Here’s the song: where in time and place are you transported to?

[Lisa558]

1976: I’m a college freshman at an East Coast university, far away from home, and it’s the Friday night after the first week of classes. I join my new friends at a bar a few blocks from campus. I have just set off on the first “adult” chapter in my life, and I know it, and this starts to play. I can still picture the table where I sat.

 

[Ringtone]

I had yet to be born, but I know their music.

 

[Concerned American]

1976: I’m a college freshman at an East Coast university, far away from home, and it’s the Friday night after the first week of classes. I join my new friends at a bar a few blocks from campus. I have just set off on the first “adult” chapter in my life, and I know it, and this starts to play. I can still picture the table where I sat.

Love the song, but not a real fan of the live version--I like the studio version much more. Can't say I remember where I was exactly, maybe the USO in Barstow, CA circa 1970.

 

[Lisa558]

I had yet to be born, but I know their music.

All of a sudden, I feel old…..

The music of the 60s and 70s was great - best time to be a kid in America.

 

[Lisa558]

Love the song, but not a real fan of the live version--I like the studio version much more. Can't say I remember where I was exactly, maybe the USO in Barstow, CA circa 1970.

Yeah, this live version wasn’t the best. They flubbed right at the beginning. But it was enough to bring the memories back.

 

[Indeependent]

1976: I’m a college freshman at an East Coast university, far away from home, and it’s the Friday night after the first week of classes. I join my new friends at a bar a few blocks from campus. I have just set off on the first “adult” chapter in my life, and I know it, and this starts to play. I can still picture the table where I sat.

The album version is their best song.
The solo, composed by Art Garfunkel, is haunting.

 

[Lisa558]

The album version is their best song.
The solo, composed by Art Garfunkel, is haunting.

I’ll check it out. Thx.

 

[WinterBorn]

1976: I’m a college freshman at an East Coast university, far away from home, and it’s the Friday night after the first week of classes. I join my new friends at a bar a few blocks from campus. I have just set off on the first “adult” chapter in my life, and I know it, and this starts to play. I can still picture the table where I sat.

I was in high school. At a party at someone's cabin on the lake. I had heard Simon & Garfunkel, but not The Boxer.

 

[MizMolly]

1976: I’m a college freshman at an East Coast university, far away from home, and it’s the Friday night after the first week of classes. I join my new friends at a bar a few blocks from campus. I have just set off on the first “adult” chapter in my life, and I know it, and this starts to play. I can still picture the table where I sat.

I turned 20 in June 1976 and had my daughter that September. Wonderful year.

 

[Sunni Man]

I feel sorry for the kids today because Rap crap is soo popular with them.
When they get older like in their 60's.
All their classic oldie music will be about shooting cops, beating Ho's, n!!gers this and n!!ger that.
Gonna be both sad and comical. ... lol

 

[Concerned American]

I feel sorry for the kids today because rap crap is soo popular with them.
When they get older like in their 60's.
All their classic oldie music will be about shooting cops, beating Ho's, n!!gers this and n!!ger that.
Gonna be both sad and comical. ... lol

Hip Hop and Rap will fare worse than disco did.

 

[the other mike]

1976: I’m a college freshman at an East Coast university, far away from home, and it’s the Friday night after the first week of classes. I join my new friends at a bar a few blocks from campus. I have just set off on the first “adult” chapter in my life, and I know it, and this starts to play. I can still picture the table where I sat.

I was in NYC for the bicentennial fireworks and whatever else I could cram into two short weeks.
Got to visit the WTC for the first time....amazing place.

 

[WinterBorn]

This is a great version of my favorite Paul Simon song. It fits better and better.

 

[the other mike]

(I was 15) Front row for the Rush 2112 tour that year in Akron Ohio.

 

[Hossfly]

1976: I’m a college freshman at an East Coast university, far away from home, and it’s the Friday night after the first week of classes. I join my new friends at a bar a few blocks from campus. I have just set off on the first “adult” chapter in my life, and I know it, and this starts to play. I can still picture the table where I sat.

