Sounds of Silence

This is a Disturbed cover of Simon and Garfunkle's Sound of Silence. It is an interesting interpretation. 

When I forwarded this to the beloved editor of the Prophecy Podcast, Pam Dewey, I got these comments about the song. 

Thanks. It's pretty, but I miss the very specific harmonies of S&G. And it's been difficult for me to even listen to them once I read Paul's adamant insistence that actually, there was no "deep meaning" intended in the original. All the heavy allegories and such that people have tried to read into it...weren't his. It was just a generalized "teenage" (or very close post-teenage...he was 21) angst thing. For instance the "hello darkness my old friend." He just happened to like playing his guitar in the dark bathroom with the water dripping when working on music, to shut out distractions. (And to take advantage of the acoustic tile echo.) So he was sittin' in the bathroom and the first words that came out to this song were a statement of fact. 

I guess it takes a certain gift to write lyrics that are so flexible that people can spin whatever profundity they want out of a song!

I am grateful he wrote the song though, as without it we'd never have had the few years of beautiful S&G music we had. (I never cared much for either of them alone...) 

The first recording was an acoustic version on Simon & Garfunkel's first album,Wednesday Morning, 3 AM, which was billed as "exciting new sounds in the folk tradition," and sold about 2000 copies. When the album tanked, Simon and Garfunkel split up. What they didn't know was that their record company had a plan. Trying to take advantage of the folk-rock movement, Columbia Records had producer Tom Wilson add electric instruments to the acoustic track. Simon and Garfunkel had no idea their acoustic song had been overdubbed with electric instruments, but it became a huge hit and got them back together. If Wilson had not reworked the song without their knowledge, Simon and Garfunkel probably would have gone their separate ways. When the song hit #1 in the States, Simon was in England and Garfunkel was at college.

Her final paragraph is a quote from Behind the tune blog. 

I like this song and I hope Pam has not provided too much information, as they say, "If you work in a sausage factory, you can never again eat sausages."