{{Single infobox | Name = I Am a Rock | Cover = SoundsSilence.jpg | Artist = [[Simon and Garfunkel]] | from Album = [[Sounds of Silence]] | Released = January 17, 1966 | Format = [[7" single]] | Recorded = December 14, 1965 | Genre = [[Folk Rock]] | Length = 2:52 | Label = [[Columbia Records]] | Producer = [[Bob Johnston]] | Chart position = | Reviews = * ''[[All Music Guide]]'' [http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=33:3263mw9w9f6o link] | Last single = "[[Homeward Bound (song)|Homeward Bound]]"
(1966) | This single = "I Am a Rock"
(1965) | Next single = "[[The Dangling Conversation]]"
(1966) }} "'''I Am A Rock'''" is a song written by [[Paul Simon]]. It was first performed by Simon alone as the opening track on his album ''[[The Paul Simon Song Book]]'' which he originally recorded and released in May 1965, only in the [[United Kingdom]]. Simon and [[Art Garfunkel]], as the American pop/folk duo [[Simon and Garfunkel]], re-recorded it on [[December 14]], 1965, and included as the final track on their album ''[[Sounds of Silence]]'', which they released on [[January 17]], [[1966]]. == Writing == It has been speculated that "I Am A Rock" was written in December 1964. The lyrics of the first verse reference "a deep and dark December" during which the speaker is gazing out from his window to the snow below in the street. The song was not included on Simon & Garfunkel's first album, ''[[Wednesday Morning, 3 A.M.]]'', which they released on [[October 19]], [[1964]]. The folk-rock nature of the music makes it unlikely that Simon would have written it much earlier than 1963, when he first began experimenting with the folk genre. Some sources say that it was performed by Simon on [[January 27]], [[1965]], on a promo show for the BBC.See the bootleg disc ''Far East Reunion'', released by Hard Rain Records (Hard Rain 007/008). Jean-Marc Orliaguet [http://www.ckk.chalmers.se/guitar/SGintro.html claims] this show aired on [[27 January]] [[1965]] (accessed [[13 April]] [[2006]]). This is dubious, however, because the liner notes to ''Far East Reunion'' claim this is a promo show for the release of the Simon & Garfunkel EP ''Wednesday Morning, 3 A.M.'', which itself was not released until 1966. In any case, Simon seems to have written the song before the end of January 1965, and certainly had it down before May, when he recorded it. == Themes == [[Image:I Am A Rock PromoA.jpg|left|thumb|300px|A well-used red-vinyl promotional copy of "I Am A Rock", dating from 1966.]] "I Am A Rock" is principally about isolation and loneliness. It concerns a person (presumably male, but probably only because Simon is the writer and main performer of the song) who, for a not-completely-clear reason, is angry at the world. In defiance, he has shut himself in his room and refuses to leave, feeling that his "books and [his] poetry" (along with the walls that have made him a "fortress deep and mighty") will protect him from any further anguish that he might find by further human contact. The speaker believes that his withdrawal from the world creates an impermeable barrier between him and pain, and that this isolation is the "solution" to this "problem." Can this be true? Simon gives his own answer in these words: :
The loneliest people in the world are those that cannot share their loneliness, through fear, pride or anger. And the ache builds walls, fear populates their dreams and pride is then the jailer of the soul.
Paul Simon, liner notes to ''The Paul Simon Song Book''. London: CBS Records, 1965. For Simon, the isolation will force the speaker to accept that isolation (through pride) if he does not want to admit the miserable consequences of rejecting human comfort. Thus the isolation will only deepen, and never produce happiness. At the end of each verse, the words "I am a rock; I am an island" are sung to two short melodic tonal rises, almost as a refrain. They sound much like a shout, and the space accorded after the end of this phrase allows them to ring along with the backing of the guitar as the song continues, letting them sink into the listener's mind and giving them a sense of significance. One feels the speaker trying hard to believe in what he is saying by the repetition of these eight words. The listener is left to judge whether this claim is valid or merely a disguise for a perhaps more prominent sadness. This defiant assertion, and the motivations behind it, stand as a second major theme of the song. The third verse lyrics "Don't talk of love/Well, I've heard the word before/[...]/If I never loved, I never would have cried" hint that a failed romance is the main source of the narrator's troubles, and he is taking this turn of events particularly badly. He will let the love that he has lost remain "sleeping in [his] memory." Love thus becomes a third main theme in "I Am A Rock," mainly through the song's disregard for it. Youth may be considered a fourth prominent theme in Simon's song. It might presumed that the speaker in "I Am A Rock" is a youth, because the speaker's actions seem to allude to the immaturity in action and, to some extent, in spirit, that is often attributed to youthful inexperience with tragedy and pain. While Simon himself was only twenty-three years old (at most) when he wrote the song, and he was no doubt writing for a youthful (popular) crowd, the songs from ''The Paul Simon Song Book'' can be united by their continual evocation of the immediacy of youthful identity. "I Am A Rock" echoes this immediacy with one of the most basal of youthful struggles, how to deal with pain. The