The Dangling Conversation

"The Dangling Conversation"
The Dangling Conversation single.jpg
Single by Simon and Garfunkel
from the album Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme
B-side"The Big Bright Green Pleasure Machine"
ReleasedJuly 1966
RecordedJune 1966
GenreFolk rock
Length2:37
LabelColumbia Records
Songwriter(s)Paul Simon
Producer(s)Bob Johnston
Simon and Garfunkel singles chronology
"I Am a Rock"
(1966)
"The Dangling Conversation"
(1966)
"A Hazy Shade of Winter"
(1966)

"The Dangling Conversation" is a song by American music duo Simon & Garfunkel, released in September 1966 as the second single from the duo's third studio album, Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme (1966).

Background

The theme is failed communication between lovers. The song starts in a room washed by shadows from the sun slanting through the lace curtains and ends with the room "softly faded." The two are as different as the poets they read: Emily Dickinson and Robert Frost. Simon has compared this song to "The Sound of Silence", but says "The Dangling Conversation" is more personal.

Simon & Garfunkel's opinion of the song varied over time. According to biographer Peter Ames Carlin, they both considered it their favorite song on the album at the time of its release. Marc Eliot, who wrote Paul Simon: A Life, disputes this, arguing that Garfunkel always disliked the song and felt it was pretentious. When the single did not perform as well as they had hoped, Simon told Record Mirror's Norman Jopling that the song was "above the kids." In 1993, when asked about the song, he commented, "It's a college kid's song, a little precious."

Commercial performance

The song peaked at number 25 on the Billboard Hot 100, and never made it onto the UK charts. Simon viewed "The Dangling Conversation" as an "absolutely amazing" disappointment to him at the time, as the previous three Simon & Garfunkel singles were reasonable "hits". He felt as though the song may have been "too heavy" for a mainstream audience.

Charts

Chart (1966) Peak
position
Canada 100 (RPM) 27
US Billboard Hot 100 25
US Cashbox Top 100 15

This page was last updated at 2021-11-10 20:10 UTC. Update now. View original page.

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