Talk:American Tune

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Interpretation of lyrics
First, according to the liner notes on the album, it's "you CAN'T be forever blessed," which obviously changes the tone of the song considerably. Also, the only reference to anything resembling immigration is the Mayflower. "Sailed the moon" referring to immigration? What's the source for that? The song came out in 1973, so Apollo makes better sense. But if it's in doubt, leave it out altogether. Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? carrots 02:34, 3 August 2009 (UTC)


 * Leaving it out is just what my last edit did. Thanks for the correction on the lyrics, by the way.  I had always heard it as ironic; naturally, I could not include that perception in the content of the page.  I'm sure you and I could have an interesting conversation about the (pervasive!) theme of immigration in the lyrics, but interpretation is non-encyclopedic.  Apollo is certainly out.  If some reputable music or literary critic has published that idea, we can cite his or her opinion, but anything else is original research.  Chadbald (talk) 18:09, 22 August 2009 (UTC)

Never done this before - apologies for protocol violations. I read somewhere that the lyrics reflect Simon's disappointment at the re-election of Richard Nixon. // Brian Shriver —Preceding unsigned comment added by 64.134.186.183 (talk) 19:24, 10 December 2010 (UTC)
 * It's possible that was an element in his timing. A lot of folks felt crushed by that election, like hope had been abandoned. Nixon "got his" eventually - at great cost to the public trust of government. ←Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? carrots→ 20:35, 10 December 2010 (UTC)

Another Bach work with this melody
... seems to go by the title "O Haupt voll Blut und Wunden" (BWV 270), arranged and recorded by the Niagara Brass Ensemble on their album, "Bach: Baroque Brass." A lookup of BWV 270 on the J.S.Bach.org website gives its title as "Befiehl du deine Wege", so this seems to require further follow-up before adding any of this info to the page. -- Deborahjay (talk) 11:35, 9 September 2009 (UTC)
 * The same chorale melody is used multiple times with different lyrics in the St. Matthew Passion, and as separate arrangements outside it as well. "O Haupt voll Blut und Wunden" is arguably the best-known instance and the title it's usually known under, but calling it "Befiehl du deine Wege" or "Ich will hier bei dir stehen" or "Wenn ich einmal soll scheiden" or "Erkenne mich mein Hüter" certainly isn't wrong (these all use different BWV numbers, though, and BWV 270 is indeed "Befiehl du deine Wege" and not "O Haupt voll Blut und Wunden", that's BWV 244/54 (the Passion is BWV 244)). 82.95.254.249 (talk) 21:53, 27 November 2009 (UTC)
 * The Matthew Passion chorales have different words because they are settings of different stanzas of the same hymn. In general, though, it is common for a single hymn tune to be used with several different texts.  In any event, Bach wasn't the one who wrote the tune, nor did he set the words to the tune.  Rather, the chorales in his cantatas and other works were well-known congregational hymns that he used in his compositions, much as Aaron Copland used existing cowboy songs in some of his symphonic music. 98.14.84.183 (talk) 04:43, 22 March 2013 (UTC)
 * Isn't an edit needed under Music? The statement that Hans Leo Hassler "composed" the song is not clearly justified even thought there is a footnote seeming to do so. Based on Albert Schweitzer's 1905 book J.S. Bach Le Musicien Poète (p. 18), I suggest that rather than "composed" the article should say "selected by Hans Leo Hassler for his 1601 collection of profane songs." GianniBGood (talk) 11:15, 11 March 2024 (UTC)

Lyrics
The link to Full lyrics of this song from Metro Lyrics was to lyrics of a different song -- not this one. I replaced that link with

The link to Full lyrics of this song from the Paul Simon website: http://www.paulsimon.com/us/music/there-goes-rhymin-simon/american-tune ---Dagme (talk) 02:45, 27 September 2015 (UTC)


 * You removed all categories in the process. Debresser (talk) 12:10, 27 September 2015 (UTC)

External links modified
Hello fellow Wikipedians,

I have just added archive links to 1 one external link on American Tune. Please take a moment to review my edit. If necessary, add after the link to keep me from modifying it. Alternatively, you can add to keep me off the page altogether. I made the following changes:
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/20090910055520/http://www.colbertnation.com:80/the-colbert-report-videos/210692/november-18-2008/paul-simon-pt--1 to http://www.colbertnation.com/the-colbert-report-videos/210692/november-18-2008/paul-simon-pt--1

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Cheers.—cyberbot II  Talk to my owner :Online 19:45, 9 January 2016 (UTC)

Song written in London
The lyrics make a lot more sense if you know that he wrote and recorded the song in London. "Still, you don't expect to be bright and bon vivant so far away from home". Probably your article should mention that fact. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2A02:2788:226:6A9:8039:3AA7:EA8E:7495 (talk) 16:01, 9 June 2019 (UTC)