| Simon and Garfunkel – The Sound of Silence Lyrics | 16 years ago |
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To me this song is about the fear people have to communicate with each other; to the larger audience of society; how what they have to say is kept inside; and how everyone is aware of this but are too fearful to do anything about it. Sometimes, the darkness (talking to yourself, things kept inside) is the only place some people feel safe talking about things. It’s a lonely place to be. I believe we all long to be able to share our inner selves in a safe place with other people or at least one person. The seeds and vision is something the songwriter desperately wants to share with people. One of those “things” is the songwriter’s frustration with people he cannot connect with. The flash of the neon light and ten thousand people represents the universal awareness that everyone has fears about communicating or sharing certain things about themselves, there ideas, thoughts, desires, etc.. Even though we are all aware of this, we can’t get beyond our fears and never “dare” to communicate. The songwriter makes it clear that the silence is not really a lack of sound (people talking without speaking), but the unspoken things that people long to communicate with each other. When things don’t get communicated, problems don’t get resolved. As time goes by, life throws more problems at us. And if problems are not being resolved by discussion, they start to pile up. Making the problems seem even larger than before, bottled up feelings become even more difficult to communicate. And the fear of communication grows quickly like a life threatening disease (cancer) until it kills our inner being and something inside us dies; the relationship dies; or parts of the society die. It’s easy for everyone to admit that we all have communication problems (the neon sign) but much harder to do the work of discussing things. And we are good at warning each other, but not good at providing safe places for people to communicate. The graffiti on the subway walls and tenement halls is sometimes the only place people feel safe to communicate — because they can say/write it in the darkness, run, and not be around when people read it. Sometimes (and especially in this song), the graffiti is meant to effect social change — much like the messages of the prophets of the past. I believe the songwriter has left us with the task to work through our fears and have open discussions in a safe place where we can communicate about what is going on inside us. I believe the task at hand involves two things: 1. The speaker needs to develop the courage to speak. 2. And the listener needs to develop the courage to listen; give the speaker respect; and a safe place to speak. |
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| The Mamas & the Papas – Monday, Monday Lyrics | 16 years ago |
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Well I was late this morning and someone asked me why and I told her it was Monday, and she said that's a good reason. Then this old song came to mind and I decided to check it out. I was too young to care about lyrics when I first heard the song. Anyway... To me in this song Monday is a person that is unavailable on a predictable basis and that the singer is in love with. The “other days” are other people the singer is seeing that are ok but pale in comparison to Monday. When Monday comes into the singers life, the singer can't help but give the relationship another try — even though knowing in the back of the singers mind that the relationship will not work for some reason and Monday will probably leave again. Just substitute the name of a person that you are in love with that is not very in love with you for Monday. And some of your other friends for “every other day” and see if it works. So why not Tuesday? Another singer had the same problem with Ruby Tuesday. But this time the singer did the right thing and said good bye. Such is life... And the other days of the week... that would make a good homework assignment (no really, I have to go now...) |
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