"The Boxer" is a song written by
Paul Simon
Paul Frederic Simon (born October 13, 1941) is an American musician, singer, songwriter and actor whose career has spanned six decades. He is one of the most acclaimed songwriters in popular music, both as a solo artist and as half of folk roc ...
and recorded by the American music duo
Simon & Garfunkel
Simon & Garfunkel were an American folk rock duo consisting of the singer-songwriter Paul Simon and the singer Art Garfunkel. They were one of the best-selling music groups of the 1960s, and their biggest hits—including the electric remix of " ...
from their fifth
studio album
An album is a collection of audio recordings issued on compact disc (CD), Phonograph record, vinyl, audio tape, or another medium such as Digital distribution#Music, digital distribution. Albums of recorded sound were developed in the early ...
, ''
Bridge over Troubled Water'' (1970). Produced by the duo and
Roy Halee
Roy Decker Halee (born 1934) is an American record producer and engineer, best known for working with Simon & Garfunkel, both as a group and for their solo projects.
Early life
He grew up on Long Island, New York. His father, also named Roy ...
, it was released as a standalone single on March 21, 1969, but included on the album nine months later (at the time, songs that had been released this far ahead were rarely included on the next studio album). The song is a
folk rock
Folk rock is a hybrid music genre that combines the elements of folk and rock music, which arose in the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom in the mid-1960s. In the U.S., folk rock emerged from the folk music revival. Performers suc ...
ballad
A ballad is a form of verse, often a narrative set to music. Ballads derive from the medieval French ''chanson balladée'' or ''ballade'', which were originally "dance songs". Ballads were particularly characteristic of the popular poetry and ...
that variously takes the form of a first-person lament as well as a third-person sketch of a
boxer Boxer most commonly refers to:
* Boxer (boxing), a competitor in the sport of boxing
*Boxer (dog), a breed of dog
Boxer or boxers may also refer to:
Animal kingdom
* Boxer crab
* Boxer shrimp, a small group of decapod crustaceans
* Boxer snipe ee ...
. The lyrics are largely autobiographical and partially inspired by the
Bible
The Bible (from Koine Greek , , 'the books') is a collection of religious texts or scriptures that are held to be sacred in Christianity, Judaism, Samaritanism, and many other religions. The Bible is an anthologya compilation of texts of a ...
, and were written during a time when Simon felt he was being unfairly criticized. The song's lyrics discuss
poverty
Poverty is the state of having few material possessions or little income. Poverty can have diverse social, economic, and political causes and effects. When evaluating poverty in ...
and
loneliness
Loneliness is an unpleasant emotional response to perceived isolation. Loneliness is also described as social paina psychological mechanism which motivates individuals to seek social connections. It is often associated with a perceived lack ...
. It is particularly known for its plaintive
refrain
A refrain (from Vulgar Latin ''refringere'', "to repeat", and later from Old French ''refraindre'') is the line or lines that are repeated in music or in poetry — the "chorus" of a song. Poetic fixed forms that feature refrains include the vi ...
, in which they sing 'lie-la-lie', accompanied by a heavily
reverb
Reverberation (also known as reverb), in acoustics, is a persistence of sound, after a sound is produced. Reverberation is created when a sound or signal is reflected causing numerous reflections to build up and then decay as the sound is abso ...
ed
snare drum
The snare (or side drum) is a percussion instrument that produces a sharp staccato sound when the head is struck with a drum stick, due to the use of a series of stiff wires held under tension against the lower skin. Snare drums are often used ...
.
"The Boxer" was the follow-up to one of the duo's most successful singles, "
Mrs. Robinson
"Mrs. Robinson" is a song by American music duo Simon & Garfunkel from their fourth studio album, '' Bookends'' (1968). Written specifically for the 1967 film ''The Graduate'', the song was released as a single on April 5, 1968, by Columbia Re ...
". It peaked at No. 7 on the
''Billboard'' Hot 100. It performed well internationally, charting within the Top 10 in nine countries, peaking highest in the
Netherlands
)
, anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau")
, image_map =
, map_caption =
, subdivision_type = Sovereign state
, subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands
, established_title = Before independence
, established_date = Spanish Netherl ...
