Paul Simon wrote this as a teenager sitting on the floor in his bathroom. He wrote it shortly after the assassination of John Kennedy....Paul’s lyrics are really poems set to music...my personal favorite by him is “The Dangling Conversation”....Sound Of Silence was originally an acoustic song which was not a hit. The producer added electric guitar and drums, without permission....it was a hit.
@@MilosDaddy The strange thing is I met Simon and his brother in an upper Eastside bar and we were talking music. I asked him if in retrospect is there any song he wrote that he doesn’t sing anymore...he said Dangling Conversation because he thinks it was too pompous and intellectual. In my mind all I could think was....what a moron it’s the best thing you ever wrote...I smiled....nodded....and left the bar!!!
I agree with you but I can see why he'd say that - it is a nice way of saying "too many stupid people don't understand it." Because (for all he knew) you might've been one of them... So this is a way to say it where he takes the blame...
Yes, Paul Simon was the originator of the line "Hello darkness my old friend". As for Shakespeare, you're probably thinking of, "Bop bopa-a-lu a whop bam boo!" which was a lyric he wrote, only to have it stolen by Little Richard as the opening line to his hit, Tutti Frutti
“I got up to wash my face”. That lyric was over the line. 😄Columbia knew it when they released Cecilia as a single. A real conflict over Free speech v Obscenity laws was happening on every level.
Simon and Garfunkel were one of the most successful folk performers of all time. Their songs stand up so well 50+ years later. So much so that they are regularly covered by other bands to this day
Oh, DS9, you're goin' WAY back. A rich field of S & G work awaits you. As I said before, "The Boxer" would give you a lot to think about. In addition "America" would change your perspective, and "Bridge Over Troubled Water" would move a kind-hearted person like you very deeply.
Great music, grew up listening to Simon and Garfunkel through the walls of my sister next door. Like your style, you would have fit in to the sixties and seventies. Wish you well.
Every time I see people at work looking down at their phones I hear this verse in my head ( and the people bowed and prayed to the neon gods they made) ✌️♥️
@@RicoBurghFan Disturbed's cover more than does justice to this song. You have to hear it. I embrace my past (1954) and recognize it when it inspires the present, which is the case for the Disturbed cover.
I agree Leslie. I tried to listen to Disturb's version and did not like it at all. This original version is something with which to not be messed, it's perfectly fine the way it is.
Rhymin' Paul Simon is one of the great poets of our time (along with Bob Dylan, Neil Young and others). I remember seeing an interview in the 80s where they questioned his success post Simon and Garfunkel. His response was something along the lines of "I wrote Sound of Silence - if I never did anything else, I have accomplished a lot" It is worth checking out a live version with just the two of them with Simon on acoustic guitar. To me, that is the way it is meant to be. Other S&G songs? I am a Rock, Homewark Bound, Bridge Over Troubled Water, Scarborough Fair (all best live with just them)
Although the song is called: ‘The Sound of Silence’, the album was named: ‘The Sounds of Silence’ (Pluriforme). Although you can’t hear anything Neon lights are shouting their messages ‘buy me’ and prophets you: ‘you need to have me to became happy’, but you’ll be not. Also: while thousands US soldiers are dying in an oversea war, the Americans at home live their life in luxury ignoring the other world reality. These homecoming veterans no longer fit in their homecountry. The USA’s way of living isn’t theirs anymore, cause they experienced the real struggles of live.
Paul Simon would go into the dark bathroom at night to sing and work on his music. He liked the acoustics in there. So Hello darkness my old friend he said is a reference to resuming this work in the darkened bathroom.
To me this might be the best song ever. And like most people that changes with my mood. But this is a really great song. A teacher in high school played this for us and I'm sure gave her explanation of the words andmeaning. I wish I could remember.
Possibly their most iconic song, and that's from a list of MANY iconic songs that they can boast, although BRIDGE OVER TROUBLED WATER may edge this one out. I'm not speaking personal preference here, just commenting from the standpoint of what may be universal acknowledgement.
My fave is "Homeward Bound." It was in the top 10 when a pro hockey player who taught me to speed skate was murdered (long story). I tear up still every time I hear it. Listened to it over and over as a little kid, thinking of Butch, missing him. Simon & Garfunkel's version is THE best, period. Might as well have been Shakespeare-- Paul Simon is a true poet, and musician, and Art Garfunkel sings like an angel. Thanks for doing this. Please consider doing "Homeward Bound." Another great one is "America." Oh, they're all great.
Paul titled the song "The Sounds of Silence" originally but later changed it. You need to keep in mind the massive impact the movie "The Graduate" had on the popularity of the duo and there music.
These guys have a ton of great songs, then Paul Simon went solo and had a whole new career with that. I recommend "Scarborough Fair/Canticle," "The 59th Street Bridge Song (Feelin' Groovy)," "Cecilia," "The Only Living Boy in New York," and "I Am a Rock" for S&G.
And Garfunkel went solo too... In the late 70's Bright Eyes from the movie Watership Down was a pretty big hit in Europe and Australasia, making #1 in the UK for 6 weeks.
"Bridge Over Troubled Water". When Harry Kalas, the late broadcaster of the Philadelphia Phillies/NFL Films died in 2009, it was among his final requests that this song be played at his funeral, which they did, at Citizens Bank Park in front of around 10,000 mourners.
I was a teenager when this came out. It's one of my all time favorite songs. The Disturbed version is great and different from the original. I love them both. It just depends on your taste. Bridge Over Troubled Water is a masterpiece! Check out the live version in Central Park.
The studio version has two songs being sung at one time. Only recently have I read the lyrics of both and understood them separately. They don't always do that complicated version.
This classic Simon and Garfunkel song is high on the list of every Simon and Garfunkel fan. You did it great justice in your review and analysis. I thank you very much for that.
Paul Simon is more than just a great lyricist, he's a true poet. His lyrics are taught as poetry in almost every English speaking university. He was taught in my 3rd year of English composition right along with Yeats and wordsmiths of that ilk.
This has always been the song that moves me the most. Sadly I cannot bear listening to Disturbed's cover. It is like seeing the ghost of your best friend you didn't know had passed. No one can compare to Simon and Garfunkel.
Rachael Gosser, I so agree with you! Thank you for that. I thought I was the ONLY one that dislike Disturbed's cover. I see more people reacting to THAT version than Simon and Garfunkel's original. I don't think these reactors are even aware of Simon and Garfunkel's original, and that is SAD.
@@steveneardley7541 ABSOLUTELY, I heard it once out of curiosity and don't care to ever listen to it again....the beauty that is in Simon and Garfunkel's original version is totally ABSENT in the Disturbed cover.....to me Disturbed's cover is DISTURBING!!!
I'm really getting into the story of the great recording sessions behind the great records of pop music. Glad that this information is now available in a few keystrokes on sites like Wikipedia Glen Campbell's iconic guitar and Hal Blaine's drumming on so many Hits Paul Simon - lead vocals, guitar Art Garfunkel - lead vocals Fred Carter Jr., Glen Campbell, Joe South - guitar Larry Knechtel - keyboards Joe Osborn - bass guitar Hal Blaine - drums Bob Johnston - producer Sounds of Silence was recorded in April, June and December 1965 at CBS Studios in New York City, New York and Los Angeles, California. "The Sound of Silence" (electric overdubs) personnel: Al Gorgoni, Vinnie Bell - guitar Joe Mack - bass guitar Bobby Gregg - drums "The Sound of Silence" overdubs were recorded at Columbia's "Studio A" at 799 Seventh Avenue near 52nd Street by Columbia Records staff producer Tom Wilson on June 15, 1965.
This is definitely considered folk rock. These two originally recorded an acoustic folk version of this song, produced by Tom Wilson, who was the most important producer in the development of folk rock. He worked on the Bob Dylan albums The Times They Are a-Changin', Another Side of Bob Dylan, and Bringing It All Back Home, along with the 1965 single, "Like a Rolling Stone." Wilson also produced the final four tracks Dylan recorded for The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan, after he replaced John Hammond as Dylan's producer in 1963. After the original acoustic version of this song initially flopped, then eventually started picking up some radio play, Wilson remixed the song as a folk rock song in 1965 after Dylan had had his massive success with a back-up rock band. Simon & Garfunkel had no idea about the remixed version until after it was released. The rest, as they say, is history.
Paul Simon is up there with Lennon/McCartney, Dylan, Springsteen. Darkness is his bathroom where he wrote it in dark and the acoustics. It was folk song and flopped. They sort of broke up and Columbia added electric instruments and released it surprising S&G and it climbed charts. Disturbed covers this with orchestra. Paul Simon does a few versions
Paul Simon loved Dylan tried to write Dylanesque lyrics, but no one can do that. In any event they made some really beautiful music. Paul wrote lyrics/music but Garfunkel and the producer Roy Halee turned them into the songs they became. Great team. And like others have said this song opens and closes the movie The Graduate and the movie uses a number of other SG songs, it would actually be a good movie for you to react to if you haven't seen it. I think.
Very early in his career, Simon was playing a Greenwich Village coffee house. Dylan sat at the bar and made fun of his lyrics. At the time he hated Simon's work. 40 years later I saw them both together at a concert in Camden, NJ. Dylan's version of "Bridge Over Troubled Water" is my wife's favorite.
If you review Rush's "The Spirit of Radio", you'll notice a nod to this song in the last section, where he sings about "The words of the profits are written on the studio walls... concert halls." (And based on the context, I think "profits" is probably correct there, as against "prophets" in the Sound of Silence.)
@@lengould9262 - I think it was a pun. The Sound of Silence had "prophets", but the Spirit of Radio was talking about the danger of selling out, hence "profits".
Strange but the album title is “Sounds of Silence” and the song is “The Sound of Silence”. I always took that to mean the collection of songs on the album added up to the “Sounds” all different but all of the same collection!
Pert near the perfect song. Next cover comparison? Simon and Garfunkel's "America" and Yes' cover of it. (Yes had a single cut and an album cut, use the album cut. Even better, use the live performance off "Keys to Ascension".)
FYI: Keys to Ascension was released on this date (10/28/1996). LIVE: Siberian Khatru, The Revealing Science of God, America, Onward, Awaken, Roundabout, Starship Trooper. STUDIO: "Be the One", "That, That Is".
you should watch "The Graduate". A really good 1960"s movie. It uses a lot of S&G music in the soundtrack. First major appearance for Dustin Hoffman. Also went a long way in promoting S&G.
They had their 1st top 50 hit when they were 16 years old. They were signed to their 1st record contract at 15 years old. They started singing at 13 years old. They met at 11 years old & started learning their harmonies & Paul Simon started learning the guitar.
Promise me, I beg you, PLEASE watch “The Graduate”! I have just GOT to see your face while you are watching it! I first saw it in a college class called “Introduction to Motion Pictures”.
To me, the Disturbed version is DISTURBING! They took the soul of a song and wiped it out. Thanks for reacting to this and letting the younger set, that this is where it came from!
I respectfully disagree; to me the original is lower key, a bit wistful and melancholy concerning the state of humanity, but Disturbed’s version speaks more of humanity today, and all that's happened on the planet in the intervening years since the original. The cover version is darker and angrier because that's sort of the state of global events nowadays. I am nearing my 6th decade and have been around long enough to contemplate both songs and their impact on me and my life, and for me the Disturbed version is the one that makes me cry and stuns me with it's emotional power. Yes it's dark in tone but his voice is so amazing.
