Did You Find Everything Alright? Quiz

Answer: Let us be lovers, we'll marry our fortunes together

"I'm sittin' in the railway station" is the opening line to their song "Homeward Bound", and "I am just a poor boy" is the first line of "The Boxer", another song of theirs. "I've got some real estate here in my bag" is the second line of "America", not the first. Looking at the first two lines of "America", you'll notice that this song does not possess rhyming lyrics.

Answer: A pack of cigarettes and Mrs. Wagner pies

Mrs. Wagner pies were an actual food item sold in the United States for much of the twentieth century up until 1969. They were individually wrapped single-serving pies created by Mrs. Wagner's Home Made Pies.

Answer: Kathy

Some have speculated that the Kathy the singer calls by name and is speaking to is Kathy Chitty, a woman Paul Simon had a relationship with when he lived in England in 1965. Some have further speculated that this is a song about his return to the States while traveling with Chitty.

However, such speculation is problematic. The singer is traveling from a western direction by himself for four days before he meets someone and hops on a bus with her. England is obviously east of where the two board the bus, and why would Simon be traveling without Chitty for a while first? Furthermore, as we've already seen from the first line, he's inviting this female to be his lover. Why would he do that to someone who already was such? More than likely, this song is fictional and allegorical--a symbolic journey or quest to find oneself--and perhaps his feelings for the real Chitty influenced him to use her name in the song, but there's no definite proof that this song is about a true physical journey the two of them actually made.

Answer: Saginaw

Saginaw, Michigan, was once a highly successful lumber and manufacturing town. Simon's reference to it in this song is perhaps an attempt to suggest that the singer is of a blue collar family. It's also a perfect setting for the theme of the failed American dream, for the manufacturing industry dwindled along with the population while crime increased.

Answer: A spy

Gabardine is a tightly woven fabric, rather rough to the touch and usually made of worsted wool, although it may be made of cotton or a polyester blend. It has traditionally been used to make suits and uniforms and was invented by Thomas Burberry in 1879.

Answer: A camera

"America" first appeared on the album "Bookends" in 1968. Later, however, it was released as a B-Side to "Keep the Customer Satisfied" in 1971 and then as a single in 1972, when it reached number ninety-seven on the Billboard Top 100.

Answer: They "smoked the last one an hour ago"

The music and lyrics for "America" were written by Paul Simon. Some significant covers of this song include the following: the band Yes on its 1972 album "The New Age of Atlantic", David Bowie to open the "Concert for New York City" in October of 2001, Josh Grobin on his "Live at the Greek" album, and even the band America on their 2011 album "Back Pages".

Answer: the moon

Simon perhaps is referring to the continuous passage of time, a reminder that our quest for meaning is limited by our mortal situation. Or, perhaps, Simon is suggesting there is some hope of finding what we're searching for. Or, then again, maybe the moon is only shedding light so that we can see we are in the darkness. Regardless, during Simon's live solo version of this song from his "Concert in the Park" album, he accentuates this line before the crowd of people in Central Park while there is apparently a moon rising over the concert. Simon pauses long enough for his audience to grow aware of the moment.

The crowd cheers. The whole effect is quite moving as Simon captures perfectly an image of all of us searching in the darkness with the light of the moon to guide us.

Answer: I'm lost.

His words in their entirety are merely "Kathy, I'm lost". Profoundness is always captured best with the simplest words, isn't it? And these words and their tone capture perfectly the emptiness and sorrow and desperation the next line claims the singer is feeling, especially through his calling out her name.

When "America" was released in 1972 as a seven-inch single, its B-side was "For Emily, Whenever I May Find Her", which actually fared better in the charts than "America". "For Emily" reached number fifty-three on the Billboard Top 100 chart.

In case you're wondering about some of the other lines provided as answers, "Fools . . . you do not know" comes from "The Sound of Silence", and "I'm leaving, I'm leaving" comes from "The Boxer". I just completely made up the "I think we're home" line.

Answer: cars

The singer is overwhelmed at how many are as lost and searching as he. I suppose we are to imagine the effect is as that experienced by Dante in "The Inferno" when he enters through the gates of hell and says, "I had not thought death had undone so many". Paul Simon is certainly one of America's greatest poets, and the singing duo of Simon and Garfunkel are one of its greatest musical collaborations. Simon and Garfunkel were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1990 and were ranked number 40 in the list of the 100 Greatest Artists of All Time in the "Rolling Stone".

Although they broke up in 1970, they have reunited on countless occasions; in 1981, they reunited for "The Concert in Central Park", and over 500,000 people attended, making the performance the seventh largest musical event in history.