Music Monday: The Sound of Silence

This week’s Music Monday is a request from writer friend (and fellow North Carolinian) Donna Everhart. She commented a few weeks ago that this is a song that’s been buzzing around her head while working on her current novel. (By the way, yes, I take requests. If there’s a song you’d like me to feature, just let me know via the comments or by email.)

“The Sound of Silence” (sometimes called “The Sounds of Silence”) was Simon and Garfunkel’s first major hit, reaching number one in the US and breaking the top ten in the UK and Australia. Originally recorded in 1964 as an acoustic song, it featured on their first album, “Wednesday Morning, 3AM.” The album didn’t sell well, so Simon and Garfunkel split to pursue their own interests.  In 1965, a couple of radio stations started giving the song some attention so the original producer overdubbed electric guitar, drums, etc. to the track without the boys’ knowledge, and issued it as a single. It was a huge success, Simon and Garfunkel reunited, and the rest is history.

The thing that always impresses me about Paul Simon’s songs is his attention to lyrics. It seems he came up with this song sitting in the bathroom with the lights off (the tiled walls created a nice echo chamber effect), but the complete lyric took three months to write (presumably not all in the bathroom). Simon’s not a prolific songwriter, and I think part of the reason is he takes time to craft both the music and the words. It’s a rare gift to be able to produce good music and thoughtful words. Elvis Costello is another songwriter I admire for the same quality (more about him another week).

“The Sound of Silence” is one of those songs I always seem to have known, but the first time I recall actually trying to learn it was at the request of a friend at University. Her boyfriend from Germany was coming to visit and this was his favorite song. I can’t remember exactly why she asked me to learn it–maybe she wanted to sing it for him or something. As you might recall from last week, I was always a bit hesitant about finger-picked songs so I probably plucked around the chords in a way that sounded close enough for the first verse.

I gave the song a fresh listen this past week, and the finger-picked guitar part in that first verse is not as hard as I originally thought. The song is in Eb-minor on the record, so on guitar you’ll want to capo the 6th fret and play in A-minor (that’s what Paul Simon’s doing). Here’s the music for the first verse. I’ve written out the tune and the harmony on the treble clef. The numbers on the guitar tablature (the TAB line) represent frets (1 = first fret, 2 = second fret, etc., 0 = open string)*:

Here’s a lead sheet for the rest of the song, since the guitar’s pretty much playing straight chords. I’m providing two versions of the lead sheet, one in the actual key (Eb-minor), and one showing the chords you play if you’re capo-ing the 6th fret:

And finally here’s Simon and Garfunkel performing the song (in D-minor–capo on the 5th fret) in 1966:

Questions? Thoughts? Comments? Requests?

*Please bear in mind, I’m not trained in music transcription, so this may not be exactly how you’re supposed to write it. Hopefully it’s clear enough for you to be able to play it. That’s sufficient for me.