Rene and Georgette Magritte with Their Dog after the War
"René and Georgette Magritte with Their Dog after the War" is a ballad written and sung by Paul Simon.
"René and Georgette Magritte with Their Dog after the War"
The song first appeared as the eighth track on Hearts and Bones, the 1983 album that was the sixth in Simon's solo career. It also appears on Negotiations and Love Songs (1988), Paul Simon 1964/1993 (1993), The Paul Simon Anthology (1993), Greatest Hits: Shining Like a National Guitar (2000), The Studio Recordings 1972-2000 (2004), Songwriter (2011) and In the Blue Light (2018). The 2004 re-release of Hearts and Bones has a 3:47 minute demo version of this song among the bonus tracks.[1] A re-recording of the song was featured on Simon's 2018 album In the Blue Light.[2]
Theme[edit]
The song is about the surrealist artist René Magritte and his wife Georgette. The title derives from a photograph of the Magrittes and their dog in Belgium by photographer Lothar Wolleh. He took two photographs of them: one, "René and Georgette Magritte With Their Dog During the War", was a black and white photo, purportedly from the World War II era, but likely taken during the 1960s.[3][4] The second, "René and Georgette Magritte With Their Dog", was taken in their home in Belgium in 1967.[5]
"Simultaneously an evocative mood piece and a joyous tribute to the doo wop groups of the '50s",[6] the song depicts the Magrittes as secret admirers of the Penguins, the Moonglows, the Orioles, and the Five Satins. The lyrics refer to this as "the deep forbidden music they've been longing for" and says that others also "have (it) hidden away in the cabinet cold of their hearts."
The song also portrays the Magrittes "strolling down Christopher Street", stopping in a men's store, and seeing "all of the mannequins dressed in the style that brought tears to their immigrant eyes just like" the aforementioned doo wop groups.