{"id":202,"date":"2020-05-21T21:33:43","date_gmt":"2020-05-21T21:33:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.davidredd.com\/music\/oldies\/?page_id=202"},"modified":"2020-05-24T22:05:30","modified_gmt":"2020-05-24T22:05:30","slug":"patterns-lyrical-themes-from-sg-songs-and-my-interpretations-of-them","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.davidredd.com\/music\/oldies\/simon-and-garfunkel\/patterns-lyrical-themes-from-sg-songs-and-my-interpretations-of-them\/","title":{"rendered":"Patterns: Lyrical themes and interpretations"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Patterns: Lyrical themes and interpretations<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The following are lyrics from several Simon & Garfunkel albums and my interpretations of them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

Bookends<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The album Bookends<\/em> represents a phenomenal piece of album creation in that the entire first side offers a set of separate and wildly differing songs that nevertheless trace the human existence from birth to death when taken together. A central theme of the relationships that we keep in each stage of our lives runs throughout and ties all the pieces together. Below are some extracts from the lyrics of those songs that paint this musical portrait.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Life begins: Bookends Theme<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Childhood: Save the life of my Child<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Save the life of my child!”
Cried the desperate mother
“Oh, what\u2019s become of the children?”
People askin\u2019 each other.<\/p>

When spotlight hit the boy
And the crowd began to cheer—he flew away.
Oh my grace, I\u2019ve got no hiding place,
Oh my grace, I\u2019ve got no hiding place,
Oh my grace…<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Young adulthood: America<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let us be lovers; we\u2019ll marry our fortunes together
I\u2019ve got some real estate here in my bag
So we bought a pack of cigarettes and Mrs. Wagner Pies.
And walked of to look for America<\/p>

Kathy I\u2019m lost I said though I knew she was sleeping
I\u2019m empty and aching and I don\u2019t know why
Countin\u2019 the cars on the New Jersey turnpike
They\u2019ve all come to look for America.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Middle age: Overs<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why don\u2019t we stop fooling ourselves
The game is over, over, over.
No good times, no bad times,
There\u2019s no times at all—just the New York Times<\/p>

We might as well be apart
It hardly matters we sleep separately
Drop a smile
Cause we laughed d them
And we laughed them all in a very short time.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Aging: Voices of Old People<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

“I\u2019ve got little in this world. I\u2019d give honestly one hundred dollars for that picture…”
“God forgive me, but an old person without money is pathetic.”
“Children and mother\u2019s…That is mother\u2019s life, to live for your child!”
“I couldn\u2019t get younger. I have to be an old man, that\u2019s all…”
“You could say, yes, an eyesore. And I was so happy and everybody was \u2018what is this?\u2019 \u2018what is here?\u2019 This is just—beautiful …Your own room and your own home.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Old age: Old Friends<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Old friends,
Old friends
Sat on their park bench like bookends.
A newspaper blown through the grass
Falls on the round toes
Of the high shoes of the old friends.
Old friends,
Winter companions, the old men—
Lost in their overcoats waiting for the sunset…
Can you imagine us years from today,
Sharing a park bench quietly?
How terribly strange to be seventy.
Old friends.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

End of life: Bookend Theme<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Bridge Over Troubled Water<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

During the creation of the Bridge Over Troubled Water<\/em> album, Art Garfunkel accepted a role in the screen adaptation of Joseph Heller\u2019s Catch 22<\/em>. For this part, he had to travel down to Mexico for filming. This move frustrated Paul Simon who wanted to focus on the album, and many blame this incident as one of the principle causes of the duo\u2019s break-up. In looking at the lyrics of the album, one can see that several of the songs reflect this period as Paul was in New York and Art away in Mexico…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From So Long, Frank Lloyd Wright<\/strong>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So long, Frank Lloyd Wright.
I can\u2019t believe your song is gone so soon.
I barely learned the tune.
So soon.
So soon.
I\u2019ll remember Frank Lloyd Wright,
All of the nights we\u2019d harmonize till dawn.
I never laughed so long.
So long.
So long.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

This is the first definite reference to Art Garfunkel and his trip on the album. Frank Lloyd Wright was a famous architect and, because Art studied architecture in college, becomes a symbol of him in this song. Thus, Paul seems sad that Art is gone “so soon” before he had barely “learned the tune”. One could imagine that this indicates a feeling that Art had left things unfinished. That he longingly remembers “all the nights we\u2019d harmonize till dawn” would hint that Paul wanted thingsback the way they were.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From The Only Living Boy in New York<\/strong>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tom, get your plane right on time.
I know your part\u2019ll go fine.
Fly down to Mexico.
Da-n-da-da-n-da-n-da-da and here I am,
The only living boy in New York.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

This is a very direct reference to the event. Tom was the name used by Art Garfunkel during the duo\u2019s high school performance days as Tom and Jerry. The lyric mentions his part in the movie and his trip to Mexico. Paul also refers to himself as “the only living boy in New York” which may or may not be a veiled reference to his irritation at being left to work on the Bridge<\/em>project alone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From Why Don\u2019t You Write Me<\/strong>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why don\u2019t you write me
I\u2019m out in the jungle,
I\u2019m hungry to hear you….
Mail it today
If it\u2019s only to say
That you\u2019re leaving me.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

If this is also a reference to Art\u2019s trip, that fact is not as clear as the other songs on the album. However, the theme of loneliness and being left on one\u2019s own does seem to carry through here. Indeed, the line “if it\u2019s only to say that you\u2019re leaving me” could be taken as signifying a worry about the direction in which their partnership was heading.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

Return to <\/a>Simon & Garfunkel<\/a> main page.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Patterns: Lyrical themes and interpretations The following are lyrics from several Simon & Garfunkel albums and my interpretations of them. Bookends The album Bookends represents a phenomenalRead More<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":165,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-202","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.davidredd.com\/music\/oldies\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/202","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.davidredd.com\/music\/oldies\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.davidredd.com\/music\/oldies\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.davidredd.com\/music\/oldies\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.davidredd.com\/music\/oldies\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=202"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.davidredd.com\/music\/oldies\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/202\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":325,"href":"https:\/\/www.davidredd.com\/music\/oldies\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/202\/revisions\/325"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.davidredd.com\/music\/oldies\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/165"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.davidredd.com\/music\/oldies\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=202"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}