“They’ve all come to look for America”
It’s election day 2020 in the United States of America. I had the idea to do my own version of Simon & Garfunkel’s classic “America”, release in 1968 on the Bookends album. The inspiration came from a book I’m reading by Daniel Levitin called The World in Six Songs. In the book he describes a song by Sting that challenged peoples thinking about their “enemies” in during the Cold War. In the song he asks the listener to think about how much the “others” love their children as compared to themselves. In so doing, the listener is forced to humanize rather than demonize. Its such a great example of how powerful music can be and I love the idea of helping people see themselves in the mirror rather than argue.
The song America has been said to be both literal and figurative. Its based on road trip Paul Simon took with his girlfriend, but listeners and, perhaps the intention of the writers, have stretched it to be so much more: an introspective journey into America’s collective identity. I find ourselves in that same place for this election. America is lost within, looking to re-establish something remotely resembling a self image.
My approach was to imagine what Paul, who is the narrator of the song, and his girlfriend would experience taking this same king of road trip in 2020 and what kind of existential rabbit holes those experiences might send them down.
Verse 1
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 walked off to look for America
The first verse paints a scene of taking stock, getting supplies, and starting the trip to find America. I imagined them at a gas station getting a few things and swaped out Mrs. Wagner’s pies for for a newspaper. It creates an opportunity to acknowledge our countries struggle with disinformation, “Fake News”, and agreeing on basic facts. So the line becomes: “So we bought a pack of cigarettes and loose bound paper lies”.
Verse 2
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
Verse two gives us some geographic reference points. Pittsburgh stuck out to me as it has been the one of many cities where protests errupted in the aftermath of the death of George Floyd. I wonder what Paul would have experienced in those protests. What if he was beaten? I can’t think of a more democratic exercise than speaking out. How would it shake his confidence in our democracy to be punished for participating? So I change the second and third lines to: “Democracy seems like a dream to me now. It took me four days to heal from speaking out”.
Bridge
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
The bridge is a scene on a bus and they are playing a game of pretending to know who their fellow passengers are. The word camera stuck out to me. I used it to comment on how, with the advent of smart phones having built in cameras, everything is recorded. So the last line becomes: “I said, be careful, all of our lives our on camera”.
Verse 3
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
In verse three their game is over. Paul settles down to looking out the window and Kathy reads. What does Paul see out the window in 2020? I imagined some of the fires we’ve seen sweep California and Colorado, which are ultimately the effects of extreme weather brought about by climate change. The last becomes: “And the flames rose over an open field”.
Verse 4
Kathy, I’m lost, I said though I knew she was sleeping
And 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
Finally, verse four ends we Paul projecting his own search for America on long string of cars. Its a realization that we are all apart of this same journey to find America. I love the vulnerability of Paul saying he’s empty and aching. I see so much anxiety in everyone with this election. To me, on election day 2020, imagining millions of American citizens going to the ballot box is that same collective search. We are all looking for America. I changed third line to: “Voting lines stretch under New Jersey street lights”.
Summary
I really tried to be surgical, minimizing my changes to achieve the desired result. The narrative seems like it still works. It certainly becomes a much darker trip, but that is what 2020 has been. My hope for this version of such a classic song would be that it have a similar effect to example I shared above. That it would act like a mirror for us as Americans helping us to understand that we are on this journey together. The toxicity I’ve seen on display over everything from toilet paper, to masks, to politics only takes us backwards. Moving forward is showing each other basic human digity. Its awarding everyone the space and equality they deserve to pursue the life they see as worth living.