Simon & Garfunkel - Parsley, Sage, Rosemary & Thyme

Released - October 1966

Genre - Folk Rock

Producer - Bob Johnston

Selected Personnel - Paul Simon (Vocals/Guitar); Art Garfunkel (Vocals/Piano); Joe South (Guitar); Carol Kaye (Bass)

Standout Track - Flowers Never Bend With The Rainfall

This is more like it - after the thoroughly enjoyable but rather rushed effort that was Sounds of Silence, the album that truly first announced the duo to the world, Simon & Garfunkel managed to really capitalise on their potential with their next offering. Again, it's something of a pick & mix affair, with two of the album's best songs ("Homeward Bound" and "Flowers Never Bend With The Rainfall") actually dating back to recording sessions from 1965 before the release of Sounds of Silence itself, but in general Parsley, Sage, Rosemary & Thyme marks a step forward in the duo's work, even if it doesn't do much to break radical new ground for them.

Paul Simon, after rushing some of his work to completion on the previous album to meet the demands of his record label, this time insisted on more direct creative control, and that the result is that these songs sound perfectly formed, rather than feeling as if you're listening to an early demo that has yet to have had all the necessary work applied to it. The best-known song on offer is actually one of the album's least interesting - "Scarborough Fair/Canticle" is an arrangement of a 16th century traditional English folk song and, while Simon & Garfunkel's rendition of it is haunting and interesting, it's hardly the most captivating thing here. Far better is the jubilant "Homeward Bound," a relic from Simon's brief solo sojourn in the UK, written about a train journey from Widnes to London, and beautifully capturing the carefree spirit of a musician's life on the road. "Homeward Bound" is the best example of the more up-tempo, folk-rock style songs on the album as opposed to the more traditional acoustic folk songs, but the balance between the two is managed far better here than on Sounds of Silence. Full-band tracks like "The Big Bright Green Pleasure Machine" or the novelty piece "A Simple Desultory Philippic" (itself a sly pastiche of the folk-rock movement that namechecks the genre's foremost proponents, culminating with a tongue-in-cheek nod to Art Garfunkel himself), feel less out of place alongside such simple ballads as "Cloudy" and the aforementioned "Flowers Never Bend With The Rainfall," perhaps the loveliest song the duo ever recorded.

Speaking on Garfunkel, he's also given a little more reign to make his presence felt here, having been reduced to nothing more than decorative harmony vocals on the previous album. It's still very much Simon's playground, but Garfunkel is given the wonderful "For Emily, Whenever I May Find Her" to finally demonstrate his own prowess with a melody. In places here, Paul Simon even finds room to push his songwriting into experimental territory, with the strange note-bending of the guitar part on "Patterns," as well as the occasional vocal distortions, momentarily throwing this release into the emerging psychedelic scene, though as their work continued to develop they would largely continue to stick to the safety of folk music rather than ever really pushing to develop this side of Simon's compositional skills. This work also shows a far greater sensitivity to global and world events, with the closing track being a news report covering the death of Lenny Bruce and the escalation of the war in Vietnam while Simon & Garfunkel sing "Silent Night." It's an uneasy juxtaposition that shows they were able to make incisive political statements when they tried and didn't necessarily have to stick to the more traditional subjects of life on the road or exhausted relationships (the brilliantly

Track Listing:

All songs written by Paul Simon except where noted.

1. Scarborough Fair/Canticle (Traditional, Arranged by Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel)

2. Patterns

3. Cloudy (Paul Simon & Bruce Woodley)

4. Homeward Bound

5. The Big Bright Green Pleasure Machine

6. The 59th Street Bridge Song (Feelin' Groovy)

7. The Dangling Conversation

8. Flowers Never Bend With The Rainfall

9. A Simple Desultory Philippic (Or, How I Was Robert McNamara'd Into Submission)

10. For Emily, Whenever I May Find Her

11. A Poem On The Underground Wall

12. 7 O'Clock News/Silent Night (Josef Mohr & Franz Gruber)