Songs of America 1969

MUSIC: "America" by Simon & 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

# All come to look for America

# All come

# To look for America... #

I can feel it in the air that there's something great going on all around.

And, uh, I'm just...

I have a feeling that I'm just missing it.

That it's just right there and I'm right in the midst of it, but I can't quite get it.

# "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 pies

# And walked off

# To look for America

# "Kathy," I said, as we boarded A Greyhound in Pittsburgh

# "Michigan seems like a dream To me now

# "It took me four days to hitch-hike From Saginaw

# "I've come

# "To look for America"

# "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

# All come to look for America

# All come

# To look for America... #

..One, three and five at the last part of it.

HE HUMS MELODY

It just doesn't sound good.

If you're in the harmony game, you learn to scorn harmonies like that.

The harmony game.

-That's not a bad -

-Beethoven...

Beethoven's, uh...

-..200th birthday's coming up. Did you know that?

-No.

-1970.

What, next Thursday?

-No, 1970. December, 1970. It's over a year away.

-Uh-huh.

I'm just telling ya. I don't want you to get...

-Caught short.

-Caught from behind.

-Are you getting him anything?

-No.

The reason I'm saying this is because of the harmony thing.

There was this, uh, there was this...

Beethoven was writing this part

and parallel fifths were scorned, ironically.

-Right? You know he wrote in parallel fifths?

-Right.

So the guy said, "You wrote that in parallel fifths?"

Beethoven said...

.."Where is there a law that says you can't write in parallel fifths?

"Where did that law come from?"

So he says, "This guy and this guy and this guy said it."

So Beethoven says,

"I say that you can!"

"While I'm writing in parallel fifths, I say you can!"

He was a fool - Beethoven.

Somebody else's 200th birthday is coming up in not so long.

-200th birthday?

-Yes.

-Who is that?

-America's.

Do you think it's going to make it?

MUSIC: "Cuba Si, Nixon No" by Simon & Garfunkel

HE SINGS INDISTINCTLY

BOTH: # You know he's sittin' In a cockpit

# Feels like he's in a drea-eam...

HE HUMS HARMONY

-We're on the...

-Stay on the up.

-Stay on the four.

-HE HUMS

-We're still on the four chord.

-Melody-wise, stay on the higher note.

-OK.

# Feels like he's in

-# A dream...

-THEY HARMONISE

# Because he's heading to Havana He should be going to New Orleans #

That sounds... All right, start on the lower note.

Don't... Just let me get the chords before I get the note.

You get both parts in your head and then I'll learn it.

THEY HUM MELODY

HE HUMS SCALES

A-ha! Wait. No?

HE PLAYS MELODY ON GUITAR

# Cuba si, Nixon, no, no, no

# No, no, no

# You know the Spanish-speaking people

# Got a different way Of running the show #

-It's nice to have that...

-HE HUMS

You're singing against a B minor and a B major on the track,

so I don't suggest you chord this...

-What do we have?

-I suggest you hold the F sharp.

HE HUMS GENTLE MELODY

HE HUMS TO PIANO

-Did you get that?

-Yes.

GENTLE MUSIC

# So soon...

# I'll remember

# Frank Lloyd Wright

# All of the nights We'd harmonize till dawn...

Love this.

# I never laughed so long

# So long

Love it. Love it! Love it! Love it!

# So long

-Edit.

-# So long

# So long #

I guess...

All right.

That's it. We got it.

Yes. All right.

I've had an interesting afternoon.

Will those cameras be inhibiting, Paul?

I live with these cameras, Artie. Did you ever see them inhibit me?

GENTLE GUITAR MELODY

It's such a different... It's such a different medium.

I forget how much I rely on...

..the fact that you can make sound without being seen.

You can create pictures without being seen.

That's how I write, with pictures,

but you don't see them, so they evoke pictures.

But this is pictures. Really pictures.

It's like, did you ever see any of those movies of the radio shows

and you'd see the people who made those voices?

You'd say, "Oh, man! That guy?

"He's, uh...

..the Shadow? That can't be."