I find it overblown forced faux anger. The live version he did on Conan was far less forced sounding than the studio version, but I still dislike that version immensely.
I gotta mention America by Simon and Garfunkel again. I'm sure you've heard it. Bernie Sanders used it in 2016 in an ad and Garfunkel was very happy that he did. America is 3:23 long. YES's cover of it is over 10 minutes. You will thoroughly enjoy both versions, I assure you : )
Maybe my favorite S&G song. That, and The Only Living Boy in New York . And At the Zoo. Saw Paul Simon 2 years ago, his fair well tour. So many great Paul Simon songs.
Song writing and singing at the highest level, so many beautiful songs. Like America, The Boxer, Mrs. Robinson, and possibly their greatest achievement, Bridge Over Troubled Water 👌
This was the best song ever written. The symbolism, connotation, personification, all of the devices that are used to get the message across are amazing. It makes you feel so much with words so well. And it's beautiful. So beautiful. "His eyes were stabbed..."
S&G had hit song while in high school. Try dissecting “Baby Driver”. It is not folk. Paul Simon solo has great catalogue. Kodachrome, Graceland, African Skies, etc. Disturbed performed with strings on TV and it was as good as studio version.
One of your best reactions -very astute, with continuous truth bombs. You should be teaching contemporary music interpretation, philosophy and/or literature at a major university. I would sign up for your classes.
They were contemporaries. I was in college when The Graduate came out. All we listened to in the dorm was Dylan, S&G and Motown, with some Beatles and Stones in the mix. It was a great time for music.
@@snakelite61 the graduate is a great movie. I think even young people today can relate to it. Dylan had a few albums of original songs released years before S and G or the Beatles did. College must have been fun in those days.
One of Simon and Garfunkel's masterpieces. I loved the last verse...."And the sigh said the words of the profits are written on the subway walls and tennemen halls, whispering the sounds of silence" Graffiti. The profits were the people that wrote Graffiti on the walls. As I understand poetry I is supposed to make you feel in certain ways that is hard to understand but it touches the soul. It brings out feelings that you might never have thought you had before. And Simon and Garfunkel were true poets. They knew how to make beautiful music with poetry that reaches the soul. I have just about all their music. I love them. ❤️
Paul went on to a solo career. Here's one of my favorites: " Kodachrome " ua-cam.com/video/N4ltLp30KVs/v-deo.html . Back in the day when pictures were taken on a film encased in a tube. Each could hold 12 , 24 or 36 pictures. You could not see the pictures as soon as you took them. You took the tube to a place where they developed the " film " before you can see your photos. And you had to wait a week after you dropped it off
Oh yeaahhh, one of their best tunes ever! This song makes me think of being alone, as many people are, but yet knowing so much truth about life. Being one of the few people who see the bigger picture that no one else seems to notice. The deafening silence of obliviousness...despite the many many messages that can be 'seen' daily yet no one notices, except the few. Important life messages falling on deaf ears...people listening without actually hearing as the song states. Bowing to the neon lights...worshiping technology yet forgetting the most basic aspects of humanity which is treating each other with respect, helping others to overcome the adversities of life. Now I am bawling my head off, need to take a break for a minute.... Such a sad state of affairs our global society has turned into, the indifference is sickening. The gradual conditioning that has created our situation is even worse. Sometimes the most basic of words, graffiti, speaks the loudest...yet no one listens. I won't be commenting on the Disturbed version. I do not like it...there are something that should never be repeated because the original is perfection as it is. But this is, of course, subjective and for me this song stands alone as it is. Great reaction Daniel, thank you! A couple other great tunes by S&G are Hazy Shade of Winter and At The Zoo.
From S&G's Concert in Central Park, audition "American Tune". It is as weighty as "Sound of Silence" and the harmonies are astounding. It was originally a Paul Simon solo song. Here, with Garfunkel adding his voice, I find it just wonderful.
Simon & Garfunkle are, truly, my favourite. First, they're Jewish and that, alone, makes me love them, as part Jewish myself. Also, second, their music is so Celtic. As a Scot who holds close to his heritage, the Celtic harmony they have is so touching. They speak to my Celtic soul. Their music was primal and spoke to the very roots of our human souls.
Another great song you’d like is “ Darkness, Darkness” by the Youngblood’s. And their classic hit “ Get Together”- the peace anthem. You can never go wrong with Simon and Garfunkel. This song still is relevant in this time as “ Silence is Violence ” when it comes to systemic racial justice.
Yes, it was folk rock......Their first album, Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme got worn out from playing over and over my freshman year at college.....and that title song is still one of my favorite songs of all time because of it’s sheer beauty and that amazing canticle..... Yes, lack of communication....racial unrest.....establishment not listening to what young people and persons of color and the poor were saying.....We;re right back in the same spot again right now. I think people of my generation are upset about young people not knowing that Disturbed is a cover is not that it isn’t powerful or good, but rather that they want young people to know that these thoughts were common among young people over fifty years ago. Their grandparents today. Like me.
Actually, "Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme" was their 3rd album, following "Wednesday Morning, 3AM" and "Sounds of Silence". But yes, that's the one that was on continuous re-cycle at our fraternity house.
Paul Simon wrote this, along with many others, whilst in London, England. He’d a shared wall with Al Stewart for a bit, whilst in the same block of flats. Simon played some of the same small clubs as Martin Carthy, when they were both up & coming. Simon got the traditional folk song “Scarborough Fair,” from hearing Carthy’s performance of it. It is the featured song on Simon & Garfunkel’s “Parsley, Sage, Rosemary, & Time” album. Simon’s song, “Homeward Bound” also written in the UK, was his longing to return to the US.
We sang this in chorus class when I was in the 7th grade in the 70’s. I was in the group that had sing the harmony part. Not easy! Kept wanting to sing the main melody!
