The Simon & Garfunkel Lyric that Had Some Fun at the Expense of Bob Dylan

In the book Homeward Bound: The Life of Paul Simon by Peter James Carlin, Paul Simon explained the respective tones of their voices are what separated him most from Bob Dylan: “He’s telling you the truth and making fun of you at the same time. I sound sincere every time.”

That said, Simon once did a pretty good job of aping Dylan on the song “A Simple Desultory Philippic (or How I Was Robert McNamara’d into Submission).” Recorded first when he was briefly a solo act in the ’60s and then again with Art Garfunkel, the song manages to be loving homage and biting parody of a typical Dylan diatribe in song.

Get Out Your Dictionaries

Simon & Garfunkel took a somewhat wayward path to massive success in the ’60s. Had an enterprising producer not taken the initiative to put electric instruments on the already-recorded song “The Sound of Silence,” it’s likely the pair would never have recorded again. After their 1964 debut album failed, Simon released a 1965 solo album full of songs written while visiting England.

One of the songs found on that album (The Paul Simon Songbook) was “A Simple Desultory Philippic.” Simon has claimed the song’s original intent wasn’t to poke fun. Instead, he was fascinated by the idea of cramming some words that you might find in the SAT vocabulary section into a folk/pop song. But once off and running, he started to add in the overt Dylan references.

Once “The Sound of Silence” phenomenon took hold, Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel hastily reunited. The Sounds of Silence album in 1966 contained several songs that were first done on the Paul Simon Songbook. When they recorded their follow-up the same year, entitled Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme, the duo decided to rerecord “A Simple Desultory Philippic.”

While it was once again performed solo by Simon, the new recording was juiced up with fuzz bass and organ to make it sound suspiciously like Dylan circa ’65 and ’66. Simon also changed the lyrics by updating some of the references.

Diving into the References in “A Simple Desultory Philippic”

The song takes the format of a series of injustices and trials that are heaped upon the narrator, with the distinguishing characteristic being proper names are turned into weaponized verbs. For example, the first line: I been Norman Mailered, Maxwell Taylored.

Many of the mentions refer to conservative political figures of the day. But this character also suffers from pop star overload: I been Rolling Stoned and Beatled ’til I’m blind. Simon keeps the humor front and center, as with the innuendo at the end of the first verse: I been Ayn Randed, nearly branded / Communist, ’cause I’m left-handed / That’s the hand I use, well, never mind.

Coincidentally, he sings the praises of a famous comedian (I learned the truth from Lenny Bruce) that Dylan would later celebrate in song. In the middle section, Simon has some fun with the notion that Dylan the singer is now considered more poetic from the classic poet from whom he borrowed his last name: He’s so unhip that when you say Dylan / He thinks you’re talking about Dylan Thomas / Whoever he was.

Simon continues his roll call in the final verse, once again naming his musical partner, while adding the name of his future producer: Been Roy Haleed and Art Garfunkeled. In the final moments, his utterance of Folk rock seems designed to call into question the very style of music that launched him to fame. He then does his very best Dylan drawl on the final line: I lost my harmonica, Albert. (Dylan’s manager at the time was Albert Grossman.)

It’s funny how context can alter a song. To those who heard the song on Simon’s solo album, when he was still a complete unknown, to quote Dylan, it might have sounded like the sour grapes of a wannabe. But once Paul Simon had become huge with Simon & Garfunkel, it takes on the tone of one superstar joshing another. In any case, “A Simple Desultory Philippic,” to borrow one more time from the man it sends up, is really where it’s at.

When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.

Photo by Jon Lyons/Shutterstock