Simon Amp; Garfunkel Sounds Of Silence Album

[Bartie Spalitto]

Andin the naked light, I saw ten thousand people, maybe more.

People talking without speaking.

People hearing without listening.

People writing songs that voices never share.

No one dare disturb the sound of silence.

And the people bowed and prayed

to the neon god they made.

And the sign flashed out 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.

I can find one basic argument for both the use of the singular and the plural form of the word silence. As the plural sounds does not appear in the lyrics at all while the singular sound appears three times, one can reasonably argue that the author intended the title to be singular.

With the enormous success of the movie The Graduate in 1968, CBS reissued The Sounds Of Silence in several countries with various B-sides. The six sleeves above are from France, Germany, Italy, Japan (two sleeves with the second from 1971), and Norway.

FEATURED IMAGE: The photo at the top of this page of Art and Paul in the Los Angeles area was taken by Guy Webster in late 1965. Webster also did the photography for the jacket of the SOUNDS OF SILENCE album.

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This viral Facebook post (which is not the first to offer this version of the untold story behind "The Sound of Silence") gave a generally accurate overview of Garfunkel and Greenberg's friendship. The two were college roommates, Garfunkel nicknamed himself "darkness" when talking to Greenberg after Greenberg went blind, and Greenberg provided financial support to help launch Garfunkel's career. However, there area two important facts that the text did not consider: First, the song "The Sound of Silence" was written by Paul Simon, not Garfunkel. And second, while it was possible that Greenberg inspired the line, "Hello darkness, my old friend," no credible evidence proved that that was the case.

Sanford "Sandy" Greenberg is an author, inventor, philanthropist, and chair of the board of governors of the Johns Hopkins Wilmer Eye Institute. In 2020, he published a biography that borrowed its title, "Hello Darkness, My Old Friend," from the hit Simon & Garfunkel song, "The Sound of Silence."

As [Greenberg] despaired in darkness at his parents' house in Buffalo, N.Y., convinced he'd never make it through Columbia without sight, Garfunkel 'flew in, turned me around and said, 'I will help you.''

As Garfunkel devoted himself to being his friend's eyes, he would sometimes call himself Darkness. 'He divorced himself from the life he'd been living, altering his own ways to conform better to mine,' says Greenberg. 'Arthur would walk in and say, 'Sanford, Darkness is going to read you The Iliad.''

As noted in the viral post, Garfunkel also once "abandoned" his friend at New York's Grand Central Terminal in an attempt to show Greenberg that he could make it home by himself despite his blindness. (Garfunkel didn't actually abandon his friend. He simply remained quiet and watched as his friend navigated the train system.) In 2016, the magazine for the duo's alma mater, Columbia Magazine, mentioned the incident in an article about the pair's friendship:

Then, one afternoon, Greenberg and Garfunkel went to Midtown. When it was time for Greenberg to go back to campus, Garfunkel said he had an appointment and couldn't accompany him. Greenberg panicked. They argued, and Garfunkel walked off, leaving Greenberg alone in Grand Central Terminal. Greenberg, bewildered, stumbled through the rush-hour crowd. He took the shuttle to Times Square, transferred to the 1 train, and got out at 116th and Broadway. At the gates, someone bumped into him.

The viral Facebook post also claimed that Greenberg gave Garfunkel roughly $400 to help record Simon & Garfunkel's debut album. This, too, was accurate. In his biography, Greenberg recounted the moment when Garfunkel talked to him about the money, writing:

While the Facebook post truly recounted memorable moments from Garfunkel and Greenberg's lifelong friendship, its claim that Greenberg inspired the line, "Hello darkness, my old friend" was unfounded.

It was indeed possible, even plausible, that a song by a band with a member who called himself "darkness" and had a close friend who was blind would reference that relationship with the lyrics. However, as far as we could tell, neither Simon nor Garfunkel have ever said that was the case. In fact, both musicians have talked about the "The Sound of Silence," explaining the meaning of the song, without referencing Greenberg.

"The Sound of Silence" was written by Simon, not Garfunkel, circa 1963 and released on the band's debut album, "Wednesday Morning, 3 A.M." According to Simon, the opening line of the song referenced his childhood practice of playing guitar in the bathroom in the dark. Here's an excerpt from a 1984 interview Simon did with Playboy magazine:

SIMON: Well, that's the first line. Then it drifts into some other things. I've always believed that you need a truthful first line to kick you off into a song. You have to say something emotionally true before you can let your imagination wonder.

Garfunkel, too, has commented on the song. On the back cover of "Wednesday Morning, 3 A.M." the duo published a letter Garfunkel had written to Simon after the studio asked Garfunkel to write song descriptions for the album.

The Sounds of Silence is a major work. We were looking for a song on a larger scale, but this was more than either of us expected. Paul had the theme and the melody set in November, but three months of frustrating attempts were necessary before the song "burst forth." On February 19, 1964, the song practically wrote itself.

Polcaro, Rafael. "Art Garfunkel's Blind Friend Who Inspired 'Sound Of Silence' Tells His Story." Rock And Roll Garage, 19 July 2020, -garfunkel-blind-friend-who-inspired-sound-of-silence-tells-his-story/.

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