it is about a rich girl

aye, and she don't try to hide it

got diamonds on the soles of her shoes

it is about a poor boy

he was empty as a pocket with nothing to lose

Such a nice song. And very easy to understand aswell. She's got diamonds on the soles of her shoes.

I think this song is about the expectations that come from dating someone above your station in life. The diamonds on her shoes seem to represent a person who is willingly treating her social standing as if it's unimportant to her -- not only is she hiding her wealth where no one will see it, but she's attempting to defile it by treating it like dirt on her shoes. Of course, they are diamonds -- one of the hardest substances known to man -- so they probably aren't being damaged too badly... as if her wealth, no matter how much she tries to deny and hide it, is still a part of who she is.
People say she's crazy -- for dating someone outside her social class. She's more than likely been disowned, I'm thinking.

The part about her being physically forgotten, and feeling like she's been taken advantage of could be her response to her boyfriend not seeming to appreciate her sacrifice.

I've thought about the signs of the teaspoon and wave... not certain, but when you make the pantomime of holding a spoon, pinky extended, isn't that a symbol for wealth? And the wave symbol is like a hippie-dancing kind of movement, perhaps? Most hippies having given up material possessions, and all... not certain, though.

The part about putting on aftershave is fairly straightforward -- he's trying to make himself "fancier" to live up to the wealthier ideals that his girlfriend has known. He's not even putting on cologne - it's aftershave, which tends to be cheaper and more watered-down. And she wants to go out, but they can only afford to sit in a doorway. They could be homeless, or maybe just turned down from entering a club on upper-broadway (told to wait in a line, where they finally fell asleep?).

Anyway, just my thoughts.

Although a valient effort by Sir Larrikin, I don't think people have looked deep enough here, or perhaps they are looking too deep. This song is about what almost every song is about - Love. "as if everybody knows what I'm talking about... talking about diamonds on the soles of her shoes." Who knows what diamonds on the soles of a person shoes means? Everybody knows love.

As his entire Graceland albulm, this song is heavily influenced by the South African culture Simon observed while working there. He choses the perfect metaphore to describe the polar opposite positions of being in and out of love; the diamond trade. The diamond trade in S Africa created apartheide, setting up two of the most diametricaly opposed socio-economic classes in the modern world. As Sir Larrikin picked up on, this theme heavily influences the song. And while simon uses this metaphor for wealth, he means wealth of love.

He starts by identifying our two characters, the rich girl and the poor boy. The rich girl has diamonds on the soles of her shoes. To pick this apart, we physically interact with our world most frequently with our feet. Everywhere we go, our feet are the part of us that have constant contact, that provide the most constant source of interaction with our physical envronment. If one has diamonds as the filter to their environment, it is like saying you see the world with rose colored glasses. Everywhere you go, your interaction is done through the diamonds on your shoes, and diamonds as a symbol of wealth, happiness and love mean you are interacting with your world through a constant 'happy' filter, you have a skip to your step, you are happy.

Constrast this with the poor boy who is emptry as a pocket. he has nothing, saying he is empty as a pocket doesnt only imply that he is poor of material value, but that he is poor of spirit, of soul, of love.

'People say shes crazy/ she's got diamonds on the soles of her shoes/ well thats on way to lose these walking blues/ diamonds on the soles of your shoes.' now of course its easy to say that being right will get you through the 'walking blues', but also think of how it feels to be in love. being in love makes you happier, the birds chirp, the shines. The feeling of being love can make you 'walking blue' go away, to give you a vibrancy to life that is hard to achieve otherwise. Also note the term 'walking' blues - walking as an interaction medium, this means you have the blues with what you are interactiing with, in this case life.

The pocket and the cars keys, leading to 'youve taken me for granted/ because i please you/ wearing these diamonds'. The man who poor in love has taken advantage of his relationship with this women, becuase she loves him, will sacrifice for him, and he does not appreciate or reciprocate the feeling.

The teaspoon and the wave are referances to opposites again, but of volume (in re: to water, teaspoon small, wave=ocean=large). changes clothes, puts on afteshave, to compensate for his ordinary shoes. This works too - he has to cover up and componsate when the two of them go out because he is not in love with her, and needs to put on an act or project the image that he is.

here's the homerun:
"And she said honey take me dancing
But they ended up by sleeping
In a doorway
By the bodegas and the lights on
Upper Broadway
Wearing diamonds on the soles of their shoes "

They go out dancing, glitzy, fun, extravagent, but then end up completely broken down by 'sleeping in a doorway', but this build up to breakdown has created a new situation in the song "Wearing diamonds on the soles of THEIR shoes". This build up to breakdown journey has left them both in love, the boy has fallen in love with the girl, and they are ultimately happy because they are content to sleep in a doorway, like a common homeless man in new york city.

