"And my travelling companion is nine years old, he is the child of my first marriage, and I have reason to believe we both will be received in Graceland..."
Graceland is the title track from the album so I thought it would be foolish not to make a storytelling map for it! Paul Simon describes the song as a 'country travelling song', inspired by the musicians he met whilst working in South Africa, but there is also an underlying story of love and loss which I found to be very important within the story of the lyrics. Although never formally mentioned, the song suggests that the narrator has been through a recent breakup with his wife and is extremely heartbroken. This leads to the idyllic ideals that Graceland will be all receiving and that he should travel there with his nine year old son.
I wanted to convey this feeling of moving away from loss and into a happier place. The right hand side of the map is bare and lifeless, as if to represent the emptiness in his life. But he and his son are moving onwards to the left of the map which is full of crops and trees and people and bountifulness, conveying the richness of life he hopes to receive when reaching Graceland. I liked the idea of Graceland not just being the home of Elvis, but also this amazingly fantastical funland which was dedicated to the King himself!
Whilst this is all unfolding on the earth below, the ex-wife looks on brushing 'her hair from the forehead'. I wanted the perspective of the story to be seen almost through her eyes as, even though she isn't even named in the song, she plays a very important role in the emotions of the song.
Other elements from the lyrics have been picked up such as 'the Mississippi Delta', 'the civil war', 'pilgrims', 'the wind blows' and, in the background, 'there is a girl in New York City who calls herself the human trampoline...' The space of the island itself is Tennessee.
