And no one dared disturb The Sound Of Silence.

Track: The Sound Of Silence

Artist: Disturbed (Originally by Simon & Garfunkel)
Album: Immortalized

Year: 2016 (1964)

Genre: Rock (Folk Rock)

I first heard this song during the JJO Sonic Boom music festival in Janesville, WI. And what an amazing couple of days that was, rocking out to so many of my favorite bands with brother from another mother Shreyas Gaonkar (go, follow him!). But those stories are for another blog.

So, we saw David Draiman of Disturbed (the bald dude singing his heart out) invite Myles Kennedy of Alter Bridge (another guy with an unconventional voice, that I really love listening to) on stage, and they captured everyone's imagination with a beautiful rendering of this Simon & Garfunkel song.

1 Oct 2016 - David and Myles at JJO Sonic Boom '16 during Disturbed's headlining set - Janesville, WI

And I had parts of this song replay in my head for weeks after that, never really nailing the lyrics. I understood the true beauty of the song after I added it to my playlist.

The above video is the exact performance that has been nominated for a Grammy for Best Rock Performance this year. Here's wishing Disturbed get to see Ten Thousand Fists in the air when they go up on the stage to collect their prize. And that the crowd erupts in applause, ironically to celebrate The Sound Of Silence.

It is amazing to see how the problems of the 1960s have reared up their heads again in modern avatars. This song talks about how truly lonely we really are, even in a world constantly shrinking as technology overcomes traditional communication barriers. How we hold our inventions, our flimsy escape from our loneliness, in the highest regard - even higher than personal relationships.

When was the last time your kid didn't check his Facebook at the dinner table? When was the last time your friends took a moment to take in the natural beauty of the mountains, lakes, forests around them before rushing to whip out their fruit phones to capture an inferior-on-all-counts 12MP picture or Snapchat or Instagram or Boomerang or WhateverTheFKidsDoTheseDays? When was the last time your girlfriend looked you in the eye during a date, and not kept on glancing at the constant stream of notifications on her Whatsapp?

Can we just take a few seconds and appreciate the poignant writing of this verse?

And in the naked light I saw

Ten thousand people, maybe more

People talking without speaking

People hearing without listening

People writing songs that voices never share

No one dare

Disturb the sound of silence