#0071. Simon & Garfunkel - Parsley Sage Rosemary And Thyme [*****]

Can you be a big fan of an artist without owning or at least knowing all of their recordings?  I'd like to think so.  I have a couple of S&G collections and I adore them but I've never got around to listening to an album.  

This is apparently their third offering and it begins with the intertwined contrapuntal masterpiece Scarborough Fair/Canticle.  If you think you know it, listen to it again and really focus this time.  The layers added, round upon round are diaphanously subtle.  The changes come in the form of vocal harmonies on both the melodies and the intricacy of the incidental harpsichord and a second guitar.  Putting it that simply robs the song of praise for this is magical arrangement and coupled with their crystal clear and breathy voices, the result is acoustic nirvana.

The songs are short, most coming in under three minutes and using minimalist percussive hooks or bass lines along with the inventive melodies distinguish themselves clearly one from the other.  

Paul Simon's lyrics are an inspiration and a masterclass in capturing the intangible detail that makes ordinary life beautiful and succinctly expressing the agonies of existence.  I find I have to consciously veer my attention from the lyrics in order to hear the accompaniment properly.

There was a time, many years ago, I was travelling back to Swansea for Christmas.  I was standing on the platform at Reading waiting for the through train from London Paddington to take me home to Wales.  I had a Panasonic Walkman that I had recently bought, of which I was very proud because it was smaller than a cassette case and had a remote control.  Yes, I said "cassette"!  

In this time of iPods where 1000s of songs can be carried with us, that's not so impressive but as I sit here listening to "Homeward Bound", it is that memory that floods my inner vista so eagerly I can smell the engine diesel and feel the chill of the wind on that December day.  It is a bitter irony that my perception of "home" was to change dramatically over that holiday and indeed I would never be the same again.  There are times even now I look back wistfully on those days of innocent discontent and "all my words come back to me in shades of mediocrity".  It is Homeward Bound that somehow expresses my transient longing and my weariness of the world.

We don't spend the whole time lazily kicking up leaves around the eccentric folk framework.  The Big Bright Green Pleasure Machine gives you a blast of a harsh rotor organ and a rockier drum pattern and some bluer notes, a lift in pace that is maintained in The 59th St Bridge Song.  It's a totally different feel, of course.  Feelin' Groovy (its alternate title as many know) has to be up there among the Happiest Songs Of All Time not to mention Most Distinctive Double Bass Lead-ins.   

I think the first time I heard it might've been Nana Mouskouri covering it when I was a child.  Either that or somebody who looks like her was singing it on Sesame St.  No I'm not saying she looked like a muppet[1]. 

The gravitas is given a boost with The Dangling Conversation as timpani and cellos enter the fray but the swooping drama of the arrangement fails to distract from the piercing observations, eloquently painted by the words.  I would love to quote from this song but I honestly cannot choose a single couplet over the others.  Tell you what; just read them yourself.   

   

When I saw the title A Simple Desultory Phillipic, my heart sank.  When I heard the introductory chords, my eyes widened in terror.  But when I heard the stomach curdling nasal whining kick in, I truly thought someone had gone back in time and convinced Hitler not to invade Russia.  This sound was unmistakably emulating Bob Dylan.  So somebody must have got a Delorean and changed history so radically it resulted in Simon & Garfunkel being shit.

But as I listened, I began to notice things.  Firstly, the arrangement sounds like somebody is listening to the band and making decisions about who should be heard and when.  This is not just a stereo picture being taken.  This is a stereo film being shot.  

Second, when Simon begins to sing he is imitating old rat face but there are notes in that forced speaking style; notes that follow the chords implied by that distorted riff.   It is choice musicianship even in this restrictive style designed by necessity to forgive the imperfections of its innovator.

Third, the lyrics don't directly deride Dylan but quoting from Rainy Day Women ("The man ain't got no culture, But it's alright, ma, Everybody must get stoned.") and then finishing with "I lost my harmonica" I get the sense that the pretentious title, and the deft handling of how the style _should_ be rendered are nothing short of the most invidious satire.  Genius.

The album closes with 7'o'clock News.  This is a clever piece of social commentary, delivered in the form of a very simple arpeggio accompaniment on piano with Silent Night being sung on one side and the news being read on the other.   

Thought provoking, entertaining and adept from edge to label, this is staying on my playlist for a long time to come.

[1]:  I'd've totally shagged her, btw, but she doesn't look the sort to put out to be fair.  Found this while I was fact-checking, though so not Sesame St as it turns out  

[2] If it turns out to be homage I shall be very disappointed and will be drafting a strongly worded greetings card to Mr Simon.