Sunday, July 26, 2020

"A Simple Desultory Philippic" Still Resonates


July 25, 2020


Back in 1966, Simon and Garfunkel recorded “A Simple Desultory Philippic (or How I was Robert McNamara’d into Submission)” on their Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme album. It was a joking song that referenced a lot of players on the public stage at the time.

But it’s weird how the people referenced keep popping up even today.

When I saw the 2017 movie “The Post” (about the Pentagon Papers), and Robert McNamara came on screen, the song started going through my head, and pretty much stayed there throughout the movie.

Now I’m watching “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel”, and there’s Lenny Bruce, large as life. And I attended an Andy Warhol retrospective last year.

When things were going sideways at work, a co-worker and I used to look at each other and chorus, “I’ve lost my harmonica, Albert.”

I still say that.



Yep, that little ditty really holds up.



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