Back to the Main Page Album List Track Lists Album Reviews Song List MIDIs Downloads Quiz Links Site Credits Disclaimer
Tales From New York - Lyrics Page 1
(released in 2000)

Tales From New York

Songs on this lyrics page:
The Sound Of Silence
Wednesday Morning, 3 a.m.
The Sun Is Burning
Peggy-O
Benedictus
He Was My Brother
We've Got A Groovy Thing Goin'
Homeward Bound
I Am A Rock
Kathy's Song
April Come She Will
Leaves That Are Green
Flowers Never Bend With The Rainfall
The Dangling Conversation
Scarborough Fair/Canticle
Patterns
Cloudy
For Emily, Whenever I May Find Her
Save the Life of My Child
7 O'Clock News/Silent Night

Forward to Tales From New York  Lyrics Page 2


The Sound Of Silence (3:07) MIDI
P. Simon, 1964
Released on Wednesday Morning, 3 a.m. and Sounds Of Silence

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 turn 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 shared
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


Wednesday Morning, 3 a.m. (2:14) MIDI
P. Simon, 1964
Released on Wednesday Morning, 3 a.m.

I can hear the soft breathing of the girl that I love
As she lies here beside me asleep with the night
And her hair in a fine mist floats on my pillow
Reflecting the glow of the winter moonlight

She is soft, she is warm, but my heart remains heavy
And I watch as her breasts gently rise, gently fall
For I know with the first light of dawn I'll be leaving
And tonight will be all I have left to recall

Oh, what have I done; why have I done it
I've committed a crime, I've broken the law
For twenty-five dollars and pieces of silver
I held up and robbed a hard liquor store

My life seems unreal, my crime an illusion
A scene badly written in which I must play
Yet I know as I gaze at my young love beside me
The morning is just a few hours away


The Sun Is Burning (2:46)
I. Campbell, 1964
Released on Wednesday Morning, 3 a.m.

The sun is burning in the sky
Strands of clouds go slowly drifting by
In the park the lazy bees
Are droning in the flowers, among the trees
And the sun burns in the sky

Now the sun is in the west
Little kids go home to take their rest
And the couples in the park
Are holdin' hands and waitin' for the dark
And the sun is in the west

Now the sun is sinking low
Children playin' know it's time to go
High above a spot appears
A little blossom blooms and then draws near
And the sun is sinking low

Now the sun has come to Earth
Shrouded in a mushroom cloud of death
Death comes in a blinding flash
Of hellish heat and leaves a smear of ash
And the sun has come to Earth

Now the sun has disappeared
All is darkness, anger, pain, and fear
Twisted, sightless wrecks of men
Go groping on their knees and cry in pain
And the sun has disappeared


Peggy-O (2:25)
(Traditional)
Released on Wednesday Morning, 3 a.m.

As we marched down to Faneri-o
As we marched down to Faneri-o
Our captain fell in love with a lady like a dove
And they called her name pretty Peggy-o

Come a-runnin' down the stairs, pretty Peggy-o
Come a-runnin' down the stairs, pretty Peggy-o
Come a-runnin' down the stairs, combin' back your yellow hair
You're the prettiest little girl I've ever seen-o

In a carriage you will ride, pretty Peggy-o
In a carriage you will ride, pretty Peggy-o
In a carriage you will ride, with your true love by your side
As fair as any maiden in the ar-e-o

What will your mother say, pretty Peggy-o?
What will your mother say, pretty Peggy-o?
What will your mother say, when she finds you've gone away
To places far and strange to Faneri-o?

If ever I return, pretty Peggy-o
If ever I return, pretty Peggy-o
If ever I return, all your cities I will burn
Destroying all the ladies in the ar-e-o
Destroying all the ladies in the ar-e-o


Benedictus (2:41)
(arranged and adapted by P. Simon and A. Garfunkel)
Released on Wednesday Morning, 3 a.m.
 
Original Latin lyrics:
Benedictus qui venit
In nomine Domini
In nomine
In nomine
In nomine Domini

In nomine Domini
In nomine
In nomine
In nomine Domini

English translation:
Blessed are those who have come
In the name of the Lord
In the name
In the name
In the name of the Lord

In the name of the Lord
In the name
In the name
In the name of the Lord


He Was My Brother (2:49)
P. Kane (P. Simon), 1963
Released on Wednesday Morning, 3 a.m.

