Please Enjoy my Travel, Music & Ancestry Books on Amazon – FREE on Kindle Unlimited https://bit.ly/bookneal

Simon & Garfunkel  –  Parsley, Sage, Rosemary & Thyme

I had been familiar and enjoyed Paul Simon’s songs for some time because of a friend’s obsession with him. This album was the first one I bought featuring his writing. Maybe not my favourite album that Simon & Garfunkel produced – I prefer ‘Bookends’ personally. It has not entirely stood the test of time as there is an element of being stuck in the time period with a couple of songs. Feeling groovy – well not these days really. It was an important album for me in that the writing was intriguing, deep in places, but captivating. It also has some songs and singing of exceptional beauty. Paul Simon’s guitar playing is farther up the mix on this album and all the better for it. The production is crystal clear and still sounds fresh through the headphones.

One song especially was important to me in my musical development. Not the music really but the words. ‘Dangling Conversation’ is thought by some critics to be a bit pretentious. I would imagine Paul Simon thinks so to a degree looking back. It was that very pretentiousness though that stopped me in my tracks. It was like nothing I had heard before. I wrote the lyrics out by hand to try to make sense of it. In the end I just enjoyed the word structure, the poetry of it, the references to Emily Dickenson. Who was she? Do I need to know? It was all new, another world. From this track I wanted more, more words, more meaning. I found that not just with Paul Simon but particularly in the work of Jackson Browne and Joni Mitchell. But that was to come.

There is a lot on here that gets your mind in overdrive. ‘Poem on an Underground Wall’ is a wonderful short piece of writing. A cinematic journey below the New York streets. Almost a word picture to accompany the photography on their first album ‘Wednesday Morning 3am’. Simon hints at a sinister purpose of the ‘poet’ and you can see the scene as the train passes and he gets to work. A picture drawn from life in his home city.

One or two tracks are on the face of it quite lightweight but carry meaning and also worth reading the words away from the music. ‘Flowers Never Bend with the Rainfall’ is a case in point. Musically it sound a touch throwaway, but it is a fine exercise in a young man looking ahead, what is coming and what does my life mean. Youth feels immortal but Simon knows that is not the case and he faces ‘tomorrow’ and what will come.

‘Homeward Bound’, Simon’s reflection of life on Widnes railway station, trapped in an endless cycle of gigs but without his love is contained on the streamed album. In my UK collection it is on ‘Sounds of Silence’ not on my vinyl copy here. One of his most enduring songs and a bookend if you pardon the pun to ‘Kathy’s Song.

‘Scarborough Fair’ is the song most associated with this album. A pleasant enough song and by connecting it with a version of his old song ‘On the Side of a Hill’ Simon takes it to a higher level. I still find it lightweight, but it has endured as a favourite with many. The vocals are superb as you would expect but I always have a sense that their hearts were not quite in this one, not convinced about it. Just my feeling. Of course, the background story to this is perhaps more interesting. Martin Carthy always insisted that his then friend Paul Simon stole the song and melody from him when they shared time together in London. Simon says they met many years later to put the record straight, that he did in fact pay royalties but someone close to Martin Carthy did not pass them on. One of those enduring tales from the heady days of the early sixties London music scene.

There are a couple of strange ones on here. ‘A Simple Desultory Philippic’ I can only conclude needs therapy to work out its meaning or presence on this album. Similarly, 7 O’clock news / Silent night carries that pretention on. Simon gets just that wrong side of serious poet mode on these.

‘Homeward Bound’ aside, there is one song that even if all the other eleven were duds would justify the album’s release. ‘For Emily, Wherever I may find Her’ is perhaps Simon’s most gorgeous song and melody. I still find it moving all these years later. Simon’s simple guitar picking carry the melody. Garfunkel is at his finest on the vocal that builds from gentle, soft singing to a crescendo that only he can produce. Whoever Simon is singing about, whoever Emily is, clearly is greatly loved. It is another short song but packs a punch above its length. His word pictures here show a joy in being with his love as he also does to great effect on ‘Kathy’s Song’. Is this also for Kathy but he spares her more immortality by using another name? I like to think so. Simon is more obscure about it, alluding to it being a search, a feeling about find that perfect love. It is so beautiful and passionate that I have to feel he is writing about someone specifically. I will always listen to it with that thought. It is breath-taking and if you get chance listen to the live version – that is even more evocative.  

There is a personal postscript to this. I played this album almost to destruction and a friend of mine at the time loved this album – weepily so. She was from a home background that would not allow her to often spend money on records. So, generous to a fault, I bought another copy and gave her the chance to play this at home. However, and to this day I still cringe at the thought, I gave her my old copy.

I still think about being so condescending rather than generous – don’t we do some incredibly dumb things when we are young.

So, from a distance this album feels a little flawed now. It is though one of my most important albums. It is a place in time for me and it took me in to a direction with my musical tastes that I will always be grateful for – I have been captivated by Paul Simon ever since.

More ‘Reviews’ available including Joni Mitchell, Jackson Browne, Sandy Denny & more

Please Enjoy my Travel, Music & Ancestry Books on Amazon – FREE on Kindle Unlimited https://bit.ly/bookneal