# MUSIC: "So Long, Frank Lloyd Wright"

# I'll remember

# Frank Lloyd Wright

# All of the nights We'd harmonise till dawn

# I never laughed so long

# So long

# So long

# Architects may come And architects may go

# And never change your point of view

# So long

# Frank Lloyd Wright

# All of the nights we'd harmonise

# Till dawn

# I never laughed so long

# So long

# So long

# So long

# So long

# So long

# So long

# So long

# So long

CROWD SING INDISTINCTLY

# He's got high hopes

# He's got high hopes... #

APPLAUSE

# MUSIC: "Bridge Over Troubled Water" by Simon & Garfunkel

# When you're weary

# Feeling small

# When tears are in

# Your eyes

# I will dry them all

# Oh

# I'm on your side

# Oh, when times get rough

# And friends just can't be found

# Like a bridge

# Over troubled water

# I will lay me down

# Like a bridge

# Over troubled water

# I will lay me down

# When you're down and out

# When you're on the street

# When evening falls

# So hard

# I will comfort you

# Ooh

# I'll take your part

# Oh

# When darkness comes

# And pain is all around

# Like a bridge

# Over troubled water

# I will lay me down

# Like a bridge

# Over troubled water

# I will lay me

# Down...

CRASHING CYMBALS

# Sail on, silvergirl

# Sail on by

# Your time has come

# To shine

# All your dreams are on their way

# See how they shine

# Oh

# If you need a friend

# I'm sailing

# Right behind

# Like a bridge

# Over troubled water

# I will ease your mind

# Like a bridge

# Over troubled water

# I will ease your

# Mind... #

UPBEAT GUITAR MELODY

HE HUMS MELODY

# Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa

# Mm...

HE SINGS INDISTINCTLY

# Orang-utans are sceptical

# Of changes in their cages

# And the zookeeper Is very fond of rum

OK.

Right. We'll try and make it early.

Maybe ten or 11 or so.

We're rehearsing the band for the concerts next week.

Swell. OK.

Me, too, Jim. Bye-bye.

HE HUMS JOLLY TUNE

Shall we do it once more and make it perfect?

BAND PLAYS

# "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...

# All come... #

Each person feels as though it's his private vision

that the quality of life should be better and less confusing and simpler and more natural.

Every time people get a chance to come together,

it's an uplifting feeling.

When all of those kids went up to Woodstock,

you had 300,000 kids at Woodstock,

there was a great joy of having 300,000 people

who were related by something,

by the urge to go to Woodstock,

or by their age or by the music or something.

The feeling of belonging is very strong at those times.

This issue, which, up until that point,

you may have felt impotent to deal with,

now at least you feel, "I can touch it,

"along with these hundreds of thousands of others,

"and therefore, I'm hopeful. It keeps hope alive."

MUSIC: "Scarborough Fair" by Simon & Garfunkel

# Are you going

# To Scarborough Fair?

# Parsley, sage

# Rosemary and thyme

# Remember me

# To one who lives there

# She once was

# A true love of mine

-# Tell her to find me an acre of land

-# On the side of a hill

# A sprinkling of leaves...

# Parsley, sage

# Rosemary and thyme...

# Washes the ground With so many tears...

# Between the salt water And the sea strands...

# A soldier cleans and polishes a gun...

# Then she'll be

# A true love of mine

# Tell her to reap it In a sickle of leather...

# War bellows Blazing in scarlet battalions...

# Parsley, sage, rosemary And thyme...

# Generals order their soldiers To kill...

# And gather it all

-In a bunch of heather

-# And to fight for a cause

# They've long ago forgotten...

# Then she'll be

# A true love of mine

# Are you going

# To Scarborough Fair?

# Parsley, sage

# Rosemary and thyme

# Remember me

# To one who lives there

# She once was

# A true love of mine #

It's very easy to lose sight of what it means

for a bullet to come into another person's insides

and for a man to be killed by somebody else's gun.

For a man to be out in...

He's home, he's in Iowa one day, and the next day, he's in a state that...

he's supposed to feel...

He's supposed to feel, "This is worth it.

"For me to be in this bush now, trying to kill that guy

"and be in the position where this guy could kill me,

"I'm supposed to feel this all makes sense to me and it's worth it.

