The Sound of Silence, Rich Paschall

Hello darkness, my old friend
I’ve come to talk with you again

People talking without speaking
People hearing without listening
People writing songs that voices never share
No one dare
Disturb the sound of silence

The Sound of Silence (shown as The Sounds of Silence on early albums) was written by Paul Simon in 1964 and released on the debut album of Simon and Garfunkel.  The album was a dismal failure and the duo broke up to pursue their own interests.  But something happened. In some markets the song was getting airplay in 1965. The song’s producer remixed the track with additional instruments and released it without telling Simon and Art Garfunkel.  It went to number one.

The duo reunited in 1966, and we guess you could say the rest is rock and roll history.  The song was one of the most performed songs of the 20th Century.  In 2004 Rolling Stone magazine named it one of the 500 Greatest Songs of All-Time.  The Simon & Garfunkel video above is from a 2009 performance at Madison Square Garden.

At the end of 2015 heavy metal band Disturbed released a cover version of the song. Their music video now has over 453 million views.  It certainly was unlike their usual metal performances. In March 2016 they amazed a Conan O’Brien audience with the above powerful rendition.

Paul Simon wrote to the lead singer, David Draiman, “Really powerful performance on Conan the other day. First time I’d seen you do it live. Nice. Thanks.”

Categories: Entertainment, Music, Rich Paschall

Tags: Disturbed, heavy metal, Simon and Garfunkel, The Sound of Silence