...by Simon and Garfunkel (vocals mostly if not all by Garfunkel) has been one of my favorite songs for almost as long as I can remember. It was released in 1964, the year I turned 9, and that year is quite special to me. You may already know that if you have seen my signature line of years gone by: "When I look in the mirror, I am happy to see, some of the nine year old boy, who used to be me" but I will not now go into why 9 was such a personally significant year for me. Let me just assure you it was such and that song was part of it.
As for The Sounds Of Silence, by Simon and Garfunkel, the esoterically bittersweet lyrics accompanied by a truly somber yet heavenly melodic musical accompaniment has been deeply branded it into the memory of my soul. For many years, decades in fact, I thought there could be no match for it as sung by the duo who originally gave it to us, that is until this evening. It was not really the singing of it by a different vocalist with his deeply somber and heavily resonating voice that made it so very different than the original version but it had a newly acquired soul piercing quality about it because it was accompanied by a video while being sung by that hauntingly spiritual voice. This newer version, accompanied by the video, truly has made me shiver to the essence of my core. It is The Sound(s) of Silence - Blue Version.
I guess that because I spent 32 years in law enforcement, this version with the video has reverberated through my being equally as much, if not more, as did the original when I was young and full of dreams and hopes and piss and vinegar during those times of never ending hopes for a better world. Funny, nothing in me has really changed sine then, I am still full of all four but I never imagined this song being directed at the listener the way this video frames when sung by the group Disturbed. I don't know if this group ever envisioned the song being paired with such a video; in fact I am almost 100% certain that Simon and Garfunkel never imagined it. Yet, here it is and it's about those who serve us right here at home, each and every day and whose lives are often at risk for us often without our ever even knowing or caring and with us taking them for granted as we do with all too many of the good things in our lives.
The only other thing I can say about this is that this version has humbled me.
As for The Sounds Of Silence, by Simon and Garfunkel, the esoterically bittersweet lyrics accompanied by a truly somber yet heavenly melodic musical accompaniment has been deeply branded it into the memory of my soul. For many years, decades in fact, I thought there could be no match for it as sung by the duo who originally gave it to us, that is until this evening. It was not really the singing of it by a different vocalist with his deeply somber and heavily resonating voice that made it so very different than the original version but it had a newly acquired soul piercing quality about it because it was accompanied by a video while being sung by that hauntingly spiritual voice. This newer version, accompanied by the video, truly has made me shiver to the essence of my core. It is The Sound(s) of Silence - Blue Version.
I guess that because I spent 32 years in law enforcement, this version with the video has reverberated through my being equally as much, if not more, as did the original when I was young and full of dreams and hopes and piss and vinegar during those times of never ending hopes for a better world. Funny, nothing in me has really changed sine then, I am still full of all four but I never imagined this song being directed at the listener the way this video frames when sung by the group Disturbed. I don't know if this group ever envisioned the song being paired with such a video; in fact I am almost 100% certain that Simon and Garfunkel never imagined it. Yet, here it is and it's about those who serve us right here at home, each and every day and whose lives are often at risk for us often without our ever even knowing or caring and with us taking them for granted as we do with all too many of the good things in our lives.
The only other thing I can say about this is that this version has humbled me.
A hat tip to mein gut freund Richie M who sent this video to me.
All the best,
Glenn B
