Lyr Req: Scarborough Fair / Canticle (Simon & Garf

Subject: Lyrics-'Canticle' from Sim&Gar's Scar. Fair
From: The Raven
Date: 27 Sep 98 - 02:59 PM

I'd appreciate the lyrics to the background part from Simon and Garfunkel's version of 'Scarborough Fair'. I believe it's called 'Canticle' or something similar. much thanks, >o<

Subject: Lyr Add: SCARBOROUGH FAIR/CANTICLE (Paul Simon)
From: Benjamin Bodhra/nai/
Date: 28 Sep 98 - 03:38 AM

Here 'tis: ( I've included the whole set of lyrics as I was a bit too lazy to edit them out, and it lets you know where bits go sort of):-)

I hope that tis all comes out with some sort of sense.

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.

On the side of a hill in the deep forest green.
Tracing of sparrow on snow-crested brown.
Blankets and bedclothes the child of the mountain
Sleeps unaware of the clarion call.

Tell her to make me a cambric shirt:
Parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme;
Without no seams nor needle work,
Then she'll be a true love of mine.

On the side of a hill a sprinkling of leaves.
Washes the grave with silvery tears.
A soldier cleans and polishes a gun.
Sleeps unaware of the clarion call.

Tell her to find me an acre of land:
Parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme;
Between the salt water and the sea strand,
Then she'll be a true love of mine.

War bellows blazing in scarlet battalions.
Generals order their soldiers to kill.
And to fight for a cause they've long ago forgotten.

Tell her to reap it with a sickle of leather:
Parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme;
And gather it all in a bunch of heather,
Then she'll be a true love of mine.

Subject: RE: Lyrics-'Canticle' from Sim&Gar's Scar. Fair
From: The Raven
Date: 28 Sep 98 - 07:40 PM

Dear Benjamin Bhodhra/nai/, Thanks so much, and yes, it does make sense. >o<

Subject: RE: Lyrics-'Canticle' from Sim&Gar's Scar. Fair
From: alison
Date: 29 Sep 98 - 09:34 AM

Hi,

I hear it slightly differently, so here's what I think the canticle is....

On the side of a hill in a deep forest green.
Tracing of starlight on snow-crested ground.
Blankets and bedclothes, the child of the mountain
Sleeps unaware of the clarion call.

..... his pillow a sprinkling of leaves.
Washes the bower with silent tears.
A soldier stands and polishes a gun.

War fellows blazing in scarlet battalions.
Generals order their soldiers to kill.
And to fight for a cause they've long ago forgotten.

Slainte

alison

PS You're not Raven from Nelson Bay.... are you???

Subject: RE: Lyrics-'Canticle' from Sim&Gar's Scar. Fair
From: Benjamin Bodhra/nai/
Date: 30 Sep 98 - 03:46 AM

Alison,

Yes I'm not sure about the second, "Sleeps unaware...." bit. I originally got the words from oone of their songbooks, wrote it down then filed that in my house somewhere. The version I got here is from the LEO music archive. I'm pretty sure that sparrow was part of the original canticle, and the second verse I put up also prods what is left if my memory as the words I saw in the songbook, but this is all open to question as I don't remember so good these days. I am trying to get myself organised and have all of the lyrics I know put on computer but it's a slow process. That's one good thing about Mudcat, it makes my type them out.

Anyway I will go and try to get the words as per S&G Songbook, to qualify or retract what I have just said. And of course there is nothing to say that like many artists they didn't change words in various recordings of songs. I know I do.

I shall return in my pedantry, BB

Subject: Lyr Add: SCARBOROUGH FAIR/CANTICLE (Paul Simon)
From: Alan of Australia
Date: 30 Sep 98 - 05:40 AM

G'day,
Here are the words as published in "Simon and Garfunkel's Greatest Hits"

On the side of a hill in the deep forest green
Tracing of sparrow on snow-crested brown
Blankets and bedclothes the child of the mountain
Sleeps unaware of the clarion call

On the side of a hill a sprinkling of leaves
Washes the grave with silvery tears
A soldier cleans and polishes a gun

War bellows blazing in scarlet battalions
Generals order their soldiers to kill
And to fight for a cause they've long ago forgotten

This is really the same as Benjamin's words. Listening carefully (very carefully) to the CD it does sound like this. On Alison's old tape it sounds different.

Cheers,
Alan

Subject: RE: Lyrics-'Canticle' from Sim&Gar's Scar. Fair
From: alison
Date: 30 Sep 98 - 07:13 AM

Hi,

Yes it does sound different on my tape, more or less exactly what I wrote above..... must be different versions.

