7 O'Clock News / Silent Night

7 O'Clock News / Silent Night
Simon & Garfunkel
publication	1966
length	2:01
Genre (s)	Folk rock
Author (s)	Paul Simon
Publisher (s)	Columbia Records
album	Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme

7 O'Clock News / Silent Night is a song by Simon & Garfunkel that was released on their third studio album Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme in 1966 . It consists of a collage of the famous Christmas carol Silent Night, Holy Night , sung by Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel , and a fictional radio news program about real events from August 3, 1966, presented by radio presenter Charlie O'Donnell .

Lecture

Simon & Garfunkel (1966)

Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel sing the English translation of the classic Christmas carol Silent Night, Holy Night by Franz Xaver Gruber and Joseph Mohr in two voices . They are accompanied by a piano that plays the chords resolved as arpeggios . The pianist is Art Garfunkel. It is the only song on the album on which Garfunkel plays an instrument.

"Slowly and stealthily" (according to Maury Dean) soberly presented messages sneak into the song. At first barely audible, they get louder and louder until the “angelic” voices of Simons and Garfunkels can hardly fight the overlaying news with their quiet song. At the end, the news anchor says goodbye, wishes the audience a good night and the Christmas carol also breaks off.

News reports

• In the United States House of Representatives is about the Civil Rights Act of 1968 debated. The complete ban on discrimination sought by Lyndon B. Johnson is considered to have no chance, which is why the judiciary committee is working out a compromise proposal.
• Comedian Lenny Bruce dies of a drug overdose.
• Martin Luther King is planning a protest march against discrimination in the housing market in Cicero , a suburb of Chicago , against the resistance of the local Sheriff Richard B. Ogilvie and despite the announced intervention of the National Guard .
• Serial killer Richard Speck is charged with the murder of nine nurses.
• A hearing of the Committee for Un-American Activities on the protests against the Vietnam War is disrupted by demonstrators.
• Richard Nixon gives a speech to veterans of the US Army , in which he calls for an intensification of the American war effort and describes the opponents of the Vietnam War as the greatest weapon against the USA.

• People and events in the news
• 

  Lyndon B. Johnson (1968)

• 

  Lenny Bruce (1961)

• 

  Martin Luther King (1963)

• 

  Protests against the Vietnam War (1967)

• 

  Richard Nixon (1969)

interpretation

The juxtaposition of the gloomy news with tenderly expressed Christmas feelings forms, according to James Bennighof, an outspoken ironic commentary on social grievances. For Dorian Lynskey, the superimposition of the two levels creates an eerie power that goes beyond ostensible irony. According to Cornel Bonca, the song opens up a glimpse into violence and chaos in the USA in the mid-1960s and the hidden longing for peace, quiet nights and redemption.

7 O'Clock News / Silent Night is one of Simon & Garfunkel's rare excursions into the political realm. The duo dedicated the entire album Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme to the late socially critical stand-up comedian Lenny Bruce, who was banned from appearing numerous times. Peter Ames Carlin, on the other hand, does not consider the song to be explicitly political, since it was written after Paul Simons' time as a political songwriter and the reports incorporated are generally to be viewed as bad news from 1966.

With Scarborough Fair / Canticle there is a second song on the album Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme , which is composed from different sources, namely the traditional English folk song Scarborough Fair and passages from Simon's own composition The Side of a Hill from 1963 that form a counterpoint to the classical melody. The anti-war message of the second piece gives the text of the folk song about an impossible love a figurative meaning, according to James E. Perone: waging a war for peace becomes the ultimate impossibility. Scarborough Fair / Canticle was very successful as an anti-war song in 1966-69. Like 7 O'Clock News / Silent Night, it was understood as an artistic protest by the duo against the Vietnam War.

reception

The review of the album Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme on Billboard highlighted the final piece, judging that the song hits the listener with such a dramatic force that it is not easy to forget. Ralph J. Gleason wrote in 1966: “When I first heard it, my spine was cold and tears welled up in my eyes. It is one of the most powerful statements about the world today that I have ever heard. ” High Fidelity found in 1967 that the piece was“ startlingly eloquent because of what it leaves unsaid ”.

