Simon & Garfunkel - The Boxer (Audio) 

i am old. I am at the end of my life now..Wow, what a ride. This song just reminds me of how much time has passed and how quickly it goes. If you are young, Im not preaching and your life is yours to live as you choose, but trust me--The days are long but the years are short.

My mother used to play this album when it was nap time :) Everything thats good about me came from her. She lost her battle with cancer when she was only 49 in 2005. Everytime I play this she is right there again. Thank you Mom.

"Still a man hears what he wants to hear and disregards the rest." Ain't that the truth 😂

I just buried my father who passed away, after being diagnosed with Stage 4 cancer 16 years ago. He fought cancer 6 TIMES - and he fought so damn hard. This song gives me comfort and reminds me of his amazing strength. See you on the other side, Dad. ❤ "I am leaving, I am leaving, but the FIGHTER still remains".

My father was a boxer when in the Marines. He was killed in a accident when my mom was 8 weeks pregnant with me. From what I hear of him he was a huge character and left an impression on everyone he met. Hope I make him smile

My father passed away last week at age 90. He was a champion amateur boxer and loved this song. He was a boxer and even moreso, a fighter. We played it at his funeral as he is truly "going home."

67, sick,disabled, and lonely. Those chills are running up my spine and around my chest like a squeeze from the past

62 years old, still gives me chills in 2023.

I am Moroccan from north Africa. I learnt the lyrics of this song by heart in the eighties. It is one of the best songs ever made in history. It reminds me of my youth, my innocence, my family, my old friends. It reminds me of life when it was real and original.

In my opinion, one of the greatest songs, of any genre, ever made.

"In the clearing stands a boxer And a fighter by his trade And he carries the reminders Of ev'ry 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" Just one of the great lyrical passages ever.

One of America's great poets.....Paul Simon has few peers.

That was my mum's favourite song. She passed away two days ago. Rest in peace and thank you for everything! I love you mom, will never forget you 💖

I’m 16 years old and I can’t stop listening to this I absolutely love this song!!

It's cool being a young person and stumbling across stuff like this. It's like music from another dimension

This is not just a song, this is life.

How many will join me in listening this song in 2024?

71 years old and still enjoy this song. Real music not like the bump bump screechy mess today.

“A man hears what he wants to hear and disregards the rest” That couldn’t be more true today

A fricking masterpiece. These boys did so much for music but nothing these days can hold a candle to this. Wonderful.

I originally heard this song on the radio in Montreal during late 1979. I am at a loss to explain why I still feel choked up from re-listening many times already. The lyrics pack quite a punch. How many viewers agree?

My dad was a boxer in the 50's and 60's. He became golden gloves and spared for Rocky Marsiano. I grew up with this song , became a guitar player and insist on playing this song in the song list in every band I was ever in. Been playing this song for 40 years now.

The Boxer” is a character study: a young man disappointed with the world leaves home while still a child, and tries not to draw much attention to himself, because he knows he will be accepted or at least ignored if he stays among “strangers” This song is about a melancholy adventure through life. The entire song is a metaphor about how life is a boxing match against not only the people fighting against us but also ourselves. All the cuts and marks the boxer carries are symbolic of all the times that life has tried to get him down, and even though he sometimes feels like giving up, he never will because he’s a fighter.

I used to listen to this song while my father drove me to middle school. We buried him years ago, I think about him every day, and I’m middle aged now. This song reminds me of better times. Once you’re old enough to understand the phrase “you can never go home” it’s too late to do anything about it. God bless you all, do your best.

My dad grew up listening to S&G in his teens. He would play them at home and in the car on our road trips to Michigan from Oregon. We would blast it loud and sing along together. I lost him in 2017. He meant everything to me. Now I listen to this music and tear up... but also makes me happy.

Just fought the breast cancer battle. I'm here and grateful. I always feel like so many went through so much more. Had double mastectomy and radiation but no chemo. Song definitely picks me up and reminds me of good times

I felt into this album as a 16 years old in love with a beautiful girl named Christine. I can still feel he peaceful air, I can smell the wood and see the dimmed lights of the country house where I spent week-ends with Christine and her wonderful family. This music was the soundtrack of some beautiful evenings, of this first pure love. It all feels absolutely like it was yesterday, or even just a few minutes ago. I can almost touch those moments. I open my eyes, and we are in 2024... it was 52 years ago! I have 2 adults children (not with Christine), lights of my life, and a young boy with my new partner, a gift I cherish every day. It just went so freaking fast. Music is a blessing in life, and such a powerful retriever of past moments. Thank you Mr. Paul Simon. This interview is so simple and genial at once.