song ends with the words, "And a rock feels no pain/And an island never cries", referencing the chorus and reasserting why the choice the protagonist made was correct. == Releases and Commercial Success == [[Image:PaulSimonSongbookCover.jpg|right|thumb|300px|''The Paul Simon Song Book'' (1965), the first album on which "I Am A Rock" was released. This was Paul Simon's first solo album, recorded after Simon & Garfunkel had effectively broken up after finishing the recording of their debut album, ''Wednesday Morning, 3 A.M.'' For sixteen years (1965-81), the recording of "I Am A Rock" from this album was not released in the United States.]] The original version of "I Am A Rock" was first released on ''The Paul Simon Song Book'', and became, in the summer of 1965, the A-side to Simon's only single released from the album, backed with "Leaves That Are Green" on CBS 201797. Like the album, the single was not a commercial success. It is an extremely rare single to locate.In the several years that the author of this sentence has been collecting Simon & Garfunkel memorabilia, he has never seen an example of this record anywhere, nor has he heard of anyone who claims to own a copy. Meanwhile, ''The Paul Simon Song Book'', which for a long time Simon himself had disdained as an album, remained available only in the United Kingdom until 1981. While Paul Simon was in Europe during the summer of 1965, [[Tom Wilson]], the producer of ''Wednesday Morning, 3 A.M.'', responded to requests for "[[The Sound of Silence]]" from American radio stations and dubbed an [[electric guitar]] and [[drum]]s onto the original track. He then released the song as a single, whereupon it entered the United States pop charts. When Simon heard about the success of this song, he was still touring in Europe as a poor solo folk singer. He immediately returned to the United States, and in December 1965 he and Garfunkel began a series of hasty recording sessions to match the electric "mold" created by Wilson with many of the other songs that Simon had recorded on the ''Song Book'', including "I Am A Rock," which was re-recorded during these sessions on [[December 14|14 December]] 1965. The result was the album ''Sounds of Silence'', which the duo released the following January. "I Am A Rock" was the fifth and closing track on Side 2 of the record. With "The Sound of Silence" (the opening track), it bookends the rest of the material. This album quickly capitalized on the success of the new album's title track as a #1 single, and itself rose to #21 on the Billboard charts. The duo cashed in quickly on their new-found success. They released "I Am A Rock" as a single in the late spring of 1966,The reference number is Columbia 45 4-43617. and the song reached #3 on the [[Billboard Hot 100]] charts, the third single (chronologically) by Simon & Garfunkel to reach the top 5 (after "The Sound of Silence" and "[[Homeward Bound]]"). [[Image:I Am A Rock 45.jpg|thumb|left|300px|The standard version of "I Am A Rock" as released by Simon & Garfunkel used this red Columbia label.]]This single had two incarnations. First, as a promotion, it was released on red vinyl to radio stations, with a mono mix on one side and a stereo version on the other. These copies are somewhat difficult to locate for collectors. The standard version sold in stores, however, was the black vinyl 45 rpm record with the red [[Columbia Records]] label. The B-side was a version of "Flowers Never Bend With The Rainfall," which was later released on Simon & Garfunkel's even-more-successful (and critically acclaimed) album ''[[Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme]]''. Until 1981, the initial official recording of "I Am A Rock" on ''The Paul Simon Song Book'' remained unavailable in North America. This was partly because Simon himself disdained the album, saying on the album's liner notes,
This L.P. contains twelve of the songs that I have written over the past two years. There are some here that I would not write today. I don't believe in them as I once did. I have included them because they played an important role in the transition. It is discomforting, almost painful, to look back over something someone else created and realize that someone else was you. I am not ashamed of where I've been and what I've thought. It's just not me anymore. It is perfectly clear to me that the songs I write today will not be mine tomorrow. I don't regret the loss.Paul Simon, liner notes, ''The Paul Simon Song Book''. London: CBS Records, 1965.
As a result, the album was only made available in North America when it was released as part of the box set of albums ''Paul Simon: Collected Works''. The album was not released on CD until [[March 23 2004]].This date is cited from [http://www.vex.net/~paulmac/simon/simon64_71.html Paul Maclauchlan's discography] of Simon's career (accessed [[27 September]] [[2006]]). When it was, Columbia Legacy included two bonus tracks, one of which was an alternative take of "I Am A Rock," during which one can plainly hear Simon stamping his foot for a beat. == Other versions == It was parodied in 1966 on [[Frank Zappa]] & the [[Mothers of Invention]]'s first album ''[[Freak Out!]]'' as "Help I'm a Rock." It was covered in 1993 by [[Red House Painters]] on their third LP ''[[Red House Painters (Bridge)|Red House Painters]]''. It was covered in 1997 by [[Me First and the Gimme Gimmes]] on their album ''[[Have a Ball]]''. It was covered in 2000 by [[Shelter (band)|Shelter]] on their album ''[[When 20 Summers Pass]]''. == Notes ==
[[Category:Simon and Garfunkel songs]]