It’s the day before Thanksgiving here in the United States and a lot of people are on the road or in the air, heading home or over the river and through the woods to grandmother’s house for a big Thanksgiving meal and get together. It’s only fitting, then, that today’s classic song of the day is Simon & Garfunkel’s “Homeward Bound,” a tune all about longing for home.
Perhaps not surprisingly, Paul Simon wrote “Homeward Bound” when he was sitting in a railroad station longing for home. (Hence the initial lines, “I’m sittin’ in the railway station, got a ticket for my destination.”) Exactly which railroad station is open for debate. Some people (including the residents of the town of Widnes) say he wrote it while touring near that town in the northwest of England, at either Widnes Central or the aptly named Widnes Station. Simon himself said he wrote the song at a station near Liverpool, perhaps in Warrington:
“That was written in Liverpool when I was traveling. What I like about that is that it has a very clear memory of Liverpool station and the streets of Liverpool and the club I played at and me at age 22. It’s like a snapshot, a photograph of a long time ago.”
Whichever station it was, everyone agrees that Simon wrote it while he was living in England in 1964. He was kind of hiding out there after the apparent failure of Simon & Garfunkel’s first album, Wednesday Morning, 3 A.M. (He even roomed with fellow singer-songwriter Al Stewart for awhile when he was there.) Paul had fallen in love with a fair young maiden named Kathy Chitty, a ticket taker at a club in Essex where he often played. He was literally sitting at the railroad station, waiting for the train to London and missing Ms. Chitty, when he starting writing the words to “Homeward Bound” on a piece of scrap paper.
By the way, “Homeward Bound” wasn’t the only song that Mr. Simon wrote with Kathy Chitty in mind. She also figured as inspiration for his songs “Kathy’s Song” (shocker) and “America.”
Paul Simon and his compatriot Art Garfunkel ended up recording “Homeward Bound” during sessions for their second album, 1966’s Sounds of Silence. (This was after the delayed success of “The Sound of Silence” as a single, which actually appeared as a track on their first album.) “Homeward Bound” was featured on the UK release of the Sounds of Silence album, but didn’t appear on a U.S. album until it was included on their next LP, Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme, released later in 1966.
Columbia Records released “Homeward Bound” as a single in January of 1966, and it peaked at #5 on both the Billboard Hot 100 and Cash Box Top 100. It went all the way to #2 in Canada and hit #9 on the UK charts.
That said, “Homeward Bound” wasn’t one of Paul Simon’s favorite songs. As he later reflected:
“…I don’t like the song that much. First of all, it’s not an original title. That’s one of the main problems with it. It’s been around forever. No, the early songs I can’t say I really like them. But there’s something naive and sweet-natured and I must say I like that about it. They’re not angry. And that means that I wasn’t angry or unhappy. And that’s my memory of that time: it was just about idyllic. It was just the best time of my life, I think…”
“Homeward Bound,” as the title suggests, is a song about longing for home after a “tour of one-night stands” on the road. The song presents a litany of woes about the touring life and expresses his desire to get home to the one he loves:
Every day’s an endless stream
Of cigarettes and magazines
And each town looks the same to me
The movies and the factories
And every stranger’s face I see
Reminds me that I long to be
Homeward bound
I wish I was
Homeward bound
Home where my thought’s escapin’
Home where my music’s playin’
Home where my love lies waitin’
Silently for me
“Homeward Bound” is the perfect song for anybody trying to get home in time for Thanksgiving. And here’s your Thanksgiving treat, today’s daily bonus video of the day. It’s Paul and Artie singing “Homeward Bound” on the February 17, 1966, episode of CTV’s Let’s Sing Out program, live from University College at the University of Toronto. Have a safe trip home for Thanksgiving, everybody.