"..... in the clearing stands a boxer and fighting is 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...." Such a powerful verse. If you reflect about life most of us are the boxer this songs is talking about. Life has dealt us blows and at times in our lowest forms, we cry out how badly we want to quit this life, but at the end of the day we still wake up the following morning and live. Because fighting is our trade and it is only real fighters who remain standing. My our strengths be renewed every morning and for those who are going through tough times, remember you are a boxer and fighting is your trade. Keep on fighting.

The fact that this was posted 5 years ago and still gets 5-10 comments a day says music is still alive. This was a great song when I was a young man and will be a great song 100 years after I am dead.

Still the man hears what he wants to hear and disregards the rest… so true to this day!

Dear person reading this, You have Good Taste in Music.

Simon and Garfunkel is, without a doubt, the very best music the USA has produced.

If you cover most of Simons' head, Garfunkel gets a majestic mustache.

We were blessed in the sixties and seventies. Our lives were set to the greatest music ever written or performed.

I'm 70 now but when I hear this song it takes me back to my youth. no regrets.

I am in UK. Just in a cross road of my life. Bless you all here.

Seven years ago I finished up graduate school. I left school thinking a decent job was my birth right. Wrong. I worked several minimum-wage jobs, and I also spent a year unemployed. I would listen to this song at the library in between my job searches. I took a humble comfort from the song's grittily beautiful lyrics. I then found a job working as a janitor at a psychiatric hospital. I spent 40+ hours a week cleaning and hauling garbage. A year passed, and then I became an orderly at the same hospital. I've been spat on, punched, and scratched by psychiatric patients, but somehow I have survived. I have obtained a strength that I had never envisioned, but which I now cling to as eagerly as a blanket on a winter night. I have spent the past few months recovering from abdominal surgery, a surgery with complications that almost killed me. I have my scars, both mental and physical. Looking back on these past seven years is like looking down a long corridor, and from time to time these lyrics reverberate from the past and into the present : "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 'Til he cried out in his anger and his shame I am leaving, I am leaving, but the fighter still remains." Thank you, Simon and Garfunkel.

Their music seems to combine hope and sadness so perfectly. Art Garfunkel is one of the greatest male vocalists I've ever heard.

It doesn't matter how many times you get knocked down. What matters is how many times you get up.

Perfectly summarizes my life from joining the British Army at rhe age of 15, and the adventures after. Retiring as a Staff Sergeant after 24 years and three wars....."The Fighter Still Remains"....beautiful song ❤

First time I heard this song was when I was a very young African boy growing up in a tiny village called Ikot Uboh in Akwa Ibom State of Nigeria. It touched something inside me and still does today. That "something" is the animating life force that runs through all living beings throughout the entire universe. Anybody who quarrels with IT is just wasting his or her time. Nobody can disconnect living beings from one another.

When you get older hearing this can bring some tears , because you're reminded of hearing it as a child and seeing your mom walk around the house doing chores, caring for you and your family . And now hear it but she's gone, & the memories of her image and the sound of her voice is forever in your memory. I visited her 2 weeks before she died over 2 decades ago, she was down to 70 pounds from the horrible 'chemo' treatments they poisoned her with , my blood seemed to drop thru my body to my feet in shock when i saw her. I now wish i'd have wrapped my arms gently around her frail shoulders for a much longer time back then and cried for her , with her and held on for a long time to express to her how much i loved her.

My father's face got messed up during his brief career as a fighter during The Great Depression. I used a line from this song when I wrote his obituary. His face carried the reminders..

This is honestly one of the best songs ever! It's a shame people hardly listen to S&G anymore.

Paul's lyrics are so profound and thought provoking. He's up there with Bob Dylan & Lennon/McCartney as one of the best songwriters to come out of the 60's and of course in rock history.

I have lived this song, in some ways. Ran off from home (Virginia) at age 18, spent a miserable but very educational 6 months in NYC (1969) - the fault is my own, not the city's. If you flip a little bit from the experience of a young boy to a young girl, you'll get it. Now, I can listen to it with fond memories of what I suffered, and what I learned. Thank you, Paul, and NYC.

Surely one of the greatest song writing duos ever.

In my opinion this is pure musical genius ... both instrumental and lyrical ... A true classic that will stand the test of time

I still can't listen to this song without breaking down and weeping at some point it is one of the most powerful songs ever written

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. They don't call him "Rhyming Simon" for nothing. The man was a lyrical genius. S & G killed it back in the day.

The conclusion with all the instruments combining and the fog horn is one of the most beautiful things in music.

This song takes me back about 25 years ago when I was a young teenager and my father took me to college every day. At that time, the radio playlist we listened to the road mainly played hits from the 60's , 70's, Beatles, Stones, Piaf, Brel, Aznavour, Gainsbourg, Dutronc, Sheila, Creedence CR, ABBA, Procol Harum, Mama's & Papa's, Beach Boys, and of course, Simon & Garfunkel... Now that my father is gone, I listen to this track again with my nostalgia for those years gone by, but with added sadness... I would have liked this moments spent together in the car to last forever, but I keep them preciously in my heart. I miss you dad. 🙋🏼🏞️

This song got me through homelessness. One of the most touching songs of all time. I can't hear it and not cry.

In 1968, I was a very young International Flight Steward with QANTAS - the Australian airline. It was one of my very first trips to New York where we always stayed at the Lexington Hotel. I am not sure if the dear old Lexington is still there, but many great times were had there in the late Sixties by the crews from QANTAS and BOAC (now British Airways). I jumped into the crew bus at JFK Airport, and stashed the multiple bottles of Piper Heidsieck champers that we all took off flights back in those days under my bus seat --- but THEN heard the most magical song over the public address system of the bus! Yes, it was Simon and Garfunkel singing "The Boxer"! I was entranced. This was the most beautiful song, with the most beautiful lyrics, I had ever heard! I am now 74 years old, and haven't visited New York from Australia in decades --- but EVERY time I hear the original version of this song, I am transported back to a QANTAS crew bus in 1968!

Everything about this song is beautiful. Same goes for Bridge Over Troubled Water.

My husband and I went to see them in concert when we were dating in 1969 in Chapel Hill, NC. They were so great! We got married the following year and remained married for fifty years until his death in 2020. Every time I hear one of their songs it brings back great memories of dancing in the kitchen!

“All lies and jests, still a man hears what he wants to hear and disregards the rest” What a killer line and like all great poetry, so true.

I am still poor boy after 50 years ...life goes on....happy new year 2020 to Everybody .....love and peace

*Pure art.*

An all time classic

This song introduced me to New York. It was playing at 6:00 a.m., on March 15th 1969, as I was finished driving the New Jersey Turnpike in my Mustang, and was crossing the New York City line. I'm not ashamed of it, but I was truly "born again," as my former self exploded into a known cataclysm, along with my car, as I kept on driving, while gazing in wonder at the orange, blue, purple, green and golden skies behind those wonderful skyscrapers and I knew I had found my true home at last. I wasn't a particularly religious person, but I felt love, hope and security at last for once in my life. I was 17.

Paul Simon...one of the great poets of his generation.

When this song was at its height, my sister was 19 years old, dying from cancer. I was 17, and left school to spend a dreary winter with her in a Chicago hospital where they were doing experimental chemo. Late night, we'd order a pizza to be delivered to the ER in the basement, because nobody was allowed on the 8th floor cancer ward that late. We'd ride the elevator down and back, harmonizing this song together. She died too soon after that. I'm in my 70s now, but when I hear this song, I'm 17, in an elevator with great acoustics, holding a pizza, and singing my heart out with my best friend.

24 and trying to learn this on my ukulele and can't get through much of the singing without bursting into tears.. such a beautiful beautiful song

Some days I have to remind myself that the fighter still remains

These are the kind of music that will go on for generations.

