Lyrics for Scarborough Fair as interpreted by kevin

Scarborough Fair 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).
Parsley, sage, rosemary, and thyme (Tracing a sparrow on snow-crested ground).
Without no seams nor needlework (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).
Parsley, sage, rosemary, and thyme (Washes the ground with so many tears).
Between the salt water and the sea strand (A soldier cleans and polishes a gun).
Then she'll be a true love of mine. (Sleeps unaware of the clarion call).

Tell her to reap it in a sickle of leather (War bellows, blazing in scarlet battalions).
Parsley, sage, rosemary, and thyme (Generals order their soldiers to kill).
And to gather it all in a bunch of heather (And to fight for a cause they've long ago forgotten).
Then she'll be a true love of mine.

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.

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stardroplet
08-15-2002

Rated 0 
it's just so pretty....

a really good song for "the graduate", too

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puckthewonderdawg
08-23-2002

Rated 0 
This song reminds me of my mother. She always made fried chicken using parsley, sage rosemary and thyme. I always wondered why it tasted so good. It was as good as this song.

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butterfingersbeck
09-18-2002

Rated 0 
"Scarborough Fair" itself is an old English folk song. Paul Simon added the countermelody and the extra words.

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Lil Gin
03-05-2003

Rated 0 
I love this song...it's just relaxing. If you're having a bad day, you can put this on and just reflect. It's so soothing. I love it!

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jomavv
04-24-2003

Rated 0 
Isn't this supposed to be an anti-war song?

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bettysublime4
06-30-2003

Rated 0 
as far as I am aware, the first version of the song sang of a "Whittington Fair" and did not include the subtle yet stabbing harmony about impending war.

I had always assumed, given this information, that the song was anti-war, sort of reaching out to those who preach a love of tradition by making their statement an addition to an old popular folk song.

It should also be noted that Scarborough is a town in England notorious for it's quick dealings with criminals- being hung without trial.

For the meanings of the folk song itself, it seems to be about the loss of a true love; parsley sage rosemary and thyme are all herbs that were used to subdue bitterness in cooking- perhaps these were used to display the mournful lover's wish for a resolution of bitter feelings.

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1 Reply
weezerific:cutlery
10-08-2004

Rated 0 
my favorite simon and garfunkel song. i love the countermelody so much.

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errigan
10-11-2004

Rated +1 
Paul Simon was very against the war. Another great anti-war song written by him...."An American Tune". This song is great. Ha I was singing it with this vocal group, and afterwards this girl yells "WOW THAT WAS SUPER GHETTO FABULOUS" and I laughed my arse off.

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errigan
10-11-2004

Rated +1 
PROOF OF ANTI WAR

all lines such as "generals order their soldiers to kill" and "a soldier cleans and polishes a gun" are sung extremely minor.

Also this line, even without it's minor key, must serve as evidence. "And to fight for a cause they've long ago forgotten". HE is stating that the soldiers are fighting for a cause they've forgotten. THey are not fighting for the cause, they are fighting because they gotta.

Paul Simon=genius.

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Harriet_Potter
12-07-2004

Rated 0 
my mam used to sing this all the time to me when i was little

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feelingroovy311
12-11-2004

Rated 0 
I love this song it's so calming..I'm trying to get my choir director to do it with the Chamber choir

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frozen_in_fire
12-18-2004

Rated +1 
i love this song, it's really eerie, but in a great way...my fave S&G song behind The Sound Of Silence

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DARSFoG
01-18-2005

Rated 0 
Well you have to give the proper ppl creidt for stuff.
Simon wrote the words, for another song that never made the cut, but Art wrote the tune used for the Canticle. But man... mothers must know a good song to sing to their kids, becuase my mother would sing this to me and my sister when we went to bed too.

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MysteryGirl
02-07-2005

Rated 0 
My mom and dad would play this to me so many times.
I think the line "And to fight for a cause they've long ago forgotten" is interesting, because during the Vietnam war, many soldiers would wonder why they were there. :D I loooove this song.

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polkadot
02-27-2005

Rated +1 
an informative link on this song:
http://www.geocities.com/paris/villa/3895/

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Cosmonaut-21
05-11-2005

Rated 0 
The first verse is a homage to Dylan's
' Girl From The North Country ' ....

"Remember me to one who lives there, she once was a true love of mine."

They even place the line in the exact same place it first appears in Dylan's song. I'm not sure if the line impacts the song's meaning so much as it is merely placed there as a tribute to Bob.

Interestingly enough, for those who feel this song ties in with anti-war or protest messages from the era, ' Girl From The North Country ', appears right before Dylan's ' Masters of War ' on his album Freewheelin', which remains to this day one of the most powerful statements against Vietnam. Of course that may be reading a little too much into Simon's tribute.

Either way a clever little tip of the hat to Dylan, one of Simon's obvious influences.

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crimeofpassion
06-09-2005

Rated 0 
Actually, it's not a homage to Dylan. Those words aren't even originally Dylan's, exactly. The line is from Scarborough Fair, a rather old folk song. In fact, the only lyrics of this song (actually titled "Scarborough Fair/Canticle") that actually belong to them are the ones in parentheses, the "canticle" part. The rest is just the folk song.

As polkadot said, here is a very nice page with some insight to the meaning of the "Scarborough Fair" part of the song. http://www.geocities.com/paris/villa/3895/

This song wasn't a tribute; just another anti-war/war protest song. And a very pretty one, at that.

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summervolcomstars
07-06-2005

Rated 0 
the graduate owned. fave line.."she once was a true love of mine..."

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Boss Man
07-20-2005

Rated -1 
the original scarborough fair was a song about witchcraft. more specifically: a man asks someone to remember him to a former lover who is a witch. the herbs: parsley, sage rosemary and thyme were associated with witchcraft. the man asks the witch to do impossible tasks like make him a shirt without any seams or find him an acre of land between the salt water and the sea strand (quite difficult if you think about it.)
I don't know which war Paul Simon's referring to but it's a great song!

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Guerillabaabaa
08-30-2005

Rated 0 
That (^^) isn't the way I heard it, or read, as it happens, in the booklet for a superlative folk singer Martin Carthy album, with his version of scarborough fair on it. His interpretation is that the singer of the song is a devil (or the devil, I can't quite remember) who has been snubbed by a woman in scarborough fair. The impossible tasks he sets her are to try and ensnare her, like an impossible test. I think there is supposedly an intimation that she manages it too :/

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Tyler2004durden
10-02-2005

Rated 0 
One of my favourites. Everytime I hear it, I just wanna hear it over and over and over again. To me that is a good song.

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wennabee
02-01-2006

Rated 0 
I agree with Guerillabaabaa's point about the impossible tasks he sets as a test. I don't know about the devil part though. I always loved this song, but as I got older, it made me smile thinking of all of the tasks men can be asked to perform to win the heart of their true love. Now the tables have turned and it's the woman who has to do all of the running around looking for a leather sickle to reap the acre of land that, lets face it, she's never going to find since it has to be an acre, and also has to fit in a bunch of heather!! All that whilst making this guy a shirt without any seams or needlework. I wonder if she thought about using wondaweb!

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Linus
08-05-2006

Rated 0 
the first verse strikes me as a christianity reference. Jesus himself supposedly wore a shirt with no seams or needlework. Maybe the underlying meaning is that what she wants from the woman is actually her faith?

But then, the song seems to be about the impossibility of the tasks, so there.

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camelius
10-09-2006

Rated 0 
Disregarding the anti-war verses sung in between, this song is about a man who left his lover in Scarborough Fair. He finds out that someone is going there. Hence, he tries to describe his lover to him, and finds no better way than asking her to do for him impossible tasks that only his true love would try. After reading Boss Man's comment, I would go with what he says, that the girl is a witch, so the way to find her is by asking her to use magic to do impossible tasks. I would like to think that she is not a witch, and that the guy either idealizes her as a goddess, or believes that only his true love would do the impossible for him.

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tekenduis
12-16-2006

Rated 0 
The "Canticle" section of the song is taken from another song that Paul Simon wrote, and was released on his album "Songbook".

On The Side Of A Hill
On the side of a hill in a land called somewhere
A little boy lies asleep in the earth
While down in the valley a cruel war rages
And people forget what a child’s life is worth

On the side of a hill, a little cloud weeps
And waters the grave with its silent tears
While a soldier cleans and polishes a gun
That ended a life at the age of seven years

And the war rages on in a land called somewhere
And generals order their men to kill
And to fight for a cause they’ve long ago forgotten
While a little cloud weeps on the side of a hill

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