This song seemingly tackles the methods of deception those who manipulate others use to get victims to follow their demands, as well as diverting attention away from important issues. They'll also use it as a means to convince people to hate or kill others by pretending acts of terrorism were committed by the enemy when the acts themselves were done by the masters of control to promote discrimination and hate. It also reinforces the idea that these manipulative forces operate in various locations, infiltrating everyday life without detection, and propagate any and everywhere.
In general, it highlights the danger of hidden agendas, manipulation, and distraction, serving as a critique of those who exploit chaos and confusion to control and gain power, depicting a cautionary tale against falling into their traps. It encourages us to question the narratives presented to us and remain vigilant against manipulation in various parts of society.
"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 pies
And we 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 hitchhike from Saginaw
I've gone to look for America
Laughing on the bus
Playing games with the faces
She said the man in the gabardine suit was a spy
I said, "Be careful, his bowtie is really a camera"
"Toss me a cigarette, I think there's one in my raincoat"
"We smoked the last one an hour ago"
So I looked at the scenery, she read her magazine
And the moon rose over an open field
"Kathy, I'm lost," I said, though I knew she was sleeping
I'm empty and aching and I don't know why
Counting the cars on the New Jersey Turnpike
They've all come to look for America
All come to look for America
All come to look for America
"I've got some real estate here in my bag"
So we bought a pack of cigarettes and Mrs. Wagner pies
And we 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 hitchhike from Saginaw
I've gone to look for America
Laughing on the bus
Playing games with the faces
She said the man in the gabardine suit was a spy
I said, "Be careful, his bowtie is really a camera"
"Toss me a cigarette, I think there's one in my raincoat"
"We smoked the last one an hour ago"
So I looked at the scenery, she read her magazine
And the moon rose over an open field
"Kathy, I'm lost," I said, though I knew she was sleeping
I'm empty and aching and I don't know why
Counting the cars on the New Jersey Turnpike
They've all come to look for America
All come to look for America
All come to look for America
Lyrics submitted by amgsl500, edited by georgeporter
America Lyrics as written by Paul Simon
Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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Hayalperest
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@[Diderik:33655] "Your a holiday!" Was a popular term used in the 50s/60s to compliment someone on their all around. For example, not only are they beautiful, but they are fun and kind too ... just an all around "holiday".
I think your first comment is closer to being accurate. The singer/song writers state "Millions of eyes can see, yet why am i so blind!? When the someone else is me, its unkind its unkind". I believe hes referring to the girl toying with him and using him. He wants something deeper with her, thats why he allows himself to be as a puppet (even though for her fun and games) as long as it makes her happy. But he knows deep down that she doesnt really want to be serious with him and thats what makes him.
Mountain Song
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Jane's Addiction vocalist Perry Farrell gives Adam Reader some heartfelt insight into Jane’s Addiction's hard rock manifesto "Mountain Song", which was the second single from their revolutionary album Nothing's Shocking. Mountain song was first recorded in 1986 and appeared on the soundtrack to the film Dudes starring Jon Cryer. The version on Nothing's Shocking was re-recorded in 1988.
"'Mountain Song' was actually about... I hate to say it but... drugs. Climbing this mountain and getting as high as you can, and then coming down that mountain," reveals Farrell. "What it feels to descend from the mountain top... not easy at all. The ascension is tough but exhilarating. Getting down is... it's a real bummer. Drugs is not for everybody obviously. For me, I wanted to experience the heights, and the lows come along with it."
"There's a part - 'Cash in now honey, cash in Miss Smith.' Miss Smith is my Mother; our last name was Smith. Cashing in when she cashed in her life. So... she decided that, to her... at that time, she was desperate. Life wasn't worth it for her, that was her opinion. Some people think, never take your life, and some people find that their life isn't worth living. She was in love with my Dad, and my Dad was not faithful to her, and it broke her heart. She was very desperate and she did something that I know she regrets."
Punchline
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Ed Sheeran sings about missing his former partner and learning important life lessons in the process on “Punchline.” This track tells a story of battling to get rid of emotions for a former lover, whom he now realized might not have loved him the same way. He’s now caught between accepting that fact and learning life lessons from it and going back to beg her for another chance.
