Parsley, Sage, Rosemary And Thyme

My dad passed away when I was four years old. He liked to play the guitar and was a particular fan of '60s folk, S&G being no exception. He had a red book of chords and lyrics written down to remember. Scarborough Fair/Canticle was one of them. I will always cherish the fact that my father's love for music shaped my childhood, and as a result, my whole life. This entire record moves me.

Day 4 of 1001 albums you must hear before you die.. And boy do I feel the pressure to deliver on this reaction of an album that I never knew existed, but the legendary duo that is Simon & Garfunkel needs no introduction to most people around the world). Even though I was an eighties baby and don’t know much about the culture and lifestyles of that generation, I absolutely love music from the 60’s!! You Can Call Me Al by Paul Simon was my introduction to one half of S&G. I was four years old. The song was all over the radio and the still young yet exploding cable channel, MTV, played the music video of this song on a seemingly endless loop. It wasn’t until I was in my mid to late twenties that I actually realized that these two super average looking guys wrote, sang and produced some of the most beloved, comforting and sweet songs of our time. Their junior release saw them having the freedom of being in creative control for the first time. The Sound Of Silence, a song we all know, gave them prestige and They took advantage and convinced their label to allow them to spend precious money on an eight track recorder. What the label probably didn’t understand is that having 8 tracks instead of 2 or 4 even, could enhance the way people hear music. Stereo music is what 8K video is today. You can actually feel immersed in music when you hear all the different tracks of a song coming from different directions from different channels.. Man, It had to feel futuristic at the time. Even listening today with headphones is a trip. The over dubbing of vocals and instruments set these guys apart from the rest, the same way it did for The Beatles and The Beach Boys. The layered vocals were executed so beautifully. Simons writing and Garfunkel’s singing is a match made in another galaxy. The only song I actually recognized from this particular album is The 59th street bridge song (feeling groovy). The more aggressive and Bob Dylan styled song, A Simple Desultory Phillippic, drops many famous names of the time and I liked it a lot, as it showed off their humorous and tongue in cheek side. 7 o’clock News/Silent Night gave me goose pimples with the sounds of news clips juxtaposed with Silent Night. I can totally see a 15 year old in 1966 locking themselves in a dark room and spinning this record over and over. Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme isn’t just a record, it’s an experience.. An emotional one at that. Please share your thoughts and memories!!

Don't be fooled by the title, there's only vanilla to be found here. Look, it's very obvious that Paul Simon is a talented songwriter (groan-worthy Silent Night juxtaposition aside), but this is like when someone says the original Super Mario Bros. is the best game of all time: give it to someone born well after its release and they may ask why anyone would want to play it, and you either curse them for not appreciating the thing you grew up with, or begrudgingly accept how it might not blow somebody's hair back when what it's putting down has been picked up and run with for so long by so many others. Maybe it holds up better than many of its contemporaries, and a lot of what's there still has meaning today, but it feels like you just trip over lyrics you could draw modern parallels to with any of these Vietnam era rock albums, many of which present their ideas in a more compelling fashion than this. I'll give them credit for one thing, though: their Bob Dylan parody(?) is legitimately funny. Folk rock. Key Tracks: The Dangling Conversation, A Simple Desultory Philippic (or How I Was Robert McNamara'd into Submission)

I find it hard to muster any enthusiasm for songs that are so incredibly passive and unchallenging. Simon's songwriting on this whole album is just so soft that they left no impression whatsoever. In short, it's a boring album full of boring songs that frankly don't justify the album's inclusion in this list.

A masterpiece of an album. Paul Simon is one of the greatest American songwriters and this album showcases his lyrical talent brilliantly. Of course, the delivery is sublime. Though their working relationship was fraught, Simon and Garfunkel are two of the most gifted singers and seem to fall in a complex yet natural harmony that still electrifies. Once again, here we have an album that manages to stand out in 1966, a year full of transformative music.

S&G have been my dudes since I was a kid, and this album always touches a lot of sights, sounds, and storylines. Loving the spin as usual!

Always liked Simon & Garfunkel but was still surprised by how much I enjoyed this, given they have other, better regarded albums. Good melodies, good harmonies, good lyrics. More up-tempo stuff than I expected. Traditional folk but still buzzing with creativity. Feelin' Groovy is a childhood favourite of mine. A very pleasant way to spend 28 minutes.

One of my all-time favs. I will forever love the music these two poets make. One of my favorite lyrics of all time lives on this album: "I'm dappled and drowsy and ready to sleep let the morning time drop all of its petals on me. Life, I love you..." "For Emily..." is incredibly beautiful and inspired heartache in me even as a pre-teen who had no grasp of love.

Does a "not-great" Simon & Garfunkel album even exist? In less than 30 minutes, those two manage to pack a vast variety of songs, some faster, some slower, some louder, some quieter, all at a high quality and always with their signature acoustic and harmony-laden sound. What's not to love?

What an album! It begins with a merging of two glorious songs, which would be enough for some artists. It finishes with a chilling take on Silent Night. In between, it takes us to joy, sadness, longing, love. It's all killer, no filler. The blending of their voices is perfect, then Artie gets his moment on For Emily. If you think that's perfect, find a live version to listen to. He really is that good. What's really amazing is that this wonderful album isn't their best. Bridge Over Troubled Water wins that accolade. That magnificent achievement is then dwarfed by Graceland, IMHO the greatest album of them all.

It is crazy how consistently good each of these tracks are. Short, sweet, varied, little delicious nuggets of folk songs with beautiful vocals. Incredibly enjoyable.

Love!

classic. silent night in particular was amazing

Lovely way to season a bird. Excellent album from S&G

Two days ago I mentioned this record in a review and now here I am reviewing it. You may not want to admit it, but the album generator is sentient and the less time we spend debating it, the more time we have to figure out how to stop it from enacting its wrath. So… Simon and Garfunkel, huh? These guys seem pretty cool, right? Look at them sitting in a darkened room, wearing a frilly shirt behind a floral arrangement. Who am I kidding? These nerds are pretentious as fuck. Don’t believe me? Listen to Silent Night/7 O’clock News. Ooh…they paired a Christmas Carol with a snippet of depressing news about the Vietnam war and serial killers. I’ll forgive you for not seeing the irony. After all, it is *very* subtle. I suspect that Simon and Garfunkel were one of those bands people listened to because they though it gave them the appearance of being smart, like Radiohead. Maybe it’s because he looks like Eraserhead, but I think Art Garfunkel is the cooler of the two. Paul Simon just seems like a “try-hard” and inauthentic (an idea which I plan on exploring in greater detail when “Graceland” gets assigned to me. Spoiler Alert: it’s not getting a high ranting). “Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme” is an alright record, but it’s schlocky and a lot of it feels like it should be played in a funeral parlor: overwrought and dramatic. When it picks up the pace, it’s too smart for its own good. One of the “rock” tracks is called “A Simple Desultory Philippic (Or How I Was Robert McNamara'd Into Submission)”. In case you don’t have a PhD in Literature, that roughly translates to “a simple tirade lacking in consistency”, which, coincidentally, is probably what you’re thinking to yourself as you read this review.

Wonderful, in turns traditional but modern for the time, acerbic commentary... brilliant.

What a surprise. Concise songs that deliver. A send-up of Dylan in A Simple Desultory Philippic which is hilarious. The angst of Patterns against MASS MAN. What fun in 28:48.

Parsley, Sage, and a Fuckin' Swell Time

The goats

I forget how short this album is. But it stands as an excellent piece of music. I love this album and the calm vibe it presents. It has a darkness that plays in the corner with evening light. They dance and make a beautiful quiet racket that is this album.

Pack so many ideas and inventions into such short songs.

really good, one thing i love about S&G is that it's versatile music, it's nice to have on in the background but, also super rewarding musically and conceptually when you give it a closer listen. 10

I don’t consider myself a big folk music fan, but this album is absolutely fantastic.

hello, Simon & Garfunkel, my new friends...