"I'm fighting for something

"that makes it worth me being in this state."

It's...incredible.

-I mean -

-I think, though, much of what we say,

if not all of what we're saying, is extremely obvious.

As obvious that it is that, uh, we shouldn't be in Vietnam,

or as obvious as it is that people are starving in this country and...

Or as obvious as it is that there's inequality in this country.

And maybe, as annoying as it is to hear it,

it has to be said, until they stop the war,

until they feed the people, until they make...

..make everyone free and have equal opportunity,

or as much as that can be done within this society,

until that happens, it's the function of, uh...

..it's the function of people to point it out and remind us of it.

'I must remind you that starving a child is violence.

'Suppressing a culture is violence.

'Neglecting school children is violence.

'Punishing a mother and her family is violence.

JANGLING GUITARS

OVERLAPPING PROTESTS

OVERLAPPING SHOUTING

MUSIC: "El Condor Pasa (If I Could)" by Simon & Garfunkel

# I'd rather be a sparrow

# Than a snail

# Yes, I would

# If I could

# I surely would

# Mm, mm-mm-mm

# I'd rather be a hammer than a nail

Yes, I would

# If I only could

# I surely would

# Mm, mm-mm-mm

# Away

# I'd rather sail away

# Like a swan

# That's here and gone

# A man gets tied up to the ground

# He gives the world

# Its saddest sound

# Its saddest sound

# I'd rather be a forest Than a street

# Yes, I would

# If I could

# I surely would

# I'd rather feel the earth Beneath my feet

# Yes, I would

# If I only could

# I surely would

CHEERING

THEY CHANT

OVERLAPPING SHOUTING

THEY CHANT

American productive achievements in recent years have kept real income rising

while also meeting the requirements of a rapidly expanding defence effort.

Unemployment has been reduced to the lowest levels in nearly two decades.

The dollar is strong and respected in the world,

in spite of recent inflationary...

# Wish I was a Kellogg's Cornflake

# Floatin' in my bowl takin' movies

# Relaxin' awhile

# Livin' in style

# Talkin' to a raisin Who occasionally plays LA

# Casually glancing at his toupee

# Wish I was an English muffin

# 'Bout to make the most Out of a toaster

# I'd ease myself down

# Comin' up brown

# I prefer boysenberry More than any ordinary jam

These figures suppress...

# I'm a Citizens for Boysenberry Jam fan

# Ah...

# South California... #

WHISTLING

GENTLE PIANO INTRODUCTION And here it goes.

# When you're weary

# Feeling small

# When tears are in

# Your eyes

# I will dry them all

# Oh

# I'm on your side

# Oh, when times get rough

# And friends just can't

# Be found

# Like a bridge

# Over troubled water

# I will lay me down

# Like a bridge

# Over troubled water

# I will lay me down

BOTH: # Sail on, silvergirl...

Paul's mic.

# Sail on by

-# Your time has come...

-Where's my mic?

-Hold it.

-# ..To shine

# All your dreams are on their way

# See how they shine

# Oh

# If you need a friend

# I'm sailing

# Right behind

# Like a bridge

# Over troubled water

# I will ease your mind

# Like a bridge

# Over troubled water... #

We're staying in the Beverly Wilshire Hotel.

I get my guitar, head downstairs, I get in the elevator to go to the studio.

And in the elevators they have newspapers.

I see the headlines on the newspapers and I think,

"Why am I going to make this album?

"What's the point of this album? The world is crumbling..."

The chaos of "What the hell is the whole thing about?"

is a violent, screaming reaction to...

..the confusion of "What is this thing?"

I'm moving along this mill, I'm halfway finished with it all, I haven't begun to sort it out,

what the point of it is, what is it, why didn't I feel what I feel?

-Keep this offstage, Paul?

-No, no, no.

Why Don't You Write Me? Feelin' Groovy...

Feelin' Groovy, Scarborough Fair, Only Living Boy, At The Zoo,

Emily, Angie, Sounds Of Silence.

Make way!

-Aren't you ready?

-You guys would never make it without the band!

The kids are doing it again, one year later! How long can this go on?

THEY LAUGH

Are you two ready?

