# God Bless You, Please, Mrs. Robinson **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [February 4, 2000, 4:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/god-bless-you-please-mrs-robinson/6959 "2000-02-04T16:42:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Flypsyde](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/f0a364/32.png) [@Flypsyde](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Flypsyde)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2000, 8:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/god-bless-you-please-mrs-robinson/6959/21 "2000-02-04T20:21:00Z")
You know, I just got back from Scarborough Fair, and it sucks! There’s not even a ferris wheel! What a crappy carnival. * * * We interrupt this thread to increase dramatic tension. ---
**Author:** ![spankboy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/47e85d/32.png) [@spankboy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/spankboy)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2000, 8:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/god-bless-you-please-mrs-robinson/6959/22 "2000-02-04T20:24:00Z")
Speaking of Simon and Garfunkel, what were the lines from ‘Hazy Shade of Winter’ the Bangles left out in their cover version? I heard them once, but can’t remember…something about champagne?? -sb * * * They say the Lord loves drunks, fools and little children. Two out of three ain’t bad. ---
**Author:** ![pluto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/f08c70/32.png) [@pluto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pluto)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2000, 9:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/god-bless-you-please-mrs-robinson/6959/23 "2000-02-04T21:04:00Z")
> [@](#): > > Originally posted by spankboy: > \*\* Speaking of Simon and Garfunkel, what were the lines from ‘Hazy Shade of Winter’ the Bangles left out in their cover version? I heard them once, but can’t remember…something about champagne?? > > -sb > \*\* I dunno. Here’s both. With chords! A Hazy Shade Of Winter (Paul Simon) Time, Time, Time, see what’s become of me While I looked around for my possibilities. I was so hard to please. Look around, Leaves are brown, And the sky is a hazy shade of winter. Hear the Salvation Army band. Down by the riverside’s Bound to be a better ride Than what you’ve got planned. Carry your cup in your hand. And look around. Leaves are brown. And the sky is a hazy shade of winter. Hang on to your hopes, my friend. That’s an easy thing to say, But if your hopes should pass away Simply pretend that you can build them again. Look around, The grass is high, The fields are ripe, It’s the springtime of my life. Seasons change with the scenery; Weaving time in a tapestry. Won’t you stop and remember me At any convenient time? Funny how my memory skips Looking over manuscripts Of unpublished rhyme. Drinking my vodka and lime, I look around, Leaves are brown, And the sky is a hazy shade of winter. * * * hazy shade of winter recorde by the bangles Em D Em time time time, see what’s become of me… (riff x2) Em D time time time, see what’s become of me C B while i look around for my possibilities D i was so hard to please (riff of riff chords) look around leaves are brown and the sky is a hazy shade of winter hear the salvation army band down by the riverside its bound to be a better ride than what you’ve got planned… carry a cup in your hand. (riff of riff chords) look around leaves are brown and the sky is a hazy shade of winter hang onto your hopes my friend that’s an easy thing to say, but if your hopes should pass away simply pretend… than you can build them again (riff of riff chords) look around grass is high fields are ripe its the spring time of my life C G seasons change with the scenery D Em weaving time in a tapestry won’t you stop and remember me? (riff x2) (riff of riff chords) look around leaves are brown and the sky is a hazy shade of winter look around leaves are brown there’s a patch of snow on the ground (x3) ---
**Author:** ![Cabbage](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f07891/32.png) [@Cabbage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cabbage)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2000, 9:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/god-bless-you-please-mrs-robinson/6959/24 "2000-02-04T21:20:00Z")
> [@](#): > > Unless I’m mistaken, the “goo-goo-ga-choo” sound is also the sound made by Humpty Dumpty when he sneezes, just before falling off the wall in one of the Lewis Carroll Alice in Wonderland books. I don’t recall that coming from the Alice books (it’s been a while since I read them, though). Actually, I’d heard that it was from Finnegan’s Wake, which I’ve never tried to read–does anyone know if that’s correct? ---
