Sounds of Silence (album)

Infobox Album | Name = Sounds of Silence
Type = Album
Artist = Simon and Garfunkel


Released = January 17, 1966
Recorded = March 1964 , June 1965, and
December 1965
Genre = Folk rock
Length = 29:09
Label = Columbia Records
Producer = Bob Johnston
Reviews =
* Allmusic Rating|3|5 [http://www.allmusic.com/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=10:npe09757krjt link]
Last album = "Wednesday Morning, 3 A.M."
(1964)
This album = "Sounds of Silence"
(1966)
Next album = "Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme"
(1966)
Misc = Extra album cover 2
Upper caption = Alternate cover
Type = album

"Sounds of Silence" is an album by Simon and Garfunkel, released on January 17, 1966. The album's title is a slight modification of the title of the duo's first major hit, " The Sounds of Silence," which was released previously on the album "Wednesday Morning, 3 A.M.", and also on the soundtrack to the movie "The Graduate". It was taken from their debut and electric instruments and drums were overdubbed by Bob Dylan's studio band on June 15, 1965 and released in September 1965 as a single. "Homeward Bound" was released on the album in the UK. It was also released as part of the box set "Simon & Garfunkel Collected Works", on both LP and CD.

Track listing

All songs by Paul Simon, except where noted.

ide one

# "The Sound of Silence" – 3:08
# "Leaves That Are Green" – 2:23
# "Blessed" – 3:16
# "Kathy's Song" – 3:21
# "Somewhere They Can't Find Me" – 2:37
# "Anji" (Davey Graham) – 2:17

ide two

# "Richard Cory" – 2:57
# "A Most Peculiar Man" – 2:34
# "April Come She Will" – 1:51
# "We've Got a Groovey Thing Goin'" – 2:00
# "I Am a Rock" – 2:50

Bonus tracks (2001 CD reissue)

12. "Blues Run The Game" (Jackson C. Frank) – 2:55
13. "Barbriallen" (traditional) – 4:06
14. "Rose of Aberdeen" (traditional) – 2:02
15. "Roving Gambler" (traditional) – 3:03

The song "Richard Cory" was based on a poem with the same title by Edwin Arlington Robinson, best known for his collection, Spoon River Anthology. The chorus, however, is entirely of Simon's composition.

The English singer-songwriter Billy Bragg lifted the opening lines of "Leaves That Are Green" ("I was 21 years when I wrote this song/I'm 22 now, but I won't be for long") for his song "A New England," which appeared on Bragg's 1983 EP "Life's a Riot with Spy Vs Spy" and was subsequently a UK hit for Kirsty MacColl.

"Somewhere They Can't Find Me" is essentially a reworking of the title track of the duo's first album, "Wednesday Morning, 3 A.M."

There are three cover variations of the LP:
*Original issue: SIMON & GARFUNKEL on one line; SOUNDS OF SILENCE on another, all in capital letters, no song titles on the front.
*Second issue: Enlarged title letters, with only the first letter of the words "Sounds" and "Silence" in the album title capitalized. The first letters in "Simon" and "Garfunkel" are capitalized, but the rest are in lower-case. Song titles also included on the front.
*Third issue: Same front cover as the second, the back cover has the copy of Tiger Beat magazine in Garfunkel's hand airbrushed out.

Personnel

* Paul Simon: lead vocals, guitar
* Art Garfunkel: lead vocals
* Glen Campbell: Guitar
* Hal Blaine: Drums"Sounds of Silence" was recorded in December 1965 at CBS studios in Nashville, Tennessee and Los Angeles, California. The album was produced by Bob Johnston.