Analysis
What a revolutionary song. Before this came out, most rock and roll music was bubble gum pop about being in love or losing love or wanting love, etc. About this time music was getting a lot more poetic, and this is one of the best examples of the turnaround. The first verse sets the scene. A man is talking to the darkness (put many possible interpretations for darkness here, I'll let you pick one) about a vision he had, and just can't shake. The vision has been "planted in his brain" so it obviously affected him deeply. In this verse you first hear the recurring paradox "the sound of silence", here used to represent his thoughts (i.e. they are given sound by him, but otherwise they are formless) He then begins to describe his vision (or his "restless dream"); as he walks down a dark, lonely, cold street he suddenly sees the "flash of a neon light".