Duncan
Paul Simon Lyrics


Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴  Line by Line Meaning ↴

Couple in the next room bound to win a prize
They've been going at it all night long
Well, I'm tryin' to get some sleep
But these motel walls are cheap
Lincoln Duncan is my name
And here's my song, here's my song

My father was a fisherman
My mama was a fisherman's friend
And I was born in the boredom and the chowder
So when I reached my prime
I left my home in the Maritimes
Headed down the turnpike for New England, sweet New England

Holes in my confidence
Holes in the knees of my jeans
I was left without a penny in my pocket
Ooh-oowee, I was about as destituted as a kid could be
And I wished I wore a ring so I could hock it
I'd like to hock it

A young girl in a parkin' lot
Was preaching to a crowd
Singing sacred songs and reading from the Bible
Well, I told her I was lost
And she told all about the Pentecost
And I seen that girl as the road to my survival

I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know

Just later on the very same night
When I crept to her tent with a flashlight
And my long years of innocence ended
Well, she took me to the woods
Sayin' "Here comes something, and it feels so good!"
And just like a dog I was befriended, I was befriended

Oh, oh, what a night
Oh, what a garden of delight
Even now that sweet memory lingers
I was playing my guitar
Lyin' underneath the stars
Just thankin' the Lord
For my fingers
For my fingers





I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know

Overall Meaning

The song "Duncan" by Paul Simon tells the story of a man named Lincoln Duncan who is trying to sleep in a cheap motel room while a couple in the next room is "going at it all night long." Duncan is a Canadian who came to New England to start a new life, leaving behind his hometown in the Maritimes. He comes from a family of fishermen, and he was born and raised there. He is a man with holes in his confidence, and his jeans and he is broke, wishing he had something to pawn so he could get some money.


One day, he meets a young girl in a parking lot who is preaching to a crowd, singing sacred songs and reading from the Bible. He tells her he is lost, and she tells him all about the Pentecost. He sees her as the road to his survival. Later that same night, he creeps up to her tent and loses his virginity. He is grateful for the experience and is lying in the garden playing the guitar, thanking God for his fingers.


The song is a reflection of a man's journey to find himself and the different experiences he has along the way. It paints a picture of a young man leaving behind what he knew to start anew, finding his way through religious experiences and falling in love in a garden of delight.


Line by Line Meaning

Couple in the next room bound to win a prize
The singer is in a motel and hears a couple having sex in the next room, and he comments on how they seem to be very into it.


They've been going at it all night long
The couple has been having sex for a long time and the singer is having trouble sleeping because of the noise.


Well, I'm tryin' to get some sleep But these motel walls are cheap
The singer can't sleep because of the noise but the cheap walls of the motel make it worse.


Lincoln Duncan is my name And here's my song, here's my song
The artist introduces himself as Lincoln Duncan and says he has a song to share.


My father was a fisherman My mama was a fisherman's friend And I was born in the boredom and the chowder So when I reached my prime I left my home in the Maritimes Headed down the turnpike for New England, sweet New England
The artist comes from a family of fishermen and was born into a life of boredom and routine. When he grew older, he decided to leave his hometown in search of something more fulfilling and ended up in New England.


Holes in my confidence Holes in the knees of my jeans I was left without a penny in my pocket Ooh-oowee, I was about as destituted as a kid could be And I wished I wore a ring so I could hock it I'd like to hock it
The singer is struggling financially and emotionally, and wishes he had something valuable to sell for money.


A young girl in a parkin' lot Was preaching to a crowd Singing sacred songs and reading from the Bible Well, I told her I was lost And she told all about the Pentecost And I seen that girl as the road to my survival
The singer meets a girl preaching in a parking lot and tells her that he is lost. She shares information about the Pentecost and he sees her as a way to find direction in his life.


I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know
The artist repeats that he knows something, although it is not clear what.


Just later on the very same night When I crept to her tent with a flashlight And my long years of innocence ended Well, she took me to the woods Sayin' "Here comes something, and it feels so good!" And just like a dog I was befriended, I was befriended
Later that same night, the artist goes to find the girl in her tent with a flashlight and they have sex for the first time. He remembers the experience as a positive one where he felt welcomed and accepted.