**Author:** ![DAVEW0071](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e19b73/32.png) [@DAVEW0071](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DAVEW0071)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2000, 10:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/god-bless-you-please-mrs-robinson/6959/25 "2000-02-04T22:21:00Z")
“Mrs. Robinson” is about lost innocence (both personal and as a nation) and about middle-class suburban values and hypocrisy (in the film, the Hoffman character is seduced not just by an older woman, but an older woman who is the mother of his girlfried [fiancee?]). If the neighbors only knew!! (“Most of all we’ve got to hide it from the kids”) The use Joe DiMaggio’s name was only because it fit the meter. Paul Simon’s favorite baseball player was actually Mickey Mantle, but it doesn’t fit the rhythm. The reference is still meant to invoke nostalgia for youthful heroes gone. Certainly the confusion and angst that Dustin Hoffman suffers is a far cry from watching the ball game on TV and being a college kid. And the turbulent 60s marked a coming of age for the nation as well. (Next week: Symbolism in the Brave Little Toaster: The Small Appliance as Christ-Figure in Modern Cinema) * * * The Dave-Guy “since my daughter’s only half-Jewish, can she go in up to her knees?” J.H. Marx ---
**Author:** ![Minxsmom](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d07c76/32.png) [@Minxsmom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Minxsmom)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2000, 11:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/god-bless-you-please-mrs-robinson/6959/26 "2000-02-04T23:19:00Z")
> [@](#): > > Originally posted by spoke-: > \*\*I always assumed that in the song, Mrs. Robinson had some sort of drug or alcohol problem. “Most of all you’ve got to hide it from the kids,” “Put it in the pantry with your cupcakes,” “It’s a little secret, just the Robinsons’ affair,” “Stroll around the grounds until you feel at home.” All these verses to me suggest a drug or alcohol problem, including a stint of rehab. > \*\* That’s what I always thought. The first verse goes… “We’d like to know a little bit about you for our files. We’d like to help you learn to help yourself. Look around you all you see are sympathetic eyes. Stroll around the grounds until you feel at home.” That sounds like rehab to me. Great movie. I haven’t seen it in a while - I think I’ll rent it this weekend. ---
**Author:** ![Minxsmom](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d07c76/32.png) [@Minxsmom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Minxsmom)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2000, 11:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/god-bless-you-please-mrs-robinson/6959/27 "2000-02-04T23:20:00Z")
> [@](#): > > Originally posted by spoke-: > \*\*I always assumed that in the song, Mrs. Robinson had some sort of drug or alcohol problem. “Most of all you’ve got to hide it from the kids,” “Put it in the pantry with your cupcakes,” “It’s a little secret, just the Robinsons’ affair,” “Stroll around the grounds until you feel at home.” All these verses to me suggest a drug or alcohol problem, including a stint of rehab. > \*\* That’s what I always thought. The first verse goes… “We’d like to know a little bit about you for our files. We’d like to help you learn to help yourself. Look around you all you see are sympathetic eyes. Stroll around the grounds until you feel at home.” That sounds like rehab to me. Great movie. I haven’t seen it in a while - I think I’ll rent it this weekend. ---
**Author:** ![OldBroad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/ed655f/32.png) [@OldBroad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OldBroad)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2000, 11:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/god-bless-you-please-mrs-robinson/6959/28 "2000-02-04T23:32:00Z")
It wasn’t “rehab” in those days. It was an expensive and exclusive “clinic” for those with the cash or a sanitarium or the infamous 8th floor psycho ward for the hoi polloi. Rehab as a socially acceptable concept is a relatively recent phenomenon. ---
**Author:** ![andros](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e480ec/32.png) [@andros](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/andros)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2000, 12:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/god-bless-you-please-mrs-robinson/6959/29 "2000-02-05T00:02:00Z")
**Cess** , I don’t think anyone was suggesting you watch the movie just to hear the song. They were suggesting you watch the movie to get a better idea of what the song’s about. “One word . . .” “Plastics?” “Handguns. Disposable handguns.” -Bloom County -andros- ---
**Author:** ![Cartooniverse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cartooniverse/32/3084_2.png) [@Cartooniverse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cartooniverse)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2000, 2:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/god-bless-you-please-mrs-robinson/6959/30 "2000-02-05T02:36:00Z")
> [@](#): > > Originally posted by DAVEW0071: > **(Next week: Symbolism in the Brave Little Toaster: The Small Appliance as Christ-Figure in Modern Cinema)** Dave, not only did you thoroughly crack me up with this, I’m amused that you live in my damned back yard. Viva Film Theory Geeks !! Cartooniverse * * * If you want to kiss the sky, you’d better learn how to kneel. ---
**Author:** ![tomndebb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b9e5f3/32.png) [@tomndebb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tomndebb)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2000, 4:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/god-bless-you-please-mrs-robinson/6959/31 "2000-02-05T04:11:00Z")
**Cessandra** : > [@](#): > > I don’t know why this should make any of you feel old; after posting > [@](#): > > Any of you know this song? Well, perhaps because when this song first came out 32 years ago, several of us were already your current age (and not a few of us were older). As obliquely alluded to in **pluto** ’s post of 12:01 pm, it was very popular and there is very little likelihood that anyone as old as we are would _not_ remember the song. * * * Tom~ ---
**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/original/2X/e/e489c3b7d8fce19c4b355dd4fc3f88cc39c34b87.png) [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2000, 4:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/god-bless-you-please-mrs-robinson/6959/32 "2000-02-05T04:15:00Z")
::Auntie Melin clutches the shawl more tightly around her shoulders and shuffles across the room, leaning heavily on her cane:: ---
**Author:** ![Kyla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/eada6e/32.png) [@Kyla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kyla)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2000, 6:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/god-bless-you-please-mrs-robinson/6959/33 "2000-02-05T06:12:00Z")
Hey, that post made ME feel old, and I think I’m only a couple years older than Cessandra! I really don’t think that’s fair at all. * * * ~Harborina “This is my sandbox. I’m not allowed to go in the deep end. That’s where I saw the leprechauns.” ---
**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/original/2X/e/e489c3b7d8fce19c4b355dd4fc3f88cc39c34b87.png) [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2000, 8:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/god-bless-you-please-mrs-robinson/6959/34 "2000-02-05T08:20:00Z")
> [@](#): > > DAVEW0071: > The use Joe DiMaggio’s name was only because it fit the meter. Paul Simon’s favorite baseball player was actually Mickey Mantle, but it doesn’t fit the rhythm. Also because Mantle was still active when the song was written: he officially retired in early 1969, before the season started. * * * “You can observe a lot just by watching.” – Yogi Berra ---
**Author:** ![AuraSeer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c2a13f/32.png) [@AuraSeer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AuraSeer)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2000, 8:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/god-bless-you-please-mrs-robinson/6959/35 "2000-02-05T08:37:00Z")
**Jett** wrote: > [@](#): > > And yes, you can put a hyphen in anal- retentive. How about a colon? ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2000, 3:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/god-bless-you-please-mrs-robinson/6959/36 "2000-02-05T15:54:00Z")
I don’t think _The Graduate_ was quite as good as it’s generally claimed to be, which is why it no longer makes the list of my 100 favorite films: [http://www.geocities.com/~dcfilmsociety/rv\_wendell100.htm](http://www.geocities.com/~dcfilmsociety/rv_wendell100.htm) It’s typical of a certain sort of attitude that was common in the late fifties and early sixties, a disdain of American middle-class (well, really more like upper-middle-class) life without any definite ideas about how it could be changed. Notice that no one has long hair or smokes dope. Their ideas of rebellion are so vague that they don’t even include dressing differently or using drugs. The novel (of the same name) by Charles Webb that inspired it was published in 1963, and I really think it’s more typical of the attitude of the early sixties than the late sixties. The adults in the film are all basically idiots. Benjamin Braddock isn’t given any substantial ideas to rebel against. No one mentions politics in the entire movie. What is he and Elaine Robinson supposed to do after the last scene? Does this relationship have any chance of lasting? It’s appropriate then that the movie should be backed with Simon and Garfunkle songs like “God Bless You, Please, Mrs. Robinson”. A lot of Simon and Garfunkle songs from that time make me think of what some poet/songwriter would sing at a Greenwich Village party circa 1962, wearing a black turtleneck and sporting a goatee, while strumming his guitar. It’s designer angst. There’s references in the song to some drug or alcohol problem that Mrs. Robinson has, although in the movie she doesn’t seem to have