Simon & Garfunkel: The Sound of Silence Meaning

Song Released: 1965

Covered By: Bananarama (2009), Disturbed (2015)

The Sound of Silence Lyrics

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.

In restless...

1. anonymous

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   Dec 28th 2018 !⃝

   The beginning of the song simply sets the scene of one walking alone in a cold and dark place of depression..
   
   "When my eyes were stabbed by the flash of a neon light"
   
   I believe this is referring to an alert on the cell phone lighting up in the darkness and he looks down at the naked light of the neon cell phone and sees a thread with 10k comments or maybe more.
   
   "People talking without speaking
   People hearing without listening"
   
   Because everyone was texting..
   
   "People writing songs that voices never share"
   
   This part is great, Singing is the outward expression of something written..well now days people are keeping those feelings bottled up causing more depression..
   
   "And the people bowed and prayed
   To the neon god they made"
   
   You don't have to look far to see nearly everyone's head down staring at their neon phone in which they turn to fire everything...yes the neon devise we've created..
2. anonymous

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   Dec 24th 2018 !⃝

   I am with the person who like I, lived and grew up through this time and was of an age when you were strongly influenced. To me, it is as simple as knowing that through that period our generations music was trying to be silence by all that were not us. Being a musician for over 50 years there is nothing worse than having your music silenced by people who have no idea of its value. The begining verse simply tells you of how the song was written and why. If you know the fact that Simon often wrote in his dark, tiled (because of the accostics), bathroom with the water running, this was the hello darkness part. The why is because of the dream of a world without music. The rest of the verses tells you what happens in this world. If you know and understand
   the song 2112 by Rush, it's telling you same thing. Neil Peart based his lyrics on the sounds of silence and used some of simons words in other rush songs. ie: the words of the prophets are written on the studios walls,concert halls. You need to look and the surface of something before you go to deep.
3. anonymous

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   Dec 18th 2018 !⃝

   The Sound of Silence by Simon & Garfunkel is a very deep song and it really speaks about the importance of talking and being present with the one you are with or many people you are with. Silence is sometimes used instead of talking nowadays. I agree with the latest comment on this song.
   
   As you explained, we talk without speaking. Technology has surpassed and they are winning because of the many social websites and social media available in the computers and many apps on our cellphones. We are now forgetting the importance of being present with them in person and when communicating with them via the computers and our cell phones. I agree, isolation is the result. It is also visible to me now. I now realized that majority of the people around the world, people who are close to us, our friends or people we don't even know would rather converse with you via computers and via apps on cellphones and not in person.
   
   - The person who made comments on songs recently

   This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
4. anonymous

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   Dec 18th 2018 !⃝

   We do more and more of our communicating with one another all alone with our computers and our cell phones, or sometimes are so involved with our cell phones that even when we are in one another's presence we pay less attention to each other than we do to our gadgets (phones, games, etc).
   We talk without speaking.
   By communicating from the heart of our isolation in this way, we lose familiarity with other cues that add so much more depth to communications - tone of voice, facial expressions, body movements, electrical emanations now measurable and once called 'vibes'. If we let ourselves lose touch with these things, we lose vital skills. Some of us might be hearing and yet not listening. If we let it keep happening and don't do anything to counter it, like a cancer it grows. Isolation. We fall into the wells of silence.
   New aspects of meaning, most likely not seen by the original authors and yet very visible to me now. For me, it adds still more meaning to an already beautiful song.

   This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
5. anonymous

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   Nov 15th 2018 !⃝

   I believe it's talking about text messaging.

   This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
6. anonymous

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   Oct 27th 2018 !⃝

   To me, the lyrics of this song are a paradox. On the one hand, they point towards a path of healing the tragic effects of loss in cases where such traumas cannot be openly and freely expressed by the victim. This path starts in the first line: saying hello to darkness which conjures up feelings of both comfort and sadness, sadness that is safely and comfortably experienced alone, out of sight. That is, it represents a chance to befriend feelings that you would not publicly acknowledge. At same time, it seems to suggest that we need to say hello to these feelings.
   
   On the other hand it then devolves into a common blame-the- victim narrative, which is unfortunate. My own view is that the people who do not speak (but talk) nor listen (but only hear) should be understood as survivors, not "fools". There is no recognition that these "victims" did not produce the neon light, despite the fact that this "stabbing" light now owns them. There is no compassion for them, no suggestion of what it would mean to be helpless, to confront a power that would destroy you in a heartbeat.
   
   Thankfully and perhaps purposely it then goes back to using this same image of neon light in order to see the "signs on the subway wall". This provides an introduction of sorts, a way to let the forbidden unacknowledged feelings be seen, albeit below ground, and then even hang out with them for a while, however unpleasant and scary that may be.
   
   The next song: once we get to know our own and others forbidden feelings in this way, hopefully we will not be as afraid and respond so strongly to them.

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7. anonymous

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   Sep 25th 2018 !⃝

   Hello darkness, my old friend
   I've come to talk with you again
   
   The dreamer a prophet has just awaken from a recurring vision that has left him in that state where one is afraid to move or speak after gaining consciousness from a nightmare
   
   Because a vision softly creeping
   Left it's seeds while I was sleeping
   And the vision that was planted
   In my brain still remains
   Within the sound of silence
   
   Terrified to share this vision with anyone he keeps it to himself by meditating on it alone
   
   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
   
   He begins recalling the vision of his actions starting from the beginning. As stated
   
   When my eyes were stabbed by the flash of a neon light
   That split the night
   And touched the sound of silence
   
   The neon light was off standing while illuminating these:
   
   And in the naked light I saw
   Ten thousand people, maybe more
   
   These are those that were left in the very moment Jesus returned and left
   
   People talking without speaking
   People hearing without listening
   People writing songs that voices never share
   And no one dared
   Disturb the sound of silence
   
   All were left speechless realizing all that had been foretold was true and yet they all simultaneouly knew what was to follow
   
   "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"
   
   Now the prophet in angelic form begins to speak to the masses where they all have come short and what was to follow.
   