Oh, oh, what a night Oh, what a garden of delight Even now that sweet memory lingers I was playing my guitar Lyin' underneath the stars Just thankin' the Lord For my fingers For my fingers
The artist reminisces about the night he lost his virginity and describes it as a wonderful experience. He was also playing his guitar and grateful for the gift of music.




Lyrics ยฉ Universal Music Publishing Group, Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC
Written by: Paul Simon

Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
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Most interesting comments from YouTube:

@dunhillan8360

Couple in the next room
bound to win a prize:
they've been going at it all night long!
Well, I'm tryin' to get some sleep
but these motel walls are cheap:
Lincoln Duncan is my name,
and here's my song, here's my song.


My father was a fisherman,
my mama was a fisherman's friend,
and I was born in the boredom and the chowder.
So when I reached my prime
I left my home in the Maritimes,
headed down the turnpike for New England, sweet New England.


Holes in my confidence,
holes in the knees of my jeans,
I was left without a penny in my pocket ....
Oo-oowee, I was about as destituted as a kid could be
and I wished I wore a ring so I could hock it ...
I'd like to hock it


A young girl in a parkin' lot
was preaching to a crowd,
singing sacred songs
and reading from the Bible.
Well, I told her I was lost
and she told all about the Pentecost,
and I seen that girl as the road to my survival,
my survival.


Just later on
the very same night
when I crept to her tent with a flashlight
and my long years of innocence ended:
Well, she took me to the woods,
sayin' "Here comes something, and it feels so good!",
and just like a dog I was befriended, I was befriended.


Oh, oh, what a night,
oh, what a garden of delight ...
Even now that sweet memory lingers:
I was playing my guitar
lyin' underneath the stars
just thankin' the Lord
for my fingers,
for my fingers...
[์ถœ์ฒ˜] Duncan / Paul Simon|์ž‘์„ฑ์ž ์—„๋‹˜



@user-ip9yu7lp1q

Duncan- Paul Simon

Couple in the next room bound to win a prize
์˜†๋ฐฉ ์ปคํ”Œ์—๊ฒŒ ์ƒ์ด๋ผ๋„ ์ค˜์•ผ๊ฒ ์–ด
They've been going at it all night long!
๋ฐค์ƒˆ๋„๋ก ๋’น๊ตด๊ณ  ์žˆ์œผ๋‹ˆ ๋ง์ด์•ผ
Well, I'm tryin' to get some sleep
์Œ, ์ž ์„ ์ฒญํ•˜๋ ค ํ–ˆ์ง€๋งŒ
But these motel walls are cheap
์ด ๋ชจํ…” ๋ฒฝ์€ ์‹ธ๊ตฌ๋ ค์•ผ

Lincoln Duncan is my name And here's my song,
๋‚ด ์ด๋ฆ„์€ ๋ง์ปจ ๋˜์ปจ์ด์—์š” ๊ทธ๋ฆฌ๊ณ  ์—ฌ๊ธฐ ๋‚ด ๋…ธ๋ž˜๋ฅผ ๋“ค์–ด๋ณด์„ธ์š”

My father was a fisherman
์ œ ์•„๋ฒ„์ง€๋Š” ์–ด๋ถ€์˜€๊ณ 
My mama was a fisherman's friend
์–ด๋จธ๋‹ˆ๋Š” ์–ด๋ถ€์˜ ์นœ๊ตฌ์˜€์–ด์š”
And I was born in the boredom and the chowder
๊ทธ๋ฆฌ๊ณ  ๋‚ด๊ฐ€ ํƒœ์–ด๋‚œ ๊ฑด ๊ถŒํƒœ์™€ ๋งˆ์•ฝ์˜ ์‚ฐ๋ฌผ์ด์—ˆ์ฃ 
So when I reached my prime
๊ทธ๋ž˜์„œ ์ฒญ๋…„์ด ๋˜์–ด์„œ
I left my home in the Maritimes
๋‚˜๋Š” ๊ณ ํ–ฅ ๋ฉ”๋ฆฌํƒ€์ž„์ฆˆ๋ฅผ ๋– ๋‚˜ ๊ณ ์†๋„๋กœ๋กœ ํ–ฅํ–ˆ์–ด์š”
headed down the turnpike for New England,
๋ฉ‹์ง„ ๋‰ด์ž‰๊ธ€๋žœ๋“œ๋ฅผ ํ–ฅํ•ด์„œ ๋ง์ด์—์š”
sweet New England
๋ฉ‹์ง„ ๋‰ด์ž‰๊ธ€๋žœ๋“œ

