American Tune

American Tune is a song written in 1972 right after Richard Nixon was elected president. It was released in 1973 on his 3rd studio album "There Goes Rhymin' Simon." Simon has said it is the closest he ever came to writing an explicitly political song. The song is about US weariness from the Vietnam War and the Watergate Scandal. 

The melody originated in 1601 as a secular German love song titled "Mein G’müt ist mir verwirret" ("My mind is confused/mixed up") composed by Hans Leo Hassler. It was in turn incorporated into the German Lutheran hymn "O Sacred Head Thou Wlounded". The melody is incorporated in turn in Bach's St Matthews Passion (written in 1727).

Covers on Secondhand Songs

Notable covers include:

• Simon & Garfunkel 1982
• with Willie Nelson 1993
• Eva Cassidy 2003 (title track)
• David Roth 2006
• Crooked Still 2011
• Shawn Colvin 2015
• Allen Toussaint 2016
• Barbara Dane 2016
• with Rhiannon Giddens live at Grammy Salute 2023

Many’s the time I’ve been mistaken
And many times confused
Yes, and I’ve often felt forsaken
And certainly misused
Oh, but I’m all right, I’m all right
I’m just weary to my bones
Still, you don’t expect to be
Bright and bon vivant
So far away from home, so far away from home

F C G E7 / Am E Am - :// F C F G / F CG Am AD / 
G CG D G / F CG E7 Am / Dm7 G C -

I don’t know a soul who’s not been battered
I don’t have a friend who feels at ease
I don’t know a dream that’s not been shattered
Or driven to its knees
Oh, but it’s all right, it’s all right
For lived so well so long
Still, when I think of the road we’re traveling on
I wonder what went wrong
I can’t help it, I wonder what’s gone wrong

And I dreamed I was dying
And I dreamed that my soul rose unexpectedly
And looking back down at me
Smiled reassuringly
And I dreamed I was flying
And high above my eyes could clearly see
The Statue of Liberty sailing away to sea
And I dreamed I was flying

Oh, we come on the ship they call the Mayflower 
 [or: We didn't come here on the Mayflower]
We come on the ship that sailed the moon
 [We came on a ship in a blood red moon]
We come in the age’s most uncertain hour
And sing an American tune
Oh, it’s all right, it’s all right
It’s all right, it’s all right
You can’t be forever blessed
Still, tomorrow’s going to be another working day
And I’m trying to get some rest
That’s all I’m trying to get some rest

© 1973 Words and Music by Paul Simon

In 2023 Simon rewrote the first 2 lines of the final verse for Rhiannon Giddens when they performed this song at the Grammys to broaden its application to a wider range of people in the US:

We didn’t come here on the Mayflower
We came on a ship in a blood red moon
We come in the age's most uncertain hour
And sing an American tune.