American Tune Lyrics - Paul Simon
Review The Song (29)
Many's, the time I'v been mistaken
And many times confused
Yes, and often felt forsaken
And certainly misused
But I'm all right, I'm all right
I'm just weary to my bones
Still, you don't expect to be
Bright and bon vivant
So far away from home, so far away from home
And I don't know a soul who's not been battered
I don't have a friend who feels at ease
I don't know a dream that's not been shattered
or driven to its knees
But it's all right, it's all right
We've lived so well so long
Still, when I think of the road
we're traveling on
I wonder what went wrong
I can't help it, I wonder what went wrong
And I dreamed I was dying
And I dreamed that my soul rose unexpectedly
And looking back down at me
Smiled reassunngly
And I dreamed I was flying
And high up above my eyes could clearly see
The Statue of Liberty
Sailing away to sea
And I dreamed I was flying
We come on the ship they call the Mayflower
We come on the ship that sailed the moon
We come in the age's most uncertain hour
and sing an American tune
But it's all right, it's all right
You can't be forever blessed
Still, tomorrow's going to be another working day
And I'm trying to get some rest
That's all I'm trying to get some rest
And many times confused
Yes, and often felt forsaken
And certainly misused
But I'm all right, I'm all right
I'm just weary to my bones
Still, you don't expect to be
Bright and bon vivant
So far away from home, so far away from home
And I don't know a soul who's not been battered
I don't have a friend who feels at ease
I don't know a dream that's not been shattered
or driven to its knees
But it's all right, it's all right
We've lived so well so long
Still, when I think of the road
we're traveling on
I wonder what went wrong
I can't help it, I wonder what went wrong
And I dreamed I was dying
And I dreamed that my soul rose unexpectedly
And looking back down at me
Smiled reassunngly
And I dreamed I was flying
And high up above my eyes could clearly see
The Statue of Liberty
Sailing away to sea
And I dreamed I was flying
We come on the ship they call the Mayflower
We come on the ship that sailed the moon
We come in the age's most uncertain hour
and sing an American tune
But it's all right, it's all right
You can't be forever blessed
Still, tomorrow's going to be another working day
And I'm trying to get some rest
That's all I'm trying to get some rest
Writer: SIMON, PAUL
Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group
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Touches me deeply | Reviewer: Michael C | 1/30/13
The first time I heard this was in the 70's. What struck me about it wasn't the words, it was the tune. This piece is a riff off of J.S.Bach's cantata, "O Sacred Head, Now Wounded" (I don't know the German title). Bach in turn riffed it from Hans Leo Hassler. But oh my God it is sweet and rich.
My God! | Reviewer: Fernando | 12/10/12
Obama? Bush? This song was written in the aftermath of the Vietnam war and is a beautiful and heartfelt tribute to those who lived those very *uncertain hours*. Im not an American but was living there when the song came out and was deeply touched by it. Paul Simon is one of the greatest chansoniers ever.
Grow up, children | Reviewer: IPSE | 11/7/11
You idiots! Paul Simon wrote the song in 1972 in reaction to President Nixon's clobbering of George McGovern. Your precious Obama was a child, even less mature than he is now, when this beautiful anthem to melancholy was written. Get over it, everything is not about your pathetic self-centered generation.
Stan the clueless | Reviewer: justthefacts | 8/27/11
"transferring wealth from the working taxpayer to the elite"? Why did he give tax cuts to average Americans then, and why are the elite so pissed with him & working against him?
Ron Paul is not who you think he is: ( read the article all the way )
http://godlessliberalhomo.blogspot.com/2010/02/what-ron-paul-really-stands-for.html
a great cover | Reviewer: Obamanation of Desolation | 11/16/10
I just heard Eva Cassidy's cover of this song. It is really beautiful. I normally don't like covers but hers is amazing - which only brings us back to the original with greater appreciation. It's one of those songs that grows on you with time. I never considered the lyrics much when it was a radio hit [I was in 5th grade or thereabout] but now I recognize the brilliance of the poetry.
"We've lived so well so long..."
It is also a prophetic song in many ways. And patriotic as well...
Not Obama's song | Reviewer: Anonymous | 8/8/10
One man cannot undo the excesses of the last decade and even the last 200 years. We have long lived on the backs of the poor. Slaves, cheap overseas labor. This country is spoiled We forgot to challenge ourselves and we forgot our ethics. Don't dump this on one man. It takes a lot of thoughtless people to make our messes, and we have been spoiled for generations.
Paul Simon just saw it coming. Genius.
A look back on An American Tune | Reviewer: feudi pandola | 4/22/10
Reading the lyrics of this song brought back so many memories, so many. Paul Simon is a genius. Given. The song is Simon at his melancholic best, which is great! Some folks are alcoholic, Paul Simon is melancholic. Just read that Paul and Artie are playin the Borgata soon in Atlantic City. Now that's melancholy to the Nth power, but also sort of kool. But only if you spell it with a K...
