Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme

One day in college circa mid-90’s, i turned on the radio and this evocative song by a strangely lilting (yet familiar) voice sang the words:

Are you goin’ to scarborough fair? parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme
Remember me to one who lives there, she once was a true love of mine

i was really into this heavy metal and progressive rock thing back then (still am) and was surprised to hear that it was by Queensryche and the DJ mentioned that it was a cover of an old Simon & Garfunkel song (me and my pal Ray became fans of the band Queensryche after that, we even named our assignment groups after the band).

At home i dugged up my brother’s CD collection, i knew he was a fan and had some Simon & Garfunkel albums kept under the bed. After listening to the original acoustic version, i liked it even more than Queensryche’s metal interpretation, but they both have their own charm.

This was years ago, and last week, i was searching about something else about thyme seasoning for cooking fish and found a wikipedia entry on the song. Apparently, , i found out that neither Paul Simon or Art Garfunkel wrote it, it was 400 year old traditional ballad about an actual English fair! All this, after listening to it for years!

I also learnt the actual meaning of the original verse, it actually is about young man, who

“tells the listener to ask his former lover to perform for him a series of impossible tasks, such as making him a shirt without a seam and then washing it in a dry well, adding that if she completes these tasks he will take her back. Often the song is sung as a duet, with the woman then giving her lover a series of equally impossible tasks, promising to give him his seamless shirt once he has finished.”

(source)

Wow, talk about deeping meaning, man. This is the short version of the song, taken from the Simon & Garfunkel version… Still have no idea about the “parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme” bit, though.

Are you goin’ to scarborough fair? parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme
Remember me to one who lives there, she once was a true love of mine

Are you goin’ to scarborough fair? parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme
Remember me to one who lives there, she once was a true love of mine