A caveat: I don’t claim my research is complete and factual. I just claim that it is research. Oh, and you will probably get an earworm from this post.
In 1973, musician Paul Simon released his third solo album after his break from the singing duo, Simon and Garfunkel. The album was 
entitled, There Goes Rhymin’ Simon. The first track on the B side was a relatively slow song called, American Tune. It contrasted nicely with the album’s lead song, the fast paced and bouncy Kodachrome.
American Tune reflected a national mood of a nation tiring of the Vietnam War and dreading the Watergate crisis underway. Yet, it was also a hopeful song about the fortitude of the American spirit. Below is Paul Simon performing the tune in 1975.
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. The hymn, O Sacred Head, Now Wounded, is based on a Latin poem written during the Middle Ages. The poem was translated into German in the very early 1600s. Hans Leo Hassler is said to have set the poem to music in 1601. The music was later adapted in 1656 by Johann Crüger.
Johann Sebastian Bach later arranged the melody and poem in his oratorio, St Matthew Passion in 1727. The poem was later translated into English in 1752. Around 1830, it was translated by American Presbyterian minister, James W. Alexander. Below is a rendition of the translated hymn performed by the York College Concert Choir.
So, as disgraced comedian Bill Cosby used to say: I told you that story to tell you this 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.
Her version of his song was a soulful and beautiful one. As one reviewer put it, it was like a prayer. 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. It is what unites us.
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. What I do offer instead is Rhiannon Giddens performance of the Simon rewritten song in October 2022 at Other Voices Dignity. There she performs with Francesco Turrisi and Martin Hayes and the audio is much cleaner and just as powerful.
Simon’s tune, American Tune, is a great song that has roots that are more than 400 years old. Yet, it still has the potential to speak to us today as it did in 1973.
