Salad days
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
"Salad days" is an idiomatic expression, referring to a youthful time, accompanied by the inexperience, enthusiasm, idealism, innocence, or indiscretion that one associates with a young person. More modern use, especially in the United States, refers to a person's heyday when somebody was at the peak of his/her abilities—not necessarily in that person's youth.
The phrase was coined in Shakespeare's Antony and Cleopatra in 1606. In the speech at the end of Act One in which Cleopatra is regretting her youthful dalliances with Julius Caesar she says:
- "...My salad days, / When I was green in judgment, cold in blood..."
The phrase only became popular from the middle of the nineteenth century on, coming to mean “a period of youthful inexperience or indiscretion." The metaphor comes from Cleopatra's use of the word 'green'—a word which has a meaning indicating someone youthful, inexperienced, or immature. The probable allusion is to certain leafy plants (such as dandelions) which are edible when young and tender.
[edit] References in popular culture
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The term was used memorably by Nicolas Cage's character Herbert "H.I." McDonnough in the feature film Raising Arizona. News of his wife's infertility caused him the unhappy realization that he "...preminisced no return of the salad days."
The comedic group Monty Python made a skit entitled "Sam Peckinpah's "Salad Days"".
British progressive rock band Procol Harum had a song titled "Salad Days (are Here Again)" on their 1967 self-titled debut album.
British New Romantic band Spandau Ballet used the lyrics, "These are my salad days slowly being eaten away," in their 1983 hit "Gold."
Mick Jagger, lead singer of the Rolling Stones, refers to "salad days" in "Party Doll," a track from his second solo album, Primitive Cool, recorded in 1987: "You used to be my party doll / But now you want to live in clover / You used to be my number one / But now those salad days are over / Times change but the fascination stays / Love wins but the passion just fades."
Rapper Talib Kweli used the line "We used to kick it in the salad days, but she looks at me like she don't know me when she sees me nowadays," in the song "Ms. Hill," a tribute to singer Lauryn Hill.
D.C. hardcore band Minor Threat wrote a song, "Salad Days".
Montgomery Burns, a prominent character in the hit cartoon TV series The Simpsons used the expression in a 1990 episode entitled "Simpson and Delilah", saying; "You may find this hard to believe, but in my salad days, my crowning glory was a bright shock of strawberry blonde curls."
Swedish hip hop artists Embee and Timbuktu collaborated on a song "Sallad Days" on Embee's record Tellings from Solitaria. (Salad in Swedish is spelled with the extra "L".) Timbuktu sings about the future, and the possible "salad days" to come.
A Japanese comic (manga) Salad-Days was written by Shinobu Inokuma.
The 1980's minimalist rock band "Young Marble Giants" had a song "Salad Days" on their album titled Colossal Youth. Salad Days is also the title of a collection of early demos and outtakes issued on CD in 2000.
Skavoovie and the Epitones have a track titled "Salad Days" on their 1999 album, The Growler.
The political punk band Anti-Flag have a song called "No Future", which has the lines "Your future is not to be forced on the world/The salad days of revolution are inborn".
The American skate-punk band NOFX recorded a song entitled "Anarchy Camp" about a summer camp for young anarchists on the album The War on Errorism that includes the lyric "so come along with us/salad days and nights on the anarchaic bus".
In the second episode of the 2007 television show Californication, David Duchovny's character Hank Moody responds to his date's compliment about his early writings by saying "ah, my salad days. You and I are going to get along just fine."
U.S. indie rock band Cheer-Accident have a song entitled "Salad Days" which was released on their 2000 album of the same name.