He then ties it back to himself 'people say im crazy/ ive got diamonds on the soles of my shoes'. Perhaps this is a personal story of one his relationships, the journey one goes on in the endeavor of love. I believe his repeating 'as if everyone would know what im talking about' is strong evidence, as everyone does know about love to some extent, but who has ever walked with diamonds on the soles of their shoes?

Those are my thoughts, perhaps this is the only paul simon song i feel comfortable discussion, but it is also one of my favorites because the metaphore is rich and deep, but this one i feel as if i understand.

This is my favorite Paul Simon song because of its incredibly beautiful music, but I feel the words are also magical. As already mentioned, the "diamonds" refer to South Africa's diamond mining industry, but the specific term is an ironic one: the (literally) dirt-poor miners walked around with the dust of diamonds on the soles of their shoes. That would imply that the woman in this song isn't actually rich, or that she's rich in the same way as those miners were rich, but I think Simon found the term itself amusing and took it out of its context, since it's clear that the woman is financially wealthy.

It's also quite possible that the rich girl is really poor in a spiritual sense, especially since diamonds are both a hard and "cold" precious stone. It would be hard to walk around and not notice those diamonds on your feet; it is the curse of wealth that sets rich people apart. Thinking about it that way, "wearing diamonds on the soles of your shoes" is the very inverse of the phrase "wearing your heart on your sleeve."

I agree with JForsythe62's analysis of the switch to "THEIR shoes," a lyrical device that Simon uses very often.

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The discussion thus far has involved different people - primarily Sir Larrikin, JForsythe and padmewan - trying to impose different interpretations upon this song.

JForsythe, for example, says that the metaphor of 'diamonds on the souls of her shoes' consistently refers to the feeling of being in love, while Sir Larrikin thinks it's about wealth and dating 'above your station.'

To have a discussion like this is to ignore the essence of Paul SImon's lyrical genius. The point is, his best lyrics - as with any sublime lyrics - cannot be explained in only one way. The metaphor of 'diamonds on the souls of her shoes' deals simultaneously with: love, beauty and the degradation thereof, the disparity between rich and poor, socio-economic injustice in South Africa, and more.

It is the complexity of Simon's lyrics - the fact that one can't just say "the metaphore [sic] is rich and deep, but this one i feel as if i understand" - that makes them truly great.

Sorry, musical snob, because I like what you're saying about complexity, and how music and lyric can be understood on a deeper level than mere analysis and blind interpretation, but I like those things, so I'm going to interpret anyway. Don't kill me, I'm only 14!
The metaphor of diamonds being on someone's soles means, to me: free-spirited-ness, beauty, love, dissolution of social boundaries, hope and other good things. The girl already has these things, and yet she is willing to share them with a poor boy, because of love.
This sounds irreparably childish, but the lines 'The poor boy changes clothes and he puts on aftershave/to compensate for his ordinary shoes' makes me want to cry every time. From genuine sadness, not from poor songwriting (that happens to me, too). He is trying so hard to impress this totally beyond-reach girl, who is so wealthy she can wear diamonds on the soles of her shoes, and yet all he can do is put on cheap aftershave and change clothes... I'll try not to cry as I'm writing this. 'To compensate for his ordinary shoes' is evocative and saddening too, it's like, 'Oh, I only have ordinary shoes, now I'm afraid she won't like me.' Aww, poor poor boy. I'll go out with you.
However, there's no need for that, because they do go out, and end up sleeping in a doorway, unusual to say the least for a girl like her. This doesn't matter, though, because they're both wearing diamonds; bcause the poor boy is in love with her, and has gained the knowledge and qualities I believe are attributed to diamonds (see above).
Also, it's a great song.
PS I actually couldn't help it musical_snob; I have an addiction to interpretation...

okay, first of all, musical snob really is a snob, and isn't th only one here that knows what [sic] means (thanks to my 12th grade language teacher).

that being said, here is what i think the song means: the rich girl is married into money, yet has a boyfriend(the poor boy). the narrator of the story is her husband, whome she left, but the breakup was pretty much mutual, although the husband is still rather hurt. here is what the 'teaspoon' means: in the 18th century, when people drank tea all the time, the way to show you were done drinking tea was to turn over your cup and place your spoon on top of the cup. so in the song, he is saying that she politly says she is done, and is leaving.