He was my brother
Five years older than I
He was my brother
Twenty-three years old the day he died

Freedom writer
They cursed my brother to his face
Go home outsider
This town's gonna be your buryin' place

He was singin' on his knees
An angry mob trailed along
They shot my brother dead
Because he hated what was wrong

He was my brother
Tears can't bring him back to me
He was my brother
And he died so his brothers could be free
He died so his brothers could be free


We've Got A Groovy Thing Goin' (2:00)
P. Simon, 1966
Released on Sounds Of Silence

Bad news, bad news!
I heard you're packing to leave
I come a-running right over
I just couldn't believe it
I just couldn't believe it

Oh, baby, baby
You must be out of your mind
Do you know what you're kicking away?
We've got a groovy thing goin', baby
We've got a groovy thing

I never done you no wrong
I never hit you when you're down
I always gave you good loving
I never ran around
I never ran around

Oh, baby, baby
You must be out of your mind
Do you know what you're kicking away?
We've got a groovy thing goin', baby
We've got a groovy thing

There's something you ought to know
If you're fixing to go
I can't make it without you
No no no no, no no
No no, no no no no no

Oh, baby, baby
You must be out of your mind
Do you know what you're kicking away?
We've got a groovy thing goin', baby
We've got a groovy thing

We've got a groovy thing goin', baby
We've got a groovy thing


Homeward Bound (2:30) MIDI
P. Simon, 1966
Released on Parsley, Sage, Rosemary, and Thyme

I'm sittin' in the railway station
Got a ticket for my destination, mmm
On a tour of one night stands
My suitcase and guitar in hand
And every stop is neatly planned
For a poet and a one-man band

Homeward Bound
I wish I was
Homeward Bound
Home, where my thought's escaping
Home, where my music's playing
Home, where my love lies waiting
Silently for me

Every day's an endless stream
Of cigarettes and magazines
And each town looks the same to me
The movies and the factories
And every stranger's face I see
Reminds me that I long to be

Homeward Bound
I wish I was
Homeward Bound
Home, where my thought's escaping
Home, where my music's playing
Home, where my love lies waiting
Silently for me

Tonight I'll sing my songs again
I'll play the game and pretend
But all my words come back to me
In shades of mediocrity
Like emptiness in harmony
I need someone to comfort me

Homeward Bound
I wish I was
Homeward Bound
Home, where my thought's escaping
Home, where my music's playing
Home, where my love lies waiting
Silently for me
Silently for me


I Am A Rock (2:51) MIDI
P. Simon, 1965
Released on Sounds of Silence

A winter's day
In a deep and dark December
I am alone
Gazing from my window
To the streets below
On a freshly fallen silent shroud of snow

I am a rock
I am an island

I've built walls
A fortress deep and mighty
That none may penetrate
I have no need of friendship
Friendship causes pain
It's laughter and it's loving I disdain

I am a rock
I am an island

Don't talk of love
Well I've heard the word before
It's sleeping in my memory
I won't disturb the slumber
Of feelings that have died
If I never loved I never would have cried

I am a rock
I am an island

I have my books
And my poetry to protect me
I am shielded in my armor
Hiding in my room
Safe within my womb
I touch no one and no one touches me

I am a rock
I am an island

And a rock feels no pain
And an island never cries


Kathy's Song (3:21) MIDI
P. Simon, 1965
Released on Sounds Of Silence

I hear the drizzle of the rain
Like a memory it falls
Soft and warm continuing
Tapping on my roof and walls

And from the shelter of my mind
Through the window of my eyes
I gaze beyond the rain-drenched streets
To England where my heart lies

My mind's distracted and diffused
My thoughts are many miles away
They lie with you when you're alseep
And kiss you when you start your day

And a song I was writing is left undone
I don't know why I spend my time
Writing songs I can't believe
With words that tear and strain to rhyme

And so you see I have come to doubt
All that I once held as true
I stand alone without beliefs
The only truth I know is you

And as I watch the drops of rain
Weave their weary paths and die
I know that I am like the rain
There but for the grace of you go I


April Come She Will (1:49) MIDI
P. Simon, 1965
Released on Sounds Of Silence

April come she will
When streams are ripe and swelled with rain
May, she will stay
Resting in my arms again

June, she'll change her tune
In restless walks she'll prowl the night
July, she will fly
And give no warning to her flight