Lately, it seems like this generation doesn't put a lot of stock in history. Songs like this remind of of why history is important. Not just world history or national history - personal history, where each of us comes from as individuals, and how that informs our decisions and ultimately shapes where we are going. Songs like this are history, and they deserve to be appreciated, not just for their artistic beauty, but for how they have contributed to our lives.

Song writer, storyteller, poet. Yes, the best I have heard. Get busy modern age, improve. I challenge you!

"Im leaving , Im leaving, but the fighter still remains" Epic

I'm 70 years old I grew up with this music. I still love it.

I was listening to this song as I drove around the bays of Wellington in New Zealand. I was 35. Now I'm 68 and on the other side of the world. I'm right back in my car.... time has flown.

I have been loving Simon and Garfucker since 1977!

The gun shot drum sound in the chorus gets me every time. Absolutely chilling

Paul Simon: one of the greatest American songwriters/composers. Timeless.

This song, just as art, is a masterpiece, and then when you actually learn the feat that it took to make this recording what it is, you gain a whole different level of respect for it. This is literally one of the greatest pieces of recorded music in American history.

It's hard to believe it's been 53 years, it seems like yesterday!😢 To all those amazing memories and the days we thought would last forever!❤️

Their music has this strange quality. It's like reuniting with a best friend that you've never met before after being apart for years. It's happy, sad, uplifting, melancholic, nostalgic and fresh all at the same time.

I'm an old person these days but grew up with this timeless brilliance.

A masterpiece, music doesn't get any better than this.

This song got me through one of darkest and loneliest nights of my life in October 1985. Thank God for music. I don't think I'd be alive to tell the story otherwise.

As close to perfect as a song can be.

I am 59, listen so many times to this , never forget the First time i listen, lovely times

Lost my dad it was his favorite song Vietnam vet .

"The Boxer" is an exquisite masterpiece, more a work of art than just a song. Thank you, Art. Thank you, Paul. Love you guys, from the 1960's through the 2020's, and beyond...

I don't think I can listen to this song the same way again. This used to be my grandads favourite song. He died recently and when I carried his coffin into the crematorium, the chorus started to play (lie, lie lie) it was beautiful yet heartbreaking at the same time.

I am 72 yrs old. As a native New Yorker, not only do I relate to this song, it could have been written about me. My 3 favorite song writers are: Bob Dylan, Robt. Hunter and Paul Simon.

Y'all people and your commentary on this song is simply BEAUTIFUL. God bless each of you. 🙏♥️

I remember as a kid, my mother was (and still is) obsessed with Simon and Garfunkel. Every time I had to do chores, whether it be cleaning the car or my room, she would crank up their music. Now whenever I listen to any of their songs, I always get more work done.

Damn, that fingerpicking run-down in the outro will never get old. Sounds so technical, but in its entirety, it's only three chords. Paul Simon is a master at making a few chords sound like a flurry of notes that must have come from a lot of chord changes. That's the magic of fingerpicking. Simon is definitely one of the best of all time.

One of the greatest songs of all time by anyone. Legendary harmonies from these two icons. 6 June 2023

Keep moving forward everyone

We're all boxers in our own way. Dearly carrying wounds and scars with us from so many lost and hardly won battles in life.

"I am just a poor boy, though my story is seldom told. I have squandered my resistance on a pocketful of mumbles--such are promises. All lies and jests. Still, a man hears what he wants to hear and disregards the rest." If I had written just these lines, I'd have been content to have that be my contribution to humanity. What a poet.

Never more relevant; what a story, what lyrics.

"...in the clearing stands the boxer and the fighter and his dreams as 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..." wow!

RIP Hal Blaine, drummer for this song -- they put him in an elevator shaft to emphasize his drum blasts -- an all time great is playing on this track

This has been a special song for me. It reminds me of my childhood in New York, with my family walking everywhere. I listen to this song on the day after Christmas-Boxing Day. It’s a deep, sincere song.

😢 my dad, absolutely love this song. I remember it being played on rad back in the 80s and he would sing it word for word. He passed on 18years ago suddenly

Thank you Mom for raising me with Good Music :-)

A lost verse, that Paul will sometimes sing live: Now the years are rolling by me- They are rocking evenly. I am older than I once was, And younger than I'll be. That's not unusual; No, it isn't strange: After changes upon changes We are more or less the same; After changes we are more or less the same.