Scarborough Faire / Canticle

Scarborough is a small and bustling seaside town on the North Sea coast of North Yorkshire, England. In 1353, King Henry III gave the town a list of privileges, one of which allowed a yearly fair to be held from the Feast of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary to the Feast of St. Michael.  This corresponded roughly to the Roman calendar dates of August 15 to September 29. This decree gave birth to an annual six-week trading festival that became known as the "Scarborough Faire."

Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme was the name of the third studio album by Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel and the album was released on October 24, 1966 and only released as a single after it had been featured on the soundtrack to the film, “The Graduate” in 1968.

The lyrics of the song "Scarborough Fair" appear to have something in common with a Scottish ballad titled "The Elfin Knight", which has been traced as far back as 1670.  In this ballad, an elf threatens to abduct a young woman to be his lover unless she can perform an impossible task; she responds with a list of tasks that he must first perform. Dozens of versions existed by the end of the 18th century.

The references to the traditional English fair and the refrain, “Parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme", date to 19th-century versions, with the refrain possibly being  borrowed from the ballad, Riddles Wisely Expounded, which has a similar plot.

The lyrics are about a man trying to attain his true love. In Medieval times, the herbs mentioned in the song represented virtues that were important to the lyrics. Parsley was comfort, sage was strength, rosemary was love, and thyme was courage.

Paul Simon first learned about this song in 1965 when he was on tour in England, where he heard a version by a popular folk singer named Martin Carthy.

While his partner, Art Garfunkel was not a songwriter, he did write the poem "Canticle" as a re-write of Simon's anti-war song, "Side of A Hill" from Simons’ debut album.  He worked as the vocal arranger for the duo, working out by whom the songs would be sung and how each song was produced. 

The two songs are sung simultaneously. The first and last verses are "Scarborough Fair," but lines from "Canticle" alternate after the first line of the other verses.  The duo used vocal overdubs and instrumentation to weave together a traditional English folk song and an anti-war protest song.

The result is considered a musical masterpiece. 

Various Sources