America by Simon & Garfunkel is a contemplative song about a journey through America looking for the American dream, illustrating a search for meaning and identity across the vast American landscape. It serves as a chronicle of youth and personal discovery set in the 1960s.
Key: C
Introduction:
C
C/B
Am
G
F
F4
F
Mmm mmmm mmm mmm mmm x2
C
C/B
Am
Am/G
F
F4
F
Let us be lovers we'll marry our fortunes together
C
C/B
Am
I've got some real estate here in my bag
Em7
A7
Em7
A7
So we bought a pack of cigarettes and Mrs. Wagner's pies
D
C
G
C
C/B
Am
G
F
F4
F
And walked off to look for America
C
C/B
Am
Am/G
F
F4
F
Cathy I said as we boarded a Greyhound in Pittsburgh
C
C/B
Am
Michigan seems like a dream to me now
G
It took me four days to hitchhike from Saginaw
D
G
D
C7M
C
I've gone to look for America
Bb7M
C7M
Laughing on the bus, playing games with the faces
Bb7M
C7M
She said the man in the gabardine suit was a spy
F7M
C
C/B
Am
G
Am/F#
F
I said be careful his bowtie is really a camera
C
C/B
Am
Am/G
F
F4
F
Toss me a cigarette I think there's one in my raincoat
C
C/B
Am
We smoked the last one an hour ago
Em7
A7
Em7
A7
So I looked at the scenery, she read her magazine
D
C
G
C
C/B
Am
G
F
F4
F
And the moon rose over an o-pen field
C
C/B
Am
Am/G
F
F4
F
Cathy I'm lost I said though I knew she was sleeping