Sounds of Silence is best known for the classic song that inspired its name, but it contains a few Paul Simon gems.
Among them is ‘April Come She Will,’ the haunting track that, like ‘The Sound of Silence,’ was featured prominently in the film The Graduate. Another is ‘I Am a Rock,’ Simon’s ode to detachment that English teachers the world over have used to demonstrate metaphor.
Both of those songs appeared as solo compositions on The Paul Simon Songbook, as did ‘A Most Peculiar Man’ and ‘The Leaves That Are Green.’ Essentially, Sounds of Silence was a collection of previously released material rerecorded to capitalize on the duo’s newfound success.
But as cash-grabs go, this is a special album. The addition of Simon and Garfunkel’s harmonies to songs originally written as solo material is revelatory, and makes you wonder what Garfunkel might have contributed to Simon’s later solo work.
One of the songs that appeared for the first time on Sounds of Silence is ‘Richard Cory,’ a track inspired by an Edwin Arlington Robinson poem. When I was a kid, I memorized that poem (before I’d ever heard the song) and would recite it for company. What a nerd.
My favorite song on this album is ‘Kathy’s Song,’ a little beauty that Simon wrote for a woman he met in London. He would later mention her again in ‘America’ (“‘Kathy,’ I said as we boarded a Greyhound in Pittsburgh, ‘Michigan seems like a dream to me now'”). I rank this as one of the finest pure love songs ever written.
Like a memory it falls
Soft and warm continuing
Tapping on my roof and walls
And from the shelter of my mind
Through the window of my eyes
I gaze beyond the rain-drenched streets
To England where my heart lies
My mind’s distracted and diffused
My thoughts are many miles away
They lie with you when you’re asleep
And kiss you when you start your day
And as a song I was writing is left undone
I don’t know why I spend my time
Writing songs I can’t believe
With words that tear and strain to rhyme
And so you see I have come to doubt
All that I once held as true
I stand alone without beliefs
The only truth I know is you
And as I watch the drops of rain
Weave their weary paths and die
I know that I am like the rain
There but for the grace of you go I
Meet Me In Montauk 
This is a beauty of a song, Interesting also that, as much as you appreciate the addition of Garfunkel’s voice to Simon’s songs on this album, this one is all Simon. Quite honestly, I’m of the opinion that, had Simon been solo from the beginning, he arguably would have had just as fine of a career. His songs were simply that good.
This is a lovely song. My guess is that any truly great song will work in any incarnation – solo, duet, chorus, you name it. Look at all the great voices Simon brought in on Graceland and Rhythms of the Saint. Still, Garfunkel’s contribution gives the songs on these albums such a distinct mood, in addition to their distinct sound. It’s actually pretty wonderful that Simon even bothered to lure Garfunkel away from his math studies, for why did he “need” him at this point at all?
I’m not familiar with this song, it is beautiful. At first I was thinking of another Kathy song, then I realized it was Cathy’s Clown, totally different song sung by the Everly Brothers.