Artist: Simon & Garfunkel
Album: Parsley, Sage, Rosemary, and Thyme
Year: 1966
Here's to you, Paul Simon & Art Garfunkel. On Parsley, Sage, Rosemary, and Thyme, this folk-rock duo provide a surprisingly varied, literate, and ultimately beautiful set of songs.
"Scarborough Fair/Canticle" starts the proceedings with a harpsichord-laden English folk song. It's such a haunting, stark song and its layered, echoing vocals lend an otherworldly feel. It's just a fantastic tune. It would become the unofficial theme song of The Graduate the following year, where it gained an added poignancy as a sort of anthem of young adult disillusionment.
But it's not even close to being the best song in this set. There are tons of contenders for that title. I'm going to throw "Flowers Never Bend with the Rainfall"--a gorgeous ode to the idea that imagination is what makes life worth living--out there as my personal favorite today, but on another day, it may be the rolling "Homeward Bound" or the gentle "A Poem on the Underground Wall."
This is a perfect album. It would be easy to dismiss this album as being too precious, too cutesy, but the pensive lyrics always push the proceedings forward. If The Rolling Stones represented the big, dumb side of rock and roll, Simon & Garfunkel were the polar opposite--warm, inviting, and literate. I know which side I'm on...
Rating: Indispensable
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