Hello Darkness My Old Friend: The Sound Of Silence

This song is one of my all-time favourites. I love it regardless of what its critics may say. The melody demands listening, the lyrics are vocally very strong. The Sound of Silence has always seemed to touch me deep inside and I felt there was a profound meaning to it that I was unable to grasp. From the opening, haunting lyric – “Hello Darkness My Old Friend” - I’m already captivated and can easily apply that line to periods of my life. 

Two ‘Original’ Versions
Simon & Garfunkel recorded The Sound of Silence in two different versions. The first is acoustic and is the last track on side 2 of their 1964 debut album, Wednesday Morning, 3 AM. The second is electric and opens the follow-up, Sounds of Silence album.

The truth though isn’t quite as simple as that. Producer, Tom Wilson had signed Simon & Garfunkel two years before. Wednesday Morning, 3 AM had failed only selling a few thousand copies, disillusioned the pair split up going their separate ways. Wilson however didn’t give up as easily. Without Simon & Garfunkel’s knowledge he hired a bunch of session musicians and remixed the track by adding electric guitars and a rhythm section. 

In the mid-60s, led by the likes of The Byrds and Bob Dylan there was a new wave of folk-road music starting to crystallise in America, the new version of The Sound of Silence rode in on the back of this movement. Paul Simon was reputedly left cold upon hearing it, however it went on to top the Billboard charts selling over a million copies. As a result, Simon & Garfunkel got back together, started over and went on to prove their class. When you understand this you realise what a fine line there is between success and obscurity in music.

What’s the Song Actually About?
The very fact that nobody can actually agree on what the song means adds to it aura. You can easily come up with what some of the lines or phrases mean, but nobody seems to have come up with a consistent, meaningful interpretation that takes into account all the lines. Paul Simon is reported as saying that it's just teenage angst and I tend to agree with that – but those other theories still nag in my mind.

There’s quite a strong leaning to the interpretation which says it’s about man’s inability to relate to his fellow man. There are many reminders in the lyrics of the way we live and carry out our daily lives. A failure to communicate with each other is shaping a destructive end yet we remain silent on burning and troubling issues which is equally as destructive, dangerous and as weighty as the title of the song itself. Don’t forget it was written during the heights of the Cold War.

Another darker interpretation of The Sound of Silence is that it’s about a deeply depressed individual who is contemplating suicide because no one is listening to the nightmares he suffers. I get that logic but I’m not sure it’s that deep a song. There are many other theories including one that it’s Paul Simon’s response to the shooting of John F Kennedy in December 1963 but I’m not sure I believe that one either.

That Disturbed Cover
The heavy metal band Disturbed surprised many people by covering The Sound of Silence for their 2015 ‘Immortalized’ album. For me, this has to be the best cover of the song I’ve ever heard. It’s a version that really does justice to the original and yet adds many additional layers of emotion, intensity, empathy, understanding and pathos to it. David Draiman sings it just as powerfully as anything Simon and Garfunkel could muster. Guitarist Dan Donegan said "We wanted to showcase his vulnerability and take a leftfield approach. The strings and violins really deepen it. It's something that might shock people because we went down a new path altogether. We did what felt right and saw the vision through."

Aside of the Disturbed version, I find it interesting that Rush borrowed some of the lyrics for their hit "The Spirit of Radio" the final verse containing "For the words of the profits were written on the studio wall." Which, strangely enough were also in the last verse of The Sound of Silence.

The Sound of Silence
I don’t think we will ever know what the song is actually about, you can only tell what it means to you or what you think is its meaning. 

It’s still the lyrics that pull you into the song, the strong sentences capture my attention and imagination which is like an unfolding lesson and when you consider certain words and phrases used it does bear down heavily on the social decay we have witnessed in almost every nation across the world.

In today’s world we spend hours texting or chatting on social media; talking without speaking; hearing without listening. Natural communication is at an all-time low. Instead of us having family time and talking with one another we spend endless hours in an unnatural worship of technology.

People now blindly believe what they are told without thinking things through for themselves. They watch movies, listen to what is said in the mainstream media and are shaped into viewing things the way the powers behind our globalised world want them to view it.

Maybe, just maybe Paul Simon foresaw this over 50 years ago?