,
Austria
Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...
,
South Africa
South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...
, and
Canada
Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...
. ''
Rolling Stone
''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner, and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. It was first kno ...
'' ranked the song No. 106 on its list of
the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time
"The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time" is a recurring survey compiled by the American magazine ''Rolling Stone''. It is based on weighted votes from selected musicians, critics, and industry figures. The first list was published in December 2004 in ...
.
Creation and recording
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
St. Paul's Chapel (Columbia University)
St. Paul's Chapel, on the Morningside Heights campus of Columbia University in Manhattan, New York City, is an Episcopal church built in 1903–07 and designed by I. N. Phelps Stokes, of the firm of Howells & Stokes. The exterior is in the Nort ...
in
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
and
Columbia studios in
Nashville
Nashville is the capital city of the U.S. state of Tennessee and the seat of Davidson County. With a population of 689,447 at the 2020 U.S. census, Nashville is the most populous city in the state, 21st most-populous city in the U.S., and the ...
on a 16 track recorder.
The version originally released by the duo features an instrumental melody played in unison on
pedal steel guitar
The pedal steel guitar is a Console steel guitar, console-type of steel guitar with pedals and knee levers that change the pitch of certain strings to enable playing more varied and complex music than any previous steel guitar design. Like all s ...
played by
Curly Chalker
Harold Lee Chalker (October 22, 1931 – April 30, 1998), known professionally as Curly Chalker, was an American pedal steel guitarist.
Born in Enterprise, Alabama, Chalker began playing the lap steel guitar while still in his teens and made ...
and
piccolo trumpet
The piccolo trumpet is the smallest member of the trumpet family, pitched one octave higher than the standard B trumpet. Most piccolo trumpets are built to play in either B or A, using a separate leadpipe for each key. The tubing in the B piccol ...
. The song also features a
bass harmonica
The harmonica, also known as a French harp or mouth organ, is a free reed wind instrument used worldwide in many musical genres, notably in blues, American folk music, classical music, jazz, country, and rock. The many types of harmonica includ ...
, played by
Charlie McCoy
Charles Ray McCoy (born March 28, 1941) is a Grammy-winning American session musician, harmonica player, and multi-instrumentalist. In 2009, he was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame. Based in Nashville, McCoy's playing is heard on r ...
, heard during the second and final verses.
In a 2008 edition of ''
Fretboard Journal
The ''Fretboard Journal'' is a keepsake magazine for guitar, mandolin, and stringed instrument players. In the same vein of other "coffee table magazines" such as '' The Surfer's Journal'', the Golfer's Journal and the ''Rodder's Journal'', it bo ...
'' magazine
Fred Carter Jr.
Fred F. Carter Jr. (December 31, 1933 – July 17, 2010) was an American guitarist, singer, producer and composer.
Early career
Carter was raised in the delta country in Winnsboro, the seat of Franklin Parish in northeastern Louisiana, Un ...
recounts to interviewer Rich Kienzle:
I had a baby Martin Martin may refer to:
Places
* Martin City (disambiguation)
* Martin County (disambiguation)
* Martin Township (disambiguation)
Antarctica
* Martin Peninsula, Marie Byrd Land
* Port Martin, Adelie Land
* Point Martin, South Orkney Islands
Austral ...
, which is a 000-18, and when we started the record in New York with Roy Halee
Roy Decker Halee (born 1934) is an American record producer and engineer, best known for working with Simon & Garfunkel, both as a group and for their solo projects.
Early life
He grew up on Long Island, New York. His father, also named Roy ...
, the engineer, and Paul imonwas playin' his Martin—I think it's a D-18 and he was tuned regular—he didn't have the song totally written lyrically, but he had most of the melody. And so all I was hearin' was bits and pieces while he was doin' his fingerpicking... I think he was fingerpicking in an open C. I tried two or three things and then picked up the baby Martin, which was about a third above his guitar, soundwise.
