The original version from 1964 used only acoustic guitar as accompaniment and, while it did build in energy, kept the darkness in the song centered. It was a commercial flop and remains obscure.
The 1965 remix added electric guitar and drums, increasing the energy and pushing the darkness into an undertone. It was a tremendous commercial success and remains widely known.
In 2015, the band Disturbed covered the song with Paul Simon's blessing. They transposed it into a minor key, slowed the tempo, simplified the instrumentation and turned the energy into that of pain.
In 2020 Laura Vaughan and Oberon Oberon Dixon-Luinenburg (?) produced a solstice version which used only piano for accompaniment, and combined an extra low accompaniment with an extra high vocal line for added creepiness. A recording of this from the 2020 North American Distributed Chorus is available.
Hello darkness, my old friend
I've come to talk with you again
Because a vision softly creeping
Left its seeds while I was sleeping
And the vision that was planted in my brain
Still remains
Within the sound of silence
In restless dreams I walked alone
Narrow streets of cobblestone
'Neath the halo of a street lamp
I turned my collar to the cold and damp
When my eyes were stabbed by the flash of a neon light
That split the night
And touched the sound of silence
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
And no one dared
Disturb the sound of silence
"Fools", said I, "You do not know
Silence like a cancer grows
Hear my words that I might teach you
Take my arms that I might reach you"
But my words, like silent raindrops fell
And echoed
In the wells of silence
And the people bowed and prayed
To the neon god they made
And the sign flashed out its warning
In the words that it was forming
And the sign said, "The words of the prophets are written on the subway walls
And tenement halls"
And whispered in the sound of silence