Fifty years later, The Telegraph included 7 O'Clock News / Silent Night in a list of the 100 best Christmas carols of all time, calling it "an impactful, politicized Christmas carol that balances between hope and despair," referring to the hit The Sound of Silence “Paul Simon's manifesto designed as a silent sound”. Matthew Greenwald described the song on Allmusic as "an organic daydream nightmare that is scary, real and undeniable".

According to the American music magazine Crawdaddy , a band called The Hopeful played a plagiarism of the song with the title 6 O'Clock News / Silent Night around the turn of the year 1966/67 , but it remained unpublished. The B-side was the compilation 6 O'Clock News / America the Beautiful .

In December 1991 a re-release of 7 O'Clock News / Silent Night with A Hazy Shade of Winter on the A-side and Bridge Over Troubled Water on the B-side hit the UK music charts , where the single lasted for six weeks and up rose to position 30.

Web links

• Lyrics on the website of Simon & Garfunkel.
• Lyrics on Paul Simon's website.
• 7 O'Clock News / Silent Night at Allmusic .
• The 100 best Christmas songs of all time: 7 O'Clock News / Silent Night (1966). In: The Telegraph . December 8, 2016, archived from the original on December 9, 2016 . 

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} James Bennighof: The Words and Music of Paul Simon . Greenwood, Westport 2007, ISBN 978-0-275-99163-0 , p. 32.
2. ↑ Spencer Leigh: Simon & Garfunkel: Together Alone . McNidder & Grace 2016, ISBN 978-0-85716-151-2 .
3. ↑ Maury Dean: Rock and Roll: Gold Rush . Algora Publishing, New York 2003, ISBN 0-87586-207-1 , p. 209.
4. ^ Dorian Lynskey: 33 Revolutions Per Minute . Faber & Faber, London 2011, ISBN 978-0-571-27720-9 .
5. ↑ Cornel Bonca: Paul Simon: An American Tune . Rowman & Littlefield Lanham 2014, ISBN 978-0-8108-8481-6 , pp. 37-38.
6. ↑ Michael J Roberts: The Great Songwriters. Beginnings Vol 2: Paul Simon and Brian Wilson . Bookbaby, Cork 2014, ISBN 978-1-4835-2148-0 .
7. ↑ Peter Ames Carlin: Homeward Bound: The Life of Paul Simon . Henry Holt, New York 2016, ISBN 978-1-6277-9-0345 , p. 297.
8. ↑ James E. Perone: Songs of the Vietnam Conflict . Greenwood, Westport 2001, ISBN 0-313-31528-0 , p. 45.
9. ↑ Simon & Garfunkel at Radio Swiss Pop .
10. ↑ " 7 O'Clock News-Silent Night hits the listener witch such dramatic impact, it won't be easily forgotten." In: Billboard of November 5, 1966.
11. ^ "My first hearing of it brought chills to my spine and tears to my eyes. It is one of the most effective statements about the world today that I have heard. "Quoted from: James E. Perone: Songs of the Vietnam Conflict . Greenwood, Westport 2001, ISBN 0-313-31528-0 , p. 45.
12. ^ "The piece is upsettingly eloquent for what it leaves unsaid". In: High Fidelity , Volume 17, Issues 1-6, ABC Leisure Magazines, 1967, p. 125.
13. ↑ The 100 best Christmas songs of all time: 7 O'Clock News / Silent Night (1966). In: The Telegraph . December 8, 2016, archived from the original on December 9, 2016 ; accessed on December 21, 2018 (English): “A potent, politicized Christmas carol, poised between hope and despair. [...] Paul Simon's sound of silence made manifest " 
14. ↑ ". Creates on organic daydream nightmare did is scary, real, and undeniable" Quoted from: Matthew Greenwald: 7 O'Clock News / Silent Night at Allmusic .
15. ↑ Paul Williams (Ed.): The Crawdaddy! Book . Hal Leonard, Milwaukee 2002, ISBN 0-634-02958-4 , p. 96.
16. ↑ Simon And Garfunkel * - Seven O'Clock News / Silent Night - A Hazy Shade Of Winter - Bridge Over Troubled Water at Discogs .
17. ↑ Hazy Shade of Winter / Silent Night on the British music charts .