Simon & Garfunkel - Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme

When a retrofit of electric guitars transformed "Sounds of Silence" into Simon & Garfunkel's folk-rock entrée, the partners and their label hastily followed with a like-titled album mixing Paul Simon's acoustic folk songs with plugged-in bids for radio play. By contrast, this successor, released less than a year later, more coherently and convincingly reveals Simon's broadening horizons as a writer and the duo's nascent studio perfectionism. The title song remains a haunting signature piece, relying on acoustic guitar and harpsichord to carry its contrapuntal marriage of English ballad and antiwar plaint; such acoustic delicacy prevails throughout and has proven more durable than by-the-numbers wattage. The first great S&G album, the set includes "The 59th Street Bridge Song (Feelin' Groovy)," "Homeward Bound," "Dangling Conversation," and Art Garfunkel's luminous solo piece, "For Emily, Wherever I May Find Her." (The 2001 reissue adds a pair of unreleased demos to the original work.) --Sam Sutherland Amazon.com essential recording

Poetry set to music...

Hugely popular at the time but, as with much of Simon & Garfunkle's work, now increasingly consigned to the "interesting time-piece" category, "Parsley, Sage, Rosemary & Time" is quite simply one of the best albums from the 60's. If you haven't listened to it recently, get out your old copy and prepare to be amazed at the quality of the songs, the complexity and superb metering of their lyrics and the often stunningly beautiful singing - captured at its finest in the breathtakingly poignant "For Emily, Whenever I May Find Her". Sure, a couple of tracks sound pretty dated and a couple fall into the easy-listening "rock-pop" category, but most have a timeless clarity and sincerity that few of their contemporaries and equally few artists since then have mastered. And... if you don't own it but want to discover how good poetry set to music can be, well, it doesn't get much better. June 7, 2008

a masterpiece of musical brilliance

This is Simon & Garfunkel's second classic album (you can guess what's number one). It features many well-known songs, as well as tunes you will absolutely fall in love with right away. Expect to hear one classic right after another. Phenomenal songwriting, beautiful vocals, and insanely catchy vocal melodies. What else do you need? A songwriter lovers dream. March 13, 2008

Simon And Garfunkel's best

This Album is They're best one, but you will here that this is from 60s.
There's somthing timeless over it. I Just Love It.
Bookends and Bridge Over Trouble Water is also very good,but this one is my favorite!!!! February 24, 2008

Timelessly 'of its time'

1966, in many respects was to rock 'n roll what 1984 was to punk, with now seminal releases such as the Beach Boys' Pet Sounds, The Beatles' Revolver and Bob Dylan's double Blonde On Blonde notable in an era when groundbreaking work was emerging almost monthly. No other album however, possessed the sheer sophistication of Simon & Garfunkel's third recording.

In an unlikely connection, Parsley, Sage, Rosemary & Thyme has ties with Tool's sophomore release, Ænima (1996) in that both were heavily influenced by - and in both cases, dedicated to - renegade comedians Lenny Bruce (1925-1966) and Bill Hicks (1961-1994) respectively.

Through Art Garfunkel's ethereal vocals and Paul Simon's elegiac lyricism and acoustic guitar, Parsley, Sage, Rosemary & Thyme is a contemplative interrogation of both high and popular culture, age and adolescence, individual and collective identity.

The album opens with 'Scarborough Fair/Canticle' a traditional English folk song and an anti-war Simon original intertwined to majestic effect, and continues with the furtive 'Patterns' and enigmatic 'A Poem on the Underground Wall' sitting comfortably alongside literary ballads ('The Dangling Conversation' and 'Cloudy') and scathing indictment of consumer culture ('The Big Bright Green Pleasure Machine'). In 'A Simple Desultory Philippic (Or How I Was Robert McNamara'd Into Submission)' Simon snips away at various public figures, including The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan, Norman Mailer, Ayn Rand, Phil Spector and Andy Warhol. There are songs, 'hits' even, to have become ubiquitous in popular music, notably 'Homeward Bound,' 'The 59th Street Bridge Song (Feelin' Groovy)' and the celestial ballad 'For Emily, Whenever I May Find Her.'

Having abandoned sporadic attempts to sound like the Everly Brothers singing Bob Dylan on their 1964 debut Wednesday Morning, 3 A.M., and The Beatles on Sounds of Silence (1966), Parsley, Sage, Rosemary & Thyme represents Simon & Garfunkel establishing a sound uniquely their own, their own vision.

The album closes with '7 O'Clock News/Silent Night,' with the duo's rendition of the Christmas carol hauntingly interspersed with an evening news bulletin from August 3rd 1966, documenting plans for Martin Luther King's controversial open housing march into the Chicago suburbs of Cicero; Richard Nixon's desire to increase the war effort in Vietnam; the trial of proto-typical mass murderer Richard Speck; and the death of Lenny Bruce. The fact that these individuals, intrinsic to the ethos of the album, having been so influential (for good or bad) in the manner in which the world has since evolved, remain figuratively pertinent in contemporary society, render the album so timeless, quite possibly more so than any other album. June 13, 2007

Dated

Isn't it time that we all admit that some things from the sixties just don't age very well? The Beatles, I will give you--the better end of their efforts tend to have a more eternal quality. Bridge Over Troubled Water and Bookends, for Simon and Garfunkel are both that kind of album. This record, for several reasons, really isn't so much.

I suppose the first part of my objections to this record (which, judging by my rating, aren't THAT significant) stem from the fact that this is the last vestige of Paul Simon's whiny folk hippy trip from his time in England. It is a phase of his career that would best be forgotten. Never mind the fact that the version of "A Simple...." (quick note--any song that's title describes not even what it's about, but just what it is is probably paying a little too much attention to itself) on the record is far and away inferior to the one from The Paul Simon Songbook--it's just out-and-out dated itself. The same goes for the absolutely terrible, unnuanced Silent Night number at the end of the original record. Even Patterns seems to fall into the plaintive folk-rock whining mode of some of Bob Dylan's less remarkable offerings.

So why am I giving it four stars? Well, for starters, because the record also has a lot of good tracks on it. Much of the core of what makes Simon and Garfunkel (beyond just Paul Simon, whom I also hold a great affection for) good is on this album. Homeward Bound is a great song, and never mind the fact that it was recorded during the Sound of Silence sessions. The 59th Street Bridge Song is an excellent, fun song. I even like The Dangling Conversation to an extent, though I tend to agree that Overs (from Bookends--the better CD, if you only have the budget for one) covers the same ground more affectively and with less affectation.

If you're a Simon and Garfunkel fan, you already own this record. If you're wondering whether it's worth your money to get the reissued CD with the bonus tracks, it's not. They don't give you anything that you don't really already have. This practice of repackaging demos that sound essentially the same as the original recordings has to stop.

If you're a newcomer, or if you're just looking to get started or get "the best" Simon and Garfunkel, I'd probably steer you more towards Bookends (their best together) or Bridge Over Troubled Water (more eclectic, and one of my favorites, but still second to Bookends). If you've got the time and the money to throw around, though, this is still a great record, and one that I'd put ahead a lot of other recordings by other artists. October 17, 2006

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