Story of a song: Sound of Silence by Simon & Garfunkel

By late 1963, Simon & Garfunkel billed themselves as Kane & Garr and performed at Gerde's Folk City, a Greenwich Village club. At that point, Tom Wilson was already a star record producer at Columbia Records, who had worked with Bob Dylan. He had been given a free hand to work with any act he wanted. One of his rituals was to sit at Gerde's Folk City to catch the flow of new talent.

Paul Simon was still working part-time for E.B. Marks, a music publisher, and his job was to take their catalogue around and show it to A&R men to see if they might be interested in using one of the songs. After the show the Folk City show, Wilson approached Paul and Art Garfunkel to acquire the song He Was My Brother. Paul refused. He wanted Wilson to give them a studio audition where they sang The Sounds of Silence (at first the word ‘sounds’ was used). Wilson immediately gave the boys a contract at Columbia.

The song became a part of the album Wednesday Morning, 3 A.M. Side 1 of the LP concluded with The Sounds of Silence and Side 2 started with He Was My Brother.

It’s unclear as to when Paul Simon wrote this song. Some think that the song commented on the assassination of John F. Kennedy, as the song was recorded months after the November 22, 1963, incident but then some say the duo had performed the song live as Kane & Garr two months before the assassination.

The album failed, selling only a few thousand copies. Paul flew off by himself to Europe, eventually winding up in Paris, where he supposedly slept on the concrete embankment of the river Seine. He then moved to London which was in the middle of the peak of Beatlemania. Here he met Kathy Chitty, an office secretary in the daytime and, at night, the ticket taker at Dave McCausland’s club. She inspired the track Kathy’s Song.

Cut to 1965. Wednesday Morning, 3 A.M. was still a dead album. A Boston-based late-night WBZ-FM deejay played the song. Overnight, it was picked up by other FM stations. Wilson came to know about it.

The Sounds of Silence needed to be rocked up. Wilson brought in some of the studio musicians that Bob Dylan had used for Like A Rolling Stone. Wilson overlaid an electric guitar, a drum part with the snare mixed way up. It was a hit. Paul didn’t like the mix but he needed a hit.

It was time to say goodbye to Kathy Chitty. The spotlight was calling Simon & Garfunkel. On the album Sounds of Silence (1966) was The Sound of Silence and also Kathy’s Song, besides Leaves That Are Green and I Am A Rock.