Slainte

alison

Subject: RE: Lyrics-'Canticle' from Sim&Gar's Scar. Fair
From: Joe offer
Date: 03 Oct 98 - 04:29 PM

I understand that Paul Simon got the arrangement for Scarborough Fair from Martin Carthy - it does sound exactly like Carthy's recording of the song. Does Simon give Carthy credit in the songbook? there's no mention of Carthy on the CD - the song is attributed to Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel.
What about "Canticle"? Is it a Paul Simon original, or a reworking of an older song?
-Joe Offer-

Subject: RE: Lyrics-'Canticle' from Sim&Gar's Scar. Fair
From: The Raven
Date: 10 Oct 98 - 11:55 AM

alison, Thank-you for your help. No, I'm not Raven from Nelson Bay, sorry (I think). >o<

Subject: RE: Lyrics-'Canticle' from Sim&Gar's Scar. Fair
From: The Raven
Date: 10 Oct 98 - 11:58 AM

Alan of Australia, I so appreciate everyone's help. Thanks again. >o<

Subject: RE: Lyrics-'Canticle' from Sim&Gar's Scar. Fair
From: Alan of Australia
Date: 10 Oct 98 - 09:10 PM

G'day,
Paul Simon didn't give any credit for Scarborough Fair, in fact he left many people with the impression that he wrote it himself. I don't know how much of the tune was written by Carthy or whether he just arranged a trad version. I've heard that Carthy sued Paul Simon, not to take any credit for himself, just to prove it wasn't Simon's tune but was a trad tune.

Of course SF is a fairly recent version of the Child ballad "The Elfin Knight" which must be one of the oldest known songs in the English language.

Cheers,
Alan

Subject: RE: Lyrics-'Canticle' from Sim&Gar's Scar. Fair
From: Joe Offer
Date: 11 Oct 98 - 03:06 AM

Got that part, Alan - What about the "Canticle" part of the song, though? It certainly sounds like it could also be a traditional song.
-Joe Offer-

Subject: RE: Lyrics-'Canticle' from Sim&Gar's Scar. Fair
From: Alan of Australia
Date: 11 Oct 98 - 06:19 AM

Don't know - I always thought Simon wrote the "Canticle" part, I've never heard to the contrary.

Cheers,
Alan

Subject: RE: Lyrics-'Canticle' from Sim&Gar's Scar. Fair
From: Graeme
Date: 11 Oct 98 - 06:35 AM

"Canticle" certaily sounds very Simonesque....... Actually I've seen a version that uses the phrase

"Sleeps at the whim of a Clarion call"

I rather like that.

Graeme

Subject: RE: Lyrics-'Canticle' from Sim&Gar's Scar. Fair
From: Wolfgang Hell
Date: 11 Oct 98 - 08:42 AM

I found this bit:
The sleeve notes are relatively skimpy; absolutely no musician credits are provided, not even Garfunkel's occasional lead vocals, which is outrageous and inexcusable. While the ultra rare B-side "You Don't Know Where Your Interest Is" (1967) is present, they fail to note that it backed the equally rare, alternate "Fakin' It" (not present). No reference is made of the legendary outtake "Cuba Si, Nixon No" from their final album, Bridge Over Troubled Waters (1970). While much is made of Paul Simon's sojourns in England in the early days, once again no credit is given to Martin Carthy, whose "Scarborough Fair" arrangement from 1965 was lifted, lock stock and barrel, as the title track for the duo's third album Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme (1966).

What is here succeeds in chronicling Simon's journey from earnest early 1960s Greenwich Village literary wannabe (and Brill Building apprentice) to one of pop's most assured and sophisticated tunesmiths, lyricists and arrangers. Clearly, by the end of Simon's second stay in London in 1965, he had learned to keep an eye on the Beatles for studio tricks, which he continued to do over the following years. The end of "Fakin' It" is almost a direct lift from "Strawberry Fields," and one can argue that in many ways the Bookends and Bridge Over Troubled Water albums were, respectively, replies to Sgt. Pepper and Abbey Road, with the sublime and at times surreal "America" echoing "A Day In The Life" more than just lyrically."

Go to http://web.cln.com/archives/atlanta/newsstand/021498/v_rec4.htm if you feel like reading more.

Wolfgang

Subject: RE: Lyrics-'Canticle' from Sim&Gar's Scar. Fair
From: Wolfgang
Date: 11 Oct 98 - 08:45 AM

another gem:

"Scarborough Fair

Based on a very old English folk song, originally set at Whittington Fair. Paul learned the tune from Martin Carthy, an English folk singer, in 1965. Carthy was unhappy with Paul not saying 'Trad. arr P.Simon' but instead receiving full royalties.

