Man's 18-String Guitar Version Of 'Sound Of Silence' Leaves An Impression

Mar 25, 2021

Anyone who's ever heard Simon and Garfunkel's "Sound of Silence" can attest to what a transcendent thing it is to experience. From the lushly picked and strummed guitar to the harmonized vocals of the opening line "Hello darkness, my old friend," every aspect comes together as one brilliant haunted whole.

It's no wonder so many have tried to cover it and tried to recreate the song's indescribable feeling. For one musician, his choice of instrument made a major difference in his ability to deliver a spellbinding performance.

In 2017, the immensely talented Canadian musician Jamie Dupuis took his harp guitar outside for an instrumental version of "Sound of Silence." With its 18 strings, this instrument has a whole lot of range. However, it likely needs to be in the hands of someone who's an expert — after all, six strings is difficult enough!

Dupuis’ experience and devotion are pretty clear. Even without having sung a single word, you can instantly identify the song and find yourself transported into a realm of amazement. The outdoor environment adds to the tranquility of the whole experience.

Reinterpreting a classic track is often about honoring the original arrangement while also finding new ways to present it. Dupuis seems to have respect for Simon and Garfunkel's original version, but he's also ambitious enough to find a way to make the song his own. There are so many cover versions of songs that essentially seek to duplicate the originals. But Dupuis takes things further by making this version clearly his.

According to his website, Dupuis began his musical journey at just 6 years old, beginning with the piano. But it wasn’t until the precocious musician turned 14 and received his first guitar that Dupuis really fell in love. As a teen, he learned to play rock hits from some of his favorite musicians — from Nirvana to Metallica. But if there’s one thing that seems to be a constant of Dupuis’ musical trajectory, it’s that he is constantly growing and trying new things. Playing rock music, Dupuis explains, just “wasn’t enough.” And so the Canadian teen took up classical guitar, practicing eight hours a day while also finding time to compose his own music.

After Dupuis graduated high school, he took his passion for music to Hollywood, California, where he received a full scholarship to the Musicians Institute in 2011. Since then, Dupuis has won countless awards, played at a variety of festivals and has released several digital albums. All of these valuable experiences culminated with one of Dupuis’ biggest YouTube hits — his “The Sound of Silence” cover, which has received more than 13 million views and 200,000 likes.

In an emotional comment, Stevie Pulliam spoke to how important Dupuis cover has been for him since his dad passed away.

“My dad showed me this beautiful video almost two years ago,” Pulliam wrote. “He came into the living room where I was sitting and asked me to listen to this video. He said it was one of the most amazing things he had ever seen and started crying. He died 9 months ago and I finally found this again and listening to it makes me think about him and how much he loved music. Thank you for this.”

The fact that Dupuis music affected so many people on such a deep level just goes to show that his cover was a success. This, as most musicians now, is no small feat, especially given “The Sound of Silence’s” history as a song that has been covered again and again.

Since the track came out in 1965, musicians have recorded over 60 covers of the iconic folk-rock piece, according to Smithsonian Magazine. Besides Depuis’ memorable instrumental take on the track, Chicago nü metal band Disturbed also impressed audiences around the world with their heart-wrenching version in 2016.

Accompanied by a packed string section, a piano and a pair of massive kettledrums, frontman David Draiman gives an admittedly spectacular performance on the Conan stage, transforming Simon and Garfunkel’s folk-rock hit into something entirely different. That’s not to say that Draiman goes metal on the song — electric guitars are conspicuously absent from this Disturbed performance. Rather, Draiman’s distinctive baritone gives the song an even darker quality. And even when Draiman does have to contend with the high notes, he tackles them with surprising ease. Suffice it to say that Draiman is not only a respectable singer in the metal genre, but he is simply an overall talented musician. With grace and aplomb, he breathes new life into a cherished American classic, adding something new to the song’s long musical history.

At just 21 years old, Paul Simon made a major contribution to musical history when he penned the storied folk track. However, the song — along with the debut record it appeared on, the duo’s 1964 “Wednesday Morning, 3 A.M.” — was a flop. 

Due to the track’s commercial failure, the band broke up, which could have spelled the end of one of folk music’s greatest duos. But fate had other plans for Simon and Garfunkel. As the story goes, Dick Summer, a late-night DJ, played the track in 1965, which gave rise to a new wave of popularity along the east coast. That got the attention of Tom Wilson, who worked at Columbia Records, where the band was first signed. Using studio musicians, Wilson recorded a remix of the track and re-released it. Soon after its release in September 1965, the once-forgotten track became a hit, charting on the Billboard Hot 100.

“I wrote it in the bathroom in my parent’s house because the room was tiled, so there was an echo,” Simon said of the track in a 2016 interview with Uncut. “I used to turn the lights off and leave the water running. It was like white noise, you know? My brother says it was amazing that I wrote it, because everything I’d written before that was way below it in quality. It was step up. It was probably one of those things when you’re in some kind of serotonin/dopamine flow, and it just comes out. But I was too young to know that those things happened. So I just took it as, ‘That’s a good one, I could close my act with this one.’”

And now, nearly six decades since Simon put pen to paper, “The Sound of Silence” has become one of pop music’s most recognizable hits, inspiring countless musicians like Dupuis to take a crack at putting their spin on such a legendary piece of music.

How did Dupuis’ performance of "Sound of Silence" affect you? Do you have any favorite covers of classic songs? Let us know — and show this to anyone you know who loves this song or music in general.