I don't know if it's still there, but in the 80s there used to be a huge grafitto on the wall of the concrete sluice that curves through Johnstown, Pa.: NOTHING BUT THE DEAD AND DYING HERE IN OUR LITTLE TOWN. This song is so powerful, in part because it's being re-enacted every day in small towns all over the place. The kids grow up, get out, and never come back, leaving, well, the dead and dying.
Aside from that, though, the song is incredibly evocative. The words are incisive, and Simon manages, just through the timbre of the music, to convey his feelings of nostalgia, fondness, cynicism, and disillusionment. Older and wiser, he can see the unpretty truth that his youthful innocence obscured. Yet he still cherishes his memories, and is sad that he can never really go back--he's outgrown the place. Many an ex-small town kid can relate, I'm sure.
For me personally, this is one of S&G's best songs. I think their song "America" is the perfect bookend to this song.
I don't know if it's still there, but in the 80s there used to be a huge grafitto on the wall of the concrete sluice that curves through Johnstown, Pa.: NOTHING BUT THE DEAD AND DYING HERE IN OUR LITTLE TOWN. This song is so powerful, in part because it's being re-enacted every day in small towns all over the place. The kids grow up, get out, and never come back, leaving, well, the dead and dying.
Aside from that, though, the song is incredibly evocative. The words are incisive, and Simon manages, just through the timbre of the music, to convey his feelings of nostalgia, fondness, cynicism, and disillusionment. Older and wiser, he can see the unpretty truth that his youthful innocence obscured. Yet he still cherishes his memories, and is sad that he can never really go back--he's outgrown the place. Many an ex-small town kid can relate, I'm sure.
For me personally, this is one of S&G's best songs. I think their song "America" is the perfect bookend to this song.