Music (The Sound of Silence)

When I was in high school, I was a big dork. As a freshman, I played D & D during lunch (and later Magic: The Gathering). Later, I read and collected comic books. Now, those things just make me a nerd, but I also was pretty socially inept. So, it may be unsurprising that I felt like no one understood me. Maybe that's why I got into Simon and Garfunkel, especially the song "The Sound of Silence."



The song is about a depressing present that may lead to an even bleaker future. It also includes subtle parts about how the singer knows something that will help the masses, but they refuse to listen. So to a teen who feels rejected by his peers and has different (and in his mind, "better") hobbies, this kind of fit.

I really liked Simon and Garfunkel, especially during my sophomore year. I remember working on a science paper late one night while listening to one of their albums (on audio tape, which makes me sound so old). It was good stuff.

Except that it wasn't. "The Sound of Silence" is okay and "A Bridge Over Troubled Water" is probably one of their best songs (I think their best one is "7 O'clock News/Silent Night"). But a lot of their songs just aren't very good. "Cecilia," "The Boxer," and "Homeward Bound" are all depressing in different ways and "Feelin' Groovy" is absolute crap.

What's my point to this? Well, I was a teen that listened to crappy music because I felt that no one understood me. If I had been born five years later, I probably would have been into Emo.