Simon & Garfunkel - I AM A ROCK (Lyric Video)

Details

Description

Actually first recorded by Paul Simon alone for his solo album “The Paul Simon Songbook” earlier in 1965, it was re-recorded with his long-time folk-rock “other half,” Art Garfunkel in December. The album “Sounds of Silence” is a collection of beautiful, evocative songs about isolation, despair, alienation, and a desire to connect with others but being unable to do so, at least not fully.

The “I am a rock, I am an island,” draws its inspiration from the old and current metaphor of being a “rock” – strong, unyielding, impermeable to sentiment, and from the writings of John Donne, famous English author of the 1600s and is a paraphrase of his words from 1624: “No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main…” Donne is speaking about the deep human need to be connected, the great importance of no one being isolated from and insensitive to the human race. The paragraph ends with perhaps his most famous line: “And therefore, never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee” (church bells used to ring when someone in the town had died).

But being a rock all the time is not strength, it is emotional cowardice. Being an island all the time is not independence, it is avoidance. Life is risk. Love is risk. Courage is not fearlessness, courage is feeling the fear … and doing it anyway.

The album “Sounds of Silence” shines a beautiful, tragic light on the feelings and consequences of withdrawal and insensitivity to the world around us and the sadness of longing (in the present or for the past). Sounds depressing, I know! But it’s a wonderful work by one of our greatest songwriters.



Song: I Am A Rock
Artists: Simon & Garfunkel
Songwriter: Paul Simon
Album: Sounds of Silence
Release Date: 1965
Label: CBS Records





My YouTube channel is a not-for-profit channel, and the music videos I make are to enjoyably inspire or enhance appreciation for music, poems and other literature, photography, and art.


**Copyright Disclaimer Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing. Non-profit, educational or personal use tips the balance in favor of fair use. No copyright infringement intended. ALL RIGHTS BELONG TO THEIR RESPECTIVE OWNERS**