That voice. Deep as a canyon, weathered by time and hard livin’. When Johnny Cash wrapped his pipes around “The Sound of Silence”, he breathed new life into Simon & Garfunkel’s classic.
Cash had a way of making every song his own, whether it was Nine Inch Nails’ “Hurt” or this haunting masterpiece. His version strips away the original’s folk-rock trappings, leaving just that iconic baritone and sparse instrumentation. The effect is chilling.
I remember hearing it for the first time and getting goosebumps. Cash’s voice carried the weight of a man who’d seen it all – the highs, the lows, and everything in between. When he intoned “Hello darkness, my old friend”, you could feel he knew that darkness intimately.
The Man in Black covers The Sound of Silence: