"America" is a song performed by American music duo

Simon & Garfunkel Simon & Garfunkel were an American folk rock duo consisting of the singer-songwriter Paul Simon and the singer Art Garfunkel. They were one of the best-selling music groups of the 1960s, and their biggest hits—including the electric remix of " ...

, which they included on their fourth studio album, '' Bookends,'' in 1968. It was produced by the duo and

Roy Halee Roy Decker Halee (born 1934) is an American record producer and engineer, best known for working with Simon & Garfunkel, both as a group and for their solo projects. Early life He grew up on Long Island, New York. His father, also named Roy ...

. The song was later issued as the

B-side The A-side and B-side are the two sides of phonograph records and cassettes; these terms have often been printed on the labels of two-sided music recordings. The A-side usually features a recording that its artist, producer, or record compan ...

of the single "

For Emily, Whenever I May Find Her "For Emily, Whenever I May Find Her" is a song written by Paul Simon and recorded by American music duo Simon & Garfunkel on their third studio album, ''Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme'' (1966). It is sung solely by Art Garfunkel, and consists ...

(live version)" in 1972 to promote the release of the

compilation album A compilation album comprises Album#Tracks, tracks, which may be previously released or unreleased, usually from several separate recordings by either one or several Performing arts#Performers, performers. If by one artist, then generally the tr ...

Simon and Garfunkel's Greatest Hits ''Simon and Garfunkel's Greatest Hits'' is the first compilation album from Simon & Garfunkel, which was released on June 14, 1972, two years after Simon & Garfunkel had parted ways. The album is currently available on CD under Legacy's Playl ...

''. After peaking in the charts in July 1972, the song was switched to the A-side of the single and re-entered the charts in November 1972. The song was written and composed by

Paul Simon Paul Frederic Simon (born October 13, 1941) is an American musician, singer, songwriter and actor whose career has spanned six decades. He is one of the most acclaimed songwriters in popular music, both as a solo artist and as half of folk roc ...

, and concerns young lovers

hitchhiking Hitchhiking (also known as thumbing, autostop or hitching) is a means of transportation that is gained by asking individuals, usually strangers, for a ride in their car or other vehicle. The ride is usually, but not always, free. Nomads hav ...

their way across the United States, in search of "America", in both a literal and figurative sense. It was inspired by a 1964

road trip A road trip, sometimes spelled roadtrip, is a long-distance journey on the road. Typically, road trips are long distances travelled by automobile. History First road trips by automobile The world's first recorded long-distance road trip by t ...

that Simon took with his then-girlfriend Kathy Chitty. The song has been regarded as one of Simon's strongest songwriting efforts and one of the duo's best songs. A 2014 '' Rolling Stone'' reader's poll ranked it the group's fourth-best song.

Background

"America" was inspired by a five-day road excursion Simon undertook in September 1964 with Chitty. Producer Tom Wilson had called Simon, living in London at the time, back to the United States to finalize mixes and artwork for their debut studio album, ''

Wednesday Morning, 3 A.M. ''Wednesday Morning, 3 A.M.'' is the debut studio album by American folk rock duo Simon & Garfunkel. Following their early gig as "Tom and Jerry", Columbia Records signed the two in late 1963. It was produced by Tom Wilson and engineered by Roy ...

'' Simon, reluctant to leave Chitty, invited her to come with him; they spent five days driving the country together. Several years later, "America" was among the last songs recorded for ''Bookends'', when production assistant John Simon left

Columbia Records Columbia Records is an American record label owned by Sony Music, Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Corporation of America, the North American division of Japanese Conglomerate (company), conglomerate Sony. It was founded on Janua ...

, forcing Simon, Garfunkel, and producer

to complete the record themselves. In 2004, Bob Dyer, a former disc jockey from Saginaw, Michigan, explained the song's genesis in an interview with ''The Saginaw News''. According to Dyer, Simon wrote the song while visiting the town in 1966 after Dyer had booked him for Y-A-Go-Go, a concert series hosted by the Saginaw YMCA.

Composition

"America" is a song that "creates a cinematic vista that tells of the singer's search for a literal and physical America that seems to have disappeared, along with the country's beauty and ideals." Art Garfunkel once described the song as "young lovers with their adventure and optimism". The song has been described as a "folk song with a lilting soprano saxophone in its refrain as a small pipe organ paints acoustic guitars, framed by the ghostly traces of classic American Songbook pop structures." "America" is composed in the key of D major and set in a 6/8 time signature, and has a moderately fast groove of 172 beats per minute. The duo's vocals span from the low note of A₂ to the high note of E₄. Drummer Hal Blaine, keyboardist Larry Knechtel, and bassist

Joe Osborn Joseph Osborn (August 28, 1937 – December 14, 2018 The lyrics do not follow any formal rhyme scheme. The song opens, on ''Bookends'', with a crossfade from " Save the Life of My Child". (This effect is not present on the single versions, which begin with a "clean" open.) The song follows two young lovers – "an apparently impromptu romantic traveling alliance" – who set out "to look for America." The lyrics mention Saginaw, Michigan, with the narrator seemingly having left the town to seek "his fortunes elsewhere". The narrator's companion, Kathy, is a reference to Chitty, linking the song autobiographically to the earlier Simon and Garfunkel hit "

Homeward Bound Homeward may refer to: * ''Homeward'' (film), a 2019 film * "Homeward" (song), a song by The Sundays from their 1997 album ''Static and Silence'' * "Homeward" (''TNG'' episode), a ''Star Trek: The Next Generation'' episode from the seventh seaso ...

", and to "Kathy's Song", a love song from a previous album, ''

Sounds of Silence ''Sounds of Silence'' is the second studio album by American folk rock duo Simon & Garfunkel, released on January 17, 1966. The album's title is a slight modification of the title of the duo's first major hit, " The Sound of Silence", which orig ...

''. The narrator spends four days hitchhiking from Saginaw to join Kathy in Pittsburgh, where together they board a Greyhound bus to continue the journey. The narrator begins with a lighthearted and optimistic outlook ("Let us be lovers, we'll marry our fortunes together") that fades over the course of the song. To pass time, he and Kathy play games and try to guess the backgrounds of their fellow passengers. Over the course of their journey, they smoke all their cigarettes. Kathy reads a magazine before falling asleep, leaving the narrator awake to reflect on the meaning of the journey alone. In the final verse, the narrator is able to speak his true emotions to Kathy, now that she is sleeping and cannot hear or answer. "I'm empty and aching and I don't know why" captures the longing and angst of the 1960s in nine simple words. The narrator then stares out the window "counting the cars on the

New Jersey Turnpike The New Jersey Turnpike (NJTP) is a system of controlled-access highways in the U.S. state of New Jersey. The turnpike is maintained by the New Jersey Turnpike Authority (NJTA).The Garden State Parkway, although maintained by NJTA, is not consi ...

". Many other empty, aching, and lost souls are on the highway, each on their own journey alone even if someone is traveling with them. The soaring harmony lines and crashing cymbals create a powerful and poignant end to the song's final verse: "They've all come to look for America."

Pete Fornatale Peter Salvatore Fornatale (August 23, 1945 – April 26, 2012) was a New York City disc jockey and author of numerous books on rock and roll. He is considered a "pioneer of FM rock", who played an important role in the progressive rock era of FM ...

interprets this lyric as a "metaphor to remind us all of the lost souls wandering the highways and byways of mid-sixties America, struggling to navigate the rapids of despair and hope, optimism and disillusionment."

Reception

Stephen Holden, in reviewing '' Simon & Garfunkel's Greatest Hits'' in 1972, wrote, "'America' ... was Simon's next major step forward. It is three and a half minutes of sheer brilliance, whose unforced narrative, alternating precise detail with sweeping observation evokes the panorama of restless, paved America and simultaneously illuminates a drama of shared loneliness on a bus trip with cosmic implications." Thom Jurek of Allmusic described the song's central question as an "ellipsis, a cipher, an unanswerable question", a song in which "sophisticated harmonic invention is toppled by its message". David Nichols, in ''

1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die ''1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die'' is a musical reference book first published in 2005 by Universe Publishing. Part of the ''1001 Before You Die'' series, it compiles writings and information on albums chosen by a panel of music critics ...

'', called the song "a splendid vignette of a road trip by young lovers; both intimate and epic in scale, it traces an inner journey from naive optimism to more mature understanding."Dimery, Robert (ed.) (2005). ''

.'' Milan: Universe Publishing, p. 147. First edition, 2005. '' American Songwriter'' deemed the song "essentially a road-trip song, but like all road trips, it tends to reveal as much about the participants as it does about the lands being traversed." Disc jockey and author

describes "America" as one of Paul Simon's "greatest writing achievements in this phase of his career". In 2014, a '' Rolling Stone'' readers poll ranked it fourth among the duo's best compositions, with the magazine writing, "it captured America's sense of restlessness and confusion during the year that saw the assassinations of Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert F. Kennedy, as well as the escalation of the war in Vietnam", declaring it one of their most "beloved" songs.

Legacy

The song enjoyed a resurgence in popularity – and was introduced to a new generation – after being featured in Cameron Crowe's critically acclaimed film '' Almost Famous'' in 2000. An early scene in the film, set in 1968, finds the free-spirited character "Anita" ( Zooey Deschanel) playing the song for her mother ( Frances McDormand) to "...explain why heis leaving home to become a stewardess". The financial services company

American Express American Express Company (Amex) is an American multinational corporation specialized in payment card services headquartered at 200 Vesey Street in the Battery Park City neighborhood of Lower Manhattan in New York City. The company was found ...

also used the song in a series of popular television advertisements in the late 2010s. In 2010, lyrics from the song began appearing spray-painted on vacant buildings and abandoned factories in the town of Saginaw, Michigan, which is mentioned in the song. The group of artists, Paint Saginaw, decided to paint the phrases after the population had dwindled vastly, noting that the song became rather "homesick" for the town's residents. The song's entire lyrics are painted on 28 buildings in the city, including railroad tracks and bridge supports. The song was featured in "

America The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

", a television advertisement for the presidential campaign of

Bernie Sanders Bernard Sanders (born September8, 1941) is an American politician who has served as the junior United States senator from Vermont since 2007. He was the U.S. representative for the state's at-large congressional district from 1991 to 2007 ...

during the

2016 Democratic Party presidential primaries Presidential primaries and caucuses were organized by the Democratic Party to select the 4,051 delegates to the 2016 Democratic National Convention held July 25–28 and determine the nominee for president in the 2016 United States presidential e ...

. The campaign sought permission to use it from Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel themselves, who both agreed. Garfunkel stated that he was a supporter of Sanders and his campaign, and that the usage of "America" did not take away from the song's original premise. The song appears in a 2017 TV commercial for the Volkswagen Atlas.

Cover versions

1-2-3/Clouds

The earliest known performances of "America" came from the band

Clouds In meteorology, a cloud is an aerosol consisting of a visible mass of miniature liquid droplets, frozen crystals, or other particles suspended in the atmosphere of a planetary body or similar space. Water or various other chemicals may com ...

. In their earlier incarnation as 1-2-3, they had performed a re-written version of the song that included elements similar to those later used by Yes; changes in time signature, classical interludes, newly written segments, etc. A live tape exists of this being performed at the Marquee in April 1967, prior to the release of any known recording by any artist, including Paul Simon, himself. Simon had recorded demos at Levy studios in London in 1965, and tapes of these were passed to the band by a studio engineer (Stu Francis of Radio Luxembourg). In 1966, 1-2-3 also performed "

" from this same tape.

Yes

The song was rearranged by the progressive rock band

Yes Yes or YES may refer to: * An affirmative particle in the English language; see yes and no Education * YES Prep Public Schools, Houston, Texas, US * YES (Your Extraordinary Saturday), a learning program from the Minnesota Institute for Talente ...

in 1970, performing it in concert on the first tour after Steve Howe replaced Peter Banks. Yes added elements typical to progressive rock, such as changes in time signature and long instrumental segments, while dropping the song's original repeat and fade ending. At one point bassist Chris Squire quotes "

" from '' West Side Story'' in the intro. The Yes studio version clocks in at ten and a half minutes, with live versions on the 1970–1971 tour extended to more than fifteen minutes. The studio recording first appeared in 1972 on the sampler album '' The New Age of Atlantic'' and was later included on the compilation album '' Yesterdays'' in 1975, the box set '' In a Word: Yes (1969–)'' in 2002, and on the 2003 re-issue of their album '' Fragile''. An edited version of this recording lasting 4 minutes was released as a single and hit No. 46 on the U.S. ''Billboard'' Hot 100. It also reached No. 20 in New Zealand. It also appeared on the '' Yesyears'' boxed set and its condensed version '' Yesstory,'' along with '' The Ultimate Yes: 35th Anniversary Collection.'' The edited version was also included as a bonus track on the 2003 re-issue of ''

Close to the Edge ''Close to the Edge'' is the fifth studio album by English progressive rock band Yes. It was released on 13 September 1972 by Atlantic Records, and is their last album of the 1970s to feature their original drummer Bill Bruford. After scoring ...

'', while the unedited studio version appears on Steven Wilson's 2013 remix of the same album. A live version of the song was included on 1996's ''

Keys to Ascension ''Keys to Ascension'' is the fourth live and fifteenth studio album by English progressive rock band Yes, released as a double album in October 1996 on Essential Records. In 1995, guitarist Trevor Rabin and keyboardist Tony Kaye left the group ...

'' as well as a performance from the final show of the 1970–1971 tour (which preceded the studio recording) on 2005's '' The Word Is Live''. Guitarist Steve Howe considers Yes's version to be "a kind of lost recording" among the band's work, since it has rarely been included on their compilations, and when it is it is usually a shortened version. When he had the chance to meet Simon in person at a disaster-relief concert in 1992, Howe asked him if he liked Yes's version, and Simon said he did. ; Personnel : * Jon Anderson : Vocals * Steve Howe : Guitar * Chris Squire : Bass * Rick Wakeman ; Hammond organ, piano * Bill Bruford : Drum kit

Charts

Bert Sommer version

Folk singer

Bert Sommer Bert Sommer (February 7, 1949 – July 23, 1990) was an American folk singer and songwriter. He appeared in the musical '' Hair'' and at the Woodstock Festival, and released several albums as a singer-songwriter. Life and career Sommer was born ...

