Simon and Garfunkel Record a Haunting Folk Song

Credit: Wikipedia.org

“Sounds of Silence,” recorded by Simon and Garfunkel in 1963, remains a hauntingly beautiful folk song. The blending of the melody and the words give pause to a stillness that washes over the listener in a profound way. It’s a song that easily speaks of a loss confronted by the sounds of silence. Of facing life alone: “Hello darkness, my old friend, I’ve come to talk to you again.”

Written by Simon over many months, the true meaning of the lyrics remains unclear. Some try to speculate because the song was released a few months following John F. Kennedy’s assassination, but Simon sums it up as “the inability” of so many people around us “to love each other.” It’s a song to do just as Simon did when he wrote it – to sit in the darkness and feel the music (and to feel the pain). And in that state of processing grief to view around you “people talking without speaking, people hearing without listening.” A song that expresses the depth of grief in a healing way.

Simon in the recording studio Credit: https://roboud56.wordpress.com

“Hello darkness, my old friend
I’ve come to talk with you again
Because a vision softly creeping
Left its seeds while I was sleeping
And the vision that was planted in my brain
Still remains
Within the sound of silence

In restless dreams I walked alone
Narrow streets of cobblestone
‘Neath the halo of a street lamp
I turn my collar to the cold and damp
When my eyes were stabbed by the flash of a neon light
That split the night
And touched the sound of silence

And in the naked light I saw
Ten thousand people maybe more
People talking without speaking
People hearing without listening”

Read the rest of the lyrics here.