The first time I saw a "real" Simon & Garfunkel album ... an "original" album from one of the first printings, I was babysitting for the Hamptons, a family I'd just started sitting for and loved to pieces. The album I first played on their stereo system was Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme and I was utterly hooked. I had the stereo on so softly, I could barely hear "Homeward Bound," "The Dangling Conversation" and the rest of the songs. But I utterly panicked when "Silent Night" came on. Somehow, the television was bleeding sound through to the stereo! I could hear a news announcer over the song. Obviously, I had done something wrong with the stereo. Had I broken their stereo system?
Panicking that I had somehow touched a wrong button somewhere, I began systematically looking through the whole stereo, looking at the back of the machines trying to figure out how the television could possibly be connected and "bleeding through" to the stereo.
Eventually, I looked at the album cover and discovered the name of the song was actually "Silent Night / 7 o'clock News."
Oh. So, you mean I didn't break the stereo. The song was supposed to do that?
I was enthralled. What a freaking cool concept!
Despite the fact that I grew up in the time of Air Supply, Duran Duran, Twisted Sister, Guns N Roses and WhiteSnake, I found that I usually was more fascinated by Simon & Garfunkel; Peter, Paul & Mary; the Kingston Trio; the Monkees and the Kinks than I was the music that my friends were interested in. (Except perhaps, U2 from Rattle and Hum and earlier ... and R.E.M. ... I think those were the height of my "cool" musical interests.) Don't get me wrong, I had a copy of Purple Rain and several Air Supply albums, but the music that really shaped who I was, was much older.
So I'm not really sure why I didn't rip my collected Simon & Garfunkel collection to my computer before today. But in the last week, I've realized that I really wanted to go back to that mental space that I occupied so often as a teenager, listening to Simon & Garfunkel with my huge headphones on ... watching the lights on my stereo flicker, up and down the equalizer, green and red dancing in time to the music, watching the needle bob and weave on the record.
More often than not, I'd turn the light off in my room and watch the stereo deliver the music and think about the lyrics, losing myself in the music, the moment, owning it, feeling like I could exist in that space forever, never letting it go.
"Bleeker Street" ... "Sounds of Silence" ... "Blessed" ... "Kathy's Song" ... "Richard Corey" ... "I Am A Rock" ... my own list goes on and on.
Songs that defined me and helped me learn to stand on my own. To learn that rebellion could also encompass responsibility and not simply pointlessness.
"I'd rather be a sparrow than a snail ... I'd rather be a hammer than a nail ... I'd rather be a forest than a street ... I'd rather feel the earth beneath my feet ..."
"And the train is gone suddenly / On wheels clicking silently / Like a gently tapping litany,
And he holds his crayon rosary / Tighter in his hand."
"Blessed are the meek for they shall inherit.
Blessed is the lamb whose blood flows.
Blessed are the sat upon, spat upon, ratted on,
O lord, why have you forsaken me?
I got no place to go,
Ive walked around soho for the last night or so.
Ah, but it doesnt matter, no.
Blessed is the land and the kingdom.
Blessed is the man whose soul belongs to.
Blessed are the meth drinkers, pot sellers, illusion dwellers.
O lord, why have you forsaken me?
My words trickle down, like a wound
That I have no intention to heal.
Blessed are the stained glass, window pane glass.
Blessed is the church service makes me nervous
Blessed are the penny rookers, cheap hookers, groovy lookers.
O lord, why have you forsaken me?
I have tended my own garden
Much too long."
I think, ultimately, I was drawn to everything in Simon & Garfunkel which is encapsulated in this single song. Concern for others. The differences between religion, spirituality, action and belief. The spaces between what we say, what we do and what we believe.
Songs like this always made me think about the spaces in between, where we live. And how what we do and say affects others in ways that we may never know.
I think I'll be listening to this stuff for a while again. And contemplating those spaces in between ... those spaces that we don't always want to think about.
Posted by Red Monkey at September 17, 2006 1:22 AM |
Storytelling: She was, of course, supposed to be sleeping.
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Really good post ender 
What a great way to reflect and remember where we've come from and where we are going. One step at a time.
Sue said:
I really enjoyed this entry .. it made me start thinking of some of the songs from my own youth that helped shape the person I was becoming ... thank you ... :)
September 17, 2006 8:28 PMKeith L. Dick said:
My Fav S&G song...
Sounds of Silence...
There are Tons & Tons of early 60's songs that have a good message and are easy to listen to...
September 18, 2006 3:31 AM
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Red said: