I was listening to The Imagined Village perform ‘Parsley, Sage, Rosemary & Thyme’ when I really thought about the lyrics, possibly for the first time. Ever since Simon & Garfunkle covered it way back in the 60s it has been a staple ‘nice’ folk song, which little girls would sing merrily to buzzing guitar chords. But having thought previously ‘it’s one of those very old songs that don’t make sense, I have realised for the first time that it does make sense.
PSRT is a man’s lament for his lost love and how he knows she done him wrong and he will never have her back (not that I think she is offering since she lives all the way over in Scarborough) unless she manages several impossible tasks, in which case presumably the world has entirely changed. And if the world has changed then so has she and so perhaps might he. Modal logic - cool.
Also, quite a sensitive statement from a very old song. How many guys these days would admit in song how extremely hurt they were? Perhaps we are more insensitive now than then? I suppose since we live in a world of strangers that shouldn’t be surprising, but we’re always going on about how enlightened we are. I expect also in those days you’d be doing your courting in your teens so there would be an element of remembered teen angst in there as well. Since teen angst may be the worst kind of angst you could see how a guy might hold on to it. So: Bitch.
I happened on ye olde wikipedia after I wrote most of this and sure enough there was an article and apparently PSRT was sometimes sung as a duet (male and female), each demanding the impossible. Bit like real life.
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