Simon & Garfunkel
Sounds Of Silence

THE REVIEW

Yes… yes… OK… all right… I know… it's from 1966, it's prehistoric! However, while browsing the database, I found “The Doors," “Led Zeppelin I," “The Velvet Underground & Nico” so I thought of writing about these two (also because their reviews weren't present: a scandal!). “Sounds Of Silence" represents the second work of Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel. After their debut album “Wednesday Morning, 3 AM", which was highly inspirational, artistically valid but still immature, the duo embarked on the path of folk-rock.

The album contains very valid songs: “Richard Cory,” “Blessed,” “I Am a Rock,” “Somewhere They Can't Find Me”. This is true folk… the guitars and keyboards do a great job and Simon's voice perfectly matches Garfunkel's, all presented with a unique delicacy in stark contrast to Bob Dylan's style. Listening to the unforgettable “Kathy's Song” and “April Come She Will”, true moments of artistic ecstasy, your skin can't help but vibrate to the rhythm of the folk guitar strings.
Simon’s experience gained in England explodes in these masterpieces where we can find his entire life on the road, songs thought and written in the freezing English stations, the refined technique in bars for a few pounds… But Paul is not just that: he is not a simple Dylan, he doesn't write down everything that passes through his mind, Paul is also a dreamer, a visionary, an intellectual with a deep artistic vein, the same artistic vein that leads him to compose “The Sound Of Silence” one of the most poignant and sad songs ever, the song that is poetry, the poetry that is rock. For once, I can say “thank you record label!” The song in question was supposed to remain buried in a “poor” version on the first album “Wednesday Morning, 3 AM”, but Columbia heard the rustle of dollars within the sound of silence and decided to publish it in “Sounds Of Silence” in a folk version without the duo's knowledge.

I don't know if I've conveyed the idea, maybe I got too carried away, but at least I've left a mark of these two artists and their true debut album… oh, how I hate Greatest Hits!!! Well… the lyrics are worth it! It's poetry!

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
People writing songs that voices never shared
No one dared
Disturb the sound of silence

"Fools," said I, "you do not know
Silence like a cancer grows
Hear my words that I might teach you
Take my arms that I might reach you"
But my words like silent raindrops fell
And echoed in the wells of silence

And the people bowed and prayed
To the neon god they made
And the sign flashed its warning
In the words that it was forming
And the sign said "The words of the prophets are written on the subway walls
And tenement halls
And whispered in the sound of silence"

BYE!