Long-distance romance is never easy. How can one person possibly go about their life in a normal fashion when the person that they feel is their other half is far away? Out of sight, out of touch, maybe, but never out of mind or heart.
Paul Simon experienced that phenomenon in the 60s when he struggled to tend to his work while his lover was on another continent. Those struggles rose to the surface on the lovely “Kathy’s Song”.
His British Sweetheart
Paul Simon ping-ponged back and forth between America and England in the 60s as his career prospects waxed and waned. His debut album with Art Garfunkel, Wednesday Morning, 3 A.M., failed to do much business, causing him and Garfunkel to go their separate ways.
Simon decided he might do better within the burgeoning folk movement in England. While there, he met Kathy Chitty, who would show up in a few songs of his, sometimes via direct references. (“’Kathy, I’m lost,’ I said, though I knew she was sleeping,” Simon sings in “America”, for one example.)
“Kathy’s Song,” meanwhile, doesn’t mention her name, except within the title. But the lyrics to the song detail Simon’s sorrow and frustration at being apart from her during one of his stretches back in the US while Chitty remained in England. He’d record the song on his 1965 solo album The Paul Simon Songbook.
In 1966, Simon received a big career break when “The Sound Of Silence”, which he’d recorded as an acoustic folk song with Garfunkel, turned into a belated electrified hit. That meant a new S&G record (Sounds Of Silence), which included another version of “Kathy’s Song”. And since that album gained a ton of exposure, it brought this gorgeous song of longing to the mainstream.
A Deep Dive into the Lyrics of “Kathy’s Song”
“Kathy’s Song” is six verses without a chorus, a structure which highlights the rambling, somewhat unfocused mind of the narrator. He finds himself initially amused by the patterns of the rain, before admitting where his mind is truly leaning: “I gaze beyond the rain-drenched streets/To England, where my heart lies.”
Once he makes that assertion, he starts to divulge his inner life. “My mind’s distracted and diffused,” he admits, the lovely alliteration emphasizing the scrambled nature of his brain. He’s essentially split in two, with his body remaining behind and his mind, heart, and soul traveling miles to be with her.
Simon then turns to the effect her absence is having on his work, work which now seems trivial to him. “I don’t know why I spend my time,” he wonders. “Writing songs I can’t believe.” At some point, the things that once fortified him start to seem useless. “I stand alone without beliefs,” he admits. “The only truth I know is you.”
In the final verse, Simon ties up the song beautifully by coming back to his body and his lonely night watching the weather. “And as I watch the drops of rain,” he muses. “Weave their weary paths and die/I know that I am like the rain/There but for the grace of you go I.” In other words, his own life would be similarly meaningless without her in it.
Sadly, the demands of fame put too much pressure on Simon’s relationship with Chitty, and they broke up. But “Kathy’s Song” stands as a lasting testament to the profundity and potency of their love while it lasted.
(Photo by Chris Walter/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images)
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