Because a vision softly creeping
Left its seeds while I was sleeping
And the vision that was planted in my brain
Still remains
Within the sound of silence
Narrow streets of cobblestone
‘Neath the halo of a street lamp
I turned my collar to the cold and damp
When my eyes were stabbed by the flash of a neon light
That split the night
And touched the sound of silence
Ten thousand people, maybe more
People talking without speaking
People hearing without listening
People writing songs that voices never shared
And no one dared
Disturb the sound of silence
Silence like a cancer grows
Hear my words that I might teach you
Take my arms that I might reach you”
But my words, like silent raindrops fell
And echoed in the wells of silence
To the neon god they made
And the sign flashed out its warning
In the words that it was forming
Then the sign said, “The words on the prophets are written on the subway walls
In tenement halls”
And whispered in the sound of silence
In 1962, Paul Simon wrote this legendary song, with the melancholy opening line “Hello darkness, my old friend, I’ve come to talk with you again…” which he stated was not only ode to his habit of recording songs in the bathroom of his parents home with the lights off, but also, as his singing partner Art Garfunkel once put it, was about “the inability of people to communicate with each other, not particularly intentionally but especially emotionally, so what you see around you are people unable to love each other.”
This message resonates even more today than it did all those years ago, which is perhaps what led the heavy metal band “Disturbed” to cover the song in their haunting rendition of the song in 2015.
My oldest son, Tyler, sent this cover to me to listen to in a text message after it’s release. Being a long time Simon and Garfunkel fan, I had serious doubts that anyone could do it justice, like the original artists.
I humbly stand corrected!!!
If you haven’t heard it, DEFINITELY give it a listen!!! (Click HERE)
For me, Disturbed’s version captures the true essence of this song.
It exemplifies the loneliness, the disconnection of today’s society, even the anger felt about people being so caught up in worshiping the false neon god programming of television, social media (which really isn’t always so ‘social’, but isolating), electronics, etc. and the desensitization and disconnection that comes along with it, causing us to become more and more separated as human beings….and how they DON’T LISTEN to our WARNINGS of what is happening…and what is yet to come!!!
I actually weep every time I hear it….STILL
I weep for what we have become….
I weep for those who do not heed the warning…
I pray for people to wake up to what is really going on and turn away from it’s EVIL….
To WAKE UP to the LIES of the ENEMY…
To UNDERSTAND that the FULL intention IS to divide us…
Not only from each other…
But from GOD!!!
I pray they realize that which is TRULY important….
To come back TOGETHER….
NOT to live in FEAR…
To DARE to STAND UP…
To DARE to DISTURB THE SOUND OF SILENCE
To rediscover the ONE THING that matters in this life…
To LOVE ONE ANOTHER….AS CHRIST LOVES US!!!
