Simon & Garfunkel - The Dangling Conversation Lyrics

I've never heard this before. It's beautiful. So well arranged. The lyrics are superb.

yajaira

Paul Simon and Jim Croce...(sigh)

My eyes water Everytime I hear this, knowing there is nothing I can do to change the past,but each day i try the future

i prefer the bookends album its more outdoor imo

I prefer this literary song with its many lines that remind me of the 1000 books I've read. I first heard this song while baby sitting and I was reading the Hobbit. I'm still reading the Classics that I started back while I was a young teenager. This song listens like a good book reads. It stands by itself and kind of dangles like from the title in a conversation with myself.

One of my favorite songs by Paul, at a time that I was growing up as a young man and really getting into words of a song. I now have another favorite writer Grace VanderWaal and I so wish she would sing this song and learn more from it.

What a wonderful tribute to S&G, and to the once-meaningful use of popular music.

The wonder of these guys back then was that they could get into your soul.

When it came out, I loved this song. But as Simon expanded his range, I realized that this song is a bit pretentious.

I absolutely love this song. I feel a feeling I feel when I only listen to this song. Other songs never summon the emotion

This has always been one of my favorites by them. I was lucky enough to see them in 1983 at Parade stadium in mpls...

:( sad. humans are an endless source of disappointment for one another.

"You can only avoid regret by switching off your imagination."

wonderful song, not just a song very moving.

Lovely counter-melody starts when he sings 'syncopated time'

How these songs bring back the 60s/70s for me. I want to thank and bless all of you who helped me grow up to be the loving man I now am! For then each day was a step into what I did not know. And would they end? Thank you for these songs!

Simon isn't the only one amazed this song wasn't a huge hit, one of the best compositions by one of the greatest songwriters of the 20th- or any- century.

Some kind of genius! Paul Simon is god!

Take me back to Marin ....... when sun brought us out to play at Stinson, rode horses at San Geronimo, pedaled bikes through Fairfax ....... this tune brings it all back. We remember Mr. B at Ross School -- approx. 1970 & 1971. * Cav *

Absolutely smashing song and lyrics!!

תוציא עוד שירים

אני מעריץ שלך

Such a well written , cerebral song . Compare the lyrics of Dangling Conversation to the typical crap today
' yo b*** I got lotsa money and I'm hot '

'The dangling conversation' I have known and it has left an indelible mark on my soul forty three years later!

I always thought this song was about a failed relationship because the couple pretty much had zero things in common.

One of the most beautiful songs ever written.  Paul Simon is one of our greatest songwriters.  Thank you for such a timeless masterpiece.

Will we ever see such genius again..I don’t think the evil powers that be will allow our American youth to experience their culture and creativity..They want them stuck on the garbage that they push out of Hollywood..

Absolutely, the best man woman relationship lyrics ever composed No Doubt!!!

I think this song may sum up the lives of many a married couple.
This song gives me chills it is so beautiful.
Another cerebral Simon song. Sweet.

in my opinion, the best poem ever, and to be put to music, is just magical. The best song ever written, in my opinion. Truly superb.

1966 was a good time for music

And we note our place with book markers
That measure what we’ve lost.

These words accompanied by music are so beautiful..........

I was 16 when this song came out and life was a big mystery; I m now 67 and dying and life, after all this time, is still a big mystery.

This was released during my first tour of duty in Vietnam -- a fine song

Here in 2019 anyone?

I bought this album with my pocket money when I was just a kid in Glasgow Scotland, early/mid 1960s and everybody thought I was nuts until they listened too it and too this day I have no idea why I bought it or how I had even heard of these two guys, many years later, in 1982, I was walking through Central Park, as I was living there, and all I could here was these two guys singing inside my head. Timeless music, shame they ended the way they did.

This is one of the great (folk-rock) songs of the 60s - or of the last half century - because it goes against a certain popular grain of the time: it is more Joan Didion than it is the Chicago 7....meaning it is a deeply personal meditation on the failure of human contracts which no protest sign or burning barricade or breathy righteous rhetoric can ever remedy.

Conversely, "For Emily..." is one of the most exquisite love songs ever written - I can't think of another that uses such delicate imagery to express the blissful stasis of being totally and - at least in the moment - irrevocably in love. The song spoils you - ruins you, even - in the most delectable way: I have yearned some thirty five years to 'walk on frosted fields of juniper and lamplight" but, as I move into my fifties, now understand that it is unlikely that I - to quote Didion herself - 'will come across such a happy ending."

