What are Simon and Garfunkel talking about in “The Sound Of Silence”?
Paul Simon once said “Each song is a picture of me the day I wrote it”. “Sounds of Silence” was written after the death of JFK, when Americans were in shock. It was released in 1966, after the duo had had one of their breakups, and Paul had been on his own for a while. He was a lonely character anyway, and many songs this early in his career dealt with loneliness (eg I am a Rock, Homeward Bound). The lyrics of the song go: 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 turned 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 w
