I think Garfunkel follows the Joan Baez version here. I don't think of that as authentic, largely because I learned another version before hearing this one, and we usually think those the "real" one. I also don't like that he has neither the verse about the father nor the mother, which I consider important. Length, likely, as this is already over five minutes. It was very much the fashion to strive for simple, unadorned interpretations of folk songs, but Garfunkel goes full on in the other direction here - orchestral, modulating up, descant at the end, which I would have predicted I would disdain at the time. Yet I loved it.
I love it more now, and when I sing the song myself it is more influenced by this version than any other.
5 comments:
Porky Pig did it best.
"I love it more now, and when I sing the song myself it is more influenced by this version than any other." Just like after Bob Dylan heard Jimi Hendrix's version of All Along the Watchtower. Dylan decided that was a superior arrangement and started using it in concerts (minus the Wha-wha pedals and all of course).
I am totally taken with Traffic's version of John Barleycorn as the "authentic" version even though I realize that there are numerous more traditional versions that pre-date it.
Similarly, Trent Raznor of Nine Inch Nails heard Johnny Cash's version of "Hurt," and said "It's not my song anymore." Neil Diamond was the original composer of "Red, Red, Wine," which was not rock or reggae at all. He now does UB40's version in concert.
This song has been haunting me for days now.
Heh. Well it's been haunting the English-speaking world for a few centuries, I guess that just fits in.
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