Also my favorite song from that period. Tempered by the way Paul Simon treated Los Lobos in Graceland. Seriously, Paul Simon, give credit where credit is due: https://ultimateclassicrock.com/los-lobos-steve-berlin-labels-paul-simon-a-jerk-alleges-graceland-snub/

Also one of my favorite songs from that period. But also tempered with my distaste for what Paul Simon did with Los Lobos on Graceland. "Sue me, see what happens?" Seriously, Paul Simon, please give credit where credit is due. Talk about a dangling conversation:

I live about 2 hours away from my parents and every time I go and see them this is one of the songs that my mother and I sing together she does Simon's part and I'll do Garfunkel's part she says that I'm better at singing Garfunkel's part then she is I can tell my mom gets happy when I listen to her music like she has a sense of pride but really it's just damn good music

Genius, beauty, deep emotion. It's amazing that anyone thought this should be a single, never mind it making it to #25. But it was a different time - intellect and differences were at least appreciated if not respected, for example.

Paul Simon-one of the best songwriters/poet of my generation! This song is among my favorites.

For Emily, Whenever I May Find Her. I had her, and she slipped away into the night...

Very heavy and deep!! Great lryical prose.

Such a gifted musician!! listening to them since college in the late 60's

I've been listening to this tune since it was first released in September 1966, I wasn't quite sure of it's meaning to a 15 year old..just love the arrangement and melody..now I know what it means and it brings me to a more quieter place of my life. I picture myself in that room, sunshine thru the curtain lace...my favorite Paul Simon, Art Garfunkel tune.🎻🎼🙂

I've always thought that this song was one of the best, ever, by these 2 gifted artists.

Maybe we are staying away from our true soulmates bcz of this karmic responsibility of this damn life!

Hemels mooi nummer...voor mij een briljant stuk muziek én dus in mijn persoonlijke top 3 aller, tijden.......

This is one of those songs where someone else does it better; Joan Baez. Sorry.

NYC was so beautiful and elegant post WWII to about 1980. Then came the deluge.

this is more than music ... what it is I cant say, but it's pure beauty

2 successful, but bored and boring childless English professors sitting in the sun room of their Bay Area home on a Saturday afternoon secretly wanting to murder each other.

I love this song but it is VERY depressing.

Robert Frost and Emily Dickinson lived in Amherst, Mass.

What a timeless song, a half century later. 'We speak of things that matter, with words that must be said..'

Es todavía de un color de agua viva,
de la tarde noche ya,
mientras el sol brilla a través de la cortina de encaje
y las sombras lavan la habitación.
Nos sentamos a tomar el café
sentada en nuestra indiferencia,
como conchas en la orilla
puedes oír el bramido del océano
En la balanceante conversación
y los suspiros superficiales,
de la frontera de nuestra vida.

Y leer tu Emily Dickinson,
y yo mi Robert Frost,
y anotamos nuestro lugar con marca-libros
Esa mesura es la que hemos perdido.
Como un poema apenas escrito
somos versos fuera de ritmo,
emparejados fuera de rima,
con el tiempo sincopado
Perdidos en la balanceante conversación
y los suspiros superficiales,
de la frontera de nuestra vida.

Sí, hablamos de cosas que importan,
Con palabras que hay que decir,
"¿Puede el análisis mejorar algo?
'El teatro está verdaderamente muerto?'
Y cómo la habitación desapareció con suavidad
y sólo besar tu sombra,
no puedo sentir tu mano,
eres extraña ante mí
Perdido en la balanceante conversación.
Y los suspiros superficiales,
de la frontera de nuestra vida.

my cover
please check it^_^

https://youtu.be/9S8ZuY7zDtk

Awesomely beautiful and deep...

In my bedroom when I was 16 playing this over and over again wondering where my life would take me.

Mixed feelings, tbh. Gorgeous melody and vocal. Lyrics? Pretentious, probably. Art hated the song. Simon largely disowned it. But, in retrospect, it is touchingly naïve and rather lovely.

Simon and Garfunkel are soooo good! People need to discover or rediscover them!

it's the realisation -of the beginning of the End. Poetry sublime and divine !My lifelong favourite duo !

I thought of this song once when I was thinking about a girlfriend. I thought it was a bad sign, but sometimes we persist in things. The song told the truth. Sometimes we do not want to hear the truth.