A Great Song | Reviewer: tudor | 2/26/10
I am aware of the links to Obama but I thought the point of this was to comment on the song. I first heard it on an Album I picked up in the 70's called Live Rhymin and thought 'What a great song' Hearing it in context with its classical forbear makes it even more poignant
To the guy whos European and saying stuff about Obama: | Reviewer: Anonymous | 9/29/09
If your not american then dont hate on Obama. If you are American and are still hating on Obama, then read a book about all the good he has done in our country. Know the facts; I mean the real facts
Obama's song??? | Reviewer: Anonymous | 6/2/09
Stan you got it right.
Obama isn't the change he promised to be. and that should be VERY obvious by now...
Bush bailed out bankers. Obama does it on an unequaled scale
Bush started evil wars, but Obama isn't pulling out the troops.
Under bush all sorts of unconstitutional laws were put in place after 9/11, obama isn't gonna sign some EOs and have them removed.
He's not talking about abolishing the FED (witch is the root cause of the current economic predicament)
Obama isn't talking about removing troops out of over 200 countries worldwide and breaking down the empire (wich will happen anyway soon, but in a not so nice way)
I'm from Europe, but if I could vote i'd have gone for Ron Paul The only candidate who has any clue what's going on in your country and how to really solve the problems.
maybe 2012 Ron, but I think it will be to late...
Stan is not the man | Reviewer: Anonymous | 4/18/09
poor stan. you couldn't have gotten it more wrong.
The song questions the excesses of the United States--in the Bush era, this took the form of imperialistic war based upon deceit, torture, the murder of thousands and thousands of innocent civilians, plundering of the economy by the very rich, and so on. But the puppet Bush is just one chapter in a long story.
Despite these concerns, the song is with a spirit of compassion, empathy, strength, trust and world-weary wisdom. Despite all that could be better, the singer reminds us, it's truly "all right".
I'm not sure you're asking Why, stan, but if you do, the answer can be found in the verse that states, We come in the age's most uncertain hours and sing an American tune. That is, we make something good and beautiful in the midst of things that are neither.
Simon's preview of now | Reviewer: Stan Moore | 4/11/09
I checked out a DVD of old Dick Cavett shows featuring rock icons and saw Paul Simon sing this song around 1974 on the show.
The Arab Oil Embargo then was a preview of the Age of Peak Oil, where we find ourselves now. Unfortunately, Barack Obama chooses to bamboozle gullible Americans into thinking it will be all right and we can have further economic growth, even has he lays plans for a police state and transfers wealth from the working taxpayer to the elite.
Barack Obama is at the very heart of the problem, and is a further catalyst for what has gone terribly wrong for America. Wars for Empire and engineering of wealth transfer to the elite are hallmarks of Obama and the Bushes and America's future is truly bleak.
Stan Moore
even more poignant | Reviewer: Anonymous | 3/9/09
having just lost my job i take a strange comfort from this song. i have always loved it. i didn't know that obama used it but i find even now although i support our president with my last beath i can't help but wonder what's gone wrong.
god bless and help our country. may i some day be able to say that tomorrow's going to be another working day and i'm trying to get some rest.
More current than ever... | Reviewer: Anonymous | 2/15/09
Astonishing how current this song seems, 30 years after it was written, the truest measure of greatness. Literally brings tears to my eyes (what ninny I've become...).
I cannot hope to match the eloquence and insight of many of the existing comments on this page, but I am compelled to ramble-on just the same.
I*ve always liked this song, but I had more or less forgotten about it until recently, when it bubbled-up, piecemeal from my sub-conscious (I assume). Written as it was in the aftermath of Vietnam and the dawn of a new era of uncertainty over the Faustian bargain we American's had struck with global ambition and petro-politics, it's astonishing, and disquieting, to consider how well these lyrucs describe our current condition. After three decades of jingoistic self-indulgance, it seems we have arrived at the same dilemmas, only this time with fewer material resources to address them, but with the hope that we may yet triumph, if we can reach just that much deeper into our briny moat of contradictory impulses and conflicting narratives to once again transcend our present follies and be born again a little better than before, though still far from perfect.
"The statue of liberty sailing away to sea." | Reviewer: Anonymous | 1/30/09
This song isn't idealistic. It is serious. If you have hope, have hope in the people realizing there has been a real scam played on them, byt thanks to cheap labor we did live so well so long. In the days of this song, we got good wages. Not now...So to hope for a new camelot president. Think: did Congress just give away $7 trillion to the bankers Senators Obama and McCain both voted for it; the bankers told them to. Think: no actual schools or poor people are scheduled to get any of this stimulus. This is capitalism, and it is not getting kinder and gentler. This government, with Obama's direction is escalating the war in Afghanistan and Pakistan.
So the statue of liberty is still sailing away, despite that handsome brilliant charming president and his lovely family. The US Navy, speaking of sailing away to sea, has now got 1000 ships to patrol over the world. Looking for stuff like the linds of things we consumerded like gluttons as Simon wrote, "we lived so well so long," and he wrote this even before the big credit debt we got into! This is over, and actually, it's not all right any more.
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