   But my words, like silent raindrops fell
   And echoed
   In the wells of silence
   
   And then he departs to heaven
   
   And the people bowed and prayed
   To the neon god they made
   
   The graffiti like warning sign was All that was left pertaining to God created by someone that was also ignored by the people.
   
   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"
   
   Their final warning before the coming of the Lord
   
   And whispered in the sounds of silence
8. anonymous

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   Aug 25th 2018 !⃝

   The song can be interpreted, like anything in life, via your own paradigm and experiences. To me, it is clearly about 'Sleep' and the importance to life. Sleep is the one thing that has evolved in all beings regardless of risk to life. Sleep may well be the dominant state.
   I will go through the lyrics line by line at some stage one it is imprinted on my mind after a good sleep!

   This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
9. anonymous

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   May 22nd 2018 !⃝

   I personally feel like music, just as books (even the Bible) are subjective to one's own interpretation.
   I am a person that uses music as a bit of therapy, so I feel it as much as I hear it, if that makes sense.
   This particular song has always affected me in a deep way. For me, the darkness is what I experience battling depression, PTSD, the loss of a child and also as a survivor of rape by a relative that happened to me as a very young child...something everyone knows about but just kinda swept under the rug and never, ever speaks of. My tendency when the thoughts/memories/depression floods my brain (often after I've had a nightmare of any one of those events) is to withdraw completely within myself, away from friends, family, even my children... because I feel that no one really understands what it's like (and honestly I'm glad they don't, it means they haven't been thru it themselves) and it's not something they reach out to me and really try to help with either or even ask about. So I carry it alone, always have,and when it's bad I keep myself distanced from the people I love the most because I'm just not always able to fake smiles, so the silence between us grows. (Especially now that my children are adults and out on their own.) Like a cancer, that eats away at the body, the silence and lack of feeling able to have honest communiaction is eating away at the relationships and lately prevents me from creating new ones entirely. No one dares ask me what's wrong when I'm withdrawn, and I think my children assume I just choose to withdraw from them, so again, it's like a cancer, slowly eating away at the meaningful relationships and leaving in its place a deafening and heartbreaking silence. Is darkness my friend? No, but being alone during the difficult times is welcomed when I just don't have the energy to pretend anymore that everything is okay.
   In regards to the line about "seeing 10,000 people, maybe more", for me, I relate that to the times when I can be totally surrounded by people (family included) and yet feel so utterly and completely alone.
   The song is a painful one, but it's one that speaks to my heart. I particularly love the cover performed by Disturbed. The emotion he sings it with, the build up from a soft, depressed beginning that turns into almost pure rage by the end,is very much how I feel about it all inside.
   I don't try to interpret what an artist's intended meaning is for any piece of music, I connect with different pieces for my own personal reasons. Just thought I'd share my reason for this particular piece.
10. anonymous

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    May 18th 2018 !⃝

    I believe it’s to do with being aware , present in the present , keeping your mind clear , not being influenced by people or things , keeping a dialogue with others , finding your purpose in life and not being silenced while living it !
    The hello darkness my old friend , I feel is ironic !
    Realising that you have slipped once again into mainstream beliefs and control !
11. anonymous

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    Apr 30th 2018 !⃝

    A lonely person entered into the wilderness. Surrounded by darkness when there is only silence and can only see a very dim light and feelings of coolness. Than came a flash of a neon light that split the night in two and was within The Sound Of Silence.

    This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
12. anonymous

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    Apr 24th 2018 !⃝

    I’m actually a scrapbooking nut.
    So, I’m actually using the song for the scrapbook I’m doing for my daughter who lost her baby. She has suffered depression for years, I think it’s meaning is of someone suffering depression and feeling alone, but when the lyrics say about seeing other people. It sounds like they realise they’re not alone, and they can see the light in the darkness of depression
13. anonymous

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    Mar 14th 2018 !⃝

    Basically, what this song is about is that there are so many countries where languages are different from what we know and accept here in the States, or in more civilized areas. People think that they are just as sophisticated as us, but they're not. But people can all come together through the universal language of music. People who cannot understand each other with their native languages can understand each other through music and interpretative dance. When he says that there was a neon light that blinded him, he means that he was out in the middle of the night and just walking around, and suddenly a neon light turned on right in front of his eyes, effectively, but not intentionally, blinding him for a minute. The whole song is not about one or two instances. It is talking about the existence of life and the belief that we could just go in and try to teach people what we mean with our words. We all eventually go back into our native routes and find music as our main language, because we can communicate to others through what we listen to, and they can understand exactly what we're talking about.
14. anonymous

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    Mar 4th 2018 !⃝

    I just read the reactions of people that listen to this song and i was absolutely amazed! The song really does have a meaning of purpose its really no joke. The song remindes me of the classic chris isaak wicked game video that first aired on mtv in mid 90s the version that utube does not want u to view.
    Mysterious.
15. anonymous

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    Feb 19th 2018 !⃝

    I thought that when the song says in the naked light I saw ten thousand people maybe' refers of the judgement day that it saw ten thousand people maybe more...

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