Song Lyric Sunday: Sounds Of Silence

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This week’s Song Lyric Sunday is a real test of my memory, as Jim is asking us to play a song from the first album we bought, as you can see in his post here. That was nearly sixty years ago, and I’ve lost the odd brain cell since then! Going that far back is likely to play tricks with my memory – which albums did I buy and which was I given for Christmas or birthdays? In those days I mostly bought singles, so you’d think I’d have a clear memory of my first album purchase, wouldn’t you? Wrong! But as far as I can tell this was the one that I first shelled out for, and I’m playing you three songs from it, as none of them are very long. Here’s the (almost) title track to get us going:

And here are the lyrics, in case you aren’t already word perfect on them:

Hello darkness, my old friendI’ve come to talk with you againBecause a vision softly creepingLeft its seeds while I was sleepingAnd the vision that was planted in my brainStill remainsWithin the sound of silence

In restless dreams, I walked aloneNarrow streets of cobblestone‘Neath the halo of a street lampI turned my collar to the cold and dampWhen my eyes were stabbed by the flash of a neon lightThat split the nightAnd touched the sound of silence
 
And in the naked light, I sawTen thousand people, maybe morePeople talking without speakingPeople hearing without listeningPeople writing songs that voices never sharedAnd no one daredDisturb the sound of silence
 
“Fools” said I, “You do not knowSilence like a cancer growsHear my words that I might teach youTake my arms that I might reach you”But my words, like silent raindrops fellAnd echoed in the wells of silence
 
And the people bowed and prayedTo the neon god they madeAnd the sign flashed out its warningIn the words that it was formingThen the sign said, “The words of the prophets are written on the subway wallsIn tenement halls”And whispered in the sound of silence
 
Source: Musixmatch
Songwriters: Paul Simon
The Sound of Silence lyrics © Paul Simon Music, Sony/atv Songs Llc, Crc Jianian Publishing
 
There are several videos of Simon & Garfunkel playing The Sound Of Silence live, but they are mostly just of the two of them, so I’m playing you the original album version, which took the song from its first appearance on their debut album Wednesday Morning 3AM and added an electric backing by members of the Wrecking Crew. The original version, like the album, was a commercial flop but the reworked release hit #1 in the US in January 1966 for two weeks, alternating with We Can Work It Out by The Beatles: the two songs shared the #1 and #2 spots that month. It wasn’t a UK hit at the time, but was one of four tracks on an EP led by Mrs Robinson that reached #9 here in 1968, after the movie The Graduate had included this song as part of its soundtrack. This was the opening track on S&G’s second album Sounds Of Silence (note the additional ‘s’) which was released in January 1966, peaking at #21 in the US and #13 in the UK – nice to see that my first album purchase was a significant one! I loved this song in both of the S&G versions. As for the more recent cover by The Disturbed that is what we here call a ‘Marmite’ song – you either love it or hate it. For me, it was an abomination that should have been strangled at birth, even if Paul Simon did give it a nod of approval!
 
I promised you three songs from the album, and here is the second. American readers can be forgiven for thinking I have this wrong, as this wasn’t on the album you got over there – you had to wait until their next release, Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme, for an album version. That came out in October 1966, and was part of my Christmas present that year. This opened up Side 2 for us:
 
 
Another absolute gem of a song. The story goes that Paul Simon wrote this when he was touring the UK in 1964/5, and Widnes railway station in the north west of England claims it as being the location: they even have a plaque on the wall to that effect, though Paul has since said it was in Warrington. Those ‘W’ place names are so confusing, aren’t they! Paul had begun a relationship with Kathy Chitty, who he had met at a folk club in Brentwood where she worked, but they had to part to allow him to continue touring. He was missing her, and wrote this song for her – she clearly had had an effect on him, as he wrote Kathy’s Song (on this album) for her, and she also got a mention in America (on Bookends). Homeward Bound was released as a single in January 1966, and made #5 in the US and #9 in the UK.
 
The final song I’m playing from what I still hold dear as an album is the one that closed it:
 
 
I Am A Rock was originally a track on an album called The Paul Simon Songbook, which was released in August 1965, but only in the UK. This is its cover, and that is Kathy:
 
 
When The Sound Of Silence began taking off in the US Paul returned from England, and re-recorded several of the songs from that album with Art, which were then included on this one. I Am A Rock was the third and final single taken from it, and it reached #3 in the US and #17 in the UK. I’ve played you all three of them but there were several other tracks I could have played, Kathy’s Song and April Come She Will in particular. As I said at the beginning I’m fairly certain that this is the first album I actually bought for myself, and on reflection I think I made a pretty good choice!
 
See you again for Tuesday Tunes 🎶

64 thoughts on “Song Lyric Sunday: Sounds Of Silence”

  1. Pingback: My August | Take It Easy

  9. All these are so good! I remember (and this is showing my age) buying one of their albums (can’t remember which – maybe greatest hits?) when I got my cool car, a Camaro, and it had an 8-trac player in there. Sure played it a lot. 🙂

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  13. A cople of things, nothing to do with you. You chose 3 of their greatest songs, all 3 which are high in the history of S&G.
    But peeve number 1. This is the third recording act you have featured that on Wikipedia no longer lists the Csnadian rankings. Many countries are listed, but Canada is not. Does anyone know what is going on? I know Canada never had an official national ranking list at the time, and what Wikipedia used to use was mainly Toronto’s numbers (which did not represent the rest of Canada) but still I think our market was important enough in the world to at least be recognized in some way. I tried to complain about this to Wikipedia but have got no response! So I am sorry for using your blog to bitch on, but I had to get this out of me. Canada listened to good music too, bought records, made requests on the radio, etc etc etc. Why have we lost our world standing? We deserve better!
    Okay, got that off my chest. I loved Simon and Garfunkel, loved this album (and most of their others). And this next comment is totally personal, but hearing the three songs you played made me lust for one other. I came to it in a backwards way, not falling in love with it until it was covered by Them, a band sadly forgotten today. But once I rediscovered it on Sounds of Silence, it moved way up my personal loves. And since you did not play it, I will. Hope you don’t mind.

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    • I think you’ll have to take that one up with Wikipedia! I’ve no idea how they compile their data. It probably isn’t any consolation but it isn’t unknown for them to miss the UK out of their chart ratings when they can clearly be found in our Official Charts Company archives.

      That is another good track. As you saw, I went for the three obvious ones: the singles that most people would know. Pleased to hear you love their music too.

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  19. I bought this one too Clive and I wore out the grooves! It t got played over and over. Those would have been the three songs I’d have chosen too. Paul Simon’s masterful writing skills on full display. Magical ☺️ He is a particullar favorite of mine.

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  20. I probably didn’t buy an album myself until I was an adult but the first album I owned, given to me for my 12th birthday by my grandparents, was Elvis Presley Blue Hawaii. I loved it and played it over and over and over.

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  21. It’s impossible to play a Paul Simon song and it be a dud. The second or third album I bought was their Greatest Hits album when I was 16, using a £2 Christmas voucher given to me at my first job.

    I’ve never been fully convinced by the Widnes station thing, but as I live only a few miles away I keep it to myself…

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    • Absolutely! He has given us so much great music over the years. A nice memory for you to have, and the £2 voucher probably covered the cost back then!

      There are a number of claims to be the location at which he wrote the song. My guess is that there may well be a grain of truth in all of them, as he probably worked on it several times while he was touring folk clubs here. Be fair to Widnes station though – does it have any other claims to fame?

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