Kodachrome

Kodachrome is a brand of film that is used to produce slides (through the K-14 process). At one point (a couple decades ago), it was THE medium to use for people wanting the best color and archival capacities. Not necessarily anymore, though, since the E6 process has matured.

Anyway, so many great thoughts in this song... I love this line, "And though my lack of education hasn't hurt me none." How brilliant --- the emphasis on his lack of education is exaggerated by his incorporation of bad grammar.

I agree with firenexus - he's begging his "mother" (who, in herself, is probably symbolic for the nuturing elements of the universe) not to take away the memories that he's exaggerated in his mind. The real events would probably never match the importance and details that his imagination has given them. Like when you think about a great lovemaking experience with a girl from your past. It always seems to have been more magical than it probably was at the time.

One other thing I like about this metaphor -- "bring them together for one night," can almost be seen as the way you view slides in a slide projector. "Bring them together," like you would have a box of slides, with all the pretty pictures neatly stacked, one-after-the-next.

When I think back on all the crap I learned in high school It's a wonder I can think at all

Best lyrics ever. This song is about how nostalgia doesn't match reality but we still prefer nostalgia and memory.

This is my favorite Paul Simon song about camera film.

I always took mamma as being his girl. He's telling her not to take his kodachrome, metaphorically his good thoughts of her. As he states in the 2nd verse, he knows once things go sour, he'll never look back at her as fondly as he looks at her now. The first verse seems to me to be saying something more like, "hey i might not be a genius, but i think i can see when things are going to shit". IMO he basically equates kodachrome to love or the though of being in love. When you're in love, it makes you think all the world is a sunny day. He wants to take a picture to try to capture that moment and those good feelings.

I have to say i always thought that Kodachrome was a euphemism for weed. I see now that it probably isn't but I'm pretty let down by that. Without thinking of it as a euphemism it sounds like a cheesy TV ad.

I'm surprised no one has mentioned my take on it yet. I had always assumed it was a song about drug use. The color film presents the world as beautiful and focuses attention on the specific but simple beauties like the "green of summer" and makes you think "all the world is a sunny day." "Don't take my Kodachrome away" isn't so much about addiction as it is not to take away the only thing that makes life beautiful and bearable, hence the desperation in the coda.

You can pretty much read drug-use into any song, if you want. But at least you made it half-interesting, papker :)

Yes, I think the song is about stark reality versus imagination. And trying to balance the two, "please don't take my Kodachrome away."

It doesn't matter if you're a scientist, an engineer, a medical-researcher, a photographer, a painter -- if you want to accomplish something new, you need at least a little creative / semi-original thinking. High school tries to take that away. That's only good if you're a straight-laced accountant, lawyer, or brick-layer and, even then, you might need a little creative thinking sometimes.

I think it's about living in a fantasy instead of reality. Through the eyes of a view-finder. He's conscious that it's just a representation but wants to continue to be blinkered by it it because the 'bigger picture' of true reality is too hard to face. There Goes Rhymin' Simon is one of my favourite albums of any artist.

First, as some of the listeners seem to know, Kodachrome was a color transparency film (not a camera, as one commenter says) that had a highly saturated color quality. So it essentially enhanced the color of whatever was captured, though it was also a tricky film to use because of its low ISO rating that is harder to get proper exposures with, especially in low light. Simon may not have known much about it but clearly understood its way of enhancing the look of the world.

As others have said, this plays into the theme of the song, referring to how our memory and nostalgic recollections tend to inflate or enhance the reality of the situation as it was. The first stanza, though, has a further commentary. School and imposed values tend to rob us of imagination and create uniformity.

The camera can capture and enhance memory, but it can also reduce the moment to a flat and cheapened experience. It's the quality of the specific Kodachrome film to enhance the scene. The song is NOT about a drug experience; that's reading into it what is not in the lyrics, though like certain drugs imagination can bring increased vivid experience. The jaunty, upbeat quality of the music is like the quality of Kodachrome, boosting the quality of the experience while somewhat disguising the undercurrent of depression caused by the world as is (without imagination) and the singer imploring "mama" not to take away his means for making life a bit more cheerful.

So it's a playful song at one level, but a more thoughtful and meaningful song under the surface of its fun, upbeat musical quality.

He's saying he likes the different colors of the spectrum. The kodachrome was a camera. Don't take his camera away it gives him reminders.