Great sound, right??...yes pls react to "the Boxer" you will love it!! Paul Simon is one of the best for putting pictures in our minds to his words!! Great reaction D9!!💖
This song was on their first somewhat unsuccessful album called Wednesday Morning 3 am. A stripped down version with just a guitar. Some enterprising producer decided to take the track and add instrumentation and release it and it became a huge hit.
Two of my favorite Artists and one of my favorite songs, very precious this is to me as my Dad played it to me when I was 7yo. Amazing artists and song writers. Yes they were the first to sing "Hello darkness my old friend"
These guys grew up in Queens,NYC, NY! So, "...words of a prophet, written on subway walls & tenement halls..." tell us, they were far from wooded areas or a nature preserve. Simon would write about dreary landscapes, cold December days or nites...that was his environment growing up. But, they were beautiful songs.
This song is just as relevant today as it was back then. NO-ONE did it better. S and G's music was/is iconic. Paul's composition and Art's haunting voice combined perfectly.
Paul's a New Yorker, I believe the neon God is probably the lights advertising in Times Square (imo) Most of the neon has been replaced by giant flat screens these days.
Not to be creepy in any way, but i think there are too few compliments given these days, so i would like you to know that i think your hair (cut)? Looks great and shows more of your face. That's a really great thing, in my opinion. Keep up the great reactions - you have an old soul!
Very good reaction and an insightful lyric dissection, as we've come to expect here. For many of us, hearing it at the time, it was a song against consumerism, and what we saw as people "talking past each other," especially in government. Had to laugh when you read the comment about "....Mom and me liking the same music," as both of my parents quite liked S&G...way more than the heavy metal thunder that usually blasted through my closed door! Oh, and, by the way...I usually won't do this, but, it's often hard to get pronunciations from reading...Greenwich Village, as with Greenwich in the UK, is pronounced "GREN-itch;" all through New York and New England, you'll run into dozens of towns and cities whose names echo those from Jolly Old England...and, yes, I'm looking at you, Worcester, Massachusetts! (wuh-STAHH)
My #1 Simon & Garfunkel tune for as long as I can remember! It's such a poignant, beautiful piece - and as relevant now as it was in the early 60's when Paul Simon wrote it.
This song is more relevant today than when it was written. The silence today is deafening. Silence in the face of so much crime and corruption as the Empire crumbles around us.
Paul Simon is truly one of the greatest lyricists of our time.
Speaking of raindrops... Check out Kathy's Song. I think you might be able to appreciate it. I see you've already done America... Mmmm
Paul Simon wrote this as a teenager sitting on the floor in his bathroom. He wrote it shortly after the assassination of John Kennedy....Paul’s lyrics are really poems set to music...my personal favorite by him is “The Dangling Conversation”....Sound Of Silence was originally an acoustic song which was not a hit. The producer added electric guitar and drums, without permission....it was a hit.
OMG! The Dangling Conversion is my favorite, too! I thought I was the only one.
@@MilosDaddy The strange thing is I met Simon and his brother in an upper Eastside bar and we were talking music. I asked him if in retrospect is there any song he wrote that he doesn’t sing anymore...he said Dangling Conversation because he thinks it was too pompous and intellectual. In my mind all I could think was....what a moron it’s the best thing you ever wrote...I smiled....nodded....and left the bar!!!
@@MilosDaddy me too
I agree with you but I can see why he'd say that - it is a nice way of saying "too many stupid people don't understand it." Because (for all he knew) you might've been one of them... So this is a way to say it where he takes the blame...
@@sharonm6262 LOL....thanks Sharon for that vote of intellectual confidence....
Yes, Paul Simon was the originator of the line "Hello darkness my old friend". As for Shakespeare, you're probably thinking of, "Bop bopa-a-lu a whop bam boo!" which was a lyric he wrote, only to have it stolen by Little Richard as the opening line to his hit, Tutti Frutti
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Who remembers "Cecilia" by S&G? It was removed from radio play because it was to sexual.....lol! What a more innocent time it was.
"Time it was, and what a time it was, it was a time of innocence."
She broke my ❤.
@@georgewodicka4839 😟
“I got up to wash my face”. That lyric was over the line. 😄Columbia knew it when they released Cecilia as a single. A real conflict over Free speech v Obscenity laws was happening on every level.
I always saw "Cecilia" as almost an answer to the real innocence of "Wake Up Little Suzie."
Simon and Garfunkel had the best harmonizing ever
I am a Rock...... is another song of theirs that has meaningful lyrics, worth a listen...
Simon and Garfunkel were one of the most successful folk performers of all time. Their songs stand up so well 50+ years later. So much so that they are regularly covered by other bands to this day
Oh, DS9, you're goin' WAY back. A rich field of S & G work awaits you. As I said before, "The Boxer" would give you a lot to think about. In addition "America" would change your perspective, and "Bridge Over Troubled Water" would move a kind-hearted person like you very deeply.
Love Simon & Garfunkel! Bright Eyes, El Condor Pasa, The Boxer, Bridge Over Troubled Water ❤
Paul Simons lyrics and Art Garfunkels voice, a match made in heaven! Dive into their catalogue of hits, you won't be disappointed
First ever album l bought nearly 50 years ago was S & G Greatest Hits, one of the best albums I've bought, and that's hundreds later.
All of their songs are evocative so beautifully written.
All of his songs (Paul Simon)
The brilliance of Paul’s writing and the balance of their harmony!As good as it gets!👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻❤️☮️
So many amazing S&G songs but I think you'd really like Hazy Shade of Winter, Wednesday Morning 3 AM and Mrs Robinson.
Hazy Shade Of Winter is an awesome tune!
Kathy's Song, Scarborough Fair, BOTW, Homeward Bound and AMERICA which as an Englishman I really enjoyed :)
and the cover by the Bangles...Hazy shade of winter...more content for ya Mr DS 9
America...which takes you on a long distance bus journey.
