By Jim Heffernan
I find it very strange that a song that came out in 1973 became an anthem for me somewhere around 2015. The song is “An American Tune” and it originally came out on Paul Simon’s 1973 album, “There Goes Rhyming Simon.” We still have the vinyl album, but the tracks I remember are “Kodachrome” and “One Man’s Ceiling.” See a link to YouTube video below …
I suppose it’s because “An American Tune” is a very sad song patterned on a Lutheran hymn. I think it was based on Simon and Garfunkle’s breakup.
In 1973 I was happy and hopeful. My 8 year enlistment in the Air Force ended in 1971 and the nun’s prophecy of me ending up “in a factory” came true. I was loving it. I was working and living hard, with weekly paychecks I was proud of, high wages and Sunday’s were double-time.. My schedule was 20 8 hour shifts on graveyard, followed by a 12 hour shift and a day off. Sometimes I would feel weary and I’d realize I’d only slept 10 hours in the last 3 days.
The song didn’t really burrow into my mind until something like 2010 when I heard a Willie Nelson/Paul Simon duet on NPR. It was from the 1993 album, “Across the Borderline”. By then, 40 years of factory work had come close to breaking my body and bruised and battered my spirit. The following lines from the song drilled into my psyche and my reading binge was born.
Still, when I think of the road
We’re traveling on
I wonder what went wrong
I can’t help it, I wonder what’s gone wrong
400 or so books later I’ve seen many, many things we’ve been doing wrong, but I think I’ve finally burrowed down to the primary reason for “what’s gone wrong”. It’s somehow fitting that I would stumble into it just before April, (Women’s Sexual Assault and Prevention Month) ended.
I feel sure the primary cause of “what’s gone wrong” is how we as a culture define gender, particularly masculinity. It’s so pervading we don’t see it. We think it benefits us, but it doesn’t. It’s killing many of us and making most of us suffer, both men and women.
I’ll close with a startling fact. Iceland, the country surveys rank with the smallest gender gap of privilege, has the smallest differential of life expectancy between men and women and Icelandic men have the highest life expectancy in Europe.
Coming soon, book reviews of Liz Plank, bell hooks, and Justin Baldoni who explore the topic thoroughly. The first step to solving “what’s gone wrong” is really knowing what it is.
As always, discussion welcome at codger817@gmail.com