“The Sound of Silence” will forever be entitled as the iconic song recorded by the iconic duo Simon and Garfunkel.
Simon and Garfunkel were high school friends. They both studied at Parsons High School, in Queens, New York. Soon after, they became good friends, and both of them shared their passion for music. They joined as a duo and started to make their own recordings.
Simon and Garfunkel first came to fame with the release of “Hey Schoolgirl” in 1957 under the name Tom and Jerry. The song was placed at No. 49 on Billboard’s chart. This news was soon delivered to Sid Prosen, the owner of the Big Records label.
Although they were working as a duo, Sid only approached Simon and offered to make his solo music. Simon agreed to the contract and his relationship with Garfunkel started to worsen.
The duo managed to win 10 Grammy Awards throughout the years but their friendship never remained the same. They broke up and reunited again several times and sadly the duo’s relationship started to fade after reaching the peak of their performance in 1970.
Garfunkel then decided to walk out from the duo and moved to Connecticut and worked as a math teacher. He recalled his teaching moments and said; “I would talk them through a math problem, and ask if anyone had any questions and they would say: ‘What were the Beatles like?’”
The duo’s friendship never recovered. They had planned a reunion concert in Central Park in 1981, but their tour never went on and they even stopped speaking with each other afterward.
The duo was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1990. They met again and played three songs but left without exchanging a single word. “Arthur and I agree about almost nothing,” said Simon.
The duo then gave a final push to their friendship and staged tours in 1993 and 2004. Surprisingly, in 2009, Garfunkel showed up for Simon’s performance in New York’s Beacon Theater and the duo played three songs together. The duo then even made a tour to Asia and Australia together.
Following the tour, the duo made their appearance at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame’s 25 Anniversary Concert at Madison Square Garden and astonished the fans by performing one of their biggest hits, “The Sound of Silence”.
A year later, in 2010, Garfunkel was diagnosed with “vocal paresis.” He lost his singing ability and that year would be the duo’s final reunion. He’s trying his best to regain his singing voice and in an interview with The Telegraph, he expressed his hopes, regrets, and bitterness.
“When we get together, it’s a delight to both of our ears. A little bubble comes over us and it seems effortless. We blend. So as far as this half is concerned, I would say, ‘Why not, while we’re still alive?’” Although the couple had a rough friendship throughout the years, “Sound of Silence” brought them back together.
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The Story Behind Sound of Silence
When “Sound of Silence” was released in 1964, it still remains in some of our playlists. Simon wrote this song a year before their release in 1963. He was only 21 years old. He recalls the moment he wrote the song;
The main thing about playing the guitar was that I was able to sit by myself and play and dream, and I was always happy doing that. I used to go off in the bathroom, because the bathroom had tiles, so it was a slight echo chamber. I’d turn on the faucet so that water would run — I like that sound, it’s very soothing to me — and I’d play. In the dark. ‘Hello darkness, my old friend / I’ve come to talk with you again'”, said Simon.
Although the song is widely known today, it only managed to gain a certain amount of fame in 1964. The following year, Tom Wilson, the producer re-released the song adding some tunes and making it catchy. It instantly became a hit, and the rest is history.
Ahhh, what a tune! Sound of Silence’ has more melodic, genius, simple power than I ever realized. As the years go by, there’s something extraordinarily hooky about that simple melody — I didn’t know that. Garfunkel said.
“I knew it was a good-sounding record when it emerged … It was the sixth song Paul ever wrote,” he continued. “He would come to my apartment on Amsterdam Avenue, where the roaches were in the kitchen, and he’d play me his songs. When he got to this one, I said, ‘Best one yet!’
Simon explained the song as; “The key to ‘The Sound of Silence’ is the simplicity of the melody and the words, which are youthful alienation, It’s a young lyric, but not bad for a 21-year-old. It’s not a sophisticated thought, but a thought that I gathered from some college reading material or something.”
“It wasn’t something that I was experiencing at some deep, profound level — nobody’s listening to me, nobody’s listening to anyone — it was a post-adolescent angst, but it had some level of truth to it and it resonated with millions of people. Largely because it had a simple and singable melody.”
Although their friendship was like a divorced husband and wife, their song’s legacy will forever lice on and be named as the timeless song.