Sounds of Silence

Most of the songs were written by Simon during his stay in London in 1965; some even appeared earlier on his solo album The Paul Simon Songbook, released in England in August of that year. Among them stand out April Come She Will, Kathy’s Song, and Leaves That Are Green, which sound more polished here than in their original versions. Richard Cory, based on a poem by Edwin Arlington Robinson, and A Most Peculiar Man tackle dark themes such as suicide, contrasting with the optimistic folk of the era. Anji, a cover of guitarist Davey Graham, and We’ve Got a Groovy Thing Goin’ —which had been the B-side of The Sound of Silence— complete the lineup, while Blessed is the only new composition by Simon on the album. In the United Kingdom, Homeward Bound was included at the start of the second side with a dry mix that did not appear in other editions, something later repeated in Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme.

The cover, photographed by Guy Webster at Franklin Canyon Park in Los Angeles, shows the duo walking along a trail with scarves from a British school where Simon stayed during his time in England. The LP design had three variants: the first with names in uppercase and no tracklist, the second with larger typography and visible credits, and the third identical to the second but with a retouched photo where a magazine held by Garfunkel was removed. A label error on the vinyl confused the title of Anji as Angie and credited Bert Jansch as the author, though this was later corrected. In 2013, the Library of Congress declared it culturally significant, preserving it in its National Recording Registry.