June 1966, with an additional recording date in July and two in August. Two previously released songs from the December 1965 Sounds of Silence sessions were also added to the track listing: "Homeward Bound" had originally been released as the second single from that album but had been left off the track listing of the US LP release; and "Flowers Never Bend with the Rainfall" had already appeared on the B-side of "I Am a Rock". Garfunkel considered the recording of "Scarborough Fair" to be the moment the duo stepped into the role of producer because they were constantly beside Roy Halee mixing the track. Composition Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme is largely characterized by sharp contrasts from song to song. Simon found it difficult to write new songs; biographer Peter Ames Carlin notes that the sequence of promotion, including concerts and interviews, made Simon feel out of his element. "He needed things to be familiar", he wrote. In addition, sudden fame had affected both his relationships and him personally. Much of the album is composed of recycled songs written by Simon during his period in England in 1965. Three songs on the album—"Patterns", "Flowers Never Bend with the Rainfall", and "A Simple Desultory Philippic"—also appear on Simon's first solo effort, The Paul Simon Songbook ("Canticle", the second half of opening ballad "Scarborough Fair", is also culled from another song on the record, "The Side of a Hill"). "Scarborough Fair", the title track, a traditional ballad, combines "fingerpicked guitar accompaniment, delicate chimes, harpsichord embellishments, and the vocal blend". "Patterns" posits that the average life is no less predetermined than that of a rat in a maze. String snaps are used prominently in "Patterns", as well as a "syncopated bass and frenetic bongo part". Much of the original guitar line remains the same from its earlier incarnation. "Cloudy" revolves around "a hitchhiker's meanderings in northern California". It employs a "breezy, almost jazzy musical style". "Homeward Bound" carries a sense of melancholia, which biographer Marc Eliot attributed to an "echo of longing" that had resurfaced during the recording process over the failed relationship with Kathy Chitty. "The Big Bright Green Pleasure Machine" is a "satirical appropriation of an electric, organ-heavy psychedelic rock style," in which the singer complains of various woes in his life, which can be "readily eased" by purchasing the titular device. "The 59th Street Bridge Song (Feelin' Groovy)" is