Parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme

Some day this week, I said I was going to post about piano. Before I have to do school, well, I should be doing school, but let's do this first. It's more fun.

In my books for the past two lessons (counting today's as one), we have been working with the key of D Minor. Turns out, most folk songs are "written" in that key. Everyone knows about folk songs. They aren't really written down. Same way with folk stories and oral traditions. Yada, yada, yada...so, today we did one that my book just calls "Introduction and Dance," but in 1968 (I looked up the specific date) Mary Hopkins released "Those Were the Days." (Not the theme song from "All in the Family.") It's the exact same song, and she didn't have to pay copyright overlords because it's a folk song.

For last week, in the key of D minor, I was assigned to practice "Scarborough Fair." What immediately comes to your mind when you hear that song? After you think of the city in England (or hamsters [?]), don't you think of Simon & Garfunkle's version of "Scarborough Fair?" Personally, I'm not an Paul & Art fan, and it had been years since I had heard the song. Also, I'm not one to have this desire to learn to play popular songs from 1940 to about 1979. (Don't touch the 80's. That's my favorite decade.) Don't get me wrong. I'd love love love to learn how to play a lot of the songs off "Good Bye Yellow Brick Road," and maybe even a little Elvis Presley or Rolling Stones ("Dandelion")Thing is, I fell in love with playing that song! No joke, I sat down Monday morning at 9:30 AM and didn't get up from the piano til I heard my tummy rumble at 11:30 AM to go eat. The whole time I played that song. It's beautiful. There's something about it that makes me want to play it. Typically, I'm not one to get up in the morning either and immediately sit down at the piano. For the past two days before I left for service (after dad left. I couldn't possibly think of concentrating with him belting out the lyrics.), I was sitting down and playing that song. Monday afternoon, I got a little curious about what Simon & Garfunkel's version sounded like, since it had been years since I pulled "Parsley, Sage, Rosemary, and Thyme" out and put it on the good 'ol turn table. (Which I'm going to get fixed when we move in. The Best Buy out here repairs turn tables.) My favorite clip of the song is linked above, but I also found this website that explains the whole history behind the song. After all, doesn't every folk song have a past? That webbie has an explanation of the lyrics, the full song lyrics (it's actually a lot longer than Simon & Garfunkle's version), and why the herbs parsley, sage, rosemary, and thyme. The explanation is interesting to me about his lover's sudden disappearance and I learned what a "Scarborough warning" was. I would go into all of this if I though you would be interested, but really it's three small paragraphs on that webpage for those of you that feast on useless information like I do. What I would like to go into is the use of those particular four herbs. To some extent, I knew that herbs symbolized virtues, similar to the way flowers commonly do today (i.e.- roses and love). Each herb is explained on that website. Parsley is still used to soothe "bitterness" or trouble with digestion. Sage signifies strength. Rosemary signifies faithfulness and love, while thyme represents courage. All in all, This makes it clear what the disappointed lover means to say by mentioning these herbs. He wishes his true love mildness to soothe the bitterness which is between them, strength to stand firm in the time of their being apart from each other, faithfulness to stay with him during this period of loneliness and paradoxically courage to fulfill her impossible tasks and to come back to him by the time she can. (I took that straight from the webbie.) Still don't know why I love to play the song so much though. It's still intrigues me.

Otherwise, I've been traipsing all over the Internet today and I found this German (full) version of "99 Red Balloons." (Or "99 Luft Balloons" in this case.) I love it in the one of the verses where Captain Kirk is mentioned and it's surrounded by all this German. How come German pop music kicks butt and always has?