Scarborough Fair/Canticle
Produced by Bob Johnston
Album Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme
Scarborough Fair/Canticle Lyrics
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
Tell her to make me a cambric shirt
On the side of a hill, in the deep forest green
Tracing of sparrow on snow-crested ground
Without no seams nor needle work
Blankets and bedclothes the child of the mountain
Then she'll be a true love of mine
Sleeps unaware of the clarion call
Tell her to find me an acre of land
On the side of a hill, a sprinkling of leaves
Washes the grave with silvery tears
Between the salt water and the sea strands
A soldier cleans and polishes a gun
Tell her to reap it with a sickle of leather
War bellows blazing in scarlet battalions
Generals order their soldiers to kill
And gather it all in a bunch of heather
And to fight for a cause they've long ago forgotten
About "Scarborough Fair/Canticle"
"Scarborough Fair" is a traditional English folk ballad, detailing a list of tasks the speaker gives to his former lover to earn back his love, which are impossible to achieve (probably intended as a way of saying they'll never get it back). Paul Simon became aware of the song during his time in England, thanks to singer Martin Carthy, who had covered it in his first album.
Simon and Garfunkel made an arrangement of their own for "Scarborough Fair" while interpolating in counterpoint an earlier song of Simon's, "The Side of a Hill". The lyrics had some changes and so the song was renamed "Canticle".
Originally released in Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme, for which it gives its title, the song reached the peak of its popularity when it was made a single in 1968, after being included in the soundtrack of The Graduate, reaching #11 in the Billboard Hot 100 chart and #9 in the UK Singles one.
Who wrote the canticle part?
Paul Simon. The song, titled "The Side of a Hill", is from his first album, The Paul Simon Songbook, though he made some small lyric changes for the "Canticle".
"Scarborough Fair/Canticle" Track Info
Written By Paul Simon & Traditional
Crazy F*** by Joe Hawley (Ft. Laurel Stucky & Vomitron)
The Side Of A Hill by Paul Simon
Cover Of
Scarborough Fair by Traditional
Scarborough Fair by Gregorian
Scarborough Fair/Canticle by Bobbie Gentry & Glen Campbell
Scarborough Fair by Dan Avidan & Super Guitar Bros
Scarborough Fair by Wes Montgomery
Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme Simon & Garfunkel
1. Scarborough Fair/Canticle
2. Patterns
3. Cloudy
4. Homeward Bound
5. The Big Bright Green Pleasure Machine
6. The 59th Street Bridge Song (Feelin' Groovy)
7. The Dangling Conversation
8. Flowers Never Bend with The Rainfall
9. A Simple Desultory Philippic (Or How I Was Robert McNamara'd into Submission)
10. For Emily, Whenever I May Find Her
11. A Poem on the Underground Wall
12. 7 O'Clock News/Silent Night
13. Patterns - Demo
14. A Poem On The Underground Wall - Demo