Tinkly

BEST SIMON AND GARFUNKEL ALBUM. ONE OF MY FAVORITE ALBUMS OF ALL TIME. PAUL SIMON TOUCHES MY SOUL WITH HIS CLEVER LYRICISM. THE HARMONIES. OMG

I hate liking this, because I hate Simon and Garfunkel as people. But I get the hype, very different from other music of their time.

Perhaps the first album I ever knew

"A Simple Desultory Philippic" Sounds very Bob Dylan -- clearly influenced. Also, mentions Phil Spectre--a man who died recently, which makes me realize how recently this album was released. So weird. So many recognizable songs here.

Beautiful

Not my normal but very good, will return

One of my favorite albums.

Love this album. Classics!

DRIVING GUITARS TO GET ME WORKED UP IN THE MORNING.

Catchy and well written songs. Makes me want to listen all day long.

Short but oh so sweet. Their voices are so calming.

Folk. Awesome melodies.

Sublime

I've never listened to this whole album. Not really my thing. But damned if I didn't love it.

Very anti-war. Also, maybe this is where the trend of mocking Dylan came from? Also, someone REALLY loves Emily.

Some of Simon and Garfunkel's best; mellow, catchy, and still bloody good.

fint men kjedelig

The best tracks are recorded elsewhere with better arrangements, especially my favorite "Cloudy." Still incredible songwriting and what an amazing reflection of the times. It's like they took every signpost of the age and wrote a song about it. Look at the track list--it looks like a soundtrack for a musical titled "1968" (note: album came out in 1966 but as with all great artists, they were a little ahead of the times).

Parsley, Sage, Rosemary & Thyme I can’t recall listening to this before, or at least not properly, I’ve always tended towards Bookends and Bridge Over Troubled Water, but I should really have given this more attention, as it’s quirkily great, with some excellent songs on it outside those all time classics in Scarborough Fair, Howard Bound, 59th Bridge Street Song and For Emily. Scarborough Fair is so familiar I find it easy to not really listen, but those harmonies and the harpsichord really are so fantastically well done. Patterns is an interesting one, a great song and probably emblematic, from what I’ve read, of the songwriting difficulties that Simon had at the time - not in the song itself but the theme of resigned futility and lack of will. Love the bass, and it feels like the guitar break is about to turn into the middle bit of Stonehenge. Cloudy feels like a classic S&G album track, not the most showy perhaps but a lovely melody with and rhythmic accents. ‘All my words come back to me in shades of mediocrity’ - always loved that line. I like the sequencing with The Big Bright Green Pleasure Machine’s glib satire after the heartfelt and sad Homeward Bound, and it’s one of those Paul Simon songs like Me and Julio, Keep the Customer Satisfied and Baby Driver that seem to be an attempt to write a rock n roll song, but turn out to be a excellently quirky halfway between folk and rock n roll. ‘Dappled and drowsy and ready to sleep’, another great, evocative line. The Dangling Conversation is a lovely tune, augmented nicely by harp and strings, the lyric may be a bit heavy handed, but it’s another one of those great sad but not despairing S&G songs, again on the themes of futility. Flowers Never Bend, goes back to the themes on Patterns, more melancholy balancing hopefulness and hopelessness. More excellent sequencing of earnest with amusing with the next song. A Simple Desultory Philippic may be based around the single joke of a Dylan pastiche, but luckily Simon is good at these sorts of wryly amusing lyrics and I like the organ part - again seems like when Simon attempts to write a rock song it comes out slightly odd, but in a good way. I love For Emily, Whenever I May Find Her, one of my favourites, Art’s vocal is superb and the melody is so satisfying as it builds to the I Love You conclusion - the only thing is that it feels like it could be longer, but maybe it’s brevity is one reason it’s so great. I don’t think I’ve ever really listened properly to the lyrics of A Poem on the Underground Wall, but it’s a great story with some excellent imagery, and I wonder what the 4 letter word was? 7 O’Clock News/Silent Night is the sort of thing that could be heavy handedly sanctimonious, but I find it genuinely affecting, Art’s sweetly earnest and delicate vocal highlights the despair of the headlines. Maybe it’s the 60 year’s remove that makes it work as a period piece but I do like it. It maybe not be quite at the level of Bookends or Bridge Over Troubled Water, but most artists would kill for one album containing Scarborough Fair, Howard Bound, 59th Bridge Street Song and For Emily, as well as the excellent Patterns and Flowers Never Bend, and there is only a limited number of S&G albums, so I think it’s hard not to give it a cherished 5. ☁️☁️☁️☁️☁️ Playlist submission: For Emily, Whenever I May Find Her

