When Paul Simon first came to Britain in the mid-1960s, he was still in the early stages of his music career as a songwriter and was in search of inspiration.
That’s when he bumped into Martin Carthy, one of England’s most respected folk musicians. When working together, the two created a traditional ballad called, “Scarborough Fair” that would soon hit and become famous around the world.
According to Carthy, he taught the song to Simon in 1964, years before iconic folk duo Simon & Garfunkel turned the song into their hit, “Scarborough Fair/Canticle.” However, what started as a friendly exchange of songs became one of the longest misunderstandings in folk history.
In a new interview with The Times, the story is laid out in full detail.
“When Paul Simon passed through Britain in 1964, Carthy taught him ‘Scarborough Fair’ as well. It led to bad blood between the two for years, with Carthy believing the New York songwriter had stolen his arrangement for the Simon & Garfunkel classic ‘Scarborough Fair’ / ‘Canticle.’”
For years, the British musician silently endured his own irritation of the feud, where he believed that Simon had lifted his version of the song. But as time went on and the more times the song played with closer attention to detail, things changed drastically.
“He actually wrote a song in tribute to ‘Scarborough Fair,’ he didn’t steal my arrangement, and if I had bothered to listen to his version for 30 seconds, I would have realized,” Carthy admitted. “Paul is an entirely honorable person.”
The story behind “Scarborough Fair” is the result of Simon learning the centuries-old ballad from Carthy while visiting London in 1965. Carthy first picked up the song years earlier from a folk songbook by Ewan MacColl and Peggy Seegar. Then, when Simon and Garfunkel reimagined the song as “Scarborough Fair/ Canticle” – which was paired with anti-war lyrics from Simon’s earlier song “The Side of the Hill” – it stuck as one of their beloved songs and was later featured in “The Graduate.”
Their version credited only themselves as writers, which initially upset Carthy. Fortunately, the two men ultimately reconciled when Simon invited him to perform the track with him in London back in 2000.
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