The Boxer - Simon & Garfunkel (cover-live by Bill Sharkey)

The Boxer (Simon & Garfunkel, 1969). Live cover performance by Bill Sharkey, Home Studio, Hawaii Kai, HI. 2025-10-19. "Keeping the Oldies & Classics Alive"

"The Boxer," written by Paul Simon, was Simon & Garfunkel's 10th top 40 hit rising to the no. 7 position on the Billboard Hot 100 Chart in 1969 (Whitburn, 2013). During a 1984 interview with Playboy magazine Simon said "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. By that time we had encountered our first criticism. For the first few years, it was just pure praise. It took two or three years for people to realize that we weren't strange creatures that emerged from England but just two guys from Queens who used to sing rock 'n' roll. And maybe we weren't real folkies at all! Maybe we weren't even hippies!" (Playboy, Feb. 1984). When writing the song, Simon would use place holders if he couldn't find the right words at the time, that is where the "lie la lie" phrases were used for initially; he decided to keep them in the song (songfacts, 2025).

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Lyrics:

I am just a poor boy, though my story's 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 (hmmmm.... Mmmm......)

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
Looking for the places only they would know

(Li la li... Li la la la li la li)
(Li la li... Li la la la li la li)
(La la la la li...)

Seeking only workman's wages, I come looking 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 (li la la, la, la la)

(Li la li... Li la la la li la li)
(Li la li... Li la la la li la li)
(La la la la li...)

And I'm laying out my winter clothes, wishing I was gone, goin' home
Where the New York city winters aren't bleedin' me, leadin' me to go home

In the clearing stands a boxer, and a fighter by his trade
And he carries the reminder 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
Yes, he still remains...

(Li la li... Li la la la li la li)
(Li la li... Li la la la li la li)
(La la la la li...)
(Li la la la li la li)
(Li la li... Li la la la li la li)
(La la la la li...)
(Li la la la li la li)
(Li la li... Li la la la li la li)