Welcome to our community

Be a part of something great, join today!

Log in
  • Hey all, just changed over the backend after 15 years I figured time to give it a bit of an update, its probably gonna be a bit weird for most of you and i am sure there is a few bugs to work out but it should kinda work the same as before... hopefully :)

The Sound of Silence

A

a whitmer

Well-known member
Joined
Aug 14, 2013
Messages
302
Reaction score
3
Points
18
Love the Gears of War trailer with this song. It really hit it home. It made this song explode in popularity, which is great!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o3f8VgQ_dqk

rFRn2gY.jpg



Q73MfRT.jpg
 
Disturbed was the last band that I expected to cover this song, but as a life long fan I'm incredibly happy that they did. It's a wonderful cover and the music video captures the mood perfectly. Kind of reminds me of the days when music videos where really trying to be an artistic contribution to the song, which has gone missing more an more lately.
 
a whitmer said:
Jeesh, I have been listening to this song since its release in 1964. I have heard a lot of tear-jerk covers over the years as well.


But this one !!!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u9Dg-g7t2l4

Really love the visual story that goes with it, fricken' gorgeous production. God bless black & white. Maybe this will be my new ambient song to write to.


The original ...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4zLfCnGVeL4


aw
Click to expand...

Totally agree with you in re: the production. However, I do not agree with your tacit suggestion that the cover version is in any other way better than the Simon and Garfunkel original.

In my opinion, the Disturbed version is too dark. Unlike the protest/awakening song by S&G, the Disturbed song is dark and ominous. To me it suggests the method of protest of today of protesting through death... of an individual, of members of a segment of society, of self.

The S&G version comes through quietly and gently... a tap on the shoulder rather than the blow to the head suggested by the Disturbed version... the darkness of a full moon night rather than a moonless pitch black night.

But I do recognize the difference in the way we see (and do) things... that is evident by your revelation that you listen to music when you write? I can stand something like a refrigerator or fan humming along in the background, but music?... well, maybe one of the classics played softly.

But as a rule, I personally need the actual sound of silence rather than the "Disturbed Sound of Silence!" when writing. '-)
 
Last edited:
Visar Sulejmani said:
I can highly recommend the cover by Nouela.

Click to expand...

I agree, a nice version. She tried to keep it simple but somehow her voice doesn't have the magic of Simon and Garfunkel. That is why I so like their version... with clarity it captures complexity through simplistic delivery.

And speaking of a magical voice, would love to have been able to hear a cover of this song by Marlene Dietrich.
 
Last edited:
Hey, Visar, when I mentioned 'tear-jerk' covers, I was very much thinking of Nouela's version. But this one ...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q4oInT79CUk


I play it in my café - not the video, though. Too heartbreaking.
 
Visar Sulejmani said:
Disturbed was the last band that I expected to cover this song, but as a life long fan I'm incredibly happy that they did. It's a wonderful cover and the music video captures the mood perfectly. Kind of reminds me of the days when music videos where really trying to be an artistic contribution to the song, which has gone missing more an more lately.
Click to expand...

They nailed it, for sure. The B&W in iteslf makes a major contribution to the mood. Great piece of film meets music.
 
Elsie N said:
Totally agree with you in re: the production. However, I do not agree with your tacit suggestion that the cover version is in any other way better than the Simon and Garfunkel original.

In my opinion, the Disturbed version is too dark. Unlike the protest/awakening song by S&G, the Disturbed song is dark and ominous. To me it suggests the method of protest of today of protesting through death... of an individual, of members of a segment of society, of self.

The S&G version comes through quietly and gently... a tap on the shoulder rather than the blow to the head suggested by the Disturbed version... the darkness of a full moon night rather than a moonless pitch black night.

But I do recognize the difference in the way we see (and do) things... that is evident by your revelation that you listen to music when you write? I can stand something like a refrigerator or fan humming along in the background, but music?... well, maybe one of the classics played softly.

But as a rule, I personally need the actual sound of silence rather than the "Disturbed Sound of Silence!" when writing. '-)
Click to expand...


I almost always listen to music when writing. Bagpipes for my Irish Western, Sophi Zelmani's 'Oh Dear' and 'September Tears' for those scenes of private anguish. Add Mazzy Star's 'Fade Into You' to that. The list goes on and on.

From my site ...

“Music remains one of my most reliable inspirations for story, and I strive to find the same complexity, rhythms and lyrical clarity in my writing as any great Dylan or Mozart piece might have.”

I can't imagine writing without music.


Onward ...

I wasn't suggesting the Disturbed version was better that the original S&G. They come from very different periods in our collective human histories, and I think both nail it. The problems that exisited when the song was written and later released are still with us, but the intensity and cruelty of today is off the charts. Got to love the dicotomy of the shaved head and face full of metal singing these lyrics. From 3:10 to the ending, my hair stands on end. 'The people bowed and praaaaaaayed ...' Dang, look for that in future Alex Whitmer works!


Garfunkel once summed up the song's meaning as "the inability of people to communicate with each other, not particularly internationally but especially emotionally, so what you see around you are people unable to love each other

This version will forever belong to the 60s.
 
Last edited:
a whitmer said:
I almost always listen to music when writing. Bagpipes for my Irish Western, Sophi Zelmani's 'Oh Dear' and 'September Tears' for those scenes of private anguish. Add Mazzy Star's 'Fade Into You' to that. The list goes on and on.

From my site ...

“Music remains one of my most reliable inspirations for story, and I strive to find the same complexity, rhythms and lyrical clarity in my writing as any great Dylan or Mozart piece might have.”

I can't imagine writing without music.


Onward ...

I wasn't suggesting the Disturbed version was better that the original S&G. They come from very different periods in our collective human histories, and I think both nail it. The problems that exisited when the song was written and later released are still with us, but the intensity and cruelty of today is off the charts. Got to love the dicotomy of the shaved head and face full of metal singing these lyrics. From 3:10 to the ending, my hair stands on end. 'The people bowed and praaaaaaayed ...' Dang, look for that in future Alex Whitmer works!


Garfunkel once summed up the song's meaning as "the inability of people to communicate with each other, not particularly internationally but especially emotionally, so what you see around you are people unable to love each other

This version will forever belong to the 60s.
Click to expand...

Yeah, that probably explains my bias as well as anything. I vehemently favor Roy Orbison's "Blue Bayou" over Linda Rhonstadt's cover. An exception might be Elvis's cover of Willie Nelson's "You were always on my mind" although I pretty much rate them equally.

Garfunkel may have written or helped write the song, but nevertheless he has its meaning all wrong, IMO. It was a prescient statement about consumerism, social media (as opposed to human to human interaction) and the inability for some generations to separate their actual lives from their social media lives.

As for your statement about a part of the lyrics making your hair stand on end, I envy you that. There was a time when I could be moved emotionally like that, even to the point of getting a lump in my throat. Something has changed in me so that doesn't often happen anymore.

The one time it has sorta happened is when I'm acting out a part from one of my scripts. The passage is when Trail Boss is under an unnamed influence and sings an old standard with some appropriate lyrics changes that pertain to him. I'm no singer but neither is the character... yet when I sing those lyrics in his voice and get into character, I can easily do the cracked voice at the end and do the facial movements that show his pain. I'm not really feeling the loss he suffered, but merely the emotion he is going through.

I'm about to undergo an experimental clinical trial (nothing dangerous... just a modification of a decades long procedure) that points to a rejuvenation of some declining proteins in the blood and restores the blood to containing those proteins in their youthful version.

If/when that goal is met, perhaps I can regain some of that emotional self that once was.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top