DISTURBED – Rich Paschall
The Sound of Silence, Rich Paschall
Hello darkness, my old friend
I've come to talk with you again
People talking without speaking
People hearing without listening
People writing songs that voices never share
No one dare
Disturb the sound of silence
The Sound of Silence (shown as The Sounds of Silence on early albums) was written by Paul Simon in 1964 and released on the debut album of Simon and Garfunkel. The album was a dismal failure and the duo broke up to pursue their own interests. But something happened. In some markets the song was getting airplay in 1965. The song's producer remixed the track with additional instruments and released it without telling Simon and Art Garfunkel. It went to number one.
The duo reunited in 1966, and we guess you could say the rest is rock and roll history. The song was one of the most performed songs of the 20th Century. In 2004 Rolling Stone magazine named it one of the 500 Greatest Songs of All-Time. The Simon & Garfunkel video above is from a 2009 performance at Madison Square Garden.
At the end of 2015 heavy metal band Disturbed released a cover version of the song. Their music video now has over 453 million views. It certainly was unlike their usual metal performances. In March 2016 they amazed a Conan O'Brien audience with the above powerful rendition.
Paul Simon wrote to the lead singer, David Draiman, "Really powerful performance on Conan the other day. First time I'd seen you do it live. Nice. Thanks."
Author: Rich Paschall
When the Windows Live Spaces were closed and our sites were sent to Word Press, I thought I might actually write a regular column. A couple years ago I finally decided to try out a weekly entry for a year and published something every Sunday as well as a few other dates. I reached that goal and continued on. I hope you find them interesting. They are my Sunday Night Blog. Thanks to the support of Marilyn Armstrong you may find me from time to time on her blog space, SERENDIPITY. Rich Paschall Education: DePaul University, Northeastern Illinois University Employment: Air freight professional	View all posts by Rich Paschall
Author Rich PaschallPosted on November 23, 2018 November 19, 2018 Categories Entertainment, Music, Rich PaschallTags Disturbed, Folk rock, heavy metal, Simon and Garfunkel, The Sound of Silence
16 thoughts on "DISTURBED – Rich Paschall"
Oh! I love this song so much. And the musical version by Kenny G is excellent too. Thanks for sharing
Rich Paschall says:
I haven't heard the Kenny G. I will track it down.
It's beautiful.
Taswegian1957 says:
I actually liked that. I didn't expect to because I generally hate modern cover versions but he sang it really well.
It was quite a surprise from a heavy metal band. I don't think you'll find a string section on their other stuff.
I still love the original and I have the CD … but it's too good a song to never be redone. Of course, it will be. All great songs live on through new versions. I'm just sentimental about ye olde days.
I still like the original and found it odd to find a new cover version, by a metal band no less.
An interesting side note is that David Draiman graduated from Ida Crown Jewish Academy in Chicago in 1991 and then studied in Israel. His brother is a folk singer there. He is also trained as a hazzan. Later he returned and graduated from Loyola University here with a BA in Political Science and Government.
Disturbed's version of this is really one of the greatest cover songs ever. I'm not the kind of person who typically gets chills listening to music, but Disturbed's version of The Sound of Silence gives me chills…
They did it well enough to impress Paul Simon, so that's saying a lot.
Covert Novelist says:
The depth in his voice resonates and brings the song to life on a new level. Really beautiful and powerful in its simplicity.
He wanted to find the right key to begin so he could make that jump up after the second verse.
Indeed and it was successful! 🙂
I did not know about the songs complicated history. The song is a philosophical classic and one of my favourites.
It is a classic.
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