Paul - "That's a gorgeous song. I learned that from Martin Carthy. "Scarborough Fair" is like three hundred years old. Martin Carthy had a beautiful arrangement of it, and my arrangement was like my memory of his arrangement..." © Paul Zollo 1991

Art - "This is a song that comes from the period of time about four years ago when we were doing just about all our singing in folk clubs in England throughout the countryside. It's a song that we learned from a friend of ours, an old English folk ballad called 'Scarborough Fair'."

Paul - "I think that song worked beautifully in the film. [The Graduate]" - on the Dick Cavett Show"

Subject: Lyr Add: SCARBOROUGH FAIR
From: E.A.Laycock
Date: 13 Oct 98 - 10:03 AM

I found this lurking about in my archive - it contains the bits used by Simon and Garfunkel as well as the woman's reprise. I believe this is the traditional version.

Are you going to Scarborough Fair?
Parsley, sage, rosemary & thyme
Remember me to one who lives there
She once was a true love of mine

Tell her to make me a cambric shirt
Without no seams nor needlework

Tell her to wash it in yonder dry well
Where ne'er sprung nor drop of rain fell

Tell her to dry it on yonder thorn
Which never bore blossom since Adam was born

Now he has asked me questions three
I hope he will answer as many for me

Oh, will you find me an acre of land
Between the sea foam and the sea sand

Oh, will you plow it with a lamb's horn
And sew it all over with one peppercorn

Oh, will you reap it in a sickle of leather
And tie it all up with a peacock's feather

And when you've done and finished your work
Come to me for your cambric shirt

HTML line breaks added. --JoeClone, 24-Aug-02.

Subject: RE: Lyrics-'Canticle' from Sim&Gar's Scar. Fair
From: GUEST,from the sheet music
Date: 13 May 01 - 02:11 PM

hi... i've got an old simon and garfunkel sheet music book(1968) "greatest hits"

tell her to make me a cambric shirt without no seems nor needle work

tell her to find me an acre of land between the salt water and the sea strand

tell her to reap it with a sickle of leather and gather it all in a bunch of heather

Subject: Lyr Add: GIRL OF THE NORTH COUNTRY (Bob Dylan)
From: GUEST,gilyan
Date: 18 Feb 04 - 09:57 PM

Bob Dylan did his own version reminiscent of the traditional song as well, but it is not as close as the others:

GIRL OF THE NORTH COUNTRY

Well, if you're travelin' in the north country fair,
Where the winds hit heavy on the borderline,
Remember me to one who lives there.
She once was a true love of mine.

Well, if you go when the snowflakes storm,
When the rivers freeze and summer ends,
Please see if she's wearing a coat so warm,
To keep her from the howlin' winds.

Please see for me if her hair hangs long,
If it rolls and flows all down her breast.
Please see for me if her hair hangs long,
That's the way I remember her best.

I'm a-wonderin' if she remembers me at all.
Many times I've often prayed
In the darkness of my night,
In the brightness of my day.

So if you're travelin' in the north country fair,
Where the winds hit heavy on the borderline,
Remember me to one who lives there.
She once was a true love of mine.

All that's really the same is the "remember me to one who lives there / she once was a true love of mine" bit.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Scarborough Fair / Canticle (Simon & Garf
From: GUEST
Date: 27 Sep 11 - 07:23 AM

I have read, but can't remember where, that this is actually a very old song and wasn't about Scarborough initially at all.   Does anyone else know more please?   Thanks!

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Scarborough Fair / Canticle (Simon & Garf
From: Mo the caller
Date: 27 Sep 11 - 09:52 AM

Years ago, but not far up the thread is an answer to that q
"From: Wolfgang - PM
Date: 11 Oct 98 - 08:45 AM

another gem:
"Scarborough Fair

Based on a very old English folk song, originally set at Whittington Fair."

The tune is similar but minor or maybe modal - haunting.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Scarborough Fair / Canticle (Simon & Garf
From: GUEST,999
Date: 27 Sep 11 - 10:12 AM

Guest, you might wish also to read about the song(s at the link below.

http://pkrishnan.wordpress.com/2006/09/17/about-the-song-scarborough-fair/

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Scarborough Fair / Canticle (Simon & Garf
From: Kit Griffiths
Date: 27 Sep 11 - 10:30 AM

Re the "Canticle" part -this uses a couple or three lines from "The Side Of A Hill" from the "Paul Simon Songbook" solo album. I always assumed that he cannibalised the latter for the former -I seem to recall hearing that he didn't like "The Side Of A Hill", and as far as I know, he never re-recorded it.