An Anthem to America
July 5, 2011
APPEARING AT the “Capitol Fourth” concert on the Mall in Washington, D.C. yesterday, the pop singer Josh Groban sang Simon and Garfunkel’s “America,” a paean to ennui and alienation. To the crowd gathered on the mall, and the millions who watched at home, it was perhaps enough that the melody was about their nation. This is an Americanism so automatic and unreflective, so perversely narcissistic, it does not even care when America is viewed as empty and meaningless – as long as it is the center of attention. Here are the lyrics, which describe a British couple traveling across America:
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
“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”
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 bow tie is really a camera”
“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
“Kathy, I’m lost,” I said, thought 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
— Comments —
A reader writes:
Steve Martin and The Steep Canyon Rangers also performed at the “A Capitol Fourth” concert. I was lucky enough to see them in concert a few days before the capitol concert and I thought they put on an excellent show. One of the band’s new songs is called “Me and Paul Revere”, which is about Paul Revere’s ride from his horse’s point of view. The horse was named Brown Beauty. The song is upbeat and patriotic.
The Steep Canyon Rangers and Steve Martin are very talented, they looked professional in their suits and they put on a show that was funny and entertaining without anyone ever uttering a single vulgar word. If the show comes to your area, it is definitely worth seeing.
Lydia Sherman writes:
Awful.
Compare that to the chorus lines of “America, the Beautiful”:
America, America, God mend thine every flaw:
Confirm thy soul in self-control, thy libery in law!
America, America, may God thy gold refine,
Til all success be nobleness, and every gain divine!
America, America, God shed His grace on thee,
Til selfish gain no longer stain the banner of the free!
Buck O. writes:
