Reflections on Punky's Dilemma

One of my most recent earworms is a two-sentence statement from the Simon & Garfunkel song titled Punky’s Dilemma. The song appeared on their Bookends album and the lighthearted lyrics went like this:

I prefer boysenberry more than any other jam.
I'm a 'Citizens for Boysenberry Jam' fan.

The song brought back memories of Mr. Harris' high school English class (BRHS-W, late 1960s) in which he would take contemporary songs and have us break them down so we could analyze them, both as poetry and social commentary. "Punky's Dilemma" was one of these songs and despite the lighthearted, almost silly, imagery in the song, there were some serious messages.

Paul Simon's lyrics often contain layers of meaning, blending humor (A Simple Desultory Philippic), social commentary (At the Zoo), and personal reflection (Cloudy). So what's this boysenberry jam stuff tucked in here? What I remembered from more than half a century ago was the last section of the song making reference to mixed responses to the Vietnam War. 

Here are a few thoughts.

On a surface level, this could simply be an expression of a personal taste preference, which is a light-hearted, whimsical detail about the speaker. In the context of Paul Simon's songwriting, however, it's not a stretch to see he's thinking about more than that. "Citizens for Boysenberry Jam" seems to be a humorous barb about how people can be passionate about seemingly trivial choices and how preferences can define identity.

The line conveys a satirical or playful take on political or social movements. By likening a preference for a type of jam to joining a "Citizens for Boysenberry Jam" group , Simon might be poking fun at the fervor with which people sometimes support causes, especially those that seem trivial to others. This could be seen as a commentary on the absurdity of some group affiliations or how consumer choices can become politicized or turned into cultural identities. 

These lines could be critiquing the way society sometimes elevates preferences or tastes to the level of social or political significance. It might question the validity of forming strong community or identity around basic choices like jam preference, satirizing consumer culture or the human tendency to tribalize over minor differences. Over the next several decades we saw the manner in which marketers worked to create tribes passionately attached to their brands. I think here of Saturn (cars), Apple (computers) or Taylor Swift.

Silly? Absurd? I dunno. I just couldn't get the song out of my head this week. And like many things in life, there's a lot you can discover once you begin digging a little beneath the surface.

Here's the song if you're unfamiliar: Punky's Dilemma

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I remember a student in my dorm at Ohio U who carried a protest sign with a single word on it: "Apathy." He didn't capture a following, but it was another image I haven't forgotten, watching him standing there with that message on a pole.