You can call me Betty?

February 24, 2006 5:50 PM

Any Paul Simon fans out there? What does he mean when he says "Call me Al?"

I have loved the Graceland album since I was about seven years old, but have until now been blissfully ignorant about what several of the songs mean. However, today I thought, maybe, I had a flash of inspiration about Call Me Al. I was wondering if other people had ideas on what it is about, what it means, or what he was trying to say. I won't share my insight because I don't want to prejudice the answers!
(I recognize the possibility that there is no mystery and everyone else knows what this song is about and I am just fantastically dense. If that is the case, humor me.)

posted by ohio to media & arts (22 comments total)

Maybe you should ask this at MetaChat.
posted by iconomy at 5:55 PM on February 24, 2006

Do I win?
posted by booksandlibretti at 5:56 PM on February 24, 2006

Does that link redirect to the main site for anyone else? I'll quote the answer.

Poster 1:
I came across a blog recently which said that Paul said that Al and Betty on Call Me Al was a private joke. I wrote back and said It's not private any more, because Al and Betty was/were a mishearing of Paul and Peggy. Blogger wrote back and said Nice theory, where did you read it? So I searched my books, and I can't find it! So did I make it up? Or did I get it right? Please rescue my sanity!


Poster 2:
From google groups.

It was a private joke between PS and his then wife. Apparently, a celebrity guest/hanger-on was taking his leave from one of their parties and called them "Betty & Al". They were so amused by this that they kept the names for a while. (Hazy recollection from a TV interview)
posted by puke & cry at 6:12 PM on February 24, 2006

well I tried it again and it works so there you go.
posted by puke & cry at 6:12 PM on February 24, 2006

I'm not going to search for links, but when that album came out, Simon talked a lot about how he was trying to find English phrases that mimicked the staccato, fast-tempo sound of township music from South Africa (sung in Zulu, I think). I remember him talking about phrases like "don't I know you from the cinematographer's party" not so much as carriers of meaning, but carriers of a specific sound. Whatever meaning came out at the time was secondary to the rhythmic effect of the language.

Or so he said.
posted by Miko at 6:15 PM on February 24, 2006

from booksandlibretti's link for those who don't want to fight the redirect:

"It was a private joke between PS and his then wife. Apparently, a celebrity guest/hanger-on was taking his leave from one of their parties and called them "Betty & Al". They were so amused by this that they kept the names for a while.... It was between Paul and Peggy, the celebrity guest was Pierre Boulez, conductor and composer."
posted by roboto at 6:17 PM on February 24, 2006

Sometimes the thread disappears and then it reappears. It's like magic. Here's a link directly to the thread that booksandlibretti "won" with.
posted by iconomy at 6:17 PM on February 24, 2006

Well crappity. Now it doesn't work.
posted by iconomy at 6:18 PM on February 24, 2006

You think you have the page. And then it disappears.

FWIW, I too listened to "You Can Call Me Al" today, way before this question was posted. It all seems very quantum to me.
posted by booksandlibretti at 6:35 PM on February 24, 2006

how about this link?
posted by puke & cry at 6:42 PM on February 24, 2006

Ah...if you cut and paste the link into your browser, you can go directly to the thread. When you hyperlink to it, though, the javascript snaps the thread back into the frame. Or something like that. I think. So cut and paste this:

http://www.paul-simon.info/PHP/showthread.php?thread=1248
posted by iconomy at 7:09 PM on February 24, 2006

huh, interesting. I thought when the album came out that it was an offhand reference to an amusing minor character from some advertisements, who spoke in a rapid, staccato fashion and whose signature line was "Well, you can call me Al."

Based on the above, I'd say it might be a valid additional interpretation.
posted by mwhybark at 8:22 PM on February 24, 2006

I heard the song about three days ago and wondered the exact same thing...so now it appears that AskMeFi is premonition-riffic!
posted by davidmsc at 10:19 PM on February 24, 2006

I heard the song about three days ago and wondered the exact same thing...so now it appears that AskMeFi is premonition-riffic! Ditto! And yet another example of AskMeFi answering a question you didn't even know you wanted the answer to.
posted by ceri richard at 12:38 AM on February 25, 2006

It just rhymes with "Pal", pal.
posted by JamesMessick at 4:57 AM on February 25, 2006

Did anyone else hear the song recently while watching one of those VH1 '80s programs?

(Also, I'd like to hear more about this insight/inspiration/whatnot, ohio.)
posted by box at 5:15 AM on February 25, 2006

i think it's a reference to two things ... one is this

The song is also an oblique reference to comedian Billy Seluga's "Raymond J. Johnson" character on TV in the '70s. His gag was to have the show's host call him "Mister Johnson," to which he would reply "You can call me Ray, or you can call me Jay, or you can call me RayJay, or you can call me JayJay, or you can me Johnny, or you can call me Sonny, or you can call me RJ, or you can call me RJJ, but ya doesn't have to call me 'Mister Johnson."

simon would have been familiar with this ... anyone who watched talk shows in the 60s or 70s would have been

but there's another cultural reference hidden in that line

"Say, don't you remember, they called me Al; it was Al all the time.

Why don't you remember, I'm your pal? Buddy, can you spare a dime?"

this is from the famous depression song, "brother, can you spare a dime?" ... and i'm certain simon's familar with that, too
posted by pyramid termite at 6:03 AM on February 25, 2006

I'd always heard the inside joke theory, which is kind of the reason I chose it for a username. The whole fleeting identity thing is kind of interesting to me. Well, that and it's a damn good song.
posted by youcancallmeal at 9:31 AM on February 25, 2006

I had always thought that these were references to Betty Boop and Alley Oop, but I don't know why.
posted by yclipse at 9:47 AM on February 25, 2006

The video (with Chevy Chase) is good, too.
posted by kirkaracha at 9:48 AM on February 25, 2006

Could it go back to this song from 1932?

“Once in khaki suits, gee we looked swell;
Full of that Yankee-Doodly-dum.
Half a million boots went sloggin’ through Hell,
And I was the kid with the drum.
Say, don’t you remember, they called me “Al.”
They called me “Al” all the time.
Say, don’t you remember. I am your pal.
Buddy, can you spare me a dime.”

“Brother, can you spare a dime?”
lyrics by Edgar “Yip” Harburg
posted by Carol Anne at 11:00 AM on February 25, 2006

I was humming this song to myself as I read another question's thread, then saw this question. I guess when you get enough people on a site, the coincidences can pile up.
posted by chudmonkey at 11:46 AM on February 25, 2006