‘Homeward Bound’: The song Paul Simon was convinced was terrible
When Paul Simon was first starting off writing songs, he probably wasn’t thinking about becoming one of the greatest songwriters of his time.
Everyone from The Beatles to Bob Dylan was showing everyone what was possible when they made new music, and while Simon could make his own ditties sound as perfect as he could, there were always going to be places where he felt that his work could have been a lot better. But even with all of those folk classics under his belt, some of the best Simon and Garfunkel songs weren’t safe from his ire when he looked back on those early records.
Granted, it’s not hard to see why Simon wasn’t all that much of a fan of those kinds of retrospectives. Every songwriter is bound to improve their songwriting over time, and while there are some fantastic tunes that Simon was making, the songs written by a kid in his 20s is a lot different from the seasoned veteran that was penning the kind of tracks that wound up on Graceland.
But it’s all about the time and place in which a song is written, and there wasn’t a soul in America that didn’t resonate with a tune like ‘The Sound of Silence’. There was a dramatic weight to make a song like that in the wake of the Kennedy assassination and wondering about what the future held for the country, but even on their later records, songs like ‘The 59th Street Bridge Song’ wasn’t exactly the kind of song that was bound to stand the test of time in the same way that ‘Silence’ did.
Then again, Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme is a bit of an odd record for Simon and Garfunkel. Up until then, they had been trying to make a name for themselves, but after their second record was rushed out following their success, this was the first time they had a proper album statement. There were a lot of great tunes like their rendition of ‘Scarborough Fair’ with the song ‘Canticle’, but not everyone was going to get the humour in a song like ‘A Simple Desultory Phillippic’.
But in terms of pop songs, ‘Homeward Bound’ falls somewhere in the sweet spot of Simon’s greatest tunes. It’s not quite as adventurous as what he would end up doing in his solo career when he worked with world musicians, but for a song that was all about coming home and awaiting all of his friends and family, you can practically feel that chill in the air as he makes his way through the city back to his loved ones.
There isn’t a single part of the song that could be improved, but Simon admitted that he came to resent the song over time before everyone started to come around on it, saying, “I was thinking I hate ‘Homeward Bound’, and then I thought, ‘Why do I hate it?.’ ‘Oh I hate the words.’ So I went over them. And then I remember where I wrote it. I wanted to get home to my girlfriend Kathy in London. I was 22. And I thought, ‘Well that’s not a bad song at all for a 22-year-old.’ It’s actually quite touching now that I see it.”
It might have been a little bit too personal for Simon and Garfunkel, but it’s not like performing the tune with a Beatle was going to knock it down any points in Simon’s mind. Playing the tune on Saturday Night Live with George Harrison is still one of the finest moments in the show’s history, and given how much Harrison put into his own songs, he could appreciate someone who was willing to write something so sentimental about being back home.
So let this be a lesson to anyone who ever thinks that their tunes might not be up to snuff. There might be a song that you wish could have sounded different or a lyric that didn’t sound right at the time, but every song is a step along the journey to becoming the best writer that you can possibly be.
