The Sounds of Silence ~ Disturbed - Music Mondays

Number six on my Amazon Playlist is The Sounds of Silence.

This song was originally made popular by Simon and Garfunkel and I've always loved that version and still do. This is one of those songs that has been around a long time and sort of slips away and gets forgotten about until you hear it again. When I heard Disturbed's version on a lyrics only video on Facebook I was blown away and had to look for the full version.

This is the original version in case you'd never heard it.

I'm not usually someone that likes remakes but this one is really good. It has so much power behind the voice and the video is also something interesting to watch.

The original version is very slow and soulful, looking for answers. The new version starts off similar but picks up and is demanding of answers. It just feels like it has so much power behind it compared to the original version, yet each stands alone as wonderful versions of the song. They are different in their own right and one is not better than the other.

Wondering about the meaning behind the lyrics you find how it was written back in the 60's and the entire album at the time was actually a flop.

"in 1964 Simon & Garfunkel’s debut LP, Wednesday Morning, 3 A.M., flopped. Subtitled “Exciting new sounds in the folk tradition,” the acoustic album sold about only 2,000 copies. "

"Simon wrote “The Sounds of Silence” the year before while living with his parents. “The main thing about playing the guitar was that I was able to sit by myself and play and dream,” Simon later told Playboy. “And I was always happy doing that. I used to go off in the bathroom, because the bathroom had tiles, so it was a slight echo chamber. I’d turn on the faucet so that water would run – I like that sound, it’s very soothing to me – and I’d play. In the dark. ‘Hello darkness, my old friend / I’ve come to talk with you again.’” "

"In an interview with NPR, Simon explained the appeal of the song, which was re-titled “The Sound of Silence” on later compilations. “The key to ‘The Sound of Silence’ is the simplicity of the melody and the words, which are youthful alienation,” he explained. “It’s a young lyric, but not bad for a 21-year-old. It’s not a sophisticated thought, but a thought that I gathered from some college reading material or something. It wasn’t something that I was experiencing at some deep, profound level – nobody’s listening to me, nobody’s listening to anyone – it was a post-adolescent angst, but it had some level of truth to it and it resonated with millions of people. Largely because it had a simple and singable melody.”" Read More: The Story of Simon and Garfunkel's Breakthrough, ‘The Sounds of Silence’ | http://ultimateclassicrock.com/simon-garfunkel-sounds-of-silence/?trackback=tsmclip

I have to stop and wonder if dropping the "s" at the end of sound changed anything for the song.

What songs do you enjoy that were remade and what do you think of the remakes? Do you find them comparable or do you dislike them?