‘On A Blood Red Moon . . .’

 It’s Independence Day Eve (to create a title for the day), and we’re busier than usual. So I’m just going to post one of the most thoughtful songs I know about this nation and its challenging path: Paul Simon’s “American Tune” as performed by Rhiannon Giddens at the Newport Folk Festival last summer. 

The song was originally released on the album There Goes Rhymin’ Simon in 1973, a fraught time in American history, and it’s just as relevant today as it was half a century ago. 

Simon’s lyrics are: 

Many’s the time I've been mistaken
And many times confused
Yes, and I’ve often felt forsaken
And certainly misused 

Oh, but I’m alright, I’m alright
I'm just weary to my bones
Still, you don’t expect to be bright and bon vivant
So far away from home, so far away from home 

And I don’t know a soul who’s not been battered
I don’t have a friend who feels at ease
I don’t know a dream that’s not been shattered
Or driven to its knees 

But it’s alright, it’s alright
For we lived so well so long
Still, when I think of the
Road we’re traveling on
I wonder what’s gone wrong
I can’t help it, I wonder what has gone wrong 

And I dreamed I was dying
I dreamed that my soul rose unexpectedly
And looking back down at me
Smiled reassuringly

And I dreamed I was flying
And high up above my eyes could clearly see
The Statue of Liberty
Sailing away to sea
And I dreamed I was flying 

We come on the ship they call The Mayflower
We come on the ship that sailed the moon
We come in the age’s most uncertain hours
And sing an American tune 

Oh, and it’s alright, it’s alright, it’s alright
You can’t be forever blessed
Still, tomorrow’s going to be another working day
And I’m trying to get some rest
That’s all I’m trying, to get some rest 

With Simon’s permission, Giddens – a woman with Black, Indigenous and White ancestry – has altered the lyrics in the last verse. I think she first sang the altered verse at the Grammy salute to Simon a few years ago. Here’s that last verse in Giddens’ version: 

We didn’t come here on the Mayflower
We came on a ship on a blood red moon
We come in the age's most uncertain hours
And sing an American tune 

And here’s Giddens, backed by Simon, performing “American Tune” at Newport last summer.