Paul Simon's 9/11 Bookends: "The Boxer" and "The Sounds of Silence"

Paul Simon played a magnificently moving version of "The Sounds of Silence" at the 9/11 10th anniversary memorial service today in downtown New York City.

It was a classic example of a song (which Simon wrote in 1964) taking on a completely new meaning in the light of its context, as great songs so often do. And you can see and feel the weight of that unimaginable day in Simon's singing and stately guitar playing.

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

Paul Simon is the most New York of songwriters; his songs embody the essence of the City in a way few others can. Perhaps that's because he and his partner Art Garfunkel were a couple of menschs from Queens who made good.

When Saturday Night Live returned to the air about 10 days after 9/11 in 2001, Simon opened the show with an incredibly moving version of perhaps his best song, "The Boxer." With New York's finest and bravest sharing the stage with him, it reminded us that "the fighter still remains" within us all.

Rock Turtleneck joins the millions who send their thoughts and prayers to the victims of 9/11 and their families.