Absolutely phenomenal. I knew I liked them, but WOW I didn't realize how much range they had. Soft, jazzy, poppy, rocky, dey got it all.

I loved this album. I wish they could all be like this, fun, beautiful, meaningful and short.

The music of my youth. The songs that stick with you forever are from when you're 8-9-10 years old; that's what these are. AND...they're great songs.

nice

Classic

Amazing. Especially fond of "Scarborough Fair / Canticle", "Homeward Bound", "The 59th Street Bridge Song" and "Patterns".

Wonderful album. Great vocals.

5, Beautiful

10/10 fun

Great lyrics, great melodies, great harmonies. Too many liked songs to mention, but special shoutout to For Emily Wherever I May Find Her, Flowers Never Bend with the Rainfall, Homeward Bound, and The 59th Street Bridge Song.

I really enjoyed this album, it was so relaxing to listen to.

Amazing album. Could listen on repeat

9 for the folksy and the nostalgia

9/10. This album keeps things short and sweet, which is always refreshing after a metal album.

What an album. Very trippy melodies. Great lyrical content. Makes you feel like your back in the 60s. Classic Simon and garfunkel.

Simply amazing

the most amazing album ever made

I loved the guitar and the lyrics were incredible

so fire

Did you know that it used to be Simon and Garfunkel and Spackman? Yes, I was part of a groundbreaking folkrock trio back in the late 50s/early 60s. What a ride it was. We sold out The Emirates Stadium and The Millennium Dome countless times, before the drugs kicked in for me. It was a very exciting, but ultimately dark time in my life. By night it was a hedonistic rainbow of women, money, LSD and hobnobs. By day it was a cold coffin of shame and self-loathing whilst trying to enjoy folk music. Eventually my wild ways got too much for the others and they had to cut all ties with me. As a duo, Simon and Garfunkel went on to have enormous success, and rightly so. But, I always thought I gave the trio the edge which would have sent us into superstardom. I'm not bitter though, I went on to have a successful career as the famous footballer and nail technician you know me as today.

“Yeah, but it's not my fault if Cousin Lezra ends up eating my nut dust and becoming the goofy Paul Simon to my angelic-voiced Art Garfunkel“- Jonah Ryan

The first album in the list I already knew. The title track and Homeward Bound are already extremely popular and well-known Simon and Garfunkel songs, but "Patterns" is an underrated piece. 7 O'clock news hits as hard as it always does whenever I listen to it. Still as good of an album as it always was.

Some great harmonies and melodies and a surprising amount of variety track-to-track. Apparently I like Simon and Garfunkel?

Another lovely album. Especially love the 7 O'Clock News / Silent Night, Phoebe Bridgers did an incredible take on this song as well, and I never knew that it was a cover of this track. It's like a time capsule into the controversies and events of the '60s in the US. 4/5

This is the album that elevated S & G from just a folk singing duo to something more special. Apart form the timeless classics, Homeward Bound and Scarborough Fair, the songs on rest of the album, though sometimes dated, are interesting and more engaging than I anticipated. Their follow-up albums would become masterpieces, but this is a good place to start.

Love these guys. A few stone cold classics on this album, some beautiful and effortlessly executed acoustic guitar work, those timeless harmonies, and a brilliant parody of Bob Dylan. And a couple of filler tracks. Perfect ending track though.

