• So. I've not been around for a while - in fact since I last wrote here, I've been to see Josh Rouse at Union Chapel, London (January 28th) which was fantastic - but I'm here now. And I'm very busy listening to Simon & Garfunkel a lot. It's not like I wasn't aware of them before - my dad played me the CD of the Concert in Central Park at least a couple of years ago when we were visiting my grandma; and my dad judged - very astutely - that I would particularly enjoy Scarborough Fair and indeed I loved it. And after that, I got to know several of their biggest songs, listening to the recordings from Central Park (which I borrowed from my grandma to upload to iTunes). But a few weeks ago I decided firmly that I needed to know more. So I called my dad and asked if we had any of their studio albums, to which his predictable answer was, "Yes, we have them all." Of course. So next time he visited he brought them all with him, and I uploaded them all onto iTunes (what would I do without iTunes?!). So now I'm very busy listening to them. Though I know several songs off each album, it's hard just to put all the songs from five albums on shuffle and get to know them all at once. I don't have the kind of time it would take to listen to everything, for one thing. So I'm going one album at a time. In honour of the first song of theirs I knew, I started with Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme. It is their third studio album (after Wednesday Morning, 3AM and The Sounds of Silence) and was released in 1966. I can't help myself, so I'm going to write a little about some of the songs. Track 1: "Scarborough Fair/Canticle". This is two songs woven together. "Scarborough Fair" is a traditional English folk song and it's several centuries old. "Canticle" is a re-working of a Paul Simon song called "The Side of a Hill" which is anti-war. I'm not entirely sure why it works, but it really does. Lovely acoustic guitar, heavenly harmonies as usual (it's hard to choose a favourite but I particularly love the one on "parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme" in the last verse) and something really clever about how the two songs fit together. "Are you going to Scarborough Fair? Parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme. Remember me to one who lives there; She once was a true love of mine." Track 4: "Homeward Bound". It's not the most original title, I realise, but what a fantastic song. Paul Simon wrote this while he was travelling in England. The line most personal to me is in the chorus when he says "home, where my music's playing" because as you may have realised, I am obsessed with my music. My favourite harmony in this song comes at the start of the chorus, where they start on the same note and then Simon sings a note lower and Garfunkel a note higher. "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." Track 6: "The 59th Street Bridge Song (Feelin' Groovy)". It starts with the lyric, "Slow down, you move too fast" and basically goes on being very content with the state of things. It's not hugely deep or thought-provoking but it's lovely to listen to just to get you in a good mood, or alternatively to get a laugh out of hearing the now-antiquated word "groovy". "I got no deeds to do, no promises to keep; I'm dappled and drowsy and ready to sleep, Let the morning-time drop all its petals on me. Life, I love you; all is groovy." Track 7: "The Dangling Conversation". I came across this first on a list of "poetic songs" while I was browsing to see if it contained another S&G song ("The Sound of Silence"; it did). It basically tells the story of two lovers who have grown indifferent and it's heartbreakingly beautiful. In this song, my favourite harmony is on the last time they sing "superficial sighs" where Garfunkel does a descending five-note scale melody. "Like a poem poorly written We are verses out of rhythm; Couplets out of rhyme In syncopated time." Well, I'm not the greatest at analysing songs or anything, and I was also aware that this entry is already quite long, so I didn't want to include all the songs, but while I love all four above, they're not the only ones. I left off "Patterns", "A Poem on the Underground Wall", "For Emily"... heck, all the rest. If you haven't heard at least the songs I wrote about, I recommend them. Also, if you read this and you know the music, please reply! I'd love to hear from you. Even if you only read one line of my rambling and then gave up. Or alternatively if you didn't know the songs before but listened to them, or plan to, that would be great to hear! :) My next album to tackle is Bookends, their fourth album, which contains my current (and long-time) favourite song of theirs, "America". I have important things coming up in the non-musical world but with a bit of luck I'll find some time to write a bit about that. For now, I'm off! Grace.

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