18  Sound of Silence

[Am]                    [G]
Hello darkness, my old friend,
                          [Am]
I've come to talk with you again,
                 [F]   [C]         
Because a vision softly creeping,
        [Am]           [F]   [C]                 
Left its seeds while I was sleeping,
        [F]                             [C]   
And the vision that was planted in my brain
      [Am]      
Still remains
            [G]     [Am]              
Within the sound of silence.¹

[Am]                        [G]        
In restless dreams I walked alone
                       [Am]
Narrow streets of cobblestone,
[Am]               [F]      [C]
'Neath the halo of a street lamp,
             [Am]         [F]      [C]
I turned my collar to the cold and damp
       [F]                                       [C]    
When my eyes were stabbed by the flash of a neon light
              [Am]
That split the night
               [G]      [Am]
And touched the sound of silence.

[Am]                      [G]
And in the naked light I saw
                          [Am]
Ten thousand people, maybe more.
[Am]             [F]     [C]
People talking without speaking,
[Am]                 [F]     [C]
People hearing without listening,
                [F]                     [C]
People writing songs that voices never share
          [Am]
And no one dare
            [G]      [Am]
Disturb the sound of silence.

[Am]                      [G]
Fools said I, you do not know
                     [Am]
Silence like a cancer grows.
[Am]                  [F]        [C]
Hear my words that I might teach you,
[Am]                 [F]         [C]
Take my arms that I might reach you.
        [F]                        [C]
But my words like silent raindrops fell,
     [Am]
And echoed
      [G]      [Am]
In the wells of silence

[Am]                     [G]
And the people bowed and prayed
                    [Am]
To the neon God they made.
[Am]                      [F]    [C]
 And the sign flashed out its warning,
[Am]                  [F]   [C]
In the words that it was forming.
        [Am]            [F]
And the sign said, the words of the prophets
       [F]                  [C]
Are written on the subway walls
              [Am]
And tenement halls.
                     [G]       [Am]     
And whispered in the sounds of silence.

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1. capo: 6