Sound of Silence
Back in 1964, Simon and Garfunkle released the haunting Sound of Silence. Now we play music from the ’80s to today, so I am lucky for the countless versions. Specifically, we play the version from Disturbed. Watch Below.
Sound of silence was released in 1964, just months after the JFK assassination, it has been suggested the song was written about the shooting. However, Simon and Garfunkle performed the song two months prior to the tragic event, that shook the world.
Now there’s only one way to listen to the song, and that is putting yourself in the position of the songwriter. Get comfortable, turn off all the lights, and dream. Paul Simon wrote Sounds of silence when he was 21, and it came about while in his bathroom he would turn off all the lights, so he could concentrate, and play and dream.
No matter which version you listen to, you cant help just try and sing along, sort of like The Mamas and Papas song Californian Dreaming, you automatically just drift away and want to sing. That’s a song that changes people, and when people change, and many people change, you begin to change the world.
And people bowed and prayed, to the neon God’s they made. Not much changes through the passage of time, people still pray to fake gods and celebrities, like lights flickering at a bar and the lonely drinking alone. The sounds of silence grabs you, it draws you in and somehow, transforms you to be the subject of the song.
Garfunkle summed up the meaning of the song as “the inability of people to communicate with each other, not particularly intentionally but especially emotionally, so what you see around you are people unable to love each other.”
So do yourself a favour, cue up one of these tracks, put your headphones on, turn up the volume, turn off the lights and just listen, just live in this moment, and let the music take you away. Take you back to a special memory, a special place. Just go, and find a moment of peace.
Initially, the song was not successful, it wasn’t until a late-night Dj started playing it, and college students picked it up, and overnight had traveled down the coast, and just like that the song became one of the greatest songs, ever written, ever sung.
I had come back to New York, and I was staying in my old room at my parents’ house. Artie was living at his parents’ house, too. I remember Artie and I were sitting there in my car one night, parked on a street in Queens, and the announcer [on the radio] said, “Number one, Simon & Garfunkel.” And Artie said to me, “That Simon & Garfunkel, they must be having a great time.” Because there we were on a street corner [in my car in] Queens, smoking a joint. We didn’t know what to do with ourselves
Paul Simon
So what do you think, no matter what generation you belong the song is a testament to great songwriting. As always like love, share and follow. Leave your comments below.
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