Holes in my confidence
์ž์‹ ๊ฐ์—๋„ ๊ตฌ๋ฉ์ด ๋‚˜๊ณ 
Holes in the knees of my jeans
์ฒญ๋ฐ”์ง€ ๋ฌด๋ฆŽ์—๋„ ๊ตฌ๋ฉ์ด ๋‚˜๊ณ 
I was left without a penny in my pocket
์ฃผ๋จธ๋‹ˆ์—๋Š” ๋™์ „ ํ•œํ‘ผ ์—†์—ˆ์–ด์š”
I was about as destituted as a kid could be
๋‚œ ์ •๋ง ๋”ํ•  ๋‚˜์œ„ ์—†์ด ์ ˆ๋ฐ•ํ•œ ์•„์ด์˜€์–ด์š”
And I wished I wore a ring So I could hock it,
์ €๋‹น์ด๋ผ๋„ ์žกํž ์ˆ˜ ์žˆ๋Š” ๋ฐ˜์ง€๋ผ๋„ ํ•˜๋‚˜ ๋ผ๊ณ  ์žˆ์—ˆ์œผ๋ฉด ํ–ˆ์–ด์š”
I'd like to hock it
์ €๋‹น์ด๋ผ๋„ ์žกํž ์ˆ˜ ์žˆ๋Š”

A young girl in a parkin' lot was preaching to a crowd
์ฃผ์ฐจ์žฅ์—์„œ ํ•œ ์•„๊ฐ€์”จ๊ฐ€ ์‚ฌ๋žŒ๋“ค์—๊ฒŒ ์—ฐ์„ค์„ ํ•˜๊ณ  ์žˆ์—ˆ์–ด์š”
Singing sacred songs And reading from the Bible
์ฐฌ์†ก๊ฐ€๋„ ๋ถ€๋ฅด๊ณ  ์„ฑ๊ฒฝ๋„ ์ฝ์–ด ์ฃผ์—ˆ์–ด์š”
Well, I told her I was lost
๊ทธ๋…€์—๊ฒŒ ๋‚ด๊ฐ€ ์–ด์ฐŒํ• ์ง€ ๋ชจ๋ฅด๊ฒ ๋‹ค๊ณ  ํ–ˆ๋”๋‹ˆ
And she told all about the Pentecost
์˜ค์ˆœ์ ˆ์— ๋Œ€ํ•ด ๋ชจ๋‘ ์„ค๋ช…ํ•ด ์ฃผ์—ˆ์–ด์š”
And I seen that girl as the road to my survival
๊ทธ๋ฆฌ๊ณ  ๋‚œ ๊ทธ๋…€๋ฅผ ๋‚ด๊ฐ€ ์‚ด์•„๊ฐ€๊ฒŒ ํ•ด ์ค„ ๊ธธ๋กœ ์ƒ๊ฐํ–ˆ์ฃ 

