Almost every day of this lockdown I would take long walks around my neighbourhood, wandering aimlessly around the shuttered shops near my house. I would peer into the windows and read the coronavirus closure signs on the doors. Sometimes I got caught in the rain and kept walking. Every day was the same, but it felt like it wasn’t. Every day I would listen to the same Simon & Garfunkel album.
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Jennifer Frost showed us the Let Us Vote song as an example of bottom-up politics, where a small, seemingly insignificant slice of culture from people with no real political power set off a much wider movement. Any change in the world comes from a slow, silent accumulation of popular feelings, thoughts and beliefs. I guess that’s why, when we experience massive historical events, it just feels surprisingly normal. It feels banal, numb, like we saw it coming. In Jennifer Frost’s example, it got to the point where almost nobody was going to contest the youth vote. In our current situation, politicians and citizens alike knew the world wasn’t prepared for a virus. In a time when people expected their leaders to lead, they got shrugs, handwringing and confusion. Years of cultural and political chaos has prepared us for this moment. When it came, we numbly accepted it.
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Paul Simon wrote “Bridge Over Troubled Water” in the throes of the first draft lottery since WWII, the aftermath of the My Lai massacre and the Manson murders, and amidst the Days of Rage demonstrations of Chicago. Like most great works, “it came to me in a dream” is how Paul Simon claimed the song came about. He worried that it was too simple. It’s easy, when faced with overwhelming historical events, to feel like one is not doing enough. But Bridge Over Troubled Water, in its elegant simplicity, still went on to define a generation.
Attached video: Paul Simon uploads a Youtube video in March 2020. “I’m gonna dedicate this song to my fellow New Yorkers.”
