SONG TITLE: PUNKY'S DILEMNA

PERFORMER: SIMON AND GARFUNKEL

SONGWRITER: PAUL SIMON

YEAR OF RELEASE: 1968

COMMENTS:

Paul Simon was never particularly a follower of trends, and certainly not of trends as ephemeral as the 1960's psychedelic movement.  He had way too much self-consciousness and just plain good judgment to be caught up in cheesy hippie fads.  You will find no photos of Simon & Garfunkel in tie-dye and sandals.  You will get no cheap musical sensationalism, distorted guitars and phase-shifting and such. Simon even at this stage had an implicit pride in his place in the classic tradition of Jewish-American songwriters.  Not that he was opposed to smoking a little weed, but gimmicky doped-up hippie crap was beneath his dignity.

Nonetheless, this song is psychedelic.  It doesn't necessarily have anything to do with recreational chemicals, but it sure reflects an altered state of consciousness.  It's trippy.  He's definitely taking a little vacation from reality.

The tune plays out as a gently applied but sweeping flight of whimsy. Paul skips merrily down the street, bouncing little flights of fancy off the walls of his mind.  It sounds like the most lighthearted end of Cole
Porter, carefully tuneful but deceptively casually conversational in tone.  Frank Sinatra could have sung this -if someone had slipped some magic mushrooms into his pasta sauce.

The lyrics really top it off.  He may have been intending to mock the good folks of southern California, but if so it turned out to be celebration of their spirit rather than a put-down.  "Wish I was a Kellogg's corn flake, floatin' in my bowl -take in movies.  Relaxing a while, living in style."  The words may look silly on paper, but the
singing makes them sound plausible.

Like I was saying, it's trippy.

 

 



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