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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   Jun 21st 2007 !⃝

   This song actually is about the nation after the death of John Kennedy. The line about ten thousand people I believe is talking about the funeral and the line about the neon god that the people had made I believe is John Kennedy himself. The music in this song is beautiful.
2. linksysman2000

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   Apr 3rd 2007 !⃝

   The first verse is about a man who sees the wrongs in the world, but can do nothing about it, and seeks refuge, but finds none, thus there is “darkness” for him, and it isn’t the first time, because he calls darkness his “old friend”. This man wants change the world, and has a vision “planted in his brain” that still remains.
   In his dreams, he is along in his vision, and he walks alone in all lonely places that he refers to, such as cobblestones and at night underneath a street lamp. Left to himself and his vision, he has his revelation, which I think is this “neon light” he is talking about. In this vision, he sees that there are thousands of people, maybe more, talking without speaking. They talk, but they really mean nothing, because they are empty. The same goes for their communications, because they hear, but take no heed, and though they try to share what they go through by means of music, no one is speaking or listening, so their voices are never shared. And yet no one dares to change this situation, and no one disturbs the silence of that lack of communication.
   The man tries to tell people of what he sees, and understands enough to at least explain this vision of his, but like before, no one listens. Soon, people creates their own image and gods, whether it be money or fame or power, and bow to their idols and do whatever it took to worship their gods. The last part is that the truth is revealed to this man, that the future is really under the city, buried from all the coldness of a lack of communication, and the same goes for tenements, where people live so close but yet so far away. That is the future, because people are cold and will remain that way because they refuse to change or even reconsider.
3. AshleyForever7

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   Jan 7th 2007 !⃝

   It took me forever to figure this out, but I think I got it. In 7th grade, my literature teacher made us listen to this song everyday and discuss what it meant. We were studying the Holocaust at the time. I think this song is about Hitler and his impact on the people. When the song says "people hearing without listening" means that they heard what Hitler was telling them to do, but they really werent interpreting it. Where it says "hello darkness my old friend" I think that means that all the people in the camps were so used to being in the dark that it was nothing new to them. This may be wrong, but its what I think. I love this song by the way. :)

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

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   May 19th 2006 !⃝

   As with many Simon & Garfunkel songs, The Sounds of Silence is about lack of communication on many levels - between lovers, friends, society in general.
5. JAM

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   Dec 14th 2005 !⃝

   This is about him feeling lost and falling back into the darkness - the sadness that he wanted to leave forever but couldn't.
6. anonymous

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   Nov 12th 2005 !⃝

   This song is about a man that has a dream that he is in a very dark place somewhere and a bright neon light plashes in the sky and he sees thousands of people bowing to him like he is their god.
   
   I don't really know what kind of statement it is making or anything, but if you listen to the song, then you can understand what he is saying.

   This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway

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