11/19/2006
Thoughts. It's all about thoughts.
First, "walk along the riverbank" as he thinks of words for the song. Then "my vanishing memory with its catalog of regrets." Then "make a wish." Finally, "I shoot a thought into the future ...".
Now what the hell does this have to do with the coda? A question that must be answered since the name of the track is "Everything About It Is a Love Song."
11/29/2006
On "Everything About It Is a Love Song"
Previously I said this was about thoughts. Correct, but not specific. It's about thoughts of the future and of the past, alternately.
We begin with imagination being used to find the right combination of words to use in a melody line. A song will grow out of this process. The songwriter is creating the future.
Then we go back to the twentieth century, have "vanishing memory" and a "catalogue of regrets." But before this part of the song ends we are back to the future, waiting "for the hour of my rescue."
Next we're back to regrets, "and then it's, 'Oh, I'm sorry'" followed by a photographic reminder that the past also holds "love when it was new." And then right on to thinking about what's coming with "Make a wish." (another act of imagination) and "Surprise. Surprise. Surprise."
The next part remembers, "Early December, brown as a sparrow ..." and then shoots, "a thought into the future, and it flies like an arrow, through my lifetime. And beyond."
Penultimately we are on the "ancient road" and then "remember me, as I'll remember you." Note that the exhortation to "remember me, as I'll remember you" is about the memories we'll have in the future.
Finally, we get to "Everything about it is a love song." which I can explain as the thought of another Simon-created character, but the explanation strikes me as forced. I'm missing something.
Missing piece aside, this is a track about memories, thoughts of the past, and imagination, thoughts of the future. The intricacy of the interweaving is breathtaking. The imagination of future memories is amazing.
12/13/2006
I started with "thoughts." Then honed in. This time I'm precising the previous. Here goes.
The past, the present and the future all live in the mind. The past is in our memories, and the future in our imagination. As time roles along, the future becomes the present and the present becomes the past. Paul Simon's past's future is your present, if you're listening to "Everything" (or if you're reading a blog about "Everything").
Note the past tense: "I took a walk ...". At some indefinite time in the past, which Simon is remembering, he took that walk "along the riverbank" of his imagination and created this song (and all the others). The song came after the walk. Your hearing it and reading about it comes after the song is recorded. Your present is Simon's past's future.
The past and future don't alternate as simply as I suggested earlier. They intertwine with the present, too. "Sit down, shut up..." is very definitely present tense. "Think about God" is tied to, but not the same as, imagination.
I also overlooked "surprise." What is a surprise? A surprise happens when a bit of future roles into the present and it is not as you imagined it. Hopefully, that birthday present (for which you made the wish) turns out to be way better than you guessed. You're delighted. Happy birthday! (Of course, surprises aren't all of the good sort, though we'll stick to the good ones since we're at a birthday party.)
I called "early December" a memory. I think that was wrong. It is the present, as the verb "shoot" is used. ("I shoot a thought into the future." There's no metric or other reason why he couldn't have "shot a thought", but he chose "shoot.") That's not the past or the future tense. It's present tense.
I was right about the "as I'll remember you" bringing up the complication of imagining future memories, but that's only fitting after the complexity of the opening remembrance of past imaginings.
The earth is blue in the pictures we get back from space. Astronauts all speak with awe of the earth's beauty, seen from space.
Now if only someone could help me connect the dots from here to "Everything about it is a love song." Anyone?
