The Sounds of Silence by Paul Simon (cover)

[Glennwillow]

This is my cover of Paul Simon's first big hit in 1965, "Sounds of Silence." I did the first verse and the last phrase with the acoustic guitar and no harmony, but I added drums, bass, electric guitar and harmony for much of the song, just as the studio musicians at Columbia added drums, bass and electric guitar onto Simon & Garfunkel's original acoustic version of this song in Sept, 1965. The song was originally recorded as an acoustic version in March, 1964 for the "Wednesday Morning, 3 AM" album.

I was a junior in high school in 1965 and I remember this song (electric version) very well. If I remember correctly, it was the number 1 radio hit of 1965 in the USA that year. I heard the acoustic version first live in concert in 1967 and then later when I bought their first album, "Wednesday Morning, 3 AM."

This is not a song that has been in my repertoire for years, though I knew how to play it. I was always bothered by the preachy tone of the 4th verse -- "hear my words that I might teach you, ..." But one of my brothers-in-law pointed out to me, "Why don't you ever do the big hits? What about 'Sounds of Silence?'"

And so I thought I would try this song. Ironically, once I programmed the drums (Alesis SR16) and got the vocal harmony, bass and electric guitar down, I sort of got overwhelmed with the sound. I can see why this song was such a huge hit.

Thanks for watching!

[phxguy]

Great job Glenn! Really enjoyed it.

[MrEd]

Excellent Glenn. Start to finish very well done.

[Glennwillow]

Originally Posted by phxguy

Great job Glenn! Really enjoyed it.

Hi phxguy!

Thank you very much -- I am very pleased that you like this! This one took a fair amount of work to put together! Thanks so much for continuing to listen and for taking the time to comment here!

- Glenn

[Glennwillow]

Originally Posted by MrEd

Excellent Glenn. Start to finish very well done.

Hi MrEd!

Thank you for your comments and for listening! I am so glad you feel that this came out well! I hope you are doing well!

- Glenn

[Rogerblair]

Wowzers Glenn. That was fantastic. Really took me back to the day in a big way. Very well done! I can’t even imagine how long that took to record and produce. Congratulations on a fine job!

No wonder that was a top hit.

Roger

[MikeMcKee]

Great job, Glenn. Playing that and other S&G songs occupied much of my time back in that day. Obviously a lot of work went into that, and it certainly paid off. Thanks much for that.

[islandguitar]

Glenn, such a quality production!! That was super.

You and I were in the same grade in the same year..........very memorable time, for sure!

Congrats on another great one!!
Fred

[Glennwillow]

Originally Posted by Rogerblair

Wowzers Glenn. That was fantastic. Really took me back to the day in a big way. Very well done! I can’t even imagine how long that took to record and produce. Congratulations on a fine job!

No wonder that was a top hit.

Roger

Hi Roger!

Oh, I'm so glad you like how this turned out! It was a lot of work. I probably put in 10 hours on the recording and video work yesterday and did some more video work this morning, including the video editing, probably another four hours. There were 8 video recordings made and 10 tracks of audio. And I am not much of a bass player, so doing the bass recording took longer while I figured out what to do and memorized the part.

The electric guitar part was not very hard although it was in the key of F, so there were a lot of barre chords, but I am used to that. The vocal harmony part was easy because it's low; the high part that Art Garfunkel sang is actually the melody line. Still, it takes time to get all that stuff down.

I have not had that bass guitar or that Stratocaster out of their cases for well over two years. It was nice to get them out and play them again.

It's also been more than a couple of years since I programmed drum patterns, so that took a little bit of review to remember how to do it.

Thanks so much for watching and taking the time to comment!

- Glenn

[Glennwillow]

Originally Posted by MikeMcKee

Great job, Glenn. Playing that and other S&G songs occupied much of my time back in that day. Obviously a lot of work went into that, and it certainly paid off. Thanks much for that.

Hi Mike!

How nice to hear from you! I'm very pleased that you thought this came out okay! Yes, as I mentioned to Roger (above), this multi-track recording did take a fair amount of time.

But it has been a long time since I have done a multi-track recording. Once I got into it, I really enjoyed the process.

Thanks so much for watching!

- Glenn

[Glennwillow]

Originally Posted by islandguitar

Glenn, such a quality production!! That was super.

You and I were in the same grade in the same year..........very memorable time, for sure!

Congrats on another great one!!
Fred

Hi Fred!

Yes, I thought we were of a very similar age! The last half of the 1960s was a crazy time in our history, though at the time, I did not really recognize how much was happening. The Baby Boom had a huge impact on so many things at that time in history.

I'm really pleased that you feel that this was a quality production!!! Thanks so much! And I always appreciate your watching and your comments!

- Glenn

[mikealpine]

Glenn, another terrific song, my friend! A lot of fun to see you playing an electric and a bass! You are a man of many talents, I thoroughly enjoyed this from beginning to end.

[Glennwillow]

Originally Posted by mikealpine

Glenn, another terrific song, my friend! A lot of fun to see you playing an electric and a bass! You are a man of many talents, I thoroughly enjoyed this from beginning to end.

Hi Mike,

Oh, I am so glad you thought this came out okay! Thanks so much for letting me know! I really appreciate your comments, Mike!

I am not much of a bass player, though I'm sure I could be better if I did it more. But I have done my share of electric guitar playing, so I have a fair number of very nice electric guitars. That Strat+ I was playing in the video is something I purchased about 1990. It sure is pretty. For that matter, so is that Carvin bass I was playing. Somehow I seem to manage playing the electric guitar, though I play it pretty much like an acoustic guitar player.

Thanks so much for your comments, Mike! I am very glad you like this!

- Glenn

[Organic Sounds Select Guitars]

Glenn, what an achievement! All those hours paid off big time - it all came together beautifully! I agree that its fun to see you with the Stratocaster and the bass as well as your D-35. That’s a birth year song for me - it seems like I grew up with it, never really understanding the lyrics but always liking the power of the song.

Absolutely great stuff Glenn!!

[Glennwillow]

Originally Posted by LWSog

Glenn, what an achievement! All those hours paid off big time - it all came together beautifully! I agree that its fun to see you with the Stratocaster and the bass as well as your D-35. That’s a birth year song for me - it seems like I grew up with it, never really understanding the lyrics but always liking the power of the song.

Absolutely great stuff Glenn!!

Thanks so much Larry!

I am so glad that you weighed in on this cover of such a great song. I know, based on your videos, that you can appreciate the time and effort that went into such a production.

It was fun to pull out that Strat and that Carvin bass and play them again after such a long break. And also, though it takes a fair amount of time, I have enjoyed enjoyed putting together multi-track recordings like this over the years. Sometimes these efforts don't really work out all that well, but when they do, it's rather exhilarating.

Regarding the meaning of the song, I always thought it was about the problems that people have communicating with each other. And sometimes when we recognize communication problems, we clam up and are left with silence. The "neon god" Paul Simon refers to, I am guessing, is technology. So it seems that with our current technology, we still have not solved our problems with communication. I copied these words below from Wikipedia:

"The song's origin and basis remain unclear, with multiple answers coming forward over the years. Many believe that the song commented on the John F. Kennedy assassination, as the song was released three months after the assassination. Simon stated unambiguously in interviews, however, "I wrote The Sound of Silence when I was 21 years old", which places the time frame firmly prior to the JFK tragedy, with Simon also explaining that the song was written in his bathroom, where he turned off the lights to better concentrate. "The main thing about playing the guitar, though, was that I was able to sit by myself and play and dream. And I was always happy doing that. I used to go off in the bathroom, because the bathroom had tiles, so it was a slight echo chamber. I'd turn on the faucet so that water would run (I like that sound, it's very soothing to me) and I'd play. In the dark. 'Hello darkness, my old friend / I've come to talk with you again'." In a more recent interview, Simon was directly asked, "How is a 21 year old person thinkin' about the words in that song?" His reply was, "I have no idea." According to Garfunkel, the song was first developed in November, but Simon took three months to perfect the lyrics, which he claims were entirely written on February 19, 1964. Garfunkel once summed up the song's meaning as "the inability of people to communicate with each other, not particularly internationally but especially emotionally, so what you see around you are people unable to love each other."

I really appreciate your listening to this Larry, and I always appreciate your comments!

- Glenn