Many people have remarked that this song is about love lost. I thought so, too, in the late 60's when I first heard it. Now, I don't agree. It's a song about familiarity, complacency, and lost passion, perhaps, but not lost love. There is still the water color of their life, the mutual comfort of coffee and a good book. And even if they are out of rhythm and rhyme, they are still syncopated in time. 30 years of marriage to the same woman has given me a whole new depth to the meaning of this song. What amazes me is Paul Simon's ability to perceive this at such a young age. This and "What a Time It Was" both written with wisdom beyond years. Such talent!

Maybe a bit overwrought, but there are still some good insights and truths in there. I like the bit about the two people being verses out of rhythm, that's cool. Usually words get personified, not the other way round. I thought that was creative.

Possibly the most sarcastic song of the Sixties. Two college study buddies pushing back the borders, Intimidated by exposure to the Giants of literature and poetry.
"You can hear the ocean roar."

It could not have mattered so much had they not tried so hard. Love youth for climbing those craggy cliffs. The world is in good hands, always.

In the old days, when lyrics were beautiful and intelligent!

Their music is timeless!

It's a still life watercolor
Of a now-late afternoon
As the sun shines through the curtained 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 book markers
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 dangled 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

" . . . and the superficial sighs . . . the borders of our lives."
Such brilliant poignance.

One of their top 5 best songs. So perfect.

LYRICS to this beautiful song:

It's a still life watercolor
Of the now late afternoon
As the sun shines thru 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
book markers
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

a friend and i sang this song at a school assembly in seattle in 1968.

'You read your Emily Dickinson/And I my Robert Frost and we note our place with bookmarkers/That measure what we lost.' Even at age fifteen I thought these were unbearably pretentious lyrics.

what would you have written in their place?

I remember Peggy Fleming used Dangling Conversation as the theme for her skating routine on a televised ice competition. It was the perfect example of poetry in motion! As for the song, a critique on how many of us are preoccupied with matters superficial and unimportant in the grander scheme of things.

Poet artists eternal...truths in songs

This is my favorite Simon & Garfunkle song :)

Whom ever sings like this ??

Rite on

Masterpiece

And you read your Emily Dickinson and I my Robert Frost, And we note our place with book markers, That measure what we've lost. ABSOLUTELY LOVE IT. WHAT A MYSTERY OF EXPRESSION. THANK YOU PAUL FOR UNWITTINGLY CONTRIBUTING TO MAKING ME WHO I AM.

Ve sen Emily Dickinson'ını, bense Robert Frost 'umu okurken

I'm starting to like this more than sound of silence

better by light years than the JUNK sung today .!!!!!

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.

I remember this song when the first skateboards came out and a bunch of us 12-year olds were skateboarding down a long hill in a poor neighborhood, and a brave man flew over us time and again that summer in a WW I aircraft from Tweed New-Haven airport.

my therapist Mrs.Tanzer thought it was interesting that I brought this song up.

Fantastic song~~How difficult is it to understand??! Really?  Too heavy??! Great song

it takes emotional maturity/intelligence to grok this song. these qualities aren't widespread in our culture.

Love the way that "in syncopated time" is sang in syncopated time.

Yes! Like that line in Kathy's song "With words that tear and strain to rhyme" that literally strains to rhyme

Only Paul Simon could articulate this, been there, done that, it is exactly like this. As a teenager I really didn't have a clue what this song was about. After some sad history and a broken heart, now I know exactly what it is and what it means. Paul Simon is a genius! I know he has lived all his music.

This Simon and Garfunkel song which is one of my favorites and I like all of them, The darling conversion brings back far away memories from my years in High School in 1969 ,there were a lot of things changing , among them the changing of the neat dress code to the hippy stile way of dressing in High School.

There's so much great stuff that you rarely if ever hear on radio in favor of the same old tired stuff. This is a prime example.

One of the greatest songs ever written (lyrically), I consider Paul Simon a genius of songwriting and cannot understand why everyone can't agree to that :), and the way he and Garfunkel harmonise is pure magic. Thanks for bringing back the memories.

my favorite song after oldfriend/bookends!!

It's a still life water color,
Of a now late afternoon,
As the sun shines through the curtained 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 dangled 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.

Thank you for the lyrics. It really helps.

The lyrics are pure anapests and iambics in a steady flow that human intelligence in 1966 had already lost in the common vague culture of hippiedom. It does have a 'commanding' bridge which may have shut down some hippie ears.

Paul paints deep, pictures, with his words and music. You can just picture the whole scenario. A true Bard.

Cast in our indifference...