Hello Darkness

“Hello darkness, my old friend

I've come to talk with you again

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”

The words quoted up above and below were written by Paul Simon when he was 21 years old and, oh-my-gosh, don’t we all wish we could write like him? Maybe not all of us but I have long admired how song writers can use so few words and find the commonalities among us. Dreams wake me up often and I’ll lay there in the dark trying to hold onto the visions that crept in while I was sleeping. If only I could turn those visions into songs I’d die a happy camper.

“In restless dreams I walked alone

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”

The song was written over several months in 1963 and was first released in 1964 but it didn’t hit the top of the Billboard chart until 1966. Over the years it has been rumored that Simon wrote the song about John F. Kennedy’s assassination but Paul emphatically denies that, says he started writing it months before that tragic day happened.

“And in 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 dared

Disturb the sound of silence”

Classified as folk rock, Simon wrote the song in his bathroom because it was the only place where he could find total darkest which helped his creativity. Garfunkel (Simon’s partner for many years) says the song sums up how so many people are unable to communicate with each other on an emotional level.

"’Fools’ said I, ‘You do not know

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

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 sounds of silence” 

Oh yes, we've all been there, done that---felt like we talk and no one listens. Surrounded by people, they seem too busy chasing the latest media sensation, the latest fashion trend, the next dollar to be earned or spreading the word of a smiting God and a vengeful politician. And when we need a hug of comfort, a word of wisdom, a hopeful ray of sunshine we feel only the coldness of being alone in a crowd, we only hear the sound of silence in our ears and we see only darkness coming. What do we do, what do we shout to make the human race heed the warning in Simon’s song before it's too late to save the our world from self-destruction?

Thank you Simon. I want to be a song writer just like you when I grow up.  ©