The Sound

6/28/2023

I guess this is a day for "Silence."

And I know most everyone heard this song. Countless times. But I'd never seen this performance, and it's a very special and fairly recent one, making it all the more special.

This is Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel reuniting at the 25th anniversary Rock-and-Roll Hall of Fame Concert at Madison Square Garden just a little over 13 years ago, in late 2009, singing "The Sound of Silence."

Their performance and the harmonies -- almost half a century after the song was originally released -- is impeccable, and the large audience wildly enthusiastic.

So, from "Silence is Golden" this morning, to "The Sound of Silence" tonight.

2 Comments

Tony Del Genio

6/28/2023 06:31:45 pm

I'd seen this video once before, but it never gets old. Nancy and I wore that album out in high school. It took a while before the song caught on. Apparently they performed it in a club in Greenwich Village and were almost laughed off the stage. Then it eventually started to get picked up by a couple of stations in Europe, and then notably late night Boston radio, and finally it took off. Strange how things work. One of the greatest songs of all time, and almost never saw the light of day.

Amazingly, the heavy metal band Disturbed did a cover of this song in 2016 which has received almost 1 billion views on youtube. Very different approach, obviously, but effective...and introduced it to a new generation. They performed it on Conan and Simon wrote to the lead singer, David Draiman, to compliment him. This is just one of those songs that will always be great.

Robert Elisberg

6/28/2023 07:55:27 pm

Tony, thanks. It's always good to hear from our official "Sound of Silence" historian.

Though the best part of your note was about you and Nancy being together since high school...

The Sound

Leave a Reply.

Author

Archives

Categories