one. There’s references to her religious beliefs, although in the film no one ever expresses any remotely religious opinions. This is just trying to fit the Mrs. Robinson character, a depressed middle-aged upper-middle-class housewife, into some standard cliches for that sort of person: alcoholism, drug addition, or intense religiosity. Simon and Garfunkle’s songs all seemed to trade on what were the hip if not well-though-out cliches of that time. This is why, although I like their clever lyrics and the catchy tunes, I actually prefer fairly meaningless songs from that period to Simon and Garfunkle overly “poetic” ones. I like “California Dreamin’” by the Mamas and the Papas better, for instance, even though I don’t particularly like California. _The Graduate_ is pretty much the archetype of a kind of movie that I think of as a liberal wish-fulfillment fantasy. In these films, the hero (it doesn’t ever seem to be a woman), a misunderstood but superior young man, demonstrates to his elders their hypocrisy and incompetence. He flaunts authority, wins the love of a good woman, and gets away without retribution. A recent example of this is _Good Will Hunting_. (Yes, I think there are also conservative wish-fulfillment fantasies, like _Dirty Harry_.) ---
**Author:** ![Fretful\_Porpentine](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fretful_porpentine/32/2873_2.png) [@Fretful\_Porpentine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fretful_Porpentine)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2000, 4:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/god-bless-you-please-mrs-robinson/6959/37 "2000-02-05T16:11:00Z")
WW – Well, there’s no arguing matters of taste, but I think _The Graduate_ is a more complicated film than you give it credit for being: > [@](#): > > What is he and Elaine Robinson supposed to do after the last scene? Does this relationship have any chance of lasting? That’s the whole _point_ … the last scene is intentionally ironic, although most people don’t pick up on this the first time they see it. (I certainly didn’t, but then, I was fifteen.) Just watch the expressions on Ben and Elaine’s faces slowly fade from ecstatic to bemused as the bus pulls out. They obviously haven’t a clue what they’re supposed to do now. Perhaps they’ve already started turning into Mom and Dad, after all. As my mom says, it’s one of the few movies ever made that’s funny when you’re twenty and still funny when you’re forty, but _for entirely different reasons_. IMHO, this alone is a mark of genius. * * * Cultural elite and proud of it. ---
**Author:** ![Moonshine](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5e9695/32.png) [@Moonshine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moonshine)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2000, 3:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/god-bless-you-please-mrs-robinson/6959/38 "2000-02-08T15:28:00Z")
Just my two cents worth here, but for me the film was always so good exactly because Benjamin didn’t know what to rebell against or what to do, he just knew that he didn’t want what his parents wanted for him. He wanted to be different but he didn’t know how, and that is exactly what a lot of youngsters (calls for Aunt Melin to bring him his teeth from the glass by his bedside) feel when they are done with their education and have to start life. ---
**Author:** ![Fenris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fenris/32/498_2.png) [@Fenris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fenris)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2000, 4:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/god-bless-you-please-mrs-robinson/6959/39 "2000-02-08T16:02:00Z")
Three points: #1) It’s originally from the album “Bookends” #2) I agree with Spoke about the alcholism references #3) Per either Simon or Garfunkle (if anyone cares, I’ll look up the exact quote when I get home), the song was originally to be about Elenor Roosevelt (“And here’s to you, Mrs Roosevelt”) but they decided against it Fenris ---
**Author:** ![Jinx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/c6cbf5/32.png) [@Jinx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jinx)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2000, 6:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/god-bless-you-please-mrs-robinson/6959/40 "2000-02-09T06:41:00Z")
> [@](#): > > Originally posted by Zette: > \*\*I’m only 29, and I aged about 10 years reading that OP. Has anyone ever hear the song??? Yipes… > Zette > (listening to her creaking joints) > \*\* Zette, are you saying you DON’T know “Mrs. Robinson”? Being 29, you should have heard it at least once soemwhere along the line! Have you been hiding under a rock? {Then again, I knew people just discovering the Beatles in college in the mid-1980’s!} [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/god-bless-you-please-mrs-robinson/6959.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/god-bless-you-please-mrs-robinson/6959.md?page=3)