August, die she must
The autumn winds blow chilly and cold
September I'll remember
A love once new has now grown old


Leaves That Are Green (2:23)
P. Simon, 1965
Released on Sounds Of Silence

I was twenty-one years when I wrote this song
I'm twenty-two now but I won't be for long
Time hurries on
And the leaves that are green turn to brown
And they wither in the wind
And they crumble in your hand

Once my heart was filled with the love of a girl
I held her close but she faded in the night
Like a poem I meant to write
And the leaves that are green turn to brown
And they wither in the wind
And they crumble in your hand

I threw a pebble in a brook
And watched the ripple run away
And they never made a sound
And the leaves that are green turn to brown
And they wither in the wind
And they crumble in your hand

Hello, hello, hello, hello
Goodbye, goodbye, goodbye, goodbye
That's all there is
And the leaves that are green turn to brown
And they wither in the wind
And they crumble in your hand


Flowers Never Bend With The Rainfall (2:10) MIDI
P. Simon, 1965
Released on Parsley, Sage, Rosemary, and Thyme

Through the corridors of sleep
Past shadows dark and deep
My mind dances and leaps in confusion
I don't know what is real
I can't touch what I feel
And I hide behind the shield of my illusion

So I'll continue to continue to pretend
My life will never end
And flowers never bend
With the rainfall

The mirror on my wall
Casts an image dark and small
But I'm not sure at all it's my relfection
I am blinded by the light
Of God and truth and right
And I wander in the night without direction

So I'll continue to continue to pretend
My life will never end
And flowers never bend
With the rainfall

No matter if you're born
To play the King or pawn
For the line is thinly drawn 'tween joy and sorrow
So my fantasy
Becomes reality
And I must be what I must be and face tomorrow

So I'll continue to continue to pretend
My life will never end
And flowers never bend
With the rainfall


The Dangling Conversation (2:38) MIDI
P. Simon, 1966
Released on Parsley, Sage, Rosemary, and Thyme

It's a still life water color
Of a now late afternoon
As the sun shines through the curtain 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
And 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


Scarborough Fair/Canticle (3:10) MIDI Read the song on which this is based!
P. Simon/A. Garfunkel, 1966
Released on Parsley, Sage, Rosemary, and Thyme

Are you going to Scarborough Fair?
Parsley, sage, rosemary, and thyme
Remember me to one who lives there
She once was a true love of mine

Tell her to make me a cambric shirt
   (On the side of a hill in the deep forest green)
Parsley, sage, rosemary, and thyme
   (Tracing a sparrow on snow-crested ground)
Without no seams nor needlework
   (Blankets and bedclothes the child of the mountain)
Then she'll be a true love of mine
   (Sleeps unaware of the clarion call)

Tell her to find me an acre of land
   (On the side of a hill, a sprinkling of leaves)
Parsley, sage, rosemary, and thyme
   (Washed is the ground with so many tears)
Between the salt water and the sea strand
   (A soldier cleans and polishes a gun)
Then she'll be a true love of mine

Tell her to reap it in a sickle of leather
   (War bellows, blazing in scarlet battalions)
Parsley, sage, rosemary, and thyme
   (Generals order their soldiers to kill)
And to gather it all in a bunch of heather
   (And to fight for a cause they have long ago forgotten)
Then she'll be a true love of mine

Are you going to Scarborough Fair?
Parsley, sage, rosemary, and thyme
Remember me to one who lives there
She once was a true love of mine


Patterns (2:45) MIDI
P. Simon, 1965
Released on Parsley, Sage, Rosemary, and Thyme

The night sets softly
With the hush of falling leaves
Casting shivering shadows
On the houses through the trees
And the light from a street lamp
Paints a pattern on my wall
Like the pieces of a puzzle
Or a child's uneven scrawl

Up a narrow flight of stairs
In a narrow little room
As I lie upon my bed
In the early evening gloom
Impaled on my wall
My eyes can dimly see
The pattern of my life
And the puzzle that is me

From the moment of my birth
To the instant of my death
There are patterns I must follow
Just as I must breathe each breath
Like a rat in a maze
The path before my lies
And the pattern never alters
Until the rat dies

And the pattern still remains
On the wall where darkness fell
And it's fitting that it should
For in darkness I must dwell
Like the color of my skin
Or the day that I grow old
My life is made of patterns
That can scarcely be controlled


