This is one of the songs that had the deepest impact on me as a young lad going through old records while tune hunting. The authors of the song say it was partially inspired by the uncanny nature of people's inability or unwillingness to communicate. Everyone prefers to mind their P's and Q's, even when suffering under one form of oppression or other. I think more views on this timeless musical phenomenon have been adequately expressed here:
https://www.lyricinterpretations.com/simon-and-garfunkel/the-sounds-of-silence
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
In restless dreams I walked alone
Narrow streets of cobblestone
'Neath the halo of a street lamp
I turned my collar to the cold and damp
When my eyes were stabbed by
The flash of a neon light
That split the night
And touched the sound of silence
And in the naked light I saw
Ten thousand people, maybe more
People talking without speaking
People hearing without listening
People writing songs that voices never share
And no one dared
Disturb the sound of silence
(links subject to change)(links subject to change)
