Sunday, April 05, 2015

Paul Simon: American Tune



An appropriate song for Easter Sunday, in that Simon took this melody from Bach's St Matthew Passion. Bach had borrowed it from earlier sources himself.

Performed here on Parkinson in 1975, American Tune has become something of a liberal anthem in the States. It was sung at a pre-inaugural concert for Jimmy Carter and used in a campaign commercial for Barack Obama.

3 comments:

Helen Pender said...

Playing very slowly like an old 45 record playing at 33 rpm. Very very deep voice

Jonathan Calder said...

Perhaps you need a new computer?

Anonymous said...

Perfect song for the Watergate era (I bet Nixon loathed it).
Always impressed with Paul Simon's guitar playing too.

Andrew Kitching