Great music, grew up listening to Simon and Garfunkel through the walls of my sister next door. Like your style, you would have fit in to the sixties and seventies. Wish you well.
Every time I see people at work looking down at their phones I hear this verse in my head ( and the people bowed and prayed to the neon gods they made) ✌️♥️
Daniel, "Bridge Over Troubled Water" by Simon & Garfunkel a beautiful song.
By far, my favorite S&G song. I still have that original album - borrowed it from my mom when I was a kid in the late 70's, never gave it back.
The covers of this great tune will be hard-pressed to equal the original.
You be the judge!
Disturbed did a pretty awesome one.
@@RicoBurghFan Agreed! Plenty of talent out there, fer sure. I'm just clinging onto my past; lol (1950) 😍
@@RicoBurghFan Disturbed's cover more than does justice to this song. You have to hear it. I embrace my past (1954) and recognize it when it inspires the present, which is the case for the Disturbed cover.
And yet, both Disturbed and Pentatonix have at least equalled, and in the case of Disturbed, exceeded the original, I think.
I agree Leslie. I tried to listen to Disturb's version and did not like it at all. This original version is something with which to not be messed, it's perfectly fine the way it is.
Hard to listen to something as beautiful as this, and realize the turmoil between them over time.
Rhymin' Paul Simon is one of the great poets of our time (along with Bob Dylan, Neil Young and others). I remember seeing an interview in the 80s where they questioned his success post Simon and Garfunkel. His response was something along the lines of "I wrote Sound of Silence - if I never did anything else, I have accomplished a lot"
It is worth checking out a live version with just the two of them with Simon on acoustic guitar. To me, that is the way it is meant to be.
Other S&G songs? I am a Rock, Homewark Bound, Bridge Over Troubled Water, Scarborough Fair (all best live with just them)
Although the song is called: ‘The Sound of Silence’, the album was named: ‘The Sounds of Silence’ (Pluriforme).
Although you can’t hear anything Neon lights are shouting their messages ‘buy me’ and prophets you: ‘you need to have me to became happy’, but you’ll be not.
Also: while thousands US soldiers are dying in an oversea war, the Americans at home live their life in luxury ignoring the other world reality.
These homecoming veterans no longer fit in their homecountry. The USA’s way of living isn’t theirs anymore, cause they experienced the real struggles of live.
Album: "Sounds of Silence" (no "The")
Paul Simon would go into the dark bathroom at night to sing and work on his music. He liked the acoustics in there. So Hello darkness my old friend he said is a reference to resuming this work in the darkened bathroom.
The Boxer, Bridge Over Troubled Waters, American Tune, America. You could literally do hour after hour on Paul Simon and/or Garfunkel songs.
To me this might be the best song ever. And like most people that changes with my mood. But this is a really great song.
A teacher in high school played this for us and I'm sure gave her explanation of the words andmeaning. I wish I could remember.
Possibly their most iconic song, and that's from a list of MANY iconic songs that they can boast, although BRIDGE OVER TROUBLED WATER may edge this one out. I'm not speaking personal preference here, just commenting from the standpoint of what may be universal acknowledgement.
My fave is "Homeward Bound." It was in the top 10 when a pro hockey player who taught me to speed skate was murdered (long story). I tear up still every time I hear it. Listened to it over and over as a little kid, thinking of Butch, missing him. Simon & Garfunkel's version is THE best, period. Might as well have been Shakespeare-- Paul Simon is a true poet, and musician, and Art Garfunkel sings like an angel. Thanks for doing this. Please consider doing "Homeward Bound." Another great one is "America." Oh, they're all great.
Paul titled the song "The Sounds of Silence" originally but later changed it. You need to keep in mind the massive impact the movie "The Graduate" had on the popularity of the duo and there music.
These guys have a ton of great songs, then Paul Simon went solo and had a whole new career with that. I recommend "Scarborough Fair/Canticle," "The 59th Street Bridge Song (Feelin' Groovy)," "Cecilia," "The Only Living Boy in New York," and "I Am a Rock" for S&G.
Yes! Love You Can Call Me AL, the video is lots of fun.
Scarborough Fair yes!
And Garfunkel went solo too... In the late 70's Bright Eyes from the movie Watership Down was a pretty big hit in Europe and Australasia, making #1 in the UK for 6 weeks.
"Bridge Over Troubled Water". When Harry Kalas, the late broadcaster of the Philadelphia Phillies/NFL Films died in 2009, it was among his final requests that this song be played at his funeral, which they did, at Citizens Bank Park in front of around 10,000 mourners.
Silence is deafening What a powerful song
Ahhhh their voices just harmonize so beautifully
I was a teenager when this came out. It's one of my all time favorite songs. The Disturbed version is great and different from the original. I love them both. It just depends on your taste. Bridge Over Troubled Water is a masterpiece! Check out the live version in Central Park.
Do "Scarborough Fair" by them
There’s a version of Scarborough Fair with Andy Williams when they appeared on his show.
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@@chrishickey7502 Yes that performance is superb and is actually enhanced by Williams.
The studio version has two songs being sung at one time. Only recently have I read the lyrics of both and understood them separately. They don't always do that complicated version.
This classic Simon and Garfunkel song is high on the list of every Simon and Garfunkel fan. You did it great justice in your review and analysis. I thank you very much for that.
Paul Simon is more than just a great lyricist, he's a true poet. His lyrics are taught as poetry in almost every English speaking university. He was taught in my 3rd year of English composition right along with Yeats and wordsmiths of that ilk.
This is my favorite of their songs. There’s no sound louder then silence when we’re uncomfortable in our own skin. Your doing a wonderful job👍
So you have to read or watch "The Graduate". I have done both and it's worth of. This is the title song of the famous movie with Dustin Hoffman.
