Customer Reviews

Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme

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"Parsley, Sage, Rosemary & Thyme" was the first big breakthrough album for Simon & Garfunkel as artists. Although their first two albums certainly showed promise, there was a big difference with this 1966 album. The difference was that this time Simon & Garfunkel, along with engineer Roy Halee, had total control in the making of the album. Given that their other 1966 album, "The Sounds of Silence," had been thrown together in less than a month to take advantage of the hot single, this makes a big difference. Just compare the horrible overdubbing of "The Songs of Silence" single with basically anything on this album, but especially with the opening track, "Scarborough Fair/Canticle."

This was an album that would appeal to college students, with the literary rock of "Dangling Conversation," the caustic commentary of "A Simple Desultory Philippic (or How I was Robert McNamara'd into Submission)," and the simple juxtaposition of the duo singing "Silent Night" to a piano accompaniment juxtaposed against the headlines from the Nightly News (including the death of Lenny Bruce and the escalation of the war in Vietnam) on the album's final track, "7 O'Clock News/Silent Night." College students would also appreciate the sentiments of "Homeward Bound," the attack on television as "The Big Bright Green Pleasure Machine," one of the decade's great feel-good songs, "59th Street Bridge Song (Feelin' Groovy)," and the drama of "Poem on the Underground Wall."

But as much as I like the opening track and "Homeward Bound," the song that puts this over the top is the simply beautiful "For Emily, Whenever I May Find Her." There was a time in high school when that was my favorite song, and I did not even know a girl named Emily. Along with "Bridge Over Troubled Water" and "All I Know," "Emily" is one of the songs that truly showcase's Garfunkle's soaring vocals, not to mention Simon's poetic sensibilities. As good as this 1966 album was, Simon & Garfunkle's next album, "Bookends," was even better, and the one after that was the best of all. But then discovered the magic formula here.

This newly remastered and expanded edition of PSR&T is definitely overdue and most welcome. As was evident with the S&G releases of the past couple of years, "Old Friends" and "The Best of", the original master tapes are utilized in the digital transfer for this compact disc. In fact, a few tunes ("Cloudy", The Big Bright Green Pleasure Machine", "A Simple Desultory Phillipic" and "Poem On The Underground Wall") run several seconds longer than the original LP versions we've always been used to. And the sound quality is breathtaking! "Patterns", "Pleasure Machine" and "Phillipic" just jump out of the speakers. They're so clean and crisp and bright that it's almost startling! It's a great package too with all of the original artwork and liner notes reproduced, new photos and liner notes, and complete printed lyrics. It's the most exciting reissue I've heard this year.

What can anyone say about this album but WOW?! This is the best S & G album that they made, and although slightly lacking the power of "Bridge Over Troubled Water" it beats it by the sheer number of great songs on there. "Scarborough Fair" is without a doubt the best song on this CD, with the haunting anti-war lyrics. "Homeward Bound" will always stick out in my memory because of its catchy melody and chorus. "The Big Bright Green Pleasure Machine" is a nice break from the rather dreary songs in the beginning. "7 O'Clock News/Silent Night", while dated (people under 30 won't get the full effect), is the most powerful song on this CD, and is only rivaled by "Bridge Over Troubled Water" and "The Boxer". Definitely pick up this CD; it's their best.

I have been waiting for this for a long time. I held off buying Simon and Garfunkel's studio albums because I knew that someday, Columbia would reissue them in examplary fashion as they have done with the catalogs of The Byrds, Santana, Stevie Ray Vaughan and others.

Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme is the first S&G remastered CD that I bought and I was not dissappointed. If only every record label treated their older artists catalogs as well as Columbia Legacy. The sound quality is excellent. You can hear all the subtleties of the music, particularly Paul Simon's acoustic guitar playing, in perfect detail. The usual liner notes are here as are two bonus tracks.

If you like Simon and Garfunkel, but don't own the original albums, now is the time to get them. Just be sure to avoid the old 80's masters and pick up the new 2001 releases. Another excellent remaster job by Columbia.

