Crucial Track for May 30, 2025

"I Am a Rock" by Simon & Garfunkel

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Artist: Simon & Garfunkel

Album: Sounds of Silence

Track: I Am A Rock (full song, lyrics)

This is the pure philosophical opening & closing of a certain point of view, for me. I quote it directly 4 times over 7 years in my digital journal and TBD number of times in my as-yet-un-digitized handwritten journals, because it was absolutely one of those songs I would listen to in high school as I curled up in bed and cried for not feeling that I fit in or had any friends. I would hang onto rock-ness, hoping that high school didn’t matter, that none of them mattered, hoping that “books & poetry” would indeed protect me.

The outro lines give away the game, of course:

> And a rock feels no pain, > And an island never cries…

That self-isolation and individualism are avoidance and coping mechanisms for feeling (often social) pain and suffering, and not solutions.

Now years away, I appreciate the song for Simon & Garfunkel’s gorgeous harmonies!

Those perfect moments: the opening little riff at 00:03; the rhythm of the lyrics at 01:36; the softness of the outro at 02:30.