Just later on the very same night
๊ทธ๋ฆฌ๊ณ  ์–ผ๋งˆ ํ›„ ๋ฐ”๋กœ ๊ทธ ๋‚  ๋ฐค
When I crept to her tent with a flashlight
์†์ „๋“ฑ์„ ๋“ค๊ณ  ๊ทธ๋…€์˜ ํ…ํŠธ์— ์Šฌ๋ฉฐ์‹œ ๋“ค์–ด๊ฐ”์–ด์š”
And my long years of innocence ended
๊ทธ๋ฆฌ๊ณ  ๋‚ด ์˜ค๋žœ ์ˆœ๊ฒฐ์„ ์žƒ์—ˆ์ฃ 
Well, she took me to the woods,
๊ทธ๋…€๋Š” ๋‚˜๋ฅผ ์ˆฒ์œผ๋กœ ์ด๋Œ๋ฉฐ ๋งํ–ˆ์–ด์š”
sayin' "Here comes something and it feels so good!",
"๊ธฐ๋Œ€ํ•ด๋„ ์ข‹์•„์š” ์•„์ฃผ ๊ทผ์‚ฌํ•  ๊ฑฐ์˜ˆ์š”"
And just like a dog I was befriended
๊ทธ๋ฆฌ๊ณ  ์ˆœํ•œ ๊ฐ•์•„์ง€๋งˆ๋ƒฅ ๋‚˜๋Š” ๊ทธ๋…€์™€ ์นœ๊ตฌ๊ฐ€ ๋˜์—ˆ์–ด์š”
I was befriended
๋‚˜๋Š” ๊ทธ๋…€์™€ ์นœ๊ตฌ๊ฐ€ ๋˜์—ˆ์–ด์š”

Oh, oh, what a night
๊ต‰์žฅํ•œ ๋ฐค์ด์—ˆ์–ด์š”
Oh, what a garden of delight
ํ™˜ํฌ์˜ ์ •์›์— ์žˆ๋Š” ๋“ฏํ–ˆ์–ด์š”
Even now that sweet memory lingers
์ง€๊ธˆ๋„ ๋‹ฌ์ฝคํ•œ ๊ทธ ์ถ”์–ต์ด ๋‚จ์•„ ์žˆ์–ด์š”
I was playing my guitar lyin' underneath the stars
๋‚˜๋Š” ๋ณ„์„ ๋ฐ”๋ผ๋ณด๋ฉฐ ๋ˆ„์›Œ์„œ ๊ธฐํƒ€๋ฅผ ์น˜๊ณ  ์žˆ์—ˆ์–ด์š”
just thankin' the Lord for my fingers,
๋‚ด ์†๊ฐ€๋ฝ์— ์žฌ๋Šฅ์„ ์ฃผ์‹  ํ•˜๋Š๋‹˜๊ฒŒ ๊ฐ์‚ฌํ•˜๋ฉด์„œ ๋ง์ด์—์š”
for my fingers
๋‚ด ์†๊ฐ€๋ฝ์—


I know. I know. I know.



All comments from YouTube:

@cy4194

One of the greatest songs of all time. It's like reading a good novel, or watching a good movie, somehow in the space of a few minutes.

@darwinsom957

In my top 10 and I'm over 60 with prog rock tastes

@kevanbrown7620

I first heard this song when my older brother was playing his Paul Simon album about 40 years ago. It totally blew me away.

@heathermcquade5249

Totally in concurrence. ๐Ÿซ‚

@user-oz1tx2hm4z

ๅŒๆ„ใ—ใพใ™ใ€‚
ใฏใ˜ใ‚ใฆ่ดใ„ใŸๆ™‚ใ‹ใ‚‰ใ€ใใ—ใฆ่ฉฉใฎๅ†…ๅฎนใ‚‚็›ธๅค‰ใ‚ใ‚‰ใšใ„ใ„๏ผ๐Ÿ‘โค

@davidharvey3743

Excellent. I couldn't have come close to your sentiment. Thank paul for the song and you for your kind words

2 More Replies...

@soaraddie1918

I remember in 1973, my American friend (she was 26 and I was 18) turned on her cassette player for me to listen to this song. I had heard a lot of American songs and loved them all but I didn't always understand them enough. So she sang this song along by short section and said it clearly for me to understand. I love the lyrics although I had never heard any songs in my language mentioned such a topic. I tried to learn to sing it but it was too difficult for me. I hadn't been able to hear the song for a long time until there was the Internet everywhere. It is a really great remembrance of her and the time we were together.

@dwaynewladyka577

Paul Simon is another great American songwriter. Love what he does so much. This song is great. Cheers!

@user-xi5re1mo8p

A master songwriter if ever there was one.

@lethaltambul9574

My name is Duncan. I was named after my dad listened to this song

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