The Boxer in Central Park

It's time for more music. And another Simon & Garfunkel favourite from the famous Concert in Central Park in their home territory of New York City. 'The Boxer', like 'Bridge Over Troubled Waters' and 'The Sound of Silence', is not immediate in its meaning. We just get drawn into the melodies, the harmonies , the lyrics - and even the mistake they make in the first line of this version.  Their Concert in Central Park would have to be one of the great performances of popular music preserved for us - even my mother watched it when it was first shown on TV in 1982.

Sit back and enjoy part of one of the great acts of our time.  The lyrics are below.

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, lie la lie la 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 la-la-la-la-la-la-la

 

Now the years are rolling by me, they are rocking evenly
And I am older than I once was and younger than I'll be
But that's not unusual, no, it isn't strange
After changes upon changes we are more or less the same

  Lie la lie, lie la lie la lie la lie

Then I'm laying out my winter clothes wishing I was gone
Going home, where the New York City winters aren't bleeding me
Leading me to 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, he's still remains

  Lie la lie, lie la lie la lie la lie