The 500 - #202 - Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme - Simon and Garfunkel

I was inspired by a podcast called The 500 hosted by Los Angeles-based comedian Josh Adam Meyers. His goal, and mine, is to explore Rolling Stone Magazine's 2012 edition of The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. 

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Album: #202
Album Title: Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme
Artist: Simon And Garfunkel

Genre: Folk Rock
Recorded: Columbia Studios, New York, U.S.A.

Released: October, 1966
My age at release: 1
How familiar was I with it before this week: Somewhat

Is it on the 2020 list? No
Song I am putting on my Spotify Playlist: A Simple Desultory Philippic

There is a quote, often ascribed to Vladimir Lenin, which says: "There are decades where nothing happens; and there are weeks where decades happen." During our summer of 2024, this seems powerfully applicable. We live in a time charged with international tension, wars, assassination attempts, consequential worldwide election campaigns, a humanitarian crisis, racial and cultural hostility, and environmental disasters.

1966 had its own upheavals. It, too, was time of global strife, with events that, in some ways, are eerily similar to the summer of 2024.

• Political protests against U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War were raging on college campuses.
• The Mississippi Marches sought an end to segregation and advancements in civil rights, while the Watts Rebellions protested racist police actions in Los Angeles.
• Military coup d états rocked Indonesia, Syria, Burundi, Nigeria, the Central African Republic and Ghana.
• Cold War Russian/U.S. tensions moved into the heavens. The Soviets blasted two Kosmos spacecraft into orbit, while the U.S. launched the Gemini program. The race for space supremacy was on in earnest.

Astronaut Buzz Aldrin takes the first "selfie" from space (1966)

• A U.S. submarine lost (and then found) a hydrogen bomb on the ocean floor.
• Mao Zedong introduced China's Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution to his people and abortion and gun-rights took centre stage in the election of Ronald Regan as Governor of California. (Spoiler: the Republican former actor wasn’t on the side you might think...for either issue.)
• Natural disasters, including earthquakes, tornadoes, record cold spells and snowstorms claimed thousands of lives.
• However, it was an avoidable, man-made tragedy that made headlines in Aberfan, Wales. On October 21, 116 children and 28 adults died when a coal waste heap slid and engulfed a primary school.

Aftermath of the coal waste slide in Aberfan in southern Wales.

Throughout this tumultuous period, arts and entertainment thrived -- perhaps fueled by chaos, acrimony and uncertainty of the times. Twelve records on The 500, including three in the Top 10, were released in 1966. An additional 19 records on the list were recorded that year and released in 1967, among them, The Beatles' Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, which landed at #1.

Then, there was album #202, Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme, the third studio release from folk rock musicians Simon and Garfunkel. It was the second of three records by the New York duo to appear on the list, although Simon has an additional two as a solo artist. I shared a little about their history, as well as a story about my late "aunt" Jean in a December, 2023, post centered on their fourth record, Bookends.

Album cover for Bookends (1968).

Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme includes several songs that were "recycled" from Simon's debut solo record, The Paul Simon Songbook, written during his time in England. PSR&T is considered a breakthrough record for the pair and many critics identify it one of their best. It peaked at #4 on the Billboard charts but eventually sold more than three million in the United States, which gave it triple platinum status.

Album cover for The Paul Simon Songbook (1965).

I was familiar with several songs from the record; however, prior to this week, I had never listened to it in its entirety. The song that struck me has a title that is a mouthful: A Simple Desultory Philippic (or How I Was Robert McNamara'd into Submission). Originally recorded on the aforementioned Simon Songbook, the tune was penned as a playful parody of American musician Bob Dylan's 1965 protest song Subterranean Homesick Blues.

Single for A Simple Desultory Philippic.

In an interview with Rolling Stone Magazine, Simon admits he was exploring Dylan's style, saying:

"One of my deficiencies is (that) my voice sounds sincere. I've tried to sound ironic. I don't. I can't. With Dylan, everything he sings has two meanings. He's telling you the truth and making fun at the same time."

With a playing length of fewer than two and a half minutes, this lyrically dense parody packs a lot of references into its three verses and six line bridge. Simon name-checks numerous contemporary politicians and artists, including Norman Mailer, The Beatles, Mick Jagger, Ayn Rand, Andy Warhol, Lou Adler, Lenny Bruce, and even his singing partner, Art Garfunkel.

Simon (rear) and Garfunkel in New York (1966).

When asked about the title in an interview, Simon offered the following:

"I was having fun. I thought it would be funny to use those unusual words 'desultory' and 'philippic,' in a song title, and I also wanted to sneak in some Lenny Bruce, who was my favorite comedian. That line, 'How I Was Robert McNamara'd Into Submission,' is pure Lenny."

To be desultory is to be laid back or indifferent, while a philippic is a bitter, verbal attack. It's derived from a speech Greek Statesman Demosthenes delivered in opposition to the military ambitions of Philip II, King of Macedon, in 351 B.C. Heady stuff to be sure, but all presented with tongue firmly planted in cheek.

Simon's clever and reference-dense lyrical satire got the educator in me thinking. I have, in the past, invited students to rewrite or parody lyrics to songs that lend themselves to that challenge -- swapping out more contemporary or personal events for a stanza in Billy Joel's We Didn't Start The Fire, for example.

Billy Joel's 1989 song, We Didn't Start The Fire, is a fast paced list
of 119 significant cultural events from 1949 (his birth year) to 1989.

Just last year, several clever groups of Grade 7 students rewrote and performed two stanzas from The Breaks, from Kurtis Blow. The 1979 hip-hop hit, the first of the "rap" genre, features four line stanzas that follow a predictable AABB rhyming scheme. In each, Blow comically describes unfortunate situations that people encounter in life and have to deal with because, "That's the breaks."

Album cover for the single, The Breaks, Kurtis Blow (1979)

The activity, which can be viewed in its entirety here, offered students the chance to rewrite the track by humourously infusing contemporary problems. I even created a Karaoke-style track that the most courageous could use to perform their rap, while classmates supported them with the "That's the Breaks / That's the Breaks" call and response.

\My example (which I absolutely rapped for the wide-eyed class) is below.

So, after hearing Simon's lyrics for A Simple Desultory Philippic, I wondered if I could update it and infuse personal political and pop culture perspectives. 

The challenge I gave myself was to try to match Simon's overall construction and rhyme scheme, while swapping out his '60s references with my own ('80s-Present). I tried to stick to his meter, but that proved too challenging. If you are interested in seeing the original lyrics and then reading my parody of Simon's parody of a Dylan song, check it out here. I am not sure if this has "middle school lesson potential" yet -- but, we'll see.

This post and that small creative exercise were a pleasant respite from the chaos of the summer of 2024 which, sadly, beckons my return to reality. That's the breaks!  Thanks for reading.