A year or so ago I heard this song. Simon and Garfunkel are one of my favorite groups. One thing I've done over the years is search for the meanings of the words in the song. People are surprised when they find out what the songwriter was thinking.

This from Wikipedia:

Lyrics[edit]​

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: "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 till he cried out in his anger and his shame, 'I am leaving, I am leaving,' but the fighter still remains."[4]

The chorus consists of repetitions of the non-lexical vocable "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.[5]

It has sometimes been suggested that the words represent a "sustained attack on Bob Dylan".[6] 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.[7] Biographer Marc Eliot wrote in Paul Simon: A Life, "In hindsight, this seems utterly nonsensical."[7]

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.[8]

It was during the recording of "The Boxer" that Art Garfunkel met his future wife, Linda Grossman. As he recalled:

I invited Linda to the studio that night… we were working on "The Boxer." She was reluctant, but she thought she'd try it. She came, sat over the engineering console, with her chin on her wrist, staring at me, Paul and Roy for four hours. She was going to know everything. I was impressed and flattered. I like people who third-degree me, who stare at me, I feel they're interested. And we went out afterwards, and I was very charmed and we dated a lot. It took us about three years though before I had the courage to ask her to marry me.[9]

During a New York City concert in October 2010, Paul Simon stopped singing midway through "The Boxer" to tell the story of a woman who stopped him on the street to tell him that she edits the song when singing it to her young child. Simon told the audience that she removed the words "the whores" and altered the song to say, "I get no offers, just a come-on from toy stores on Seventh Avenue." Simon laughingly commented that he felt that it was "a better line."[10]

On 3 June 2016 at his concert in Berkeley, California, Paul Simon again stopped singing partway through "The Boxer", this time to announce in one sentence breaking news: "I’m sorry to tell you this in this way, but Muhammad Ali passed away." He then finished the song with the last verse: "In the clearing stands a boxer and a fighter by his trade…"[11]

 

[daveman]

Love "The Boxer", love S&G. I had the "Bridge Over Troubled Waters" and "Wednesday Morning, 3AM" albums I'd listen to over and over when I was a kid.

 

[Lisa558]

A year or so ago I heard this song. Simon and Garfunkel are one of my favorite groups. One thing I've done over the years is search for the meanings of the words in the song. People are surprised when they find out what the songwriter was thinking.

This from Wikipedia:

Lyrics[edit]​

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: "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 till he cried out in his anger and his shame, 'I am leaving, I am leaving,' but the fighter still remains."[4]

The chorus consists of repetitions of the non-lexical vocable "lie-la-lie". Simon stated that this was originally intended only as a placeholder, but became part of the finished song.


It has sometimes been suggested that the words represent a "sustained attack on Bob Dylan".[6] 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.[7] Biographer Marc Eliot wrote in Paul Simon: A Life, "In hindsight, this seems utterly nonsensical."[7]

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:


It was during the recording of "The Boxer" that Art Garfunkel met his future wife, Linda Grossman. As he recalled:


During a New York City concert in October 2010, Paul Simon stopped singing midway through "The Boxer" to tell the story of a woman who stopped him on the street to tell him that she edits the song when singing it to her young child. Simon told the audience that she removed the words "the whores" and altered the song to say, "I get no offers, just a come-on from toy stores on Seventh Avenue." Simon laughingly commented that he felt that it was "a better line."[10]

On 3 June 2016 at his concert in Berkeley, California, Paul Simon again stopped singing partway through "The Boxer", this time to announce in one sentence breaking news: "I’m sorry to tell you this in this way, but Muhammad Ali passed away." He then finished the song with the last verse: "In the clearing stands a boxer and a fighter by his trade…"[11]

Fascinating! Thank you.

 

[Moonglow]

All of a sudden, I feel old…..

The music of the 60s and 70s was great - best time to be a kid in America.

A little boring but yes...

 

[Lisa558]

A little boring but yes...

The toast “may you live in interesting times” is actually a curse.

 

[Moonglow]

The toast “may you live in interesting times” is actually a curse.

There was no shortage of violence on the news that is for sure.