American Town
Ed Sheeran
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Ed Sheeran shares a short story of reconnecting with an old flame on “American Town.” The track is about a holiday Ed Sheeran spends with his countrywoman who resides in America. The two are back together after a long period apart, and get around to enjoying a bunch of fun activities while rekindling the flames of their romance.
I'm not sure what else to say about this song, except that it's truly a beautiful one, and very touching! I feel it refers to the elusive American Dream, the promise young people are assured as they set out on the world that they can conquer anything. A theme seen throughout the works of Hemmingway, Fiztgerald, and Kerouac, it is merely that: a dream. As the two lovers here progress on their journey, they run out of cigarettes, they grow bored, and they go to sleep. There is nothing left to do but count the cars in the turnpike, who are of couse all doing what they are doing- looking for America.
@carabiner86 - I agree wholeheartedly. I became an ardent fan of Simon & Garfunkel in the late 1960's when I was in high school (graduated in 1970). For me, this piece of Paul Simon's poetry in music definitely referred to a young couple trying to discover for themselves what life in America was all about. I was beginning to go through the process myself. I think it's all the more a poignant song in light of the Vietnam war which was claiming the lives of a great many people, including young American men who were being drafted. This song came right about the time when people were finally actively and publicly questioning why we were fighting that war. I love all the imagery contained in the lyrics. Paul Simon wrote so many poetic songs with deep meaning and lyrics that stood up as poetry and Simon & Garfunkel sang them so beautifully -- Songs like "America", "The Sound of Silence", "The Dangling Conversation" and "I Am a Rock", just to name a few. Their songs touched me in the center of myself, causing me to think and consider, and were, for me, a great help in my late teens and early 20's when I was struggling to discover myself. I still love this music -- I'm certain I always will.
@carabiner86, I agree entirely with your interpretation.
To me, Kathy is not with Paul in this song.
Paul mentions Kathy and, whilst it might seem like the way he is talking sounds like he's with her, if we delve deeper we could see that she isn't.
Kathy is Paul's lover who he met in England. However, she didn't want to know him when he was famous. In fact, she refused to talk to the media about him and refused to attend the re-opening of the train stop where Simon wrote Homeward Bound. She didn't want to be anything extraordinary. She was ordinary Kathy from round the corner.
Simon, on the other hand, wanted bigger things. He was going back to America (perhaps with Art as it mentions two people in the song) on a train. We can tell he missed Kathy who wasn't with him by the desperate phrases he uses - "Kathy, I'm lost," for example.
Back to my point: Kathy is not with him. This song is in the form of a letter. "Kathy, I sit" is him recounting his travels to her, action by action, in hope that she will respond and be interested.
"I looked at the scenery, she read her magazine." Whilst Simon is on his travels and all the way to America, she is at home, minding her own business, reading a magazine. Nothing special.
"Though I knew she was sleeping," is, to me, the most obvious. Whilst it might seem that she has merely become tired on this trip, what is actually happening (in my head, anyway), is Simon is yearning for her but, due to the time difference, she is sleeping. It is night time in ordinary England for ordinary Kathy but on the way to exciting Michigan, the day is nowhere near over for the thoughtful and almost desperate Paul Simon.
Anyway, that's my interpretation. If you have no idea who Kathy is (I Googled her because she features rather prominently in Simon's writings), then this is a beautiful love song. If you do, I hope you can understand the method to my madness. Even if we don't agree with each other, let's be honest: this is one of the best songs of all time, and we should admire it instead of bickering.
@georgeporter Not sure you're right but it's a really interesting interpretation!
@georgeporter - It's art. It's whatever you see it as. It doesn't belong in a box with a label. It we applied this thought process to everything in our lives, imagine what the world could look like.
@georgeporter I love your interpretation of this. Very plausible and gives the song a whole new meaning. Re your comment on knowing Kathy was sleeping, it may be that she is not hearing him. But as you say, a truly wonderful, tender, haunting, almost resigned but not completely without hope dues to its tenderness, enhanced by his velvet voice, and each snippet of a line is almost a short story in itself. As close to perfection as you can get.
@georgeporter Quoted from Wikipedia: "She was 16 and he was 22 when they began a relationship. Later that year [1964] they visited the U.S. together, touring around mainly by bus".<br /> <br /> Source: Jackson, Laura. Paul Simon: The Definitive Biography, Citadel Press 2004.<br /> <br /> I think your interpretation takes away the real pathos from this song. Just my 2 cents, of course. One of his best songs ever imho.
