"The Obvious Child" by Paul Simon

September 29, 2009

For reasons I've already hinted at (here), Paul Simon is an artist particularly meaningful for me now. Rhythm of the Saints is an album I bought in 1990; I bought it on vinyl and listened to it over and over. The tunes come back to me like an old friend.. like car keys that slip into my pocket. The song that keeps grabbing my attention is "The Obvious Child," which opens the album with its distinctive drum patterns.

The song works by developing phrases that sound innocuous at first, but which then gain meaning as the song proceeds. In the first instance "obvious child" sounds like an address to someone:

I’m accustomed to a smooth ride
Or maybe I’m a dog who’s lost its bite
I don’t expect to be treated like a fool no more
I don’t expect to sleep through the night
Some people say a lie’s a lie’s a lie
But I say why
Why deny the obvious child?

It's tempting to hear that final line as "Why deny the obvious, child?" But there's no comma and Simon is speaking of something definite. The religious nature of the song is already taking shape in these first lines. Life is in some sort of crisis as the smooth life has hit a rough patch. Staying up at night with anxiety is now common. And finally some story is dismissed as "a lie's a lie's a lie." But to this the singer asks, innocuously: "Why deny the obvious child?"

The next stanza moves us further into this line of thought:

And in remembering a road sign
I am remembering a girl when I was young
And we said these songs are true
These days are ours
These tears are free
And hey
The cross is in the ballpark

This is a move back into the days of the "smooth ride".. youth and the idealism of love. The songs all seemed true then! And then comes another obliquely religious line: "And hey/ The cross is in the ballpark." In the context of youthful idealism it is something of a throwaway: the cross is out there somewhere and its unclear just where. It's something for some other time.

One of the most difficult questions about "The Obvious Child" is how to interpret the parallel story of "Sonny":

We had a lot of fun
We had a lot of money
We had a little son and we thought we’d call him Sonny
Sonny gets married and moves away
Sonny has a baby and bills to pay

The "we" could be the continued stream of thought of the singer, now turning to consider a son who is growing up. Or Sonny could be in the process of becoming the singer. Certainly by the next stanza there is not a lot of daylight between Sonny and the emotions of the singer:

Sonny wanders beyond his interior walls
Runs his hands through his thinning brown hair

These third person observations on Sonny are ambiguous.. and should be seen as narrative vignettes that complement the first-person thoughts of the singer.

And the thoughts of the singer are turning more and more in a religious—and Christian—direction. The "obvious child" morphs into an unambiguous reference to Jesus:

I’ve been waking up at sunrise
I’ve been following the light across my room
I watch the night receive the room of my day
Some people say the sky is just the sky
But I say
Why deny the obvious child?

We are back to the image of troubled sleep, and from that place of anxiety the singer refuses to believe that the sky is just what it appears to be, without any further meaning. The doubts begin to gather force: why go on denying the "obvious child"? To conclude the song Simon repeats the first stanza, but now mixes his two oblique lines:

Some people say a lie is just a lie
But I say the cross is in the ballpark
Why deny the obvious child?

The "cross is in the ballpark" is no longer a dismissive phrase, but an admittance of the possibility of faith. The cross is a live question.. it's in the ballpark.. there's no longer a reason to deny the obvious child.

Now I should back up and say what else is "obvious": Paul Simon is not a Christian or anything like that. But a careful listen to his music at almost any point in his career will impress with his probing on religious issues.. and here in "The Obvious Child" he is pushing on the possibility of faith. Compare this to another statement on faith from his most recent album Surprise:

I don't believe a heart can be filled to the brim then vanish like mist as though life were a whim.
Maybe the heart is part of the mist. And that's all that there is or could ever exist. Maybe and maybe and maybe some more.
Maybe's the exit that I'm looking for.

A life can't just end, Simon feels.. there must be something more. Characteristically Simon falls back into uncertainty: "Maybe and maybe and maybe some more." He realizes that there is only speculation and no real answer to be had. But perhaps he can live with that uncertainty, which after all is better than absolute certainty about the nothingness of death: "Maybe's the exit that I'm looking for." That is pretty much a restatement of "the cross is in the ballpark." Religious faith can't be dismissed, even as it can't quite move to the center of life. We can hold on to "maybe".. although proof is the bottom line for everyone.