None of the other guests quite count as actual ’60s-era contemporaries the way Wonder does, but with other frequent awardees like Bonnie Raitt also on board, it feels like Old Home Week when it comes to this “Salute” almost secondarily serving as a tribute to the Grammys themselves. With a Paul Simon, you pretty much want something closer to a peer-on-peer review panel, which you’re definitely getting when one of the guests of honor is Stevie Wonder, the only guy who won more album of the year Grammys in the 1970s (three) than the pair of album trophies Simon picked up during that same decade. But it’s fine that they didn’t bring in, like, Gayle for the occasion. There are no sops to the youth vote, except for the inclusion of the Jonas Brothers reviving “50 Ways to Leave Your Lover,” which, with all due respect to their respect for one of the greats, probably clocks in as the least essential performance here.

As Giddens and Simon perform “American Tune,” you may feel like you’ve gone off to find America, and actually kinda succeeded in that search, over the course of just one number.Įverything else about the telecast - which was filmed before a live audience at Hollywood’s Pantages back in April (see Variety‘s next-day coverage here) - feels immaculately chosen by producer Ken Ehrlich, if hardly marked by left-field surprises. But if you have only about a 10-minute stretch to spare for televised non-holiday music in the days leading up to Christmas, maybe make it the closing act of this special - especially the generational handoff number that has one master, Rhiannon Giddens, movingly joining another. Yet, it still has the potential to speak to us today as it did in 1973.Viewers won’t go wrong watching the two-hour entirety of “Homeward Bound: A Grammy Salute to the Songs of Paul Simon” tonight on CBS. Simon’s tune, American Tune, is a great song that has roots that are more than 400 years old. There she performs with Francesco Turrisi and Martin Hayes and the audio is much cleaner and just as powerful. What I do offer instead is Rhiannon Giddens performance of the Simon rewritten song in October 2022 at Other Voices Dignity. Unfortunately, I don’t like the live audio from the Newport Folk Festival, but I have included a link to that performance here for your pleasure. Her version, with two lines rewritten for her by Simon, reminds the world that we all didn’t come on the Mayflower (at least not all of us voluntarily), but we all strive to be part of the fabric of the American quilt. As one reviewer put it, it was like a prayer. Her version of his song was a soulful and beautiful one. During a Paul Simon performance at the Newport Folk Festival on July 23, 2022, Simon was joined on stage by Grammy winner, Rhiannon Giddens, to sing his song, American Tune. So, as disgraced comedian Bill Cosby used to say: I told you that story to tell you this one. Below is a rendition of the translated hymn performed by the York College Concert Choir. Around 1830, it was translated by American Presbyterian minister, James W. The poem was later translated into English in 1752. Johann Sebastian Bach later arranged the melody and poem in his oratorio, St Matthew Passion in 1727. The music was later adapted in 1656 by Johann Crüger. Hans Leo Hassler is said to have set the poem to music in 1601. The poem was translated into German in the very early 1600s. The hymn, O Sacred Head, Now Wounded, is based on a Latin poem written during the Middle Ages.

Well, it turns out that while the lyrics are by Paul Simon, the melody was adapted by Simon from a religious hymn with a significant history. Below is Paul Simon performing the tune in 1975. Yet, it was also a hopeful song about the fortitude of the American spirit. It contrasted nicely with the album’s lead song, the fast paced and bouncy Kodachrome.Īmerican Tune reflected a national mood of a nation tiring of the Vietnam War and dreading the Watergate crisis underway. The first track on the B side was a relatively slow song called, American Tune. The album was entitled, There Goes Rhymin’ Simon. In 1973, musician Paul Simon released his third solo album after his break from the singing duo, Simon and Garfunkel.

Oh, and you will probably get an earworm from this post. A caveat: I don’t claim my research is complete and factual.

American tune simon and garfunkel