# An Analysis of the Graduate Soundtrack- Do you really think it works? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [May 12, 2004, 11:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/an-analysis-of-the-graduate-soundtrack-do-you-really-think-it-works/244766 "2004-05-12T11:39:25Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2004, 5:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/an-analysis-of-the-graduate-soundtrack-do-you-really-think-it-works/244766/21 "2004-05-17T17:28:38Z")
> [@MidnightRadio](#): > > [nitpick] > When _The Graduate_ was released, the pill had already been on the market for seven years. > [/nitpick] > > I, too (I’m 28), think that the movie is still relevant as well as immensely entertaining. [Bangs head against wall.] Yes, the pill had been invented. And Mary Quant started making miniskirts around 1958, and James Dean died in 1955 and Hugh Hefner started Playboy in 1953. But in 1967 none of the girls in my senior class were on the pill, because it was virtually impossible for a high school girl to obtain. And none of them were wearing miniskirts either, no matter how many Beatles films you saw, because the staid downtown department stores didn’t carry them and there were no hip boutiques to be found in the hinterlands. And the boys didn’t wear blue jeans to school, because they were still forbidden. Girls didn’t wear them either. As a matter of fact, they didn’t wear slacks of any kind, because skirts were still the rule. Nobody wore shorts. Boys did not wear facial hair. All that was in the future. When the media look back at 1967, it’s all hippies and Vietnam. Wrong, wrong, wrong. The average high school class of 1967 looked and acted almost indistinguishably from the average high school class of 1957. This was true for most colleges as well. Daily life was far more Leave it to Beaver than it was The Monkees. (Don’t forget that Ben as a matter of course wears a suit to go out with Mrs. Robinson.) Most of what we today associate with the 1960s did not spread deeply into the general culture until the early 1970s. This is the great lost secret of the 60s: they didn’t happen then. And this is why it has become almost impossible for people to look back and make sense of the era. They associate the wrong behaviors with the wrong years. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2004, 8:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/an-analysis-of-the-graduate-soundtrack-do-you-really-think-it-works/244766/22 "2004-05-17T20:36:10Z")
> [@carterba](#): > > I used to have an MP3 of Dylan doing an incredibly sarcastic-sounding cover of _The Boxer_. It was just vitriolic-type sarcasm. Dylan probably thought S&G were a “timeslot hit”, so to speak, basically riding his coattails. I wouldn’t be surprised if they had a bit of a rivalry. I never heard him as being sarcastic on that song, which, since it is from _Self Portrait_ is a total mess anyway. I don’t recall ever hearing of a Dylan - Siimon feud - it’s not mentioned in any of the Dylan bios I’ve read, or in any of the coverage of the Dylan - Simon tour. I rather think Dylan was trying to be funky on that cover, with the pitiful double tracking and all. If you want to hear vitriolic sarcasm, check out _Rolling Stone_ on the “Albert Hall” concert official bootleg, or many of the conversations on _Don’t Look Back_. Early Dylan did vitriolic sarcasm better than just about anybody. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.WhiteChocolateChasT](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ee59a6/32.png) [@Mr.WhiteChocolateChasT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.WhiteChocolateChasT)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2016, 1:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/an-analysis-of-the-graduate-soundtrack-do-you-really-think-it-works/244766/23 "2016-06-06T13:03:35Z")
Thanks for this breakdown - I used it in my own blog post. Take a look: [The Graduate (was your college professor)](http://www.kotcb.com/2016/06/the-graduate-was-your-college-professor.html) ---
**Author:** ![bienville](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/4bbf92/32.png) [@bienville](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bienville)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2016, 1:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/an-analysis-of-the-graduate-soundtrack-do-you-really-think-it-works/244766/24 "2016-06-06T13:42:06Z")
Wow. I used to put a lot of work into my OPs. ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba9def/32.png) [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2016, 3:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/an-analysis-of-the-graduate-soundtrack-do-you-really-think-it-works/244766/25 "2016-06-06T15:17:23Z")
> [@bienville](#): > > Wow. I used to put a lot of work into my OPs. Well, here’s to you, Mr bienville People love your posts more that you would know (wo wo wo) Where have you gone Mr bienville The Straight Dope turns its lonely eyes to you. ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2016, 4:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/an-analysis-of-the-graduate-soundtrack-do-you-really-think-it-works/244766/26 "2016-06-06T16:14:30Z")
> [@chappachula](#): > > I never liked the whole concept of an athletic 23 year old successful grad of an Ivy League school behaving like a 15 yr old high school kid before his first date. My only problem with the movie is that it omits the part about Ben’s roadtrip. In the novel, he comes home after bumming around the country and tells his dad how pathetic and boring the rest of the world is, and how disillusioned he’s become about it. Only then does he take Mrs Robinson up on her offer. In the movie, there’s a cut from Ben scuba diving in the swimming pool to him talking to Mrs Robinson on the phone. The novel provides much stronger motivation than just relieving his post-graduate boredom. I suspect that the above sequence was filmed but ended up on the cutting room floor, due either to constraints on running time or simply because someone felt it slowed the pace of the movie. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/an-analysis-of-the-graduate-soundtrack-do-you-really-think-it-works/244766.md?page=1)