Great choice.... Check out their "El Condor Pasa" for a great version of a classic folk song.
So glad you enjoyed this. Yes, it is an eerie song, but also profound.
This has always been the song that moves me the most. Sadly I cannot bear listening to Disturbed's cover. It is like seeing the ghost of your best friend you didn't know had passed. No one can compare to Simon and Garfunkel.
Disturbed version is a travesty--coarse and unmusical.
Rachael Gosser, I so agree with you! Thank you for that. I thought I was the ONLY one that dislike Disturbed's cover. I see more people reacting to THAT version than Simon and Garfunkel's original. I don't think these reactors are even aware of Simon and Garfunkel's original, and that is SAD.
@@steveneardley7541 ABSOLUTELY, I heard it once out of curiosity and don't care to ever listen to it again....the beauty that is in Simon and Garfunkel's original version is totally ABSENT in the Disturbed cover.....to me Disturbed's cover is DISTURBING!!!
I'm really getting into the story of the great recording sessions behind the great records of pop music. Glad that this information is now available in a few keystrokes on sites like Wikipedia
Glen Campbell's iconic guitar and Hal Blaine's drumming on so many Hits
Paul Simon - lead vocals, guitar
Art Garfunkel - lead vocals
Fred Carter Jr., Glen Campbell, Joe South - guitar
Larry Knechtel - keyboards
Joe Osborn - bass guitar
Hal Blaine - drums
Bob Johnston - producer
Sounds of Silence was recorded in April, June and December 1965 at CBS Studios in New York City, New York and Los Angeles, California.
"The Sound of Silence" (electric overdubs) personnel:
Al Gorgoni, Vinnie Bell - guitar
Joe Mack - bass guitar
Bobby Gregg - drums
"The Sound of Silence" overdubs were recorded at Columbia's "Studio A" at 799 Seventh Avenue near 52nd Street by Columbia Records staff producer Tom Wilson on June 15, 1965.
It doesn't get any better than that, folks.
This is definitely considered folk rock. These two originally recorded an acoustic folk version of this song, produced by Tom Wilson, who was the most important producer in the development of folk rock. He worked on the Bob Dylan albums The Times They Are a-Changin', Another Side of Bob Dylan, and Bringing It All Back Home, along with the 1965 single, "Like a Rolling Stone." Wilson also produced the final four tracks Dylan recorded for The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan, after he replaced John Hammond as Dylan's producer in 1963.
After the original acoustic version of this song initially flopped, then eventually started picking up some radio play, Wilson remixed the song as a folk rock song in 1965 after Dylan had had his massive success with a back-up rock band. Simon & Garfunkel had no idea about the remixed version until after it was released. The rest, as they say, is history.
I believe he remixed it without telling Paul Simon he was going to do it. Paul found out when he heard it on the radio.
Paul Simon is up there with Lennon/McCartney, Dylan, Springsteen. Darkness is his bathroom where he wrote it in dark and the acoustics. It was folk song and flopped. They sort of broke up and Columbia added electric instruments and released it surprising S&G and it climbed charts. Disturbed covers this with orchestra. Paul Simon does a few versions
If you like Art Garfunkel's vocals, check ' All I know ' one of his solo hits.
Paul Simon loved Dylan tried to write Dylanesque lyrics, but no one can do that. In any event they made some really beautiful music. Paul wrote lyrics/music but Garfunkel and the producer Roy Halee turned them into the songs they became. Great team. And like others have said this song opens and closes the movie The Graduate and the movie uses a number of other SG songs, it would actually be a good movie for you to react to if you haven't seen it. I think.
Very early in his career, Simon was playing a Greenwich Village coffee house. Dylan sat at the bar and made fun of his lyrics. At the time he hated Simon's work. 40 years later I saw them both together at a concert in Camden, NJ. Dylan's version of "Bridge Over Troubled Water" is my wife's favorite.
If you review Rush's "The Spirit of Radio", you'll notice a nod to this song in the last section, where he sings about "The words of the profits are written on the studio walls... concert halls."
(And based on the context, I think "profits" is probably correct there, as against "prophets" in the Sound of Silence.)
And echoes with the sound of salesmen
Anderson, Bruford, Wakeman, Howe give Paul Simon's "Boy in the Bubble" a nod in their song, "Quartet", "We're living in days of wonder, Simon says".
Prophets.
@@lengould9262 - I think it was a pun. The Sound of Silence had "prophets", but the Spirit of Radio was talking about the danger of selling out, hence "profits".
Paul Simon is a master of melancholy. My favourite songwriter of all time. His best composition? Imho, it’s ‘Overs’
Strange but the album title is “Sounds of Silence” and the song is “The Sound of Silence”. I always took that to mean the collection of songs on the album added up to the “Sounds” all different but all of the same collection!
Pert near the perfect song.
Next cover comparison? Simon and Garfunkel's "America" and Yes' cover of it. (Yes had a single cut and an album cut, use the album cut. Even better, use the live performance off "Keys to Ascension".)
That would make a fantastic cover comparison !
FYI: Keys to Ascension was released on this date (10/28/1996).
LIVE: Siberian Khatru, The Revealing Science of God, America, Onward, Awaken, Roundabout, Starship Trooper.
STUDIO: "Be the One", "That, That Is".
Oh, yes! both are amazing songs, and yet so different, I didn't hear that live version from Yes so far, I'm gonna check it out, thx!
@@gablen23 Just listened to it in the car this morning!
you should watch "The Graduate". A really good 1960"s movie. It uses a lot of S&G music in the soundtrack. First major appearance for Dustin Hoffman. Also went a long way in promoting S&G.
Mrs Robinson, are you trying to seduce me Lol great line
This is off topic but who can forget the line from the movie, "There's a great future in plastics".
I love the “jangling” guitar. Reminds my a lot of the Byrds (and Beatles). Recommend I Am a Rock for a similar evocative song.
