ABSTRACT
It’s the opening line of Paul Simon’s song ‘Graceland’ (1986). He’s travelling south on the highway down the Mississippi towards Memphis, Tennessee, with his nine-year-old son. The simile is perfect; the river and delta look like an electric guitar catching the light; the destination is a musical shrine and the national guitar is a legend itself. Genius! It gets the song off to a fantastic start. In one stroke, it lifts the status of the journey to that of a pilgrimage.
