The Paul Simon Lyric About a Runaway Bride

Among his many other qualities, Paul Simon possesses a knack for knowing how to tell a story in a few short strokes. One of his three-minute songs can often contain all the nuance and character development of the finest novels.

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As one example, consider “Another Galaxy,” a Simon song that uses just a couple verses and choruses to depict a young woman deciding against marriage at the last possible moment. This unheralded track off the 2006 album Surprise received a boost from another musical mastermind along the way.

Paul and Brian

Paul Simon took six years between the release of You’re the One in 2000 and Surprise. In interviews after the fact, he explained that as his career progressed, he needed to make sure he had something new to say and a different way to say it each time he teed up a new record. Considering his track record of consistent excellence, who could doubt his process.

With Surprise, Simon took a bold step in enlisting Brian Eno as collaborator. Eno was renowned by then as one of the most innovative and impactful producers in the world of music, with his touch invigorating artists like Talking Heads and U2. That’s not to mention the invitingly spacey vibes he devised for his own classic records like Here Come the Warm Jets.

Throughout music history, such meetings of strong minds and wills haven’t always gone smoothly. In this case, there seemed to be, at least on the surface, somewhat of a clash between the styles of Simon as a folk- and pop-based singer/songwriter and Eno’s reputation as a boundary-pusher for rock bands.

The nature of the collaboration was such the men worked in one-week intervals, taking breaks between so as not to start to grate on each other. Whatever the method, the end result was worth it, as Surprise stands as one of Simon’s top late-period works, with “Another Galaxy” as one of its undeniable highlights.

Exploring the Lyrics of “Another Galaxy”

Eno’s electronic touches add a great deal to the overall effect of “Another Galaxy.” They help to take the grounded story Simon tells and raise it into the stratosphere. It’s just the right embellishment, because the protagonist is indeed considering alternate worlds to the one she was set to inhabit.

Simon essentially gives you all you need to know about the plot in the very first verse: On the morning of her wedding day / When no one was awake / She drove across the border. As the narrator explains what’s being left behind, note how he combines Her mother’s tears with her breakfast order. It’s Simon’s way of saying she needs to treat both trivialities and emotional pleas with the same disregard if she’s going to truly start anew.

That’s not to suggest she can simply walk away from it all unscathed, as evidenced by the turbulent dreams she endures after her decision. But the chorus suggests we all have to make such a Rubicon-like decision in our lives. There is a moment, a chip in time / When leaving home is the lesser crime.

It’s to the writer’s credit he makes note of the difficulty of such a choice, even while admitting its necessity: When your eyes are blind with tears / But your heart can see / Another life, another galaxy. Thanks to Simon’s words and Eno’s atmospherics, “Another Galaxy” manages to be both a slice of life and a metaphorical journey to the stars.

Photo by Dimitrios Kambouris/WireImage for Rubenstein Communications, Inc.