, a member of the group the Left Banke, covered the song in the late 1960s, and he also performed the song at Woodstock in 1969.

David Bowie performance

David Bowie performed a minimalist version of the song to open

The Concert for New York City The Concert for New York City was a benefit concert, featuring many famous musicians, that took place on October 20, 2001 at Madison Square Garden in New York City in response to the September 11 attacks. Aside from performing for charity, the co ...

in October 2001. Bowie performed seated on the floor, center stage, with a microphone and a Suzuki

Omnichord The Omnichord is an electronic musical instrument introduced in 1981 by the Suzuki Musical Instrument Corporation. It typically features a touch plate known as "Sonic Strings", preset rhythms, auto-bass line functionality, and buttons for ma ...

Other versions

American singer-songwriter Josh Groban recorded it on his live album ''Live at the Greek'' (2003), and has performed the song live on multiple occasions, including a Howard Gilman Opera House for

Brooklyn Academy of Music The Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM) is a performing arts venue in Brooklyn, New York City, known as a center for progressive and avant-garde performance. It presented its first performance in 1861 and began operations in its present location in ...

's celebration of Simon's music in 2008, and at the A Capitol Fourth concert in 2011. "Paul Simon is one of my favorite artists and 'America' has always been a song I've loved," he once remarked.

Lucy Wainwright Roche Lucy Wainwright Roche (born December 16, 1981) is an American singer-songwriter. Preceded by two EPs, ''8 Songs'' and ''8 More'', Roche released her debut album, ''Lucy'' in October 2010. In 2013, she starred as Jeri in the ''Stuff You Should Kno ...

performs it, together with The Roches, on her 2010 album '' Lucy.'' The band

also released a recording of the song on their 2011 album ''

Back Pages ''Back Pages'' is the 17th studio album by America, released on July 26, 2011 by eOne. The album is the band's first studio album of cover versions of songs by some of their favorite songwriters. The album features guest appearances by Mark Knopf ...

.'' The Swedish sister duo First Aid Kit performed the song in honor of Paul Simon at the 2012 Polar Music Prize award ceremony, which earned them a standing ovation from Paul Simon himself. On Black Friday of 2014, First Aid Kit released a 10" single containing the song as the title track. They performed a live version on the Marc Riley show for BBC Radio 6 Music on September 4, 2012.

Sting Sting may refer to: * Stinger or sting, a structure of an animal to inject venom, or the injury produced by a stinger * Irritating hairs or prickles of a stinging plant, or the plant itself Fictional characters and entities * Sting (Middle-eart ...

performs the song on a quarter size acoustic guitar live on stage on the Paul Simon with Sting tour. U2 has snippeted the song on multiple occasions during their 2015 and 2017 world tours. Taylor Bloom and Benjamin Cooley performed a rendition of America in November 2020.

Chart performance

Weekly charts

Personnel

Simon & Garfunkel *

– lead vocals, acoustic guitars,

producer Producer or producers may refer to: Occupations *Producer (agriculture), a farm operator *A stakeholder of economic production *Film producer, supervises the making of films **Executive producer, contributes to a film's budget and usually does not ...

* Art Garfunkel – harmony vocals, producer Additional musicians * Hal Blaine – drums * Larry Knechtel –

Hammond organ The Hammond organ is an electric organ invented by Laurens Hammond and John M. Hanert and first manufactured in 1935. Multiple models have been produced, most of which use sliding drawbars to vary sounds. Until 1975, Hammond organs generated s ...

Joe Osborn Joseph Osborn (August 28, 1937 – December 14, 2018soprano saxophone The soprano saxophone is a higher-register variety of the saxophone, a woodwind instrument invented in the 1840s. The soprano is the third-smallest member of the saxophone family, which consists (from smallest to largest) of the soprillo, sop ...

Production *

– producer,

recording engineer An audio engineer (also known as a sound engineer or recording engineer) helps to produce a recording or a live performance, balancing and adjusting sound sources using equalization, dynamics processing and audio effects, mixing, reproduction, ...

* Bob Johnston – production assistant

Notes

References

Sources

* * *

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:America (Simon and Garfunkel Song) Simon & Garfunkel songs 1968 songs Songs about the United States Songs written by Paul Simon Song recordings produced by Roy Halee Song recordings produced by Paul Simon Song recordings produced by Art Garfunkel Columbia Records singles 1972 singles Yes (band) songs Hitchhiking