The Songs - America

This is another entry in my ongoing “songs that visited me and decided they wanted to stay” series. I hope you like these enough to become a paid subscriber, because I really need you to keep this project going.

America - Simon and Garfunkel

"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

Let’s face it. It takes balls to name your song “America”.

So many things can go wrong.

It was released at a time when this nation was trying to stand against a house divided. Wars and assassinations and a curdling cynicism that would turn the 60s from the Woodstock generation into the Altamont one. Two young lovers hopping a bus were more likely to be running away from something dreadful than to be filled with an innocent wanderlust. But Paul Simon had been living in London, and when called back to the states he was reluctant to leave his love behind. So he brought his English girlfriend back with him, and as her tour guide began seeing his own country through her eyes. What a thrill that must have been.