The 'physically forgotten' stanza explains that she finds that her wealth is nice, but not enough, he has 'taken me forgranted'.

So then the husband is left with his riches, and she still has the diamond soled shoes, neither end up in ideal circumstances.

PS musical snob: "on the SOULS of her shoes" [SIC] hahaha lol. you're so dum [sic]

She's the snobbery/disconnect of the Apartheid system.
Diamonds are diamonds (pretty fragile, *not* hard).
He's a poor black African who's basically holding up the whole thing (soul/shoes).
Paul's love for her ain't much more than the kind of love one has for a high-priced whore.

I think that "shoes" here is referring to the spiritual walking shoes, and our walking is our path through life. I think diamonds on the soles of her shoes refers to this rich girl trying to avoid the pains of life by relying on her money and superficial pleasantries. That might be why he says, "well, that's one way to lose these walking blues".
The poor boy puts on aftershave, "to compensate for his ordinary shoes". This might mean that the boy is not rich, but he still wants to be a part of the superficial game of finding self-worth by having others desire you. I'm not sure about this intrepretation, but it seems plausible.

This song always seems to remind me of Their Eyes Were Watching God

for me, this song and the whole album is the best soundtrack to feel spring and summer because the songs sound so fresh and optimistically.
i personally did not really have an idea about what the lyrics of this song are about, but i really like some of your interpretations.
as musical_snob has said, it is not possible to find the ONE right interpretation of a paul simon song, but exactly this gives us the possibility to discuss about different interpretations and tell the others what our idea is.
the interpretation i like most is the one from JForsythe, but also the other ideas sound possible for me. as long as we can't call paul simon and ask him what his idea was when he wrote this song, we won't no about what the song is about.
In my eyes, this is the reason why the lyrics of this song are so great!

Diamonds on the soles of her shoes - the rich Afrikaaner screwing the miners - she walks over the diamonds the poor boy mines -

but they may be in love - how to resolve that?

i dunno if this is relevant but im from zimbabwe africa orginally and the poor kids ther used to make shoes out of car tyres and car tyres hav diamond prints on like the pattern? i dunno just a thought... maybe hes trying to show that the poor ones are rich and the rich ones are poor or something

I think that your explenation is a very good one princess-tina even though paul wasn't meaning that.

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I think the line "diamonds on the soles of her shoes" is her unconditional love for him. The line "people think shes crazy" probably comes from the saying "crazy in love". The boy doesnt understand that he doesnt have to be perfect to impress her and she doesnt have to be perfect for him until the they "end up sleeping in a doorway". Also I think "walking blues" refers to the blues of life and true love will get rid of them. I agree with musical snob though.

AND WHAT DOES {SIC} MEAN?!?!?!

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"to compenstae for his ordinary shoes"
that ine gets me and my friend every time, its so amazing

i think its about being in love with someone who is higher up than you socially, and she loves him back. its like a sort of forbidden love thing, but they can't help it. i dunno

One of my favorite songs.. I analyzed this for English 12.

�He makes the sign of a teaspoon; she makes the sign of a wave�

Teaspoons are a symbol of monotony, boring people are said to �measure their lives in teaspoons�. I assume that oppositely a wave represents freedom, change, and uninhibited feelings.

I think everyone's interpretation is equally valid, everyone is bringing their own point of view and experience to this interesting blog. Its better to hear different interpretations and learn alittle more than to hear the same thing over and over.
I don't have a clear conviction as to what it means but I'll just garner my two cents. For some reason this poor boy and the rich girl remind of the characters in the movie Break-Up (w/ Jennifer Aniston and Vince Vaughn). I don't have much to add but I do think this song does address spiritual and material aspects. The diamonds on the soles of her shoes address that she is walking away the blues through romantic ideals as opposed to material gain.
All in all I think it means: girl sees life through rose-colored glasses, she then finds a partner, who then doesn't meet her ideals or just plainly takes her for granted, then as she states her case (sign of a teaspoon) he starts to change to try to compensate for what she wants from him, but then as they went dancing and rekindled their love for eachother, the poor boy then also wears the diamonds on the soles of his shoes...But i don't know what the reference is that made him change to live in light of love/happiness...nonetheless, a beautifully sung and optimistic song that warms my heart everytime I hear it...

ooo
(everybody knows what I'm talking about)

Question: does anyone know if what Ladysmith Black Mambazo are singing in the beginning is what Paul Simon is translating?