Simon & Garfunkel - Parsley, Sage, Rosemary And Thyme (Remastere

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Simon & Garfunkel - Parsley, Sage, Rosemary And Thyme (Remastered)

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Simon & Garfunkel - Parsley, Sage, Rosemary And Thyme



01.- Scarborough Fair / Canticle [03:14]

02.- Patterns [02:49]

03.- Cloudy [02:25]

04.- Homeward Bound [02:32]

05.- The Big Bright Green Pleasure Machine [02:51]

06.- The 59th Street Bridge Song (Feelin' Groovy) [01:58]

07.- The Dangling Conversation [02:41]

08.- Flowers Never Bend With The Rainfall [02:13]

09.- A Simple Desultory Philippic (Or How I Was Robert McNamara'd Into

Submission) [02:22]

10.- For Emily, Whenever I May Find Her [02:08]

11.- A Poem On The Underground Wall [01:56]

12.- 7 O'Clock News / Silent Night [02:12]

13.- Patterns (Bonus) [02:55] **

14.- A Poem On The Underground Wall (Bonus) [01:51] **





** = BONUS TRACKS, exclusive to this release





Originally Released on September 1966. This remastered version, which includes

two bonus tracks was released on August 21st, 2001.



Ripped with EAC, creating a .cue/.wav audio file, preserving the CD structure,

gaps and volume levels as in the original CD.



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Album Review by Bruce Eder



Simon & Garfunkel's first masterpiece, Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme was

also the first album on which the duo, in tandem with engineer Roy Halee,

exerted total control from beginning to end, right down to the mixing, and it is

an achievement akin to the Beatles' Revolver or the Beach Boys' Pet Sounds

album, and just as personal and pointed as either of those records at their

respective bests. After the frantic rush to put together an LP in just three

weeks that characterized the Sounds of Silence album early in 1966, Parsley,

Sage, Rosemary and Thyme came together over a longer gestation period of about

three months, an uncommonly extended period of recording in those days, but it

gave the duo a chance to develop and shape the songs the way they wanted them.

The album opens with one of the last vestiges of Paul Simon's stay in England,

"Scarborough Fair/Canticle" -- the latter was the duo's adaptation of a

centuries-old English folk song in an arrangement that Simon had learned from

Martin Carthy. The two transformed the song into a daunting achievement in the

studio, however, incorporating myriad vocal overdubs and utilizing a

harpsichord, among other instruments, to embellish it, and also wove into its

structure Simon's "The Side of a Hill," a gentle antiwar song that he had

previously recorded on The Paul Simon Songbook in England. The sonic results

were startling on their face, a record that was every bit as challenging in its

way as "Good Vibrations," but the subliminal effect was even more profound,

mixing a hauntingly beautiful antique melody, and a song about love in a

peaceful, domestic setting, with a message about war and death; Simon &

Garfunkel were never as political as, say, Peter, Paul & Mary or Joan Baez, but

on this record they did bring the Vietnam war home. The rest of the album was

less imposing but just as beguiling -- audiences could revel in the play of

Simon's mind (and Simon & Garfunkel's arranging skills) and his sense of wonder

(and frustration) on "Patterns," and appreciate the sneering rock & roll-based

social commentary "The Big Bright Green Pleasure Machine." Two of the most

beautiful songs ever written about the simple joys of living, the languid

"Cloudy" and bouncy "The 59th Street Bridge Song (Feelin' Groovy)," were no less

seductive, and the album also included "Homeward Bound," their Top Five hit

follow-up to "The Sound of Silence," which had actually been recorded at the

sessions for that LP. No Simon & Garfunkel song elicits more difference of

opinion than "The Dangling Conversation," making its LP debut here -- one camp

regards it as hopelessly pretentious and precious in its literary name-dropping

and rich string orchestra accompaniment, while another holds it as a ... Read

More...



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AllMusicGuide Track-by-track Review

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PATTERNS



Led by a slightly bluesy, raga acoustic guitar riff, "Patterns" is a very

interesting rhythm exploration for Paul Simon. A vaguely African feel drives the

song, and in this way it's not at all unlike some of the rhythm trips that he

utilized on "Cecilia" and, more importantly, his Graceland album in the late

'80s. Lyrically, it's one of Simon's psychological explorations into his own

consciousness, sounding like a self-therapy session.



CLOUDY



Paul Simon wrote this song in early 1965, and aside from the Simon & Garfunkel

version, he recorded a solo demo version with Bruce Woodley, a member of the

Seekers, much earlier. One of the more obvious pop tunes from Simon (aside from

"Red Rubber Ball" by the Cyrcle), it shows Simon's ability to fuse folk and

Broadway pop with extreme ease and craftsmanship. The song's lyrics are a simple

celebration of life and great moods, and in this is sort of a cousin of "59th

Street Bridge Song (Feelin' Groovy)." According to Simon, the song is "not a

Simon & Garfunkel tune. They'd never do It."



HOMEWARD BOUND



Few songs in pop music have captured the melancholy ache of homesickness as well

as Paul Simon's poignant "Homeward Bound." The song also goes a long way to

dispel the glamour myth of a musician on tour. Simon even turns the lyric on

himself, taking the romantic troubadour-poet image down a notch, capturing the

self-doubt and insecurity that accompanies such intense loneliness: "Tonight

I'll sing my songs again/I'll play the game and pretend/But all my words come

back to me in shades of mediocrity/Like emptiness in harmony/I need someone to

comfort me/Homeward bound/I wish I was/Homeward bound/Home, where my thought's

escaping/Home, where my music's playing/Home, where my love lies

waiting/Silently for me."



