The Story of Therapy Dog Tails 475
Where Everyone Gets a Dose of Puppy Love
BACKGROUND 233: Ohio Sabbatical 15
June 1988
Simon & Garfunkel, Greatest Hits
Columbia CK 31350 [1972 - LS] / Columbia House Record Club
This one I bought in Tinley Park. I also had the soundtrack LP to the Graduate at that time. Tom & I had originally seen the movie in a theater in North Canton. [I also remember going to see Candy with Tom at the Mallet Mall theaters.] The line, of course, that stood out the most from that first viewing was, “So old Elaine Robinson got started in a Ford.” I didn’t see the movie for a long time after that and had forgotten where that last Berkeley section had come from. It was there in my mind but I didn’t relate it to the movie. When I finally saw it again in the late 70s or 80s, it was a surprise to find out where this memory had come from.
I know that I had not understood much upon that initial viewing and didn’t have any idea what that Berkeley section was about. I didn’t even know what or where Berkeley was. I didn’t know anything about the generation gap in 1968 even though I knew that we didn’t talk much to Mom & Dad and that Mom was always complaining about how nobody ever talked to her. That was just the way things were. I thought that parents never were able to talk to their children and never liked any of the things that their children liked. There really was no way for us to talk to them. Our values by the time I was 12 were radically different from theirs. Dad never did figure out how that was but now it’s obvious.
I don’t doubt that children get the sense of morality primarily from those in the immediate family. I think most of the kids in my generation ended up with values more or less like that of the older generation. They may have been part of that great ‘60s generation gap but for them it was more like the usual generation gap, the one that had always existed and will always exist, the one that involves primarily the need for the adolescent to become independent and to break away from the authority of the parent. This is a necessary situation and one that will always cause a certain amount of disruption within the family.
But for honest people there was a real problem in the ‘60s, one that still exists but for some reason had not been the issue that it was at that time. Maybe it’s not the issue now because we don’t have the great social movements to point them out anymore or, at least, we don’t see these social movements on t.v. now that we no longer have independent media. In the ‘60s there was the war on television and the civil rights movement and the assassinations right there in front of us. No honest person could accept what they were saying about all this because the lies were so obvious. We couldn’t accept that.
But Mom & Dad did. They believed the lies because they held false values from the WWII era, the illusion that the U.S. was the great savior of the world and that our intentions around the world were altruistic and all of that, not to mention their ridiculous Christian beliefs. They also had an exaggerated belief in the wonders of technology, which was very natural given the changes that took place in the world between 1900 and 1950. But the religion didn’t make sense and by the ‘60s we could see that technology was doing at least as much harm as good and we didn’t know half of what was really going on, especially in medicine. The Vietnam War showed very clearly that our motives were less than pure. We were not fighting Hitler over there.
We could not honestly adopt these values. We rejected the values of our parents and this, in part, explains why I was such a blank slate at the age of 18. If you reject the values that normally you would adopt, you’ve got to create your own somehow and this is not a simple task. I’ve been trying to do just this ever since and I’m still working on it. By the time I graduated from high school, I was, quite naturally, an atheist. Looking back, I can see that this was simply the result of rejecting the values of my parents without having anything there to put in their place. That only lasted a couple of years because it is such a ridiculous notion but I was starting from scratch and that is as good a definition of atheism as you’ll find.
So I’m still working on my own set of values. I recently [2001] came up with the idea, for example that there are only two universal virtues - honesty and compassion, the first corresponding to the male and the second to the female. Luz & I fit right into this and so it makes sense. This is exactly where Elaine & Benjamin are at the end of the Graduate. They have rejected the values of earlier generations but they’ve got nothing to put in place yet. But I wouldn’t have understood anything like this in 1968. We were just thinking of Elaine in the back seat of the car because Katharine Ross looked like the most beautiful girl that ever lived.
I rented the Graduate one Friday while we were at the Blancke St. apartment and the 3 of us watched it together. We all liked it so much that we must have watched it 5 times that weekend all the way through. I recorded it and we used to drive around in the Honda listening to the soundtrack - the entire soundtrack - in the car. We’ve since bought the movie and have probably watched it 20 or 30 times between 1990 and 1998.
Note: One of the songs most associated with The Graduate in my mind is Scarborough Fair. It’s a traditional folk song. Together the two put a spoken counterpoint dialogue to it about the Vietnam War (Canticle), which brought it closer to home in 1968. It reached #11 that spring only to be outdone by Mrs. Robinson, which hit #1 a couple of months later.
AUDIO INSERTED: Simon & Garfunkel, Scarborough Fair / Canticle
(Once again I insert this track without permission and will take it down upon request.)
IMAGES INSERTED: Record Labels
The song was covered by many. I like the version done by Bobbie Gentry and Glen Campbell on their duet album. I also like the light and breezy Sergio Mendez version, sort of taking the folk cafe into the elevator. It reached #16 in late 1969. Naturally they left out the spoken blood and guts of the Simon and Garfunkel track.
AUDIO INSERTED: Sergio Mendez & Brasil ’66, Scarborough Fair
(Once again I insert this track without permission and will take it down upon request.)
IMAGES INSERTED: Record Sleeve / Labels / Promo
Finally, I can’t let the opportunity get away to get in some Nichols and May. Mike Nichols, of course, directed The Graduate, among other great movies / stage plays. Elaine May became a renowned director as well but they started out as comics spoofing whatever happened to be on their minds or in the air at the time - late 50s / early 60s. Together they were pure genius and all it takes to confirm this is one listen to one of the tracks from their Examine Doctors (1962) album. No matter how many times you hear it, it just gets funnier with each listen. Interrupted Hour is as good an except as any but then literally any would do.
AUDIO INSERTED: Nichols & May, Interrupted Hour
(Once again I insert this track without permission and will take it down upon request.)
IMAGES INSERTED: Record Sleeves / Labels