This song first came out when I was in high school, and it has been decades since I really paid any attention to it, but now - looking at the lyrics and singing the song in my head - I can appreciate the genius behind it.
Look at how the mood of the song slides from optimistic exuberance to a feeling of emptiness with each verse painting a slightly different mood among the two lovers. I especially like the transition from the silliness of “I said ‘Be careful his bowtie is really a camera’” to the impending gloom of "Toss me a cigarette, I think there's one in my raincoat".
WOW!! Absolutely beautiful.
I just love how from even the first few lines, there's this whole bittersweet feeling to it. Throughout the entire song, you can just feel it spiraling down...the cigarettes, the spy, the empty feeling...all leading up to that gorgeous line "counting the cars on the New Jersey Turnpike." That line is absolutely beautiful, and it conveys such a profound feeling of chaos and being so lost in the midst of it. The lyrics are truly amazing.
Almost every time, like clockwork, I'm cruising through the beginnings of this tune, and as soon as I come to the lyric "...and the moon rose over an open field...", I well-up with tears. I don't even know exactly why. I think it is such a stark change in the tone of the song, that it smacks me in the face. It is just such an amazing song! When I heard David Bowie play this at "The Concert For NY" I was blown away. He sat in front of the audience, as an opener, crossed his legs and played the Casio synthesizer thing and sang this tune. It was amazing! Check it out on YT. Cheers to all you S&G fans out there!!
@thejabrother - I'm glad I'm not the only one! I listened to the song on the way into work, this morning, and had to gather myself, after that "...moon rose over an open field.." line, before leaving the car. I can never tell if it's the beautiful imagery or something hidden, deeper, in the meaning of the lyrics that does it. Whatever it is, it never fails to bring the tears to my eyes.
@thejabrother I know exactly what you mean. Even when I sing this song to myself with a guitar, that line does this to me. You can't help but hear it and feel, "Wow... that's sad..."<br /> That line is crafted very carefully. It's not just what's going on in the background while they roll along on the bus. He says "I looked at the scenery, she read her magazine". They are already unhappy, and isolating from each other. They start out as a couple on an adventure. They feel like they are special and America is just out there waiting for them. But now it's just him and her, each alone on the bus. The "moon" line emphasizes that America isn't special for them anymore. They are just small, and alone, and just like everyone else who sees the moon rise in the sky.
This song is so incredibly beautiful. I think it IS about the American dream.
Oh, piece of trivia - Paul Simon's girlfriend at the time was named Kathy and she was British, so it makes sense. See also "Kathy's Song," quite possibly one of the most beautiful songs ever written. The arrangement of "America" is easily better than that of "Kathy's Song", though.
the lyrics are so perfect because they play alongside a home movie of each listener's imprefect little life...
I am an old fart, but here is my contribution:
This song has haunted me since it first came out in my adolescence. Basically, it is describing the existential angst of looking for meaning in your life (America) outside yourself, not finding the answer and realizing that everyone else is looking for their meaning, also. We are all on the New Jersey turnpike, looking for America and we when we are the only one awake, we are empty and aching and we don't know why. The song perfectly describes the human condition.
Re the Michigan comment--the trip started in Michigan and as he looks back at his past life, that life seems like a dream--unreal--to him now. The only reality is the bus, the moon, and Kathy sleeping as the cars and trucks rush past in the dark.
The real estate is weed. Duh. I was there in those days. . . .
I love your explanation :)
oh, sweet! i didn't know that...about the bag-thanks for sharing!
@annie1030 I think this is the best comment I've read on this song. Good work.
I love how their songs are like little glimpses into random episodes of people's lives. I think this one is about two young people discovering themselves and the future, hippie-style. And Art's voice is simply beautiful.
I think it means that people come to America to find their dream and create a better life for themselves and yet he hasn't found that and he is looking for America even though he's there.
"Kathy, I'm lost," I said, though I knew she was sleeping I'm empty and aching and I don't know why
I find myself asking this question all the time. But i dont think the america i would find today would be any help to the chaos.
"Let us be lovers we'll marry our fortunes together." "I've got some real estate here in my bag."
The Only Possesions you need can fit it a bag. I love it. Take Me.