"Hello darkness my old friend"...
I remember sitting in front of our TV when I was younger, my parents putting in a DVD of Simon & Garfunkel, we would just listen to the whole DVD from one single concert all evening - I was raised with music loving parents, not raised 'musically', but it was very much understood in our home that if someone from the family would turn up the volume of a song that everyone would show their respect by staying silent throughout the song so that person could fully enjoy it...
Bee Gees, U2, Simply Red, and many other artists were a 'big deal' for my mom, and Simon & Garfunkel as well.
I love them too, it was deeply imprinted in my musical DNA from my youth, and The Sound of Silence is definitely one of the most beautiful songs they ever made - both their singing, their introverted way of performing, the way they aren't charismatic artists but still keep you glued to the screen... It's quite special.
Here's a video from a performance they did in Central Park, oh buy, would I have loved to have been there! I get goosebumps listening to the crowd cheer halfway the song when they sing "Ten thousand people, maybe more".
Now, good songs shouldn't be covered, right? Or can they? I think they can, but if you want to 'touch' a song like The Sound of Silence by great artists like Simon & Garfunkel you have to be pretty damn sure you can top that kind of quality.
The band Disturbed did that - they took the song, made it 'theirs', and you can enjoy the cover without having to compare it to the original anymore. The clip they added to the song is also amazing - musicians, sheet music, them coming together, or not... Will it stay silent? It's just very pleasant to look at, and the same goes for the singer who has this super intense tough face but such great control over his voice.
And just when you think it can't get any better, Dan Vasc surprises you. This is a singer I got to know because he covered 'Toss a Coin to your Witcher', sung by the bard Jaskier in the popular Netflix series 'The Witcher', which I love, especially after season two. He's such a dork (the contrast between his singing and him talking to his audience at the end of the clip is just SO big, he's clearly a great performer because as soon as he stops performing he really turns back into this cute nerdy guy, I love it), and he basically 'covers the cover'. That's more tricky, but I think he definitely matches the original cover and shows what a great singer he actually is.
To me these are the most significant recordings of this one beautiful song. I'll give you a bonus from a Dutch music show 'the best singer', where a (locally) famous Opera Singer is very nervous to perform Disturbed's cover, which he does for his colleague (Floor Jansen, the brown-haired woman that the camera shows a few close-ups of), who is a metal singer. In the show he shares how he doesn't believe he will be able to do the song justice, and since you get to know him through the show and he's never really nervous about anything, you know he's sincere about this concern. But I believe he nails it, and is definitely worth a watch if you still have room for 'another cover' after this post.
Well, that's about it, I was stuck in this Sound of Silence Loop on Youtube and thought I'd share it in a post. Below is the second piece of bonus material, a classical composer first-time listening to Disturbed's cover and giving his feedback, including some background on the song, the lyrics, and views on the video clip... I love 'reaction videos' and this is definitely a nice one :-)
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
What is your favourite song that ALSO has a great cover? I would love to hear it and enjoy a few more of these 'Youtube Loops' during the Holidays!
Enjoy X-Mas if you celebrate it, and make sure you stay healthy and happy and don't eat too much