They had their 1st top 50 hit when they were 16 years old. They were signed to their 1st record contract at 15 years old. They started singing at 13 years old. They met at 11 years old & started learning their harmonies & Paul Simon started learning the guitar.
Promise me, I beg you, PLEASE watch “The Graduate”! I have just GOT to see your face while you are watching it! I first saw it in a college class called “Introduction to Motion Pictures”.
To me, the Disturbed version is DISTURBING! They took the soul of a song and wiped it out. Thanks for reacting to this and letting the younger set, that this is where it came from!
I respectfully disagree; to me the original is lower key, a bit wistful and melancholy concerning the state of humanity, but Disturbed’s version speaks more of humanity today, and all that's happened on the planet in the intervening years since the original. The cover version is darker and angrier because that's sort of the state of global events nowadays. I am nearing my 6th decade and have been around long enough to contemplate both songs and their impact on me and my life, and for me the Disturbed version is the one that makes me cry and stuns me with it's emotional power. Yes it's dark in tone but his voice is so amazing.
I agree.The message of the song is much clearer when done simply.
100% agree!!! I wish I could give this comment a million thumbs up!
I find it overblown forced faux anger. The live version he did on Conan was far less forced sounding than the studio version, but I still dislike that version immensely.
I gotta mention America by Simon and Garfunkel again. I'm sure you've heard it. Bernie Sanders used it in 2016 in an ad and Garfunkel was very happy that he did. America is 3:23 long. YES's cover of it is over 10 minutes. You will thoroughly enjoy both versions, I assure you : )
Maybe my favorite S&G song. That, and The Only Living Boy in New York . And At the Zoo. Saw Paul Simon 2 years ago, his fair well tour. So many great Paul Simon songs.
The S&G song “America,” and the Yes cover, would be a perfect comparison. Both are excellent!
Song writing and singing at the highest level, so many beautiful songs. Like America, The Boxer, Mrs. Robinson, and possibly their greatest achievement, Bridge Over Troubled Water 👌
This was the best song ever written. The symbolism, connotation, personification, all of the devices that are used to get the message across are amazing. It makes you feel so much with words so well. And it's beautiful. So beautiful. "His eyes were stabbed..."
I never thought of the opening guitar as rain drops. Very good. I have been listening to this song for 55 years too.
S&G had hit song while in high school. Try dissecting “Baby Driver”. It is not folk. Paul Simon solo has great catalogue. Kodachrome, Graceland, African Skies, etc. Disturbed performed with strings on TV and it was as good as studio version.
One of your best reactions -very astute, with continuous truth bombs. You should be teaching contemporary music interpretation, philosophy and/or literature at a major university. I would sign up for your classes.
And Daniel had just turned 17 here...
You reacted to Dylan’s Hard Rain Gonna Fall, which had the line “ I heard a thousand people talking with nobody listening”.
Sounds like my wife when I come home late
That line was awesome when Simon and Garfunkel did the concent in NY Central Park. The crowd knew it was about them. :)
@@richardsteiner8992 no doubt about it.
They were contemporaries. I was in college when The Graduate came out. All we listened to in the dorm was Dylan, S&G and Motown, with some Beatles and Stones in the mix. It was a great time for music.
@@snakelite61 the graduate is a great movie. I think even young people today can relate to it. Dylan had a few albums of original songs released years before S and G or the Beatles did. College must have been fun in those days.
I am a rock is they’re best song in my opinion but this is great too of course . They have so many hits
One of Simon and Garfunkel's masterpieces. I loved the last verse...."And the sigh said the words of the profits are written on the subway walls and tennemen halls, whispering the sounds of silence" Graffiti. The profits were the people that wrote Graffiti on the walls. As I understand poetry I is supposed to make you feel in certain ways that is hard to understand but it touches the soul. It brings out feelings that you might never have thought you had before. And Simon and Garfunkel were true poets. They knew how to make beautiful music with poetry that reaches the soul. I have just about all their music. I love them. ❤️
The best of Folk Rock. The real genre with this group: MUSIC FOR THE SOUL
Paul went on to a solo career. Here's one of my favorites: " Kodachrome " ua-cam.com/video/N4ltLp30KVs/v-deo.html . Back in the day when pictures were taken on a film encased in a tube. Each could hold 12 , 24 or 36 pictures. You could not see the pictures as soon as you took them. You took the tube to a place where they developed the " film " before you can see your photos. And you had to wait a week after you dropped it off
Oh yeaahhh, one of their best tunes ever! This song makes me think of being alone, as many people are, but yet knowing so much truth about life. Being one of the few people who see the bigger picture that no one else seems to notice. The deafening silence of obliviousness...despite the many many messages that can be 'seen' daily yet no one notices, except the few. Important life messages falling on deaf ears...people listening without actually hearing as the song states. Bowing to the neon lights...worshiping technology yet forgetting the most basic aspects of humanity which is treating each other with respect, helping others to overcome the adversities of life. Now I am bawling my head off, need to take a break for a minute....
Such a sad state of affairs our global society has turned into, the indifference is sickening. The gradual conditioning that has created our situation is even worse. Sometimes the most basic of words, graffiti, speaks the loudest...yet no one listens.
I won't be commenting on the Disturbed version. I do not like it...there are something that should never be repeated because the original is perfection as it is. But this is, of course, subjective and for me this song stands alone as it is. Great reaction Daniel, thank you! A couple other great tunes by S&G are Hazy Shade of Winter and At The Zoo.
So many legendary songs.Try reacting to The Dangling Conversation, Bookends, The 59th street Bridge song(Feeling Groovy).
Daniel, so fun to watch you experience the joy some of us have experienced!
From S&G's Concert in Central Park, audition "American Tune". It is as weighty as "Sound of Silence" and the harmonies are astounding. It was originally a Paul Simon solo song. Here, with Garfunkel adding his voice, I find it just wonderful.
