Download Instrumental    This song is just a little bit strange. It has no chorus and no bridge. It’s just four verses all in a tight little roll. But it works – primarily because of the ethereal quality of the guitars.  Because it is so repetitive, I felt compelled to add strings toward the end just to give it a little “omph”.  If you use these backup tracks onstage, you’ll appreciate the extra instrumentation.

“Hello darkness, my old friend, I’ve come to talk with you again”.  The first line sets the tone for this 1964 hit by Simon and Garfunkel.  Paul Simon wrote “Sound of Silence” as a symbol of man’s lack of communication with his fellow man. “People talking without speaking/People listening without hearing”.  This song just might be more relevant now than it was in the sixties.  “People writing songs that voices never share/ And no one dared – disturb the sound… of silence”.  Pretty heavy stuff there, folks.  Not what you’d want to trot out in your raucous third set.  Maybe the last song of the night,  if you’re feeling particularly morose.  Send ’em home in a bad mood, I always say.

Simon and Garfunkel first recorded “Sound of Silence” with acoustic guitars, but it failed miserably.  I think they sold maybe a couple thousand copies at the most.  The boys split up after that, thinking it was over.  But Columbia Records had other ideas.  They took the original recording to the studio, added electric instruments to the track, and released it as a single.  It became a huge hit and our heroes got back together again.  Just think, if the studio hadn’t remixed it with electric guitars, we would never have had “Bridge Over Troubled Waters”.  Now, there’s sobering thought.