Anything we're forgetting that we always did in the old shows?

We never used to carry a purse. We don't need that.

OVERLAPPING CONVERSATIONS

APPLAUSE

UPBEAT GUITAR MELODY

Go.

BOTH # And here's to you, Mrs Robinson

# Jesus loves you more Than you will know

# Wo, wo, wo

# God bless you please, Mrs Robinson

# Heaven holds a place For those who pray

# Hey, hey, hey

# Hey, hey, hey

# We'd like to know a little bit About you for our files

# We'd like to help you learn To help yourself

# Look around you All you see are sympathetic eyes

# Stroll around the grounds Until you feel at home

# And here's to you, Mrs Robinson

# Jesus loves you more Than you will know

# Wo, wo, wo

# God bless you please, Mrs Robinson

# Heaven holds a place For those who pray

# Hey, hey, hey

# Hey, hey, hey

# Hide it in a hiding place Where no-one ever goes

# Put it in your pantry With your cupcakes

# It's a little secret Just the Robinsons' affair

# Most of all You've got to hide it from the kids

# Where have you gone, Joe DiMaggio?

# A nation turns its lonely eyes To you

# Woo, woo, woo

# What's that you say, Mrs Robinson?

# Joltin' Joe has left and gone away

# Hey, hey, hey

# Hey, hey, hey #

APPLAUSE

'I can't see myself doing this five years from now.'

I speak of the whole spiritual sphere,

that whole, that whole, uh,

aspect about my life.

This whole... This entertaining...

..it has nothing to do with that.

To say that, "That's all I have to do is

"to be a professional songwriter or entertainer," is inaccurate.

I'm doing a lot else, personally.

-Do you feel any need -

-To do something else on a national scale?

-Yes.

Would you like to be president?

Oh, I don't know.

Some days.

Why are you smiling?

-Some days you'd like to be president?

-Some days I wouldn't want to be.

What do you feel like the days you want to be president?

I straighten it all out

and get on back to my song writing in peace!

THEY LAUGH

I would like to develop myself as an artist

as much as I could.

And to be president, I just don't have time. Really, I don't.

He wants to develop himself as an artist!

Do you have enough time to be president?

-I feel I'd make the time.

-ALL LAUGH

GENTLE GUITAR MELODY

PAUL HUMS

-MUSIC DROWNS OUT SPEECH

-..I like this song.

I couldn't get over that.

# Slow down, you move too fast

# You got to make the morning last

# Just kicking down the cobblestones

# Looking for fun And feelin' groovy...

# Ba, da, da, da, da, da, da

PAUL WHISTLES

THEY HUM MELODY

I know.

# Ain'tcha got no rhymes for me?

# Doot-in, doo-doo Feelin' groovy...

THEY HUM MELODY

# Ba, da, da, da, da, da, da...

# I got no deeds to do No promises to keep

-# Do, do, do, do, do, do, do...

-# Ba, da, da, da, da, da, da...

# Life, I love you, all is groovy #

EDGY GUITAR MELODY

# Train, train

# Train, train

# Moving down the line

# Train, train

# Moving down the line

# Well, she's taken my baby

# Oh, and she's right on time #

It amazed me, since we're now performing for the first time after a year's break,

that I'm still, in my opinion, no good at talking to an audience.

MUSIC: "For Emily, Whenever I May Find Her"

# What a dream I had

# Pressed in organdie

# Clothed in crinoline

# Of smoky burgundy

# Softer than the rain

# I wandered empty streets

# Down past the shop displays

# I heard cathedral bells

# Tripping down the alleyways

# As I walked on

# And when you ran to me

# Your...

# Cheeks flushed with the night

# We walked on frosted fields

# Of juniper and lamplight

# I held your

# Hand...

GENTLE GUITAR MELODY

# And when I awoke

# And felt you warm and near

# I kissed your honey hair

# With my grateful tears

# Oh, I love you

# Girl...

# Oh, I...

# Love...

# You #

APPLAUSE

It's really ironic for me to look at myself and say,

"That guy looks like he's Mr Hip."

I feel like what I project is a sense of...

..knowing answers. I know it, basically.

You know? I'm not confused.

That's why the falsest things about all people is

that they all look like they're not confused,

like they've got it pretty well set.

MUSIC: "The Boxer"

# Now the years are rolling by me They are rocking evenly

# I am older than I once was

# And younger than I'll be

# That's not unusual

# It isn't strange

# After changes upon changes

# We are more or less the same

# After changes We are more or less the same

# Lie-la-lie

# La-la-la-la, lie-lie-lie

# Lie-la-lie

# Lie-lie-lie-lie, lie-le-lie La-la-la-la-lie #

APPLAUSE

I don't write to get something through to somebody.

I write for various reasons.

Some songs I write for the pleasure of writing a song.

It doesn't have any great meaning.

It's just a song.

Songs are nice. People...

People sing songs,

kids sing songs all the time for the pleasure of the singing,

the pleasure of a rhythm.

"London Bridge is falling down..."

"One, two, three, and girls bounce balls and sing..."

Those are songs.

There's a pleasure in sing songs, there's a pleasure in writing songs.

Some songs, you try and express yourself emotionally.

Those are different songs for me.

They express what I feel and they relieve...

..the tensions that I feel when I express them.

But I don't think about getting through to somebody.

# Homeward bound

# I wish I was

# Homeward bound

BOTH: # Home, where my thoughts escape

# At home

# Where my music's playing

# Home, where my love lies

# Waiting silently for me

# Tonight I'll sing my songs again

-# I'll play the game and pretend

-# Ooh...

# Mm-mm, mm, mm

# But all my words come back to me In shades of mediocrity

# Like emptiness and harmony

# I need someone to comfort me

# Homeward bound

# I wish I was

# Homeward bound

# Home, where my thoughts escape At home

# Where my music's playing

# Home, where my love lies

# Waiting silently for me

# Silently for me #

APPLAUSE

MUSIC: "America"

# "Let us be lovers

"We'll marry our fortunes together"

# "I've got some real estate Here in my bag"

# Ooh, ooh

# So we bought a pack of cigarettes

# And Mrs Wagner pies

# And walked off

# To look for America... #

People from so many different countries came here

and made this conglomeration.

We're like, we're shy children, we have to look around and say,

"There's a Chinese kid in my class, there's a black boy, there's a..."

Our group is so varied

and here we are together, and we have to warm up slowly.

We look at each other under our brows,

sort of embarrassed about, uh...

I think we all see the, uh...

..the value of getting together.

Here we are, we have this country, we can, uh...

..we can do great things.

We have a spotlight on us. We have the power to do great things.

And I think we all feel that

it's tremendously valuable for us to fuse, but it's very difficult.

All human beings have, uh,

this wish to take their inner self

and fuse it with the rest of humanity.

And in-so-far as they are unable to do that,

they are constantly reminded of this obstacle.

They defend it, they find reasons to keep their isolation

as a necessary ingredient of their beliefs or whatever,

but it's not true to what they feel.

MUSIC: "The Sound Of Silence" APPLAUSE

# Hello, darkness, my old friend

# I've come to talk with you again

# Because a vision softly creeping

# Left its seeds while I was sleeping

# And the vision

# That was planted in my brain

# Still remains

# Within the sound

# Of silence

BOTH: # In restless dreams I walked alone

# Narrow streets of cobblestone

# 'Neath the halo of a streetlamp

# I turned my collar To the cold and damp

# When my eyes were stabbed

# By the flash of a neon light

# That split the night

# And touched the sound

# Of silence

# And the people bowed and prayed

# To the neon god they made

# And the sign flashed its warning

# In the words that it was forming

# And the sign said "The words of the prophets

# "Are written on subway walls

# "And tenement halls

# "And whispered in the sounds

# "Of silence" #

APPLAUSE

MUSIC: "Song For The Asking (Live)"

# Here is my song

# For the asking

# Ask me and I will play

# So sweetly, I'll make you smile

# This is my tune for the taking

# Take it, don't turn away

# I've been waiting

# All my life

# Thinking it over, I've been sad

# Thinking it over I'd be more than glad

# To change my ways

# For the asking

# Ask me and I will play

# All the love that I

# Hold inside... #

Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd

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