Song Lyric of the Day (Paul Simon, on the Fallout From an Earlier “Most Uncertain Hour”)

"I don't know a soul who's not been battered
Don't have a friend who feels at ease
Don't know a dream that's not been shattered
Or driven to its knees."—American singer-songwriter Paul Simon, “American Tune,” from his There Goes Rhymin' Simon LP (1973)

Paul Simon released his mournful anthem “American Tune” in the year that America finally tallied the costs in lives lost from the recently concluded Vietnam War, investigated a criminal President, and experienced the shock of quadrupled oil prices within three months over a foreign conflict.

Simon recognized that public ordeals have their inevitable consequences in private trauma, in ways we can only begin to sense at the time.

Nevertheless, each generation, before and since, though weary at the unexpected challenges in which it finds itself, sings its “American Tune.” Let’s hope that despite ourselves, there will be another generation after us to repeat the process.