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On May 24, 2022, the Facebook page for the Accidental Talmudist posted a piece of text that supposedly relayed the story behind the opening line of the Simon & Garfunkel song, The Sound of Silence. The viral post claimed the line, Hello darkness, my old friend, had been inspired by Art Garfunkel's college roommate, Sandy Greenberg, who is blind. This viral Facebook post (which is not the first to offer this version of the untold story behind The Sound of Silence) gave a generally accurate overview of Garfunkel and Greenberg's friendship. The two were college roommates, Garfunkel nicknamed himself darkness when talking to Greenberg after Greenberg went blind, and Greenberg provided financial support to help launch Garfunkel's career. However, there area two important facts that the text did not consider: First, the song The Sound of Silence was written by Paul Simon, not Garfunkel. And second, while it was possible that Greenberg inspired the line, Hello darkness, my old friend, no credible evidence proved that that was the case. Sanford Sandy Greenberg is an author, inventor, philanthropist, and chair of the board of governors of the Johns Hopkins Wilmer Eye Institute. In 2020, he published a biography that borrowed its title, Hello Darkness, My Old Friend, from the hit Simon & Garfunkel song, The Sound of Silence. Simon & Schuster described the book, writing: The bulk of the above-displayed Facebook post was cribbed from this biography and provided an accurate summary of Greenberg's relationship with Garfunkel. They were college roommates at Columbia University, Greenberg went blind about a year into their friendship, and Garfunkel — who started to refer to himself to his friend as darkness — encouraged Greenberg to continue his schooling. In a 2020 People Magazine article about Greenberg's biography, Garfunkel talked about the pair's dynamic. The article read: As noted in the viral post, Garfunkel also once abandoned his friend at New York's Grand Central Terminal in an attempt to show Greenberg that he could make it home by himself despite his blindness. (Garfunkel didn't actually abandon his friend. He simply remained quiet and watched as his friend navigated the train system.) In 2016, the magazine for the duo's alma mater, Columbia Magazine, mentioned the incident in an article about the pair's friendship: The viral Facebook post also claimed that Greenberg gave Garfunkel roughly $400 to help record Simon & Garfunkel's debut album. This, too, was accurate. In his biography, Greenberg recounted the moment when Garfunkel talked to him about the money, writing: While the Facebook post truly recounted memorable moments from Garfunkel and Greenberg's lifelong friendship, its claim that Greenberg inspired the line, Hello darkness, my old friend was unfounded. It was indeed possible, even plausible, that a song by a band with a member who called himself darkness and had a close friend who was blind would reference that relationship with the lyrics. However, as far as we could tell, neither Simon nor Garfunkel have ever said that was the case. In fact, both musicians have talked about the The Sound of Silence, explaining the meaning of the song, without referencing Greenberg. The Sound of Silence was written by Simon, not Garfunkel, circa 1963 and released on the band's debut album, Wednesday Morning, 3 A.M. According to Simon, the opening line of the song referenced his childhood practice of playing guitar in the bathroom in the dark. Here's an excerpt from a 1984 interview Simon did with Playboy magazine: Garfunkel, too, has commented on the song. On the back cover of Wednesday Morning, 3 A.M. the duo published a letter Garfunkel had written to Simon after the studio asked Garfunkel to write song descriptions for the album. Garfunkel wrote: While the Facebook post was a generally accurate overview of Garfunkel and Greenberg's friendship — yes, they were college roommates, and Garfunkel indeed nicknamed himself darkness — there was no explicit evidence that the opening line of The Sound of Silence referenced their friendship.
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