Well, in my humble opinion this is one of the best of S&G's albums(so I will proceed to write a dreadfully overlong review.) It feels to me like a transition between their two first albums and their later ones, featuring a combination of the earlier-style folk and a very distinctive emerging style of Paul Simon. While there are one or two songs on here that I could live without, the vast majority of the songs on here are amazing, and this new version sounds amazing as well. Honestly, practically all of the beloved CDs I own are some form of Paul Simon, but I do love this album without TOO much bias. All right, enough of my ramblings, I'm sure it is quite apparent how much I love this music. About the songs:
1. Scarborough Fair--An intricate, timeless song. It's almost hypnotizing, and sounds eerily ancient, rich without being overly lush. "I LOVE THIS SONG!"-Arpi
2. Patterns--It's got classic S&G elements, these poetic and angst-laden lyrics and a strong but winding tune. I say angst, but it's not obnoxious or over-bearing in any way. Other than that, it's got very original instrumentals and is intriguingly understated.
3. Cloudy--It's a bit on the sweet side, at least in sound, with sugary-sounding parts, but they pull it off! It moves along, with a solid tune and interesting lyrics, especially by the middle.
4. Homeward Bound--It's just one of those songs that I adore. It's simple but it moves and is at once a folk song and a rock song. There's something about the tune (especially the very end) that is so poignant and interesting. (And if you feel the chorus is a bit rushed, check out "Simon and Garfunkel's Greatest Hits," which has a slower, more laid-back version.)
5. Big Bright Green Pleasure machine--Oh, look, another song I love. This is a great song, flat out. It's probably the most rock-like song on here, with those satirical, almost humorous S&G lyrics that tend to come around. It's also got really interesting and distinctive chords that complete the song. What does this all mean? It's the song on here that I have listened to ten times in a row and danced around to countless times. It's true.
6. The 59th Street Bridge Song (Feelin' Groovy)--Well...it's cute, it's palatable, and I like the words, but honestly it's not one of my favorites. But at least it's done by S&G. When done by someone else it could possibly get pretty painful. Actually, there's a version I much prefer on "Simon and Garfunkel's Greatest Hits." It's a bit less cutesy.
7. The Dangling Conversation--OK, I hate to admit this but I do NOT like this song. I want to, I really do, but it's ruined (in my opinion) by a Wall-of-Sound style string section. It's the only time on this album that they've used this, which I appreciate, but unfortunately it was enough to ruin one otherwise perfectly good song.
8. Flowers Never Bend With the Rainfall--Well I DO like this song, very much in fact. It's folksy; a good, catchy song. Listen to the lyrics, too--they're what make this song really interesting and powerful. The second verse gets me every time; it seems strikingly genuine.
9. A Simple Desultory Philippic (or How I was Robert McNamara'd Into Submission)--It's a skillful parody song, but it's also good on its own. This is an interesting maybe-partly-definitely-Bob Dylan parody, but it also SOUNDS great. (And in the third verse he does an impressive Dylan rendition.) How can you not love a song that manages to rhyme with "Garfunkel?" ("I've been Mothered, Fathered, Aunt and UNCled, been Roy Haleed and Art GarfUNKeled.") It's wonderfully dated, and it's interesting too if you take a bit too long to think about it. You've just got to hear it. "I've lost my harmonica, Albert."
10. For Emily, Whenever I May Find Her--This is probably the only sweet, Garfunkel-esque song that I really like a lot, and NOT just because I share a name with the title. The words are beautiful, it's really simply a poem set to a powerful tune and a great performance. It's passionate and sweet, but not sickly sweet. It feels real and genuine, and isn't overly lush for my taste.
11. A Poem on the Underground Wall--It's another song on this album that I love, and reminds me of "The Sounds of Silence," in the way it sounds. It's a great earlier S&G song, and if you listen to it enough to get the little vignette of a story, it's sad but not tragic, real and gritty but not grim.
12. 7 O'clock News Silent Night--What can I say about this song? It's more a piece of artwork, an interesting social commentary; turn it up and listen to the newscast sometime. It's not one that I would listen to ten times in a row, but it's interesting as a relic of the time, and a striking juxtaposition of blatantly opposing messages. It's been laughed at, but in honestly, I like this piece. It's distinctive.

This album is very meaningful to me (as if you couldn't tell), and if you're looking for an introduction to S&G, this is a good album to listen to. It is an interesting blend between the true folk of earlier S&G and the later, more distinctively Simon-esque folk-rock. It's eclectic, there's folk and rock, protest and traditional influences, poetry and social commentary. But it's held together by the intelligent but not presumptuous lyrics and musical integrity. Garfunkel's contribution really rounds this one out. Overall, this is an extremely worthwhile and enjoyable album.

With such classic songs as Scarborough fair / Canticle (a major American hit), Homeward bound (the only UK hit from the album, this was a ten hit on both sides of the Atlantic), For Emily wherever I may find her (sung solo by Art) and the 59th street bridge song - Feeling groovy (a hit for Harper's Bizarre in the UK and USA), this is yet another masterpiece from Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel.

The famous songs already mentioned are available on countless hits compilations of their music, so if you are thinking of buying this, it is because you want to hear the other songs. They are all of a high quality, notably Cloudy (with its incredible imagery), Big bright green pleasure machine (about TV advertising) and Dangling conversation (about cocktail party gossip).

Yet the most notable track of all may be 7 o'clock news / Silent night. With a peaceful Christmas carol as background, this track reflects on the state of the world back then as relayed in news bulletins. Of course, news bulletins generally focus on problems and tragedies, so a piece like this could have been recorded at any time. Despite world progress, news bulletins are always full of despair, never more so than while I am writing this, soon after the Indian Ocean earthquake.

If you are interested in more than just their hits, this Simon and Garfunkel album is definitely worth a listen.

And with the optimistic but still world-weary poetry of Paul Simon, this era in time took on some of the most beautiful music ever made, although this album seems to have both comedy and horror running through ballads and rock pieces that all seem to want to get to the same place but are in no particular shape to do so. It is a dated album, what with "7 O'Clock News/Silent Night" and "A Simple Desultory Phillipic", but that is not a bad thing when you consider the fact that Paul was creating an album for his time. Anyway, this music has a timeless universal quality, and the sounds are sublime. I personally always felt that "The 59th Street Bridge Song" was one of the most pleasant and joyously sentimental tunes that there ever was, and I was moved to tears by the song while listening to the Harper's Bizarre cover version (which I've always prefered to the version on this record). It seemed to say so much about the joys of life itself and seizing the day, while that generation and our nation was revelling in sexual freedom and warfare and seem-ripping, without apparently saying much at all. I remember thinking, what does the line "hello lampost, whatcha showin'?" mean? Was it silly or was it honest? Each morning that I awake after sleeping in I immediately understand what Simon was saying. And then there is a song called "Cloudy" which, if not exactly moving you to tears, will at least brighten your darkest and most unpleasant day, and that is a special quality for a song to have and a rare one at that (it is such a wonderous, but imaginative song, one that lets you escape while never leaving). I've heard "Homeward Bound" ever since I was at least seven and it still strikes me as one of the greatest songs ever. As an album it can get frustrating, with fuzzed out rock and roll compressed against sweet lyrical music poetry that is on display in the satisfying "For Emily, Wherever I May Find Her", but even if it doesn't stand up conceptually, the songs are good enough and the atmosphere accurate enough to make it an essential recording. BOOKENDS is better, but don't think you don't need this album--it comes as close to sonic Heaven as we are going to get, and now I don't think it is a joke that students look at Simon's lyrics more closely.

If you were around and into music in the '60's, Simon and Garfunkel was another one of those groups whose albums you simply went out and got when they hit the record stores because you knew it would be worth having. I have the original LP in my collection, but my turntable has been broken for a while and I haven't gotten around to repairing or replacing it, so when I came across this CD, I bought it.

My memory didn't betray me. This album is still well worth having. Mind you, it isn't one of my very top favorites. My taste tends more toward harder rock ala the Rolling Stones, The Who, Led Zeppelin, and the Jefferson Airplane. Further, some of the lyrics here are rather dated. Listening to Paul Simon rail against Maxwell Taylor and Robert McNamara or go on about "feelin' groovey" sounds a little out of it 35 years later. On the other hand, this album contains some of the prettiest folk/rock melodies and hamonies you could ever hope to hear. The opening song sets the tone. "Scarborough Faire/Canticle" is hauntingly beautiful, with a fragile delicacy worthy of a snowflake. I would own the album just for this song, but there's plenty of other outstanding music here, as well.

Simon and Garfunkel is another of the great musical acts to come out of the 1960's. PARSLEY, SAGE, ROSEMARY & THYME is an excellent piece of their work. Listen past the lyrics in those instances where they become hopelessly dated and enjoy the lovely and timeless music that abounds here. Very highly recommended.

I Love Simon & Garfunkel and this is probably their best album simply because each and every song is great. Not something you find on alot of albums. This one contains such classics as "Scarborough Fair (Canticle)", "Homeward Bound", "The 59th Street Bridge Song (Feelin' Groovy), "A Simple Desultory Phillippic (or How I was McNamara'd Into Submission)","For Emily, Whenever I May Find Her" and others. The Final Track is "7 O'Clock New/Silent Night" Which has a profound effect on anyone who hears it. Paul Simon shows his poetic skill with almost every song he writes and sings beautifully aside Garfunkel's pure angelic voice.

If you are a fan of Simon & Garfunkel or like songs with meaningful lyrics (unlike most of the [...] you hear on the radio today) you owe it to yourself to buy this album. It is a classic that should be cherished.

This is one of the few albums in my parents' small mediocre record stash I had always had my eye on and subsequently "stole" when I came home for winter break my senior year of college, right after I finally got my first record player. Though it's not entirely acoustic like their debut album, most of the songs are still soft and gentle enough to calm the nerves, unwind, or rock a baby to sleep with. I can't believe I thought folk rock was boring and too slow when I first got into the music of the Sixties when I was thirteen. The images and lyrics are gorgeous, timeless, breathtaking, poignant, sweet, quirky, intellectual, amazing. Even apart from the classics like "For Emily" and "The Dangling Conversation," the songs are all still great and just as thoughtfully and delicately constructed; even the sole song I regard as a throwaway, "The 59th Street Bridge Song," is still cute and fun. Some of the songs reference events and people of the day (in particular "A Simple Desultory Philippic"), though they don't sound really dated today, because the overall theme of the song isn't linked to just that era of time. It could have been written in another era, with different names included, and the message would still be the same. The end of the original final track, "7:00 News/Silent Night," is also just as eerily pertinent and true to life today.

This record is in by far the worst shape of any of my records, with no paper sleeve and the cover only attached at the top and a tiny bit of the left side, but the record inside plays like a charm, with only a bit of surface noise in the beginning. I wouldn't trade it in for another copy, be it an LP in much better condition or the new CD remaster, for the world. Maybe it's in such bad condition because the prior owner loved it as much as I do now.