There are several songs on here that I know and enjoy a bunch. I do find it odd that Simon and Garfunkel took writing credit for Scarborough Fair, a centuries olde English tune. A little bit of respect lost here. Flowers Never Bend with the Rainfall is a song I really like that I hadn’t heard before. Same with the offbeat A Simple Desultory Phillipic (Or How I Was Robert McNamara’d Into Submission) where the music is driven by the distorted guitar and (credit to Wikipedia for pointing it out) Paul Simon puts on a Bob Dylan affect. I hadn’t heard the Silent Night / news reel before either. It is a brilliant juxtaposition of a warm, fuzzy Christmas tune and deeply unsettling 1966 current events. There is quite a bit more anti-war sentiment than I ever remember noticing from Simon and Garfunkel before. This album has a lot of good content, but I like many of the later, more mature versions of the songs better. The bones are here. I appreciate them. But it’s not quite tip top.

Scarborough Fair is one of their best songs. Art's signing capabilities boggle the mind. I wasn't aware of the legal issues mentioned in Wiki. Since we started 1001, we've read about royalty avoidance on a number of songs. Scarborough Fair is a traditional song arranged by S & G. For whatever reason they didn't note it was traditional but since it is, they're no royalties to avoid. Much ado about nothing. Homeward Bound Is one of my favourite  S & G songs. Memorable opening riffs on acoustic songs are rare; this song has one of the best and most recognizable acoustic opening riffs. Of interest is that the acoustic riff that opens Cloudy is very similar. This shows that a clever opening riff augments, rather than replaces the need for, good verses and chorus. Most of the top shelf in the S & G library are  songs that Art sings lead vocals on  but Homeward Bound is a notable exception. The Bright Green Pleasure Machine is also a catchy and fun tune. It's sort of like the Beatles style in their Yellow Sub timeline.  Feelin' Groovy felt dated when they sang it at Central Park almost 40 years ago. One of them even started laughing when they sang the chorus. It's hard not to sound dated when you say the word "groovy". Nonetheless,  it's still a fun song. A Simple Desultory Philippic is immediately recognizable as a Bob Dylan-like song. The song title indicates that Paul is poking fun at Bob and the lyrics confirm this. It's not clear if it's tongue in cheek or if he truly wanted to fire missiles at Bob. One could understand that in those days Paul would feel that he had written some brilliant lyrics but his songs were getting next to no respect while Dylan's borderline nonsensical lyrics resulted in his being treated like royalty.  Silent Night with the background news is special. It's a beautiful and peaceful Christmas song with the background news telling the harsh reality of the day.  Canadians have Leonard Cohen so we are well acquainted with Jewish brothers singing songs about Christ but when Simon and Garfunkel released this, I expect some listeners must have found this confusing (especially those who didn't know who Allen Ginsberg was). S & G sing it brilliantly.

It's been a few decades since I've heard the title track and in listening to it on headphones it really blew me away in terms of the harmonies and instrumentation, the harpsichord especially. I guess I missed those things on our transistor radio back in the day. The other radio hits bring back memories too, even my mom used to hum Feeling Groovy. The instrumentation and arrangements on the supporting tracks are creative and different enough to shift the mood from song to song. Patterns is a good one.

Paul Simon is definitely a top-of-the-list song writer and Art Garfunkel can harmonize with anyone, I knew the songs but only listened to their albums recently (last 5 years). There is a very nice flow to them.

Folk music at its purest. Homeward Bound is an awesome song. Silent Night / 7 o’clock news still packs a distinct punch. Some filler in there that doesn’t pop but mostly a decent record.

Some classics, but mostly songs I wouldn't listen to again.

Meh. I can appreciate the talent of this album and do like me some of their stuff.. Has a couple of good cuts but just not my jam. At least it was only 28 minutes long.

Not their best, but any album with Homeward Bound on is a good album.

Mellow with a few good songs my favourite being Scarborough fair

Another album that, for me, has suffered thanks to the passage of time. Some of these tracks, like Scarborough Fair and For Emily... still sound great. Others are freighted with the dragging earnestness of S&G's execution. We get a lot of Paul Simon on this app, and I think I've realised how little of his material I actually enjoy. Well, there's a cheery ending to the review...

