Song 190 - American Dream from Miss Saigon

Sparkle Saturday this week is taking us to Vietnam and the moving musical Miss Saigon and is a brilliant example of how some songs need to be seen within the context of the musical to understand their brilliance. I must admit when I first listened to the songs on the tape we had of this musical, I was a bit bored with it! Such a child that I was, however, when I saw this performed on stage I was blown away by the depth of this song. To be fair to my younger self, I probably didn't fully understand what happened in Vietnam when I first listen to the songs of this musical.

The American Dream comes right at the end of the musical and is an autobiographical account of Engineer's life and the life he hopes for in America. So much hope and so much promise, the song crescendo only to smash us down with the final scenes between Chris and Kim.  It is the power of storytelling at its finest.

Though it is not surprising that the team who brought us Les Miserables, Claude-Michel Schonbergh and Alain Boubil, could create a powerful and moving account of the destruction of the Vietnam War for the theatre for the people involved. There have been so many accounts of Vietnam on screen, in books and in music and this is one of the best.

For me, today I get to feel less guilty. I took my dad to Miss Saigon about 15 years ago but didn't take my sister and today, my sister and I are going to see the musical in Edinburgh. There is a twist in the tail as the tickets say restricted view (of course, the seats are downstairs!), hopefully, it won't be too restricted!!! Hee Hee, my sister might not be talking to me after today!

Listen here to the American Dream.

Song 105 - America by Simon & Garfunkel

Simple beautiful are the two words that come to mind when I hear the opening bars of this Simon & Garfunkel's song. America, taken from their fourth album Bookends, is about a pair of lovers hitchhiking around America, and is drawn from Paul Simon's own experiences with an old girlfriend. There is a deeper message behind the lyrics suggesting that America had lost its own cultural identity. If you think about America in late 1960s, it was disjointed and discontented with the Vietnam War and the corruption of Nixon in the early 1970s; and the album was released 24 hours before the assassination of Martin Luther King; the song fitted an America so far away from the American dream.

Arguable one of the best singer/songwriter duos of the 20th Century, Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel met and started harmonising their voices together in the 1950s, under the stage name of Tom and Jerry. Receiving their first record deal signing whilst they were only 15,  they released their first album in 1964, Wednesday Morning AM, and released 5 albums before they went their separate ways in 1970.   The album Bookends is a concept album and was heavy influenced by albums like Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band in the lyrics and the production of the album.

When I hear Simon and Garfunkel's songs, I am taken back to my childhood as they were another favourite in the Boxer household. It was only listening to their Greatest Hits did I realise how well I knew their songs. America for me also makes me think of my relationship with my husband as one of the first holidays we had together was in America so the opening lines "Let us be lovers and marry our fortune together" rang through my ear as we travelled from Washington D.C. to New York. I also considered using the line on our wedding order of services.

To hear a mellow tune for a Tuesday and go to America
America by Simon and Garfunkel


Written by Paul Simon
Album: Bookends, 1968