The Boxer ~ Simon and Garfunkel  

BY REQUEST

Close friends since childhood, Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel grew up in the same Forest Hills neighborhood just blocks away from one another. They met in elementary school in 1953, when they both appeared in the school play Alice in Wonderland (Simon as the White Rabbit, Garfunkel as the Cheshire Cat). They were classmates at Parsons Junior High School and Forest Hills High School in New York City, and began performing together in their junior year as Tom and Jerry, with Simon as Jerry Landis (whose last name he borrowed from a girl he had been dating) and Garfunkel as Tom Graph (so called because he was fond of tracking (“graphing”) hits on the pop charts). They began writing their own songs in 1955, and made their first professional recording, “Hey, Schoolgirl”, for Sid Prosen of Big Records in 1957. Released on 45 and 78 rpm records, the song with B side “Dancin’ Wild” sold 100,000 copies, hitting #49 on the Billboard charts. Both Simon and Garfunkel have acknowledged the tremendous impact of The Everly Brothers on their style, and many of their early songs (including “Hey, Schoolgirl”) bear the mark of this influence.

The Boxer

The original recording of the song is one of the duo’s most highly produced, and took over 100 hours to record. The recording was performed at multiple locations, including Nashville, St. Paul’s Church in New York city, and Columbia studios. Drummer Hal Blaine created the huge drum sound heard during the chorus by banging a heavy chain against the concrete floor of an empty storage closet.

The song’s lyrics take the form of a first-person lament, as the singer describes his struggles to overcome loneliness and poverty in New York City. The final verse switches to a third-person sketch of a boxer, who, despite the effects of “every glove that laid him down or cut him ’til he cried out”, perseveres.

It is sometimes suggested that the lyrics represent a “sustained attack on Bob Dylan”.[1] Bob Dylan thought the song was about him[citation needed], in turn covering it on his Self Portrait album, replacing the word “glove” with “blow.” Yet Paul Simon himself has suggested that the lyrics are largely autobiographical, written during a time when he felt he was being unfairly criticized:

“I think I was reading the Bible around that time. That’s where I think phrases such as ‘workman’s wages’ came from, and ’seeking out the poorer quarters’. That was biblical. I think the song was about me: everybody’s beating me up, and I’m telling you now I’m going to go away if you don’t stop.”

The chorus of the song is wordless, consisting of a repeated chant of “lie-la-lie”. Simon stated that this was due to a lapse on his part:

“I didn’t have any words! Then people said it was ‘lie’ but I didn’t really mean that. That it was a lie. But, it’s not a failure of songwriting, because people like that and they put enough meaning into it, and the rest of the song has enough power and emotion, I guess, to make it go, so it’s all right. But for me, every time I sing that part… [softly], I’m a little embarrassed.”

I am just a poor boy, though my story is seldom told.
I have squandered my resistance,
For a pocketful of mumbles, such are promises.
All lies and jest.
Still a man hears what he wants to hear and disregards the rest.

When I left my home and my family I was no more than a boy,
In the company of strangers,
In the quiet of the railway station, runnin’ scared.
Laying low, seeking out the poorer quarters,
Where the ragged people go.
Lookin’ for the places, only they would know.

Lie-la-lie …

Asking only workman’s wages I come lookin’ for a job,
But I get no offers,
Just a come-on from the whores on Seventh Avenue.
I do declare there were times when I was so lonesome,
I took some comfort there.
La, la, la, la, la, la, la.

Li la li …

And I’m laying out my winter clothes, and wishing I was gone, goin’ home
Where the new york city winters aren’t bleedin’ me, leadin’ me goin’ home.

In the clearing stands a boxer and a fighter by his trade,
And he carries the reminders of every glove that laid him down,
Or cut him ’til he cried out in his anger and his shame,
“I am leaving, I am leaving.”
But the fighter still remains.

Lie-la-lie …

“Missing” verse

“The Boxer” was originally written with a verse that is not present in the Bridge Over Troubled Water version:

Now the years are rolling by me
They are rocking evenly
And I am older than I once was
And younger than I’ll be, but that’s not unusual.
No, it isn’t strange
After changes upon changes
We are more or less the same
After changes we are more or less the same

This “missing verse” was performed by Simon and Garfunkel when they went on tour in November 1969, and Paul Simon when he performed it solo after the group’s breakup. Simon and Garfunkel also performed the “missing verse” on Saturday Night Live in 1975[citation needed] and when they reunited for The Concert in Central Park in 1981, and on Late Show with David Letterman.

Other Songs Posted for this Artist

• September 26, 2009 -- America ~ Simon and Garfunkel
• June 15, 2009 -- Keep the Customer Satisfied ~ Simon and Garfunkel
• March 28, 2009 -- Punky’s Dilemma ~ Simon and Garfunkel
• March 23, 2009 -- A Poem on the Underground Wall ~ Simon and Garfunkel
• March 22, 2009 -- The Big Bright Green Pleasure Machine ~ Simon and Garfunkel
• March 8, 2009 -- Hazy Shade of Winter ~ Simon and Garfunkel
• December 1, 2008 -- The Sounds of Silence ~ Simon and Garfunkel
• November 27, 2008 -- A Simple Desultory Philippic (Or How I Was Robert McNamara’d into Submission) ~ Simon and Garfunkel
• November 23, 2008 -- The Dangling Conversation ~ Simon and Garfunkel
• November 19, 2008 -- Homeward Bound ~ Simon and Garfunkel
• November 17, 2008 -- Kathys Song ~ Simon and Garfunkel
• August 3, 2008 -- American Tune ~ Simon and Garfunkel
• May 22, 2008 -- Scarborough Fair/Canticle ~ Simon and Garfunkel