When Paul Simon first arrived in Britain in the mid-1960s, he was still an emerging American songwriter searching for inspiration. What he found was Martin Carthy, one of England’s most respected folk musicians — and a traditional ballad called “Scarborough Fair” that would soon become famous around the world.
Carthy says he taught the song to Simon in 1964, years before iconic folk duo Simon & Garfunkel turned it into their haunting hit “Scarborough Fair/Canticle.” But what started as a friendly exchange of songs became one of the longest misunderstandings in folk history.
A new interview with The Times tells the story, “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.’”
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For decades, the British musician quietly carried that frustration, convinced that Simon had lifted his version of the song. But time — and a closer listen — changed everything.
“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 realised,” Carthy admitted. “Paul is an entirely honourable person.”
“Scarborough Fair” has its own long, winding story. Simon learned the centuries-old ballad from Carthy while visiting London in 1965, and Carthy had first picked it up years earlier from a folk songbook by Ewan MacColl and Peggy Seeger. When Simon & Garfunkel reimagined it as “Scarborough Fair” / “Canticle” — pairing it with anti-war lyrics from Simon’s earlier “The Side of a Hill” — it became one of their signature songs, later featured in The Graduate. The duo’s version credited only themselves as writers, which initially upset Carthy, but the two men ultimately reconciled when Simon invited him to perform the song with him in London in 2000.
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Now, at 84, Carthy is once again in the spotlight. His new album, Transform Me Then into a Fish, revisits the very ballads that inspired both Simon and Bob Dylan decades ago — including “Scarborough Fair” and “Lovely Joan.” The project has earned him a Mercury Prize nomination, making him the oldest artist ever shortlisted for the award. It’s a full-circle moment for one of Britain’s most quietly influential musicians.
