This is a series of posts about the music I play while writing.  This time it’s another Simon & Garfunkel song, Scarborough Fair/Canticle.  If you haven’t guessed by now, S&G are among my favorites in the music world.  Simon and Garfunkel first recorded this song in July 1966, releasing in on their album, Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme, in October of that year.  This was their third studio album and it ranked among the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time by Rolling Stone magazine in 2012.

The song is actually based on a traditional English song which has been traced as far back as 1670.  This is a ballad and like most traditional folk songs has a number of different lyrics and variations in melody.  The basic song is a man setting out a list of impossible tasks for his former lover to do in order to win his love back.  Clearly the man doesn’t want her back.

Here’s a traditional version of the song as sung by Joel Frederiksen:

Simon first learned of this song from the English singer Martin Carthy who had picked up the song from a songbook by MacColl and Seeger.  The traditional source of the song wasn’t credited on the album and many were upset about this.  Simon rewrote many of the words while Garfunkel composed new melody elements.

The interesting thing to note is that, Scarborough Fair/Canticle, is really two songs in one.  On the recording Garfunkel sings Scarborough Fair, while Simon alternates between signing with Garfunkel and singing a totally different song, Canticle, which is a reworking of an anti-war song, “The Side of a Hill,” that Simon recorded in 1963.  The melody and words meld so well together that it’s really hard to distinguish between the two sets of lyrics.

Let’s look at verse 4.  Garfunkel sings, “Tell her to reap it with a sickle of leather.”  Then underneath that Simon is singing, “War bellows, blazing in scarlet battalions.”  Garfunkel’s part of the song tells the former lover to harvest a crop using a leather sickle and to gather it all into a bunch of heather — an impossible task.  Simon’s song continues with, “Generals order their soldiers to kill / And to fight for a cause they’ve long ago forgotten.”  They then join together in, “Then she’ll be a true love of mine” and on to the refrain.  It took me years to hear this as Simon’s voice is second to and under the great vocals of Garfunkel.  Also Simon has a way to garble his words in a way that makes it hard for me to decide what he’s really singing at times.  I’m sure this is purposeful and I wonder how many people actually realize the weaving of two songs into one musical whole.

It’s an impressive feat of music and I never tire of listening to it.

This ends up on my writing play list because of its haunting melody, and it’s ability to weave two different stories into a coherent whole.  As a story teller, I find that just simply impressive and something I want to aspire to.  This song also has the power to calm my mind, push the stresses of the day aside and move me into a contemplative space — all the things I need to get writing.

Here is the original Simon & Garfunkel version: