The sound of silence

Feb 13, 2010

Last week, I had a chance to Watchmen again, and I was able to appreciate the movie. It seems brilliant that everytime you see the movie, you see something new. It might be a smirk, a new weapon, a cigar, or Bob dylan, or Joker's now slobby belly.

But the most wonderful thing about the movie is it's soundtrack and the use of the songs in various parts of the movie.Especially, Leonard Cohen's hallelujah providing the background score for the 'union' of Nite Owl and Silk Sceptre. As I watched and enjoyed the sound tracks, I realised that I have heard the songs in the movie, yet somehow never appreciated them.

The Sound 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 dare
Disturb the sound of silence.

"Fools" said I, "You do not know
Silence like a cancer grows.
Hear my words that I might teach you,
Take my arms that I might reach to you."
But my words like silent raindrops fell,
And echoed
In the wells of silence

And the people bowed and prayed
To the neon god they made.
And the sign flashed out its warning,
in the words that it was forming.
And the sign said, "The words of the prophets
are written on the subway walls
And tenement halls."
And whisper'd in the sounds of silence.

I've been listening to this song over and over again, and I can't believe I've never paid attention to the lyrics like I should have. The lyrics are so vivid and captivating. There are a thousand stories in the song, and it captures your imagination. Like almost every other artist, Simon has come out and said, there's no hidden meaning or ulterior agenda to this song, but that's the beauty of it. You can derive thousand meanings and yet it seems there's one more to explore. 

One thing's for certain. That is, the song talks about a dream Simon had. About the things unravelled in the dream, two popular theories exist. That the song is about people who listen and submit to popular opinion without much forethought. This would explain the 'People talking without speaking and People talking without listening, and songs being never shared and Silence never broken'. About how reluctant people are, when it comes to talking against the popular opinion. And why the speaker's warnings are never heard. Because they are against the popular will of the word, and how they are unwilling to hear the speakers words and take heed of it. 

The second theory is about how Simon is trying to talk to characters on a TV show. How he's unable to engage in a conversation with the characters in a TV show and counsel them. It could also be a sly dig at the fact that Television has become such an integral part of the western world that it was curtailing the imaginative and thinking mind. 

The song ends with a brilliant ending that the truth is closer at hand. You don't have to look further than the graffiti on Brooklyn suburbs that predict the end of the world and the second coming, that's so nigh. Put it simply, Simon implies that prophets are never taken seriously in their own land and Tenement halls and subway walls are a source of wisdom hitherto unheeded.

Plans for the Tomorrow

I will sing and I'll be merry. For I've just read the Silmarillion and I know the doom of the middle earth has come to pass with the slaying of Sauron. But I also have to work :(