Cloudy (2:21) MIDI
P. Simon, 1966
Released on Parsley, Sage, Rosemary, and Thyme

Cloudy
The sky is gray and white and cloudy
Sometimes I think it's hanging down on me
And it's a hitchhike a hundred miles
I'm a raga-muffin child
Pointed finger-painted smile
I left my shadow waiting down the road for me a while

Cloudy
My thoughts are scattered and they're cloudy
They have no boreders, no boundaries
They echo and they swell
From Tolstoi to Tinkerbell
Down from Berkeley to Carmel
Got some pictures in my pocket and a lot of time to kill

Hey sunshine
I haven't seen you in a long time
Why don't you show your face and bend my mind?
These clouds stick to the sky
Like a floating question why
And they linger there to die
They don't know where they are going, and, my friend, neither do I

Cloudy
Cloudy


For Emily, Whenever I May Find Her (2:04) MIDI
P. Simon, 1966
Released on Parsley, Sage, Rosemary, and Thyme

What a dream I had
Pressed in organdy
Clothed in crinoline
Of smoky burgundy
Softer than the rain

I wandered empty streets
Down past the shop displays
I heard cathedral bells
Tripping down the alleyways
As I walked on

And when you ran to me
Your cheeks flushed with the night
We walked on frosted fields
Of juniper and lamplight
I held your hand

And when I awoke
And felt you warm and near
I kissed your honey hair
With my grateful tears
Oh I love you girl
Oh I love you


Save the Life Of My Child (2:49)
P. Simon, 1968
Released on Bookends

"Good God! Don't jump!"
A boy sat on the ledge
An old man who had fainted was revived
And everyone agreed 'twould be a miracle indeed
If the boy survived

"Save the life of my child!"
Cried the desperate mother

The woman from the supermarket
Ran to call the cops
"He must be high on something" someone said
Though it never made The New York Times
In The Daily News, the caption read

"Save the life of my child!"
Cried the desperate mother

(Hello darkness, my old friend
I've come to talk with you again)

A patrol car passing by
Halted to a stop
Said officer MacDougal in dismay:
"The force can't do a decent job
'Cause the kids got no respect
For the law today (and blah blah blah)"

"Save the life of my child!"
Cried the desperate mother

"Oh what's becoming of the children?"
People asking each other

When darkness fell, excitement kissed the crowd
And it made them wild
In an atmosphere of freaky holiday
When the spotlight hit the boy
And the crowd began to cheer
He flew away

"Oh, my Grace, I got no hiding place"


7 O'Clock News/Silent Night (2:03)
P. Simon, 1966
Released on Parsley, Sage, Rosemary, and Thyme

This is the early evening edition of the news.
The recent fight in the House of Representatives was over the open housing section of the Civil Rights Bill.
Brought traditional enemies together but left the defenders of the measure without the votes of their strongest supporters.
President Johnson originally proposed an outright ban covering discrimination by everyone for every type of housing but it had no chance from the start and everyone in Congress knew it.
A compromise was painfully worked out in the House Judiciary Committee.
In Los Angeles today comedian Lenny Bruce died of what was believed to be an overdose of narcotics.
Bruce was 42 years old.
Dr. Martin Luther King says he does not intend to cancel plans for an open housing march Sunday in the Chicago suburb of Cicero.
Cook County Sheriff Richard Ogleby asked King to call off the march and the police in Cicero said they would ask the National Guard to be called out if it is held.
King, now in Atlanta, Georgia, plans to return to Chicago Tuesday.
In Chicago, Richard Speck, accused murderer of nine student nurses, was brought before a grand jury today for indictment.
The nurses were found stabbed and strangled in their Chicago apartment.
In Washington the atmosphere was tense today as a special subcommittee of the House Committee on Un-American Activities continued its probe into anti-Viet Nam war protests.
Demonstrators were forcibly evicted from the hearings when they began chanting anti-war slogans.
Former Vice-President Richard Nixon says that unless there is a substantial increase in the present war effort in Viet Nam, the U.S. should look forward to five more years of war.
In a speech before the Convention of the Veterans of Foriegn Wars in New York, Nixon also said opposition to the war in this country is the greatest single weapon working against the U.S.
That's the 7 o'clock edition of the news, good night.

Silent night, holy night
All is calm, all is bright
Round yon virgin mother and child
Holy infant so tender and mild
Sleep in heavenly peace
Sleep in heavenly peace.