| Simon & Garfunkel – Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme (1966) |
I think Sean wishes the CAT would just go away, so I’m posting this in direct defiance of the King of Da Morgue, plus I gotta have something to post about. So anyways, Simon and Garfunkel were more or less the preeminent folk-pop duo of the sixties, and Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme surely shows them at the height of their powers while giving us a potent snapshot of mid-sixties America.
Coming after the slightly rushed Songs of Silence, this sophomore release saw the duo for the first time really exploring the depths of their sound while Paul Simon conjured up some of his finest tunes. You’ve got some of Simon and Garfunkel’s darker and more etherial songs such (“Patterns”, “Scarborough Fair”), while you’ve got some of their most cheerfully upbeat songs as well (“59th Street Bridge Song”, “Cloudy”). Of course all of these great tunes are tied together by Simon and Garfunkel’s brilliant harmonies, and Art Garfunkel even gets to shine in his solo performance on “For Emily, Whenever I May Find Her”.
It’s hard for me to say whether this or Bridge Over Troubled Water is my favorite S&G album, but I feel like leaning more towards this one partly because it’s got my personal favorite song of theirs (“Homeward Bound”). And apart from the overtly Dylan-y “A Simple Desultory Phillipic”, there really isn’t anything resembling a weak track in the album’s short but sweet 29 minute running time.
Favorite Tracks: “Homeward Bound”, “The 59th Street Bridge Song (Feelin’ Groovy)”, “A Poem On The Underground Wall”