Simon & Garfunkel - Sounds of Silence

My wife and kids left to visit Oklahoma for the weekend. So slightly tongue-in-cheek, it's time to pull out my personal favorite Simon & Garfunkel album.

It's one of the albums i had the songbook for growing up, and i literally learned every song in my own way (i might have even rewrote the lyrics of "Kathy's Song" to be about my '77 van for a college class). I can still play most of them.

Shut up, p(nmi)t, this album has bottle worthy trivia that's way more important.

This album (no sophomore slump at all) may have been produced by Bob Johnson, but he sure didn't produce this particular version of "The Sound of Silence." I'd give you a prize for guessing, but you'd cheat and i wouldn't be able to finish this essay, so tough.

The original version of "The Sound of Silence" was on their first album. They didn't create this version. Say whaaaat? Yeah, some dude with adamantium testicles was sitting at the booth and said "i need to hire studio musicians right now because the entire history of American pop-rock depends on it." A guy with balls so big and impervious to anything, that even Bob Dylan's ego had to admit that his vision had an impact. That man was Tom Wilson. Yes, the same Tom Wilson who brought you Zappa at all and produced Dylan's "Like A Rolling Stone" just decided to turn a random Paul Simon song into a hit rock single and thus create their 2nd album without them even knowing. The dude was a madmaniacle genius.

Paul Simon freely admits that he always felt like his songs were overly neurotic, but this is a fantastic album. It's a man alone with his thoughts. He's a consistent person, his world view and his self image come from the same sources of doubt. He sees the world for it's false facade. These are the real inner views of a complex and conflicted individual. Sure, you might have a different outlook than Mr. Simon, but you can't pretend you don't understand that self doubt and confusion.

And "April Come She Will" is my favorite Art Garfunkel performance of his entire career (no offense to the Legion of Garf); i can't define it and it was probably pure coincidence, but he not Paul HAD to sing it.

This is one of the very few legitimately magical albums that could never have been planned out the way it actually ended up. Enjoy.

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