| "The Boxer" | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Single by Simon & Garfunkel | ||||
| from the album Bridge over Troubled Water | ||||
| B-side | "Baby Driver" | |||
| Released | April 1969 | |||
| Format | 7" single | |||
| Recorded | 1969 | |||
| Genre | Folk rock | |||
| Length | 5:10 | |||
| Label | Columbia | |||
| Writer(s) | Paul Simon | |||
| Producer | Roy Halee, Paul Simon, Art Garfunkel | |||
| Simon & Garfunkel singles chronology | ||||
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"The Boxer" is a folk rock ballad written by Paul Simon in 1968 and first recorded by Simon & Garfunkel. It was released as the follow-up single to their number one hit "Mrs. Robinson", and reached #7 in the US charts. It later appeared on their last studio album, Bridge Over Troubled Water, along with its B-side "Baby Driver". It is particularly known for its plaintive refrain, in which the singer sings the tune as 'lie-la-lie', accompanied by a heavily-reverbed drum, and the memorable guitar finger-picking by Simon and guitarist Fred Carter, Jr.. Rolling Stone ranked the song #105 on their list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.
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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 Chapel in New York City, and Columbia studios.
The version originally released on single by the duo features an instrumental melody played in unison on pedal steel guitar and piccolo trumpet. The song also features a bass harmonica heard during the second and final verses. On the BBC, Paul Simon had Garfunkel's instrumental solo played with a soprano saxophone.
In the magazine Fretboard Journal[1] Fred Carter, Jr. recounts:
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 till he cried out", perseveres. At the last we are told the boxer cries out, "I am leaving, I am leaving" — "but", the lyrics continue, "the fighter still remains."
The chorus of the song is wordless, consisting of a repeated chant of "lie-la-lie". Simon stated that this was originally intended only as a placeholder, but became part of the finished song.
"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."[2]
It has sometimes been suggested that the words represent a "sustained attack on Bob Dylan".[3] Under this interpretation, Dylan is identified by his experience as an amateur boxer, and the "lie-la-lie" chorus represents allegations of Dylan lying about his musical intentions.[4] Biographer Marc Eliot wrote in Paul Simon: A Life, "In hindsight, this seems utterly nonsensical."[4]
Bob Dylan in turn covered the song on his Self Portrait album, replacing the word "glove" with "blow." 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."[5]
During a benefit concert for the Wildlife Conservation Society at the Hard Rock Café in New York City in October 2010, Paul Simon stop singing midway through The Boxer to tell the story of a woman he knows who replaces the words “the whores” with “toy stores” when singing it to her young child, changing the lyric to, “I get no offers, just a come on from toys stores on Seventh Avenue.” Paul Simon was quoted as saying, “It’s a better line."[6]
"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 rockin' evenly
I am older than I once was
And younger than I'll be and 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 & Garfunkel when they went on tour in November 1969 (this version of the song is included on the Live 1969 album), and Paul Simon when he performed it solo after the group's breakup. Simon & Garfunkel also performed the "missing verse" on Saturday Night Live in 1975[7] and when they reunited for The Concert in Central Park in 1981, and on Late Show with David Letterman.
| Chart (1969)[8] | Peak position |
|---|---|
| Australian Kent Music Report | 8 |
| Austrian Singles Chart | 9 |
| Dutch Singles Chart | 2 |
| German Singles Chart | 19 |
| Irish Singles Chart | 7 |
| Norwegian Singles Chart | 9 |
| Swedish Singles Chart | 5 |
| UK Singles Chart[9] | 6 |
| US Billboard Hot 100 | 7 |
Me First and the Gimme Gimmes, Bob Dylan, Neil Diamond, Emmylou Harris, The Samples, Tommy Fleming, Bruce Hornsby and Across the Border have recorded cover versions of the song, with Harris' version reaching the top ten on the US country charts in June 1980. Joan Baez has also made the song a staple of her live concert performances, from the late 1970s to the present. (Baez usually includes the above-mentioned missing verse in her version.) The King's Singers released an a cappella version on their Good Vibrations album in 1992. Guitar virtuoso Chet Atkins recorded an instrumental version, in which each verse was played on a different guitar and in a different style. Punk group SFH recorded a 3:26 second version of it. Waylon Jennings also recorded a version of this song on his 1996 album Right for the Time. Simon sang the song to open Saturday Night Live on September 29, 2001, the first live SNL show following the September 11, 2001 attacks on New York City.
In 2007, Paul Simon was awarded the inaugural Gershwin Prize by the Library of Congress where "The Boxer" was performed live by Jerry Douglas, Shawn Colvin and Alison Krauss. Also in 2007, country music artist Deana Carter released a cover of the song on her sixth studio album, The Chain, which was recorded as a duet with Harper Simon.