The myth has it that the song was written by Simon in a train station in Widnes

in Northern England; in fact, there is apparently a plaque at the station

commemorating this. But it is true that Simon wrote it sometime during a 1965

solo tour of England, while he had been based in London. He told writer Paul

Zollo that the song "was written in Liverpool when I was traveling. What I like

about that is that it has a very clear memory of Liverpool station and the

streets of Liverpool and the club I played at and me at the age of 22." He has

also told other interviewers that it reflects the whole feeling of being on that

tour, one that he certainly felt sitting in the station at Widnes, as well as

telling Hit Parader magazine, "I missed my girl and my friends. It was kind of

depressing. I was living out of suitcases, getting on trains every day and going

to the next place...I got very homesick for London."



The arrangement builds each line: the first verse lines beginning softly on

descending half-step chords; the melodies and chord progressions on the second

lines rise, growing more powerful and tense as they ascend into the almost

bouncy, country-ish chorus. The original studio version, from their third LP,

Parsley, Sage, Rosemary, & Thyme (1967), is still based around the acoustic

guitar that was the staple of their Dylan-influenced folk sound prior to their

first acoustic/electric hybrid, Sounds of Silence (1965). But like Dylan, the

duo was also under the spell of the Beatles, and they flesh out their

arrangements with a full pop-band instrumentation, with the aid of Dylan

producer Bob Johnston. The bass was played by the legendary Carol Kaye.



And, as usual, the harmonies are the thing on "Homeward Bound"; the two longtime

Everly Brothers fans blend their voices seemingly effortlessly, with Simon's

soft voice layered and intertwined with the even more angelic-voiced Art

Garfunkel's high harmony. The live, non-band versions of the song offer an even

more sensitive reading of the song, the voices remaining quiet for the chorus.

Even the quiet instrumentation on Concert in Central Park treats the song a

little more gently than the original.



THE BIG BRIGHT GREEN PLEASURE MACHINE



A great putdown song about the effect of television, this song (like Marty

Blain's "Plastic Fantastic Lover") succeeds precisely because the overall sound

of the record conveys the over-saturation and ridiculous nature of the medium.

Set in the folk-rock idiom, the song is a silly, simple, and downright stupid

(and that means effective) slice of Americana. The song was later used very

effectively in the film The Graduate, as well as on the soundtrack.



THE DANGLING CONVERSATION



"Dangling Conversation" is a classic example of a good song and a better

arrangement that tried to do too much within the context of popular music. The

first of Paul Simon's major songs after "The Sounds of Silence" that did not

capture the imagination of the public. In that sense, it's usually regarded as a

failure for not making the Top Ten. In fact, it was the last of Simon's attempts

at " literary rock" -- as a follow-up to "Richard Cory" and "I Am a Rock," it

was also the most subtle of them, a single acoustic guitar backed by a string

section and a single drum that may have been too sophisticated for the AM radio

of its period. The song's references to " Emily Dickinson" and " Robert Frost"

were not only non sequiturs when juxtaposed, to anyone who was familiar with the

two literary figures, but also alienated teenagers and adults who might not have

paid attention in their high school or college English classes. In the end,

sophisticated listeners tolerated it without embracing the song, and casual

audiences kept it at arm's length, where its literary conceits seemed to be

keeping them. The song was part of Simon & Garfunkel's concert sets in late 1966

and 1967, but was quickly dropped once they had more new repertory established.



FLOWERS NEVER BEND WITH THE RAINFALL



An almost dead ringer for "Red Rubber Ball," a Paul Simon song never recorded in

the studio by Simon & Garfunkel (it was a hit by the Cyrcle), "Flowers That

Never Bend With the Rainfall" is a simple yet very likeable slice of pop

confection. As with many of Simon's songs, this is a simple yet insightful

self-analysis, filled with pathos and humor. Musically, it showcases Simon's pop

instincts in a very powerful and charming way. There are many other songs of his

from this period that are indeed better, but the sense of craftsmanship easily

puts it on the level of Simon's other, more ambitious creations.



A SIMPLE DESULTORY PHILIPPIC (OR HOW I WAS ROBERT McNAMARA'D INTO SUBMISSION)



A virtual parody of Bob Dylan's "Subterranean Homesick Blues," "A Simple

Desultory Philippic" livened up side two of Parsley, Sage with a great sense of

humor. Aiming targets at the media, war machinery, and the U.S. government, Paul

Simon protests "protest music" here, and the effect is hilarious. Utilizing the

then-vogue folk-rock style, it works like a rock & roll song, yet at its heart

can easily be called a novelty song.



A POEM ON THE UNDERGROUND WALL



One of the most effective songs from the Parsley, Sage, Rosemary & Thyme album,

"Poem on an Underground Wall" is, quite simply, Paul Simon's finest piece of

musical cinema from this period. A simple, very brief, and colorful narrative of

a subterranean graffiti artist, the sense of drama in Simon's lyric is

positively devastating. Musically, the song rises and falls with a powerful

sense of flow, again, like a great film. The duo's unison vocals also get top

marks here, being one of their finest performances on the album, which in itself

is wholly striking.



7 O'CLOCK NEWS/SILENT NIGHT



The closing track on the Parsley, Sage, Rosemary & Thyme album is one of the

more unique and effective studio creations of the limit-smashing 1966-1967 pop

era. The backdrop of the piece is a piano-backed version of Simon & Garfunkel

singing an immaculate and tender version of the classic Christmas hymn "Silent

Night." Yet, as the carol fades (barely) into the background, there is a wholly

dramatic, dry reading of a news broadcast. As the events of 1966 such as civil

rights marches, the death of Lenny Bruce, the escalation of the Vietnam War, and

other horrifying events are read, the heavenly Simon & Garfunkel singing again

gradually takes over. The effect is positively chilling, and creates an organic

daydream nightmare that is scary, real, and undeniable.



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