the Billboard chart. It’s a pretty song with some pretty great lyrics. Personally, my favorite version is the lengthy prog rock workout (10 1/2 minutes) Yes gave it in 1970.
There aren’t really verses and choruses, it sort of just flows. Here are the first three stanzas:
Let us be lovers,
We’ll marry our fortunes together.
I’ve got some real estate
Here in my bag.
So we bought a pack of cigarettes,
And Mrs. Wagner’s pies,
And walked off
To look for America.
“Kathy”, I said,
As we boarded a Greyhound in Pittsburgh,
Michigan seems like a dream to me now.
It took me four days
To hitch-hike from Saginaw.
“I’ve come to look for America.”
Look, I understand they’re looking for the real spirit or meaning of America, but I don’t get why they hoped to find it in Saginaw, Michigan? Anyway, here’s the final stanza:
Counting the cars
On the New Jersey Turnpike
The’ve all come
To look for America,
All come to look for America,
All come to look for America.