The Simon and Garfunkel track that Paul Simon was simply “horrified” by
Of all the titans of classic rock songwriting, Paul Simon could never be insincere about anything. Simon’s ability to dance between the notions of reality and fantasy meant he was able to successfully detach himself from his work. As such, he also allowed himself to be surprised by his songs.
Where The Beatles occasionally made up characters in their songs, and Bob Dylan made sarcastic jabs in his lyrics, Simon’s words tended to be undeniably authentic, whether quoting his own heart or making something based on the many problems he saw in the world. While his solo career made for special detours in his usual style, nothing says it all for Simon’s songwriting quite like ‘The Sound of Silence’.
It was the breakthrough hit for Simon as a songwriter and remains a revered masterpiece, but he still feels he far eclipsed it with his latter work. ”It’s a young lyric, but not bad for a 21-year-old,” he once said. But any degree of naivety was the least of his worries when he heard one of the mixes. The track had been found in the archives by noted Bob Dylan producer Tom Wilson, while Simon had moved to England after cutting the track.
Wilson smelled a hit. He figured with The Byrds flying through the charts with electrified versions of Dylan, the same could happen with this humble chord progression. He was right, but when Simon heard the version hitting the charts, he recoiled.
When first putting together the classic track, though, Simon and Garfunkel were most likely seen as failures of the music industry. After getting together in the New York folk scene, Simon had been woodshedding his songs before forming the duo with Art Garfunkel. While they had mined traditional folk covers and spiritual songs, Simon was on to something when he went into his bathroom one day and stumbled upon the iconic chord progression of ‘The Sound of Silence’.
Coming after the assassination of President John F Kennedy, Simon’s ode to the loss of humanity ringed as true as what Dylan was writing on tracks like ‘The Times They Are A-Changin’’. Thinking they had a hit on their hands, Simon included it on the duo’s debut album, Wednesday Morning 3 AM, only for it to fall off the charts and sink like a stone.
Thinking that the life of a duo wasn’t in the cards, Simon and Garfunkel briefly broke up for a spell, with Simon eventually releasing his first solo album comprised of what would become future Simon and Garfunkel tunes. While Simon was overseas, though, something else happened with his greatest song.
Going through the vaults, noted Bob Dylan producer Tom Wilson found Simon’s song and thought it could still have potential as a hit. Since rock bands like The Byrds were already gaining notoriety after making energised takes on Dylan’s best work, it was time that the same treatment was done for the Simon tune.
Bringing in session musicians from the New York scene, Wilson created the bed for the single version of the song, complete with massive drums and occasional lead guitar licks sprinkled throughout. Compared to the spare acoustic version, Wilson’s arrangement brought a heightened sense of drama that the duo couldn’t grasp on their own.
Simon wouldn’t find out that he had a hit on the charts until he saw it at the top when he returned to America. According to Simon’s colleague Al Stewart, he initially hated the version everyone was hearing, recalling in Paul Simon: A Life, “Paul was horrified when he first heard it … [when the] rhythm section slowed down at one point so that Paul and Artie’s voices could catch up.”
Regardless of the studio tampering with the recording, the song became a fixture of Simon and Garfunkel’s career, with their next album including the single version and naming the album Sounds of Silence. Even when performing the song live, Simon and Garfunkel kept true to the version they started with, performing it as a quiet acoustic song to the thousands that came to see them every night.
Then again, the arrangement was never meant to be cut and dry throughout their career. During their performance at the anniversary of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, the duo can be heard making subtle variations on the rhythm and the articulation of the lyrics. Even though ‘Sound of Silence’ is considered a standard of 1960s folk rock, it’s almost like Simon still sees it as a work in progress.
