Simon & Garfunkel - American Tune (from The Concert in Central Park)
https://genius.com/Paul-simon-american-tune-lyrics
Since President Trump took control of the John F. Kennedy Center for Performing Arts, firing the board, on the basis that they are people who 'do not share our Vision for a Golden Age in Arts and Culture' and installing loyalists who appointed him chairman, his administration has scaled back some programs and fired around 40 employees. The president's budget proposal has also called for getting rid of the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Institute of Museum and Library Services.
Addressing the board in March, he reminisced about a performance of Cats that he had once attended. He mentioned Betty Buckley, who though she had known for a long time that the song Memory was played at Trump's rallies she had not realised that it was her version from the 1982 Broadway production that was his favourite.
The once glamorous but now shunned Grizabella sings a yearning for connection that is the emotional highpoint of the musical. Charitably, in an interview with Michael Paulson, theatre reporter for The Times, she said, 'My theory is that Trump, on a deeper level, wants to connect. He’s trying to be seen and to be loved. So for a while there, I
felt this kind of glimmer of hope that wouldn’t it be great if he could
allow us, as theater artists, to share with him that which we know in
storytelling to assist him to see things a bit differently.' She wishes that he could build on the feeling that he has for the song and translate it into good feelings for all others.
Unfortunately, as is revealed in Stephanie Grisham's work memoir, I'll Take Your Questions Now: What I Saw At The Trump Whitehouse, as well as having a Music Man on hand to soothe his moods, there was also a willing pool of flatterers available to boost his delusional ego.
As Ms Buckley says, it is Paul Simon's American Tune that is a better fit for 'what's happening these days, which is weird.'
'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'
'And I dreamed I was dying
I dreamed that my soul rose unexpectedly
And looking back down at me, smiled reassuringly
And I dreamed I was flying
And high up above, my eyes could clearly see
The Statue of Liberty sailing away to sea
And I dreamed I was flying'
