I have always liked this song - who doesn't, really? But, like many of us, my introduction to it, and most of my knowledge of it, comes from the very abbreviated Simon and Garfunkel version. So I looked up the full traditional lyrics. I read a bit more into them than is actually present - what I saw is a sad and honest take on the obstacles to repairing a "once true love" that has come apart. The main character sets a series of tasks for his once true love, that are unattainable in a delightfully Zen way, in order that she may become once more his true love. To me, this is very, very real. She doesn't seem to set any for him, though, inviting him to come for her hand when his work is finished. I can readily imagine another half-dozen verses outlining a few impossible chores for him, too. But, the lyrics require explanation to the modern listener. No one knows what any of this stuff is any more. So I thought of condensing it a bit, and addressing the "challenges" in a different way. I kept it one-sided after I realized that a duet would be about a hundred times harder to get done. Because there is only one of me. Also, since my adaptation seems to run close to four minutes, but is half as long, I have saved the listener enough time to enjoy another song. Or play this twice. Either way is ok by me. I recorded the first raw-ass demo as soon as I could scan back and forth between the lyrics and my chord reminder chart successfully. I flirted with burnout - I had played it twice, then realized I wasn't stumbling over the guitar playing, so I set up the S6 with my cheap-ass dynamic mic and ran through it five times in Bm. I kept messing up in places - several times I was not able to retain my composure through the last, mellowed-out verse. Then I did it one last time in Cm (no one knows why I chose that key), with the guitar played in a much more rapid, rather than choppy, style. That is the one I chose to make public. I would have tried it two or three more times, but by then, just about everything except my spirit was breaking. The phone was doing weird things that made me nervous, my neck hurt (it got better), I was overloading the mic input on the phone causing nasty compression and distortion, my voice was getting pretty ragged (not that it was that great to start with), and, I don't know, two or three other things. In fact, I was so on fire that while I usually go immediately to do any post-production editing and upload these things immediately, that night I needed to get out and be around people, just to, well, just to do what I needed to do. So I did, and got exactly what I needed. Over the following week and a half, I kept working at it. I pretty much got the chord progressions down, and got very used to my little sus 6 and 4 effects on the G in the third line of each verse. I worked my ass off struggling to get the pars-ley-sage notes closer to "right". I went back to Bm. I played it a lot, and uploaded a couple more demos - but the best one so far, of May 12, stumbled badly in the intro - the first verse was a bit wavery, and I didn't get the frantic guitar rhythm right until the third verse - but I felt I had crossed the 50% mark. I also felt like, for the first time, I had taken ownership of this song. On May 14 I managed to record it with those issues largely resolved. I wish I had sung it "harder" during the middle five verses, but it's even less embarrassing, perhaps getting past the 60% threshold. There is a good chance it is listenable now. May 18 I attacked it again, with the result of a demo where the intro isn't the best, but the middle five verses are about who I want to do them. I do occasionally miss the low G in those verses, though, and that is important as the root note of the chords is almost all that provides a harmonic foundation for the lyrics. Also, the "putting on the brakes" part after them is just right. May 19 I made a version early in the day, which though lacking that "fire", is much stronger in the intro. I've also been working hard on the F#-A-B ("parsley, sage") part of the melody. All these things have to be practiced until they become perfectly natural to "get right". Hundreds of them. Here are the traditional lyrics, as I found them. The parts I kept are in bold.
Are you going to Scarborough Fair?
Have her make me a cambric shirt
Tell her to weave it in a sycamore wood lane
Have her wash it in yonder dry well
Tell her to dry it on yonder thorn
Tell her to to find me an acre of land
Plow the land with the horn of a lamb
Have her reap it with a sickle of leather
Ask her to do me this courtesy
If she tells me she can't then I'll reply
Love imposes impossible tasks
Have you been to Scarborough Fair?
When he has done and finished his work
When thou has finished thy task
© Huw Powell
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