OH BROTHER THIS SHIT STINKS

This isn't Bookends

the "i'm very intelligent" guy from the meme the album

I just hate their stupid harmonies etc - actually the last track was quite enjoyable and smart but was still a fucking Christmas carol

Ihre Namen so groß wie ihre Sanftheit äh sanft. spurlose 1.2

Hearing this makes me feel like a kid again

The gold standard for the 60s Folk Revival. The arrangements are brilliant. The vocal harmonies are incredible. And a surprising amount of diversity throughout the album. The closing track, with its juxtaposition of a beautiful arrangement of Silent Night and a newscaster reading increasingly horrific headlines (hard-panned left and right, respectively) probably got them an FBI file. 5 stars.

I'm horribly behind on reviews at this point, so I'm gonna have to keep the next seven of them short just so I can catch up. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ I love Simon and Garfunkel, and it's a little surprising that it took this long to get one of their albums. I've had a couple of Paul Simon albums, but those, in my opinion, do not even come close to the genius of him and Art together. I cherish the music they made together. It's such a unique and refined sound, one that really hits hard. It can be light, fun, dreamy, dark, serious, and even a little frightening. You get all those elements on this album. I need to talk about "7 O'Clock News/Silent Night" though. The first time I heard this track, I was in the fifth grade. My then music teacher played it for us during a unit talking about folk music. It blew my mind. It was the first time I'd heard a song that used significant audio that wasn't music, and combined it to create something that contrasted the messages of both to make something totally new. I thought it was brilliant then, and it opened me up to the idea that music could be more than just fun songs, but could send a message as well. I love it. This is an easy five stars for me. I don't love every track, but what I do love is undeniable. Standout Tracks: Scarborough Fair/Canticle, Homeward Bound, The Big Bright Green Pleasure Machine, Flowers Never Bend with the Rainfall, A Simple Desultory Philippic, 7 O'Clock News/Silent Night

I wish this was longer. Not quite as many bangers as Sounds of Silence, mostly due to the short runtime and the small “skit” at the end. A beautiful album otherwise with a lot of my Simon & Garfunkel favorites like Homeward Bound and Scarborough Fair.

I loved getting high in Highschool and listening to this album. It was a mainstay for me during that time period when I was getting into 60s folk and psychedelia. So subjectively, it is a 5 for me.

I love these two! A simple desultory Philippic just became a favorite. I haven't heard it before but it sounds like they are throwing shade at Dylan haha.

I freaking love these two. Not as good as Bridge Over Troubled Water (had to listen to Cecilia asap after this), but still an absolute classic. Takes me back to so many different car rides and road trips from high school/college days.

Our second vinyl record of the generator. This album is just lovely, start to finish. "For Emily, Wherever I May Find Her" is one of the most ethereally beautiful songs I've ever heard.

I didn't think I'd like it as much as I did. A Simple Desultory Philippic made me laugh. I'm going to have to give this one a 5.

2nd favorite Simon and Garfunkel

For me the least known S&G album but all the tracks are all familiar to me. The only problem with the album is that it is way too short. S&G can do no wrong for me and I consider them to be exceptional musicians and responsible for composing and singing some of best songs making up the soundtrack of my life. None of the tracks on this album make that soundtrack but all come pretty close and are certainly a foretaste of the magnificence to come. 5/5 14/10/24

Loved this. There were many deep cuts I was unfamiliar with that I really enjoyed. I’ve already listened to it another time or two. I guess 60s folk is a preferred genre of mine! 🤷

I can legit listen to this album over and over on a loop and not get sick of it. That's the definition of a 5 for me. At one point in my life Feelin' Groovy was my least favorite S&G song, but then I had kids, and damn if "I'm dappled and drowsy and ready to sleep/let the morning time drop all its petals on me" isn't just the best to sing to them.

Decent herbs, pretty strong together. It's too bad these guys hated each other because they sure make beautiful music. Phenomenal tracks, front to back, make up this fantastic album. 6 stars.

Wonderful album. Listening to Simon & Garfunkel is such an idyllic experience. Their harmonized voices sound angelic. Every single song on the album is amazing. Super enjoyable listen!