"Salad days" is a Shakespearean idiom referring to a period of carefree innocence, idealism, and pleasure associated with youth. The modern use describes a heyday, when a person is/was at the peak of their abilities, while not necessarily a youth.
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History
The phrase is attributed to William Shakespeare, who made the first known use of it in the 1606 play Antony and Cleopatra. 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
To say as I said then!"
The phrase became popular only from the middle of the 19th century, coming to mean "a period of youthful inexperience or indiscretion". The metaphor comes from Cleopatra's use of the word 'green' — presumably meaning someone youthful, inexperienced, or immature. Her references to "green" and "cold" both suggest qualities of salads.
Fowler's Dictionary of Modern English Usage summarizes several other possible meanings of the metaphor:
Whether the point is that youth, like salad, is raw, or that salad is highly flavoured and youth loves high flavours, or that innocent herbs are youth's food as milk is babes', and meat is men's, few of those who use the phrase could perhaps tell us; if so, it is fitter for parrots' than for human speech.
Use
Queen Elizabeth II used the phrase during her silver jubilee royal address in 1977, referring to her vow to God and her people when she made her 21st birthday broadcast: "Although that vow was made in my salad days, when I was green in judgment, I do not regret nor retract one word of it."
The phrase has been used as the title of several books, including novels by Theodora Benson, Françoise Sagan, and Charles Romalotti; Douglas Fairbanks Jr.'s autobiography The Salad Days; and numerous cookbooks.
In film, television, and modern theatre
Salad Days is a British musical by Julian Slade and lyricist Dorothy Reynolds. It premiered in the UK at the Bristol Old Vic in June 1954, and transferred to the Vaudeville Theatre, London, on 5 August 1954. One of its songs, "The Time of My Life", includes the lyrics, "We're young and we're green as the leaf on the tree / For these are our salad days."
A sketch from Monty Python's Flying Circus is called "Salad Days," and features a parody of Slade's musical as interpreted by Sam Peckinpah.
The phrase was used by H.I. McDonough (played by Nicolas Cage) in the Coen Brother's film Raising Arizona. H.I. states that "These were happy days, the salad days as they say" when he and his wife Ed (played by Holly Hunter) were newlyweds. Later in the film, upon discovering Ed could not bear children, H.I. states "But I preminisced no return of the salad days".
Salad Days is the title of a documentary film released in 2014 about the evolving punk and hardcore scene in Washington, D.C. during the 1980s and 1990s. Its title derives from the 1985 Salad Days (EP) by the Washington, D.C. band Minor Threat.
The 2010 Taiwanese drama Gloomy Salad Days is named after the expression.
In literature
In Katherine Applegate's Animorphs series, Marco says his dad Peter referred to the time before losing Eva (Marco's mom) as the "salad days", though Marco doesn't understand the reference.
In Kurt Vonnegut's 1979 novel Jailbird, the imprisoned character Walter F. Starbuck reflects on the early days of an old friendship as, "our salad days, when we were green in judgment."
In music
Procol Harum has a song on their eponymous debut album titled "Salad Days (Are Here Again)."
In 1985, Washington, D.C., hardcore punk band Minor Threat released the song "Salad Days," reflecting on days of spirited youth in contrast to a time of adult disillusionment.
Adrian Belew's 1999 album, Salad Days, consists of acoustic recordings of solo work as well as songs from his King Crimson era.
Punk rock collective Bomb the Music Industry! have a song titled "Unlimited Breadsticks, Soup and Salad Days" on their 2007 album Get Warmer.
The pop-punk / emo band Misser has a song called "Goddamn Salad Days" from their 2013 EP Distancing.
Canadian musician Mac DeMarco's third album, released in 2014, is titled Salad Days.
"Salad Days" is a song by the Cardiff post-punk band Young Marble Giants, including the lyric "Think of salad days, they were folly and fun, they were good, they were young."
The phrase is used in the Spandau Ballet song "Gold": "These are my salad days, slowly being eaten away."
The idiom is used again in the opening line of the track "Lovers Who Uncover" by The Little Ones: "Where do all the lovers meet with one another, in an effort to uncover what has happened to their salad days?"
The phrase is also used in the track "Spotlight (Oh Nostalgia)" from Patrick Stump's Truant Wave EP: "Oh, nostalgia I don't need you anymore / 'Cause the salad days are over and the meat is at my door."
Frank Zappa's song "Electric Aunt Jemima" contains the phrase as well: "Holidays and salad days, and days of moldy mayonnaise."