Song by Song: "I Am A Rock" Trivia Quiz

Answer: false

Replace Art Garfunkel with Paul Simon, and this statement would be true. Before it was recorded and released by the Simon and Garfunkel duo, "I Am a Rock" was recorded for Paul Simon's debut solo album, "The Paul Simon Songbook." This acoustic album was released in the UK in August of 1965, but not in the United States.

The album was eventually made available in the United States as part of the 1981 release "Paul Simon: Collected Works."

Answer: Sounds of Silence

"Lefty" and "Breakaway" were both solo albums by Art Garfunkel. In December of 1965, Simon and Garfunkel recorded "I Am A Rock" for their second studio album "Sounds of Silence," which was released in January of 1966. The album peaked at number twenty-one on the U.S. album charts and at number thirteen on the UK album charts.

Answer: The United Kingdom

The song peaked at number seventeen on the UK Singles chart, never quite breaking the top ten. However, it peaked at number three on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100, and also at number four on the US Cash Box Top 100. In Sweden and The Netherlands, it squeaked into the top ten, peaking at number ten on both nations' singles charts.

Answer: December

The song opens:

"A winter's day
In a deep and dark
December.
I am alone
Gazing from my window to the streets below
On a freshly fallen silent shroud of snow."

"I Am A Rock" was covered by The Hollies on their fourth studio album, "Would You Believe?" The album was released in June of 1966.

Answer: John Donne

The pained, aching tone of the song belies the narrator's surface claim that he can survive as an island, unconnected to the rest of humanity. This mention of "an island" is perhaps intended to remind the listener of John Donne's words:

"No man is an island entire of itself; every man
is a piece of the continent, a part of the main;
if a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe
is the less, as well as if a promontory were, as
well as any manner of thy friends or of thine
own were; any man's death diminishes me,
because I am involved in mankind."

These lines come from Donne's "MEDITATION XVII" from his "Devotions upon Emergent Occasions."

Answer: penetrate

The song continues:

"I have no need of friendship, friendship causes pain
It's laughter and it's loving I disdain
I am a rock
I am an island."

The American rock band "The Grass Roots" covered "I Am a Rock" for their 1966 debut album "Where Were You When I Needed You?"

Answer: love

"Don't talk of love
But I've heard the word before
It's sleeping in my memory
I won't disturb the slumber of feelings that have died
If I never loved I never would have cried
I am a rock
I am an island."

The Australian psychedelic rock band, The Church, covered "I Am a Rock" on their 1982 EP "Singsongs." It was one of five tracks contained on the EP.

Answer: poetry

"I have my books
And my poetry to protect me
I am shielded in my armor
Hiding in my room, safe within my womb
I touch no one and no one touches me
I am a rock
I am an island."

Paul Simon makes repeated use of metaphor in this song. A metaphor is a literary device in which a comparison is made directly, without using the words like or as. The island is a metaphor for the singer's isolation. He is without friends or lover. The rock is a metaphor for his hardened nature, which has likely evolved after past losses and betrayals. The womb, which houses a fetus and keeps it safe and hidden from the outside world, is a metaphor for the room in which the narrator cocoons himself.

Answer: cries

Canadian rock band April Wine covered "I Am a Rock" on their 15th studio album "Back to the Mansion," which was released in 2011. The song has also been covered by The Wailin' Jennys, ASP, April White, Shaw Blades, Red House Painters, Bobby Goldsboro, and numerous other musicians and bands worldwide.

Answer: Flowers Never Bend with the Rainfall

This single was released in May of 1966 with "I Am a Rock" on the A-side. The B-side contained a song, "Flowers Never Bend with the Rainfall," which would later be released on the duo's third studio album "Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme." The chorus of that song is:

"So I'll continue to continue to pretend
My life will never end
And flowers never bend
With the rainfall."