And I turned down the first string to a D, and tuned up the bass string to a G, which made it an open-G tuning, except for the fifth string, which was standard. Did some counter fingerpicking with him, just did a little backward roll, and lucked into a lick. And that turned into that little roll, and we cut it, just Paul and I, two guitars. Then we started to experiment with some other ideas and so forth. At the end of the day, we were still on the song. Garfunkel was amblin' around the studio, hummin’, and havin’ input at various times. They were real scientists. They’d get on a part, and it might be there nfinishedsix weeks later.
On my guitar, they had me miked with about seven mics. They had a near mic, a distant mic, a neck mic, a mic on the hole. They even miked my breathing. They miked the guitar in back. So Roy Halee was a genius at getting around. The first time we were listenin', they killed the breathing mic. And they had an ambient mic overhead, which picked up the two guitars together, I suppose. And so, I was breathin', I guess, pretty heavy in rhythm. And they wanted to take out that noise, and they took it out and said, 'Naw, we gotta leave that in.' That sounds almost like a rhythm on the record. So they left the breathin' mic on for the mix. I played Tele
Tele may refer to:
* Television
* Tele (band), a German rock/pop band
* Tele Ikuru, Deputy Governor of Rivers State
* Télé, Mali, a rural commune of the Cercle of Goundam in the Tombouctou Region of Mali
* Telemarketing
* Telegraphy
* ''Eveni ...
on it and a Twelve-string, three or four guitars on it. I was doing different guitar parts. One was a chord pattern and rhythm pattern. Did the Dobro
Dobro is an American brand of resonator guitars, currently owned by Gibson and manufactured by its subsidiary Epiphone. The term "dobro" is also used as a generic term for any wood-bodied, single-cone resonator guitar.
The Dobro was originally ...
lick on the regular six-string finger Dobro—not a slide Dobro.
I never heard the total record until I heard it on the air... I thought: That’s the greatest record I heard in my life, especially after the scrutiny and after all the time they spent on it and breakin’ it apart musically and soundwise and all of it. There was some magic in the studio that day, and Roy Halee captured it. Paul and I had a really nice groove.
The song has only one drumbeat, and played during the 'lie-la-lie' refrain. The session drummer
Hal Blaine
Hal Blaine (born Harold Simon Belsky; February 5, 1929 – March 11, 2019) was an American drummer and session musician, thought to be among the most recorded studio drummers in the music industry, claiming over 35,000 sessions and 6,000 singles. ...
created the heavily reverberated drum sound with the help of producer Roy Halee, who found a spot for the drums in front of an elevator in the
Columbia offices. The recording of the drum was recorded as the song was being played live by the musicians. Blaine would pound the drums at the end of the "Lie la lie" vocals that were playing in his headphones, and at one point, an elderly security guard got a big surprise when he came out of the elevator and was startled by Blaine's thunderous drums.
Hal Blaine recounted the recording process, "There we were with all these mic cables, my drums, and a set of headphones," says Blaine. "When the chorus came around — the 'lie-la-lie' bit — Roy had me come down on my snare drum as hard as I could. In that hallway, by the elevator shaft, it sounded like a cannon shot! Which was just the kind of sound we were after."
Lyrics
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
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
. The final verse switches to a third-person sketch of a
boxer Boxer most commonly refers to:
* Boxer (boxing), a competitor in the sport of boxing
*Boxer (dog), a breed of dog
Boxer or boxers may also refer to:
Animal kingdom
* Boxer crab
* Boxer shrimp, a small group of decapod crustaceans
* Boxer snipe ee ...
:
"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."
The chorus consists of repetitions of the
non-lexical vocable
In the broadest sense of the word, a vocable is any meaningful sound uttered by people, such as a word or term, that is fixed by their language and culture. Use of the words in the broad sense is archaic and the term is instead used for utterances ...
"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... oftly I'm a little embarrassed.
It has sometimes been suggested that the words represent a "sustained attack on
Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan (legally Robert Dylan, born Robert Allen Zimmerman, May 24, 1941) is an American singer-songwriter. Often regarded as one of the greatest songwriters of all time, Dylan has been a major figure in popular culture during a career sp ...
