Artist
Simon and Garfunkel
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
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,
Running scared
Laying low, seeking out the poorer quarters
Where the ragged people go
Looking for the places only they would know
Lie-la-lie ...
Asking 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
Lie-la-lie ...
Then I'm laying out my winter clothes
And wishing I was gone
Going home
Where the New York City winters aren't bleeding me
Leading me
Going 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
And cut him till he cried out
In his anger and his shame
""I am leaving, I am leaving""
But the fighter still remains
Lie-la-lie ...
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
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,
Running scared
Laying low, seeking out the poorer quarters
Where the ragged people go
Looking for the places only they would know
Lie-la-lie ...
Asking 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
Lie-la-lie ...
Then I'm laying out my winter clothes
And wishing I was gone
Going home
Where the New York City winters aren't bleeding me
Leading me
Going 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
And cut him till he cried out
In his anger and his shame
""I am leaving, I am leaving""
But the fighter still remains
Lie-la-lie ...
RS500_rank
105
Length
5:09
BPM
96.2
Released Year
1969
Genre Era
Genre
Key
F#m
Produced By
Roy Halee, Simon, Art Garfunkel
Released Info
April '69 on Columbia
Chart Weeks
10 weeks
Chart Top
No. 7
Musicbrainz ID
4b864e58-bd13-9d3e-9490-8599debac34a
Song Note Source
Rolling Stone 500
Song of Day Date
Written By
Paul Simon
Album
Bridge Over Troubled Water (Columbia)
Song Status
One of Simon and Garfunkel's most enduring songs, "The Boxer" is about a New York kid who can't find love, a job or a home -- just those old whores on Seventh Avenue. "I think I was reading the Bible," Simon said of the song's genesis. "That's where [the line] 'workman's wages' came from." Simon famously performed the song on the first Saturday Night Live after 9/11, as a tribute to New York's resilience.