Simon & Garfunkle are, truly, my favourite. First, they're Jewish and that, alone, makes me love them, as part Jewish myself. Also, second, their music is so Celtic. As a Scot who holds close to his heritage, the Celtic harmony they have is so touching. They speak to my Celtic soul. Their music was primal and spoke to the very roots of our human souls.
I vote for S&G's Scarborough Fair for dissection.
My vote too, especially with the double lyrics. Brilliance
You could also review Pentatonix's version of this song, as well...
Another great song you’d like is “ Darkness, Darkness” by the Youngblood’s. And their classic hit “ Get Together”- the peace anthem.
You can never go wrong with Simon and Garfunkel. This song still is relevant in this time as “ Silence is Violence ” when it comes to systemic racial justice.
I love both of those! Thanks for bringing back memories!
Yes, it was folk rock......Their first album, Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme got worn out from playing over and over my freshman year at college.....and that title song is still one of my favorite songs of all time because of it’s sheer beauty and that amazing canticle..... Yes, lack of communication....racial unrest.....establishment not listening to what young people and persons of color and the poor were saying.....We;re right back in the same spot again right now. I think people of my generation are upset about young people not knowing that Disturbed is a cover is not that it isn’t powerful or good, but rather that they want young people to know that these thoughts were common among young people over fifty years ago. Their grandparents today. Like me.
Actually, "Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme" was their 3rd album, following "Wednesday Morning, 3AM" and "Sounds of Silence". But yes, that's the one that was on continuous re-cycle at our fraternity house.
so damned stupid not to know the original......DUH.
Classic #1 song written by songwriting GENIUS Paul Simon. ☺🎼🎶🎶♥️
Up next is Bridge Over Troubled Water from the Concert In Central Park. As always nice analysis
Daniel, it is so rewarding to see you, the next generation, appreciate the music we listened to while growing up and living our best years.
Paul Simon wrote this, along with many others, whilst in London, England. He’d a shared wall with Al Stewart for a bit, whilst in the same block of flats. Simon played some of the same small clubs as Martin Carthy, when they were both up & coming. Simon got the traditional folk song “Scarborough Fair,” from hearing Carthy’s performance of it. It is the featured song on Simon & Garfunkel’s “Parsley, Sage, Rosemary, & Time” album. Simon’s song, “Homeward Bound” also written in the UK, was his longing to return to the US.
A couple you need to hear. Bridge Over Troubled Water and I Am A Rock. America is good too. So many choices with S&G!
Neon God is television, mind numbing. When people watched, they did so in silence, mindless watching and hearing.
We sang this in chorus class when I was in the 7th grade in the 70’s. I was in the group that had sing the harmony part. Not easy! Kept wanting to sing the main melody!
Great sound, right??...yes pls react to "the Boxer" you will love it!! Paul Simon is one of the best for putting pictures in our minds to his words!! Great reaction D9!!💖
There's an amazing little song by S&G called My Little Town.
This song was on their first somewhat unsuccessful album called Wednesday Morning 3 am. A stripped down version with just a guitar. Some enterprising producer decided to take the track and add instrumentation and release it and it became a huge hit.
Two of my favorite Artists and one of my favorite songs, very precious this is to me as my Dad played it to me when I was 7yo. Amazing artists and song writers. Yes they were the first to sing "Hello darkness my old friend"
These guys grew up in Queens,NYC, NY! So, "...words of a prophet, written on subway walls & tenement halls..." tell us, they were far from wooded areas or a nature preserve. Simon would write about dreary landscapes, cold December days or nites...that was his environment growing up. But, they were beautiful songs.
This song is just as relevant today as it was back then. NO-ONE did it better. S and G's music was/is iconic. Paul's composition and Art's haunting voice combined perfectly.
Paul's a New Yorker, I believe the neon God is probably the lights advertising in Times Square (imo)
Most of the neon has been replaced by giant flat screens these days.
Silence is the enemy in this because it is a symbol of the isolation that weakens the world.
America, the Simon and Garfunkle version followed by the Yes version, you will love it.
Not to be creepy in any way, but i think there are too few compliments given these days, so i would like you to know that i think your hair (cut)? Looks great and shows more of your face. That's a really great thing, in my opinion. Keep up the great reactions - you have an old soul!
Two beautiful singers. Paul Simon on his own too is brilliant.
I saw them in concert in '64. Fabulous! I still play their album regularly. It was so sad when they broke up
Paul Simon is a musical genius, and still performs
Very good reaction and an insightful lyric dissection, as we've come to expect here. For many of us, hearing it at the time, it was a song against consumerism, and what we saw as people "talking past each other," especially in government. Had to laugh when you read the comment about "....Mom and me liking the same music," as both of my parents quite liked S&G...way more than the heavy metal thunder that usually blasted through my closed door! Oh, and, by the way...I usually won't do this, but, it's often hard to get pronunciations from reading...Greenwich Village, as with Greenwich in the UK, is pronounced "GREN-itch;" all through New York and New England, you'll run into dozens of towns and cities whose names echo those from Jolly Old England...and, yes, I'm looking at you, Worcester, Massachusetts! (wuh-STAHH)
You should play more of their songs I love I am a Rock and Homeword Bound
As I was graduating from High school 1967, I thought the neon light was television, but now in 2021 it changes to our neon screens everyone stares at.
My #1 Simon & Garfunkel tune for as long as I can remember! It's such a poignant, beautiful piece - and as relevant now as it was in the early 60's when Paul Simon wrote it.
This song is more relevant today than when it was written. The silence today is deafening. Silence in the face of so much crime and corruption as the Empire crumbles around us.
Their songs make me think of coffee shops in New York back in the 60's. All poets and folk music.
The one and *only* version.
Sublime.