".
[Baker, G.A. Sleeve of ''Simon & Garfunkel: 20 Greatest Hits''] 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.
Biographer Marc Eliot wrote in ''Paul Simon: A Life'', "In hindsight, this seems utterly nonsensical."
Bob Dylan in turn covered the song on his ''
Self Portrait
A self-portrait is a representation of an artist that is drawn, painted, photographed, or sculpted by that artist. Although self-portraits have been made since the earliest times, it is not until the Early Renaissance in the mid-15th century tha ...
'' 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
The Bible (from Koine Greek , , 'the books') is a collection of religious texts or scriptures that are held to be sacred in Christianity, Judaism, Samaritanism, and many other religions. The Bible is an anthologya compilation of texts of a ...
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.
It was during the recording of "The Boxer" that Art Garfunkel met his future first wife, Linda Grossman. As he recalled:
They divorced in 1975 with Art later claiming he never really loved her.
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."
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
Muhammad Ali (; born Cassius Marcellus Clay Jr.; January 17, 1942 – June 3, 2016) was an American professional boxer and activist. Nicknamed "The Greatest", he is regarded as one of the most significant sports figures of the 20th century, a ...
passed away." He then finished the song with the last verse: "In the clearing stands a boxer and a fighter by his trade…"
Additional verse
"The Boxer" was originally written with a verse that is not present in the ''Bridge over Troubled Water'' version:
This verse was performed by Simon & Garfunkel on tour in November 1969 (this version of the song is included on the ''
Live 1969
''Live 1969'' is the fourth live album by Simon & Garfunkel, released through Columbia Records. It consists of live recordings captured on the duo's final North American tour, prior to the release of their ''Bridge over Troubled Water'' album. Fi ...
'' album), and sometimes by Simon in solo after the duo's breakup (on his ''
Live Rhymin'
''Paul Simon in Concert: Live Rhymin is a live album by Paul Simon, released in March 1974 by Columbia Records. It was recorded in the wake of the release of ''There Goes Rhymin' Simon'', which produced a number of hit singles ("Kodachrome" and "L ...
'' album and on ''
Late Night with David Letterman
''Late Night with David Letterman'' is an American late-night talk show hosted by David Letterman on NBC, the first iteration of the ''Late Night'' franchise. It premiered on February 1, 1982, and was produced by Letterman's production company ...
'' in 1987). The duo also added the verse on ''
Saturday Night Live
''Saturday Night Live'' (often abbreviated to ''SNL'') is an American late-night live television sketch comedy and variety show created by Lorne Michaels and developed by Dick Ebersol that airs on NBC and Peacock. Michaels currently serves a ...
'' in 1975 and when they reunited for ''
The Concert in Central Park
''The Concert in Central Park'' is the first live album by American folk rock duo Simon & Garfunkel, released on February 16, 1982, by Warner Bros. Records. It was recorded on September 19, 1981, at a free benefit concert on the Great Lawn in Ce ...
'' in 1981. On March 30, 2020, Simon released a YouTube version dedicated to fellow New Yorkers during the coronavirus pandemic including this verse.
Charts
Weekly charts
Year-end charts
Certifications
Cover versions
Cover version
In popular music, a cover version, cover song, remake, revival, or simply cover, is a new performance or recording by a musician other than the original performer or composer of the song. Originally, it referred to a version of a song release ...
s of the song have been recorded by numerous artists, including
Me First and the Gimme Gimmes
Me First and the Gimme Gimmes (often shortened to just Me First or the Gimmes) are a punk rock supergroup and cover band that formed in San Francisco in 1995. The band's lineup consists of Spike Slawson, Fat Mike, Joey Cape, and Dave Raun. Ch ...
,
Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan (legally Robert Dylan, born Robert Allen Zimmerman, May 24, 1941) is an American singer-songwriter. Often regarded as one of the greatest songwriters of all time, Dylan has been a major figure in popular culture during a career sp ...
