Had dinner with my friend Fr. Robbert Barron recently, and he proposed an intriguing reading of Simon and Garfunkel’s famous song “Cecilia,” lyrics below. Most people think it’s a song of a cheating girlfriend. Fr. Barron, though, proposed that it is the lament of a songwriter seeking the muse that gives inspiration, in this case playing on the name of St. Cecilia as patron saint of music. When the muse leaves, the songwriter is miserable, when she returns he is jubilant. “Making love with Cecilia” is actually writing a song, and when she leaves him and inspires someone else she is “cheating.” But she always comes back. Could two Jewish kids from New York really be writing about St. Cecilia? Their album “Wednesday Morning 3 AM” contained a setting of the entire Benedictus from the Mass, in Latin no less. Any thoughts?
Cecilia, you’re breaking my heart
You’re shaking my confidence daily
Oh, Cecilia, I’m down on my knees
I’m begging you please, to come home
Cecilia, you’re breaking my heart
You’re shaking my confidence daily
Oh, Cecilia, I’m down on my knees
I’m begging you please, to come home
Come on home
Making love in the afternoon
With Cecilia up in my bedroom
I got up to wash my face
When I come back to bed
Someone’s taken my place
Cecilia, you’re breaking my heart
You’re shaking my confidence daily
Whoa, Cecilia, I’m down on my knees
I’m begging you please, to come home
Come on home
Jubilation, she loves me again
I fall on the floor and I’m laughing
Jubilation, she loves me again
I fall on the floor and I’m laughing
February 28, 2008 at 8:53 pm
I’m not sure about the song, but I big fat puffy red heart (gee, did I grow up in the 80s…) Fr. Barron! My friend’s husband does his website and as soon as we saw it–we were hooked!
God Bless,
Jane
February 28, 2008 at 8:55 pm
“Jubilation, she loves me again
I fall on the floor and I’m laughing”
Why would a guy take back a cheating girl if she were anyone other than a Muse?
February 28, 2008 at 11:36 pm
Fr. Barron must have been high or something…
February 29, 2008 at 1:25 am
I’ve always loved Simon and Garfunkel…and hated that song!
Perhaps I’ll try to see it in this light from now on.
February 29, 2008 at 7:21 am
It seems a stretch…
But certain natural orders I suppose can be understood to work as types and metaphors for Higher Order…
It seems a stretch…
February 29, 2008 at 8:38 pm
Plus, as any writer/artist knows, if you’re on a roll sometimes “getting up to wash your face” is enough to make you lose your flow.
Also, the image is a bit disturbing if Cecilia is an actual person– Paul gets up to use the restroom and suddenly Art is all over his girlfriend??! No wonder the band broke up! (And no wonder Art’s solo career has been so lackluster, if he’s so bad at controlling his baser impulses!)
=)
February 29, 2008 at 9:57 pm
It’s absolutely obvious that Simon is courting St. Cecilia.
Their song “You Can Tell the World” always blows me away.