DJ Allyn – The Soundtrack for my Life

The Dangling Conversation ~ Simon and Garfunkel  

The duo of Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel are American popular musicians known collectively as Simon & Garfunkel. They met in elementary school in 1953, when they both appeared in the school play Alice in Wonderland (Simon as the White Rabbit, Garfunkel as the Cheshire Cat). They formed the group Tom and Jerry in 1957, and had their first taste of success with the minor hit “Hey Schoolgirl”. As Simon and Garfunkel, the duo rose to fame in 1965 backed by the hit single “The Sounds of Silence”. Their music was featured on the landmark film The Graduate, propelling them further into the public consciousness. They are well known for their close harmonies and sometimes unstable relationship. Their last album, Bridge Over Troubled Water, was marked with several delays caused by artistic disagreements.

The Dangling Conversation

The theme is failed communication between lovers. The song starts in a room washed by shadows from the sun slanting through the lace curtains and ends with the room “softly faded.” They are as different as the poets they read: Emily Dickinson and Robert Frost.

It’s a still life water color,
Of a now late afternoon,
As the sun shines through the curtained lace
And shadows wash the room.
And we sit and drink our coffee
Couched in our indifference,
Like shells upon the shore
You can hear the ocean roar
In the dangling conversation
And the superficial sighs,
The borders of our lives.

And you read your Emily Dickinson,
And I my Robert Frost,
And we note our place with bookmarkers
That measure what we’ve lost.
Like a poem poorly written
We are verses out of rhythm,
Couplets out of rhyme,
In syncopated time
Lost in the dangling conversation
And the superficial sighs,
Are the borders of our lives.

Yes, we speak of things that matter,
With words that must be said,
“Can analysis be worthwhile?”
“Is the theater really dead?”
And how the room is softly faded
And I only kiss your shadow,
I cannot feel your hand,
You’re a stranger now unto me
Lost in the dangling conversation.
And the superficial sighs,
In the borders of our lives.

Other Songs Posted for this Artist

• September 26, 2009 -- America ~ Simon and Garfunkel
• June 15, 2009 -- Keep the Customer Satisfied ~ Simon and Garfunkel
• March 28, 2009 -- Punky’s Dilemma ~ Simon and Garfunkel
• March 23, 2009 -- A Poem on the Underground Wall ~ Simon and Garfunkel
• March 22, 2009 -- The Big Bright Green Pleasure Machine ~ Simon and Garfunkel
• March 8, 2009 -- Hazy Shade of Winter ~ Simon and Garfunkel
• December 1, 2008 -- The Sounds of Silence ~ Simon and Garfunkel
• November 30, 2008 -- The Boxer ~ Simon and Garfunkel
• November 27, 2008 -- A Simple Desultory Philippic (Or How I Was Robert McNamara’d into Submission) ~ Simon and Garfunkel
• November 19, 2008 -- Homeward Bound ~ Simon and Garfunkel
• November 17, 2008 -- Kathys Song ~ Simon and Garfunkel
• August 3, 2008 -- American Tune ~ Simon and Garfunkel
• May 22, 2008 -- Scarborough Fair/Canticle ~ Simon and Garfunkel