,
Neil Diamond
Neil Leslie Diamond (born January 24, 1941) is an American singer-songwriter. He has sold more than 130 million records worldwide, making him one of the best-selling musicians of all time. He has had ten No. 1 singles on the Hot 100 and Adul ...
,
Emmylou Harris
Emmylou Harris (born April 2, 1947) is an American singer, songwriter and musician. She has released dozens of albums and singles over the course of her career and has won 14 Grammys, the Polar Music Prize, and numerous other honors, including ...
,
The Samples
The Samples is an American rock band formed in Boulder, Colorado in 1987. The band's name came from the members' early sustenance of food samples from the local grocery store. The music has been described as "reggae influenced rock/pop" and a ...
,
Leandro e Leonardo
Leandro e Leonardo were a Brazilian '' sertanejo'' duo. The two brothers (third and fourth of eight siblings), Leandro (born Luiz José da Costa, August 15, 1961–June 23, 1998) and Leonardo (Emival Eterno da Costa, born July 25, 1963), were from ...
,
Paula Fernandes
Paula Fernandes de Souza (; born August 28, 1984, in Sete Lagoas, Minas Gerais) is a Brazilian singer, songwriter and arranger. In 2011 she was one of the most searched people on Google Brazil. She won a Latin Grammy Awards for her album ''Ama ...
,
Tommy Fleming, Hell Or Highwater,
The Celtic Tenors
The Celtic Tenors began life as the Three Irish Tenors on RTÉ's ''Theatre Nights'' in October 1995. The group at that time consisted of James Nelson, Niall Morris, and Paul Hennessey.
In 1998, Matthew “The Gill” Gilsenan from Kells, Co. Me ...
,
Bruce Hornsby
Bruce Randall Hornsby (born November 23, 1954) is an American singer-songwriter and pianist. His music draws from folk rock, jazz, bluegrass, folk, Southern rock, country rock, jam band, rock, heartland rock, and blues rock musical traditions ...
,
Cake
Cake is a flour confection made from flour, sugar, and other ingredients, and is usually baked. In their oldest forms, cakes were modifications of bread, but cakes now cover a wide range of preparations that can be simple or elaborate, ...
,
Jonne Järvelä
Jonne Järvelä (born 3 June 1974 in Vesilahti) is the vocalist/guitarist of the Finnish band Korpiklaani. He is known in the folk metal scene for his yoiking and contributed the yoik on the Finntroll album, ''Jaktens Tid
''Jaktens tid'' ( en, ...
,
Waylon Jennings
Waylon Jennings (June 15, 1937 – February 13, 2002) was an American singer, songwriter, musician, and actor. He pioneered the Outlaw Movement in country music.
Jennings started playing guitar at the age of eight and performed at age f ...
, and
Jess & Matt
Jess & Matt are a pop music duo consisting of husband and wife Jess Dunbar and Matt Price. They started out as solo artists but became a duo in 2014.
Career 2015: ''The X Factor''
In 2015, Jess & Matt auditioned for season seven of ''The X Fact ...
.
Joan Baez
Joan Chandos Baez (; born January 9, 1941) is an American singer, songwriter, musician, and activist. Her contemporary folk music often includes songs of protest and social justice. Baez has performed publicly for over 60 years, releasing more ...
has also made the song a staple of her live concert performances, from the late 1970s to the present, including once in Italy with the Italian songwriter
Francesco De Gregori
Francesco De Gregori OMRI (born 4 April 1951) is an Italian singer-songwriter. In Italy, he is popularly known as "Il Principe dei cantautori" ("The Prince of the singer-songwriters"), a nickname referring to the elegance of his lyrics.
He is of ...
, who was also singing this song during his concerts; Baez performed the song with Paul Simon and
Richard Thompson at her 75th Birthday Concert at New York's Beacon Theatre in January 2016.
Simon sang the song to open ''
Saturday Night Live
''Saturday Night Live'' (often abbreviated to ''SNL'') is an American late-night live television sketch comedy and variety show created by Lorne Michaels and developed by Dick Ebersol that airs on NBC and Peacock. Michaels currently serves a ...
