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 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 the 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


Lyrics submitted by amgsl500, edited by georgeporter

America song meanings
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    I think this song could be summed up by the words emptiness and longing. There are plenty of songs about that topic but this is by far the greatest and the only one that physically makes me feel that "empty and aching..." way that the male character on the Greyhound bus felt. I have been a fan of Simon and Garfunkels for years but it has only been recently that I have really appreciated the lyrics of this song, probably because I now completely understand that emptiness and complete lack of direction that is so vividly described in America. I think the American dream is a perfect metaphor, longing to fill our emptiness with something that doesn't exist. It's odd how every other teenager in this country (America) wears a Beatles T-shirt but I haven't once seen a teenager wearing a Simon and Garfunkel t-shirt. I think it is quite possibly because the word Beatles roles off the tong easier and the Beatle's album covers make better t-shirts. Other than that, Paul Simon is a virtuoso songwriter, singer, fingerstylist and Art Garfunkel has the most hauntingly beautiful voice ever. Together John Lennon, Paul Mcartney, and George Harrison do not have the lyrical ability that Paul Simon has. A word to today's youth who have discovered brilliant 60's music: Simon and Garfunkel are the cream of that brilliant crop.

    nuttinbutnateon June 28, 2007   Link

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