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 is a relatively slow song entitled, 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, as it turns out the lyrics are by Paul Simon, but the melody, adapted by Simon, is 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 from Latin to German in the early 1600s. Hans Leo Hassler is credited with setting the poem to music in 1601. The music was later adapted by Johann Crüger in 1656.
Johann Sebastian Bach later arranged the melody and poem in his oratorio, St Matthew Passion in 1727. The poem was translated into English in 1752. American Presbyterian minister, James W. Alexander, in 1830, translated the poem again. The York College Concert Choir performs a rendition of his translated hymn below.
So, as disgraced comedian Bill Cosby used to say: I told you that story to tell you this one. During Paul Simon’s performance at the Newport Folk Festival in 2022, Grammy winner, Rhiannon Giddens, joined him on stage 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.
Sadly, I don’t like the live audio from the Newport Folk Festival version, but I have included a link to that performance here. Instead, below is Rhiannon Giddens performing 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.