'' on September 29, 2001, the first live show following the
September 11, 2001 attacks
The September 11 attacks, commonly known as 9/11, were four coordinated suicide terrorist attacks carried out by al-Qaeda against the United States on Tuesday, September 11, 2001. That morning, nineteen terrorists hijacked four commercial ...
on
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
and
Washington, D.C.
)
, image_skyline =
, image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...
In 2007, Simon was awarded the inaugural
Gershwin Prize
The Library of Congress Gershwin Prize for Popular Song is an award given to a composer or performer for their lifetime contributions to popular music. Created in 2007 by the United States Library of Congress, the prize is named after brothers Ge ...
by the
Library of Congress
The Library of Congress (LOC) is the research library that officially serves the United States Congress and is the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It is the oldest federal cultural institution in the country. The library is ...
;
Jerry Douglas
Gerald Calvin "Jerry" Douglas (born May 28, 1956) is an American Dobro and lap steel guitar player and record producer.
Career
In addition to his fourteen solo recordings, Douglas has played on more than 1,600 albums. As a sideman, he has ...
,
Shawn Colvin
Shawn Colvin (born Shawna Lee Colvin, January 10, 1956) is an American singer-songwriter and musician. While Colvin has been a solo recording artist for decades, she is best known for her 1998 Grammy Award-winning song "Sunny Came Home".
Early ...
and
Alison Krauss
Alison Maria Krauss (born July 23, 1971) is an American bluegrass-country singer and musician. She entered the music industry at an early age, competing in local contests by the age of 8 and recording for the first time at 14. She signed with ...
performed "The Boxer" live. Also in 2007, country music artist
Deana Carter
Deana Kay Carter (born January 4, 1966) is an American country music singer-songwriter who broke through in 1996 with the release of her debut album ''Did I Shave My Legs for This?'', which was certified 5× Multi-Platinum in the United States ...
released a cover of the song on her sixth studio album, ''
The Chain
"The Chain" is a song by British-American rock band Fleetwood Mac, released on their 1977 album '' Rumours''. It is the only song from the album with writing credits for all five members ( Stevie Nicks, Lindsey Buckingham, Christine McVie, John ...
'', which was recorded as a duet with
Harper Simon
Harper James Simon (born September 7, 1972) is an American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer. He is the son of Paul Simon and his first wife Peggy Harper. Simon's talents have appeared on several studio albums, and has been featured in ...
.
The
Bluecoats Drum and Bugle Corps
The Bluecoats Drum and Bugle Corps, or simply The Bluecoats, is a World Class competitive drum and bugle corps. Based in Canton, Ohio, the Bluecoats are a member corps of Drum Corps International (DCI). The Bluecoats were the 2016 Drum Corps Inte ...
performed "The Boxer" as the ballad for their 2008 show, "The Knockout", and has been a recurring encore tune for the corps ever since.
Jerry Douglas and
Mumford and Sons Mumford may refer to:
*Amazing Mumford, a Muppet character on ''Sesame Street''
* ''Mumford'' (film), a 1999 American comedy-drama film
*Mumford procedure, also called distal clavicle excision or distal clavicle resection, an orthopedic surgical pro ...
collaborated with Paul Simon on a cover of the song in 2012. It was included on Douglas' album ''Traveler'', and on the deluxe edition of Mumford and Sons' album ''
Babel
Babel is a name used in the Hebrew Bible for the city of Babylon and may refer to:
Arts and media Written works Books
*Babel (book), ''Babel'' (book), by Patti Smith
* Babel (2012 manga), ''Babel'' (2012 manga), by Narumi Shigematsu
* Babel (20 ...
''.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Boxer, The
1960s ballads
1969 singles
1969 songs
Bob Dylan songs
Columbia Records singles
Emmylou Harris songs
Folk ballads
Rock ballads
Simon & Garfunkel songs
Song recordings produced by Art Garfunkel
Song recordings produced by Paul Simon
Song recordings produced by Roy Halee
Songs written by Paul Simon
Songs about loneliness
Songs about poverty
Songs about boxers