One of the saddest songs I've ever listened to. Yet, so sad but also full of courage and pride.
The Boxer- Simon & Garfunkel
I am just a poor boy, though my story is 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 a railway station, runnin' scared.
Laying low, seeking out the poorer quarters,
Where the ragged people go.
Lookin' for the places, only they would know.
Lie-la-lie ...
Asking only workman's wages I come lookin' 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.
(Instrumental break)
Li la li ...
And I’m laying out my winter clothes, and wishing I was gone, goin’ home
Where the New York city winters aren’t bleedin’ me, leadin’ me goin' 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,
Or cut him 'til he cried out in his anger and his shame,
"I am leaving, I am leaving."
Though the fighter still remains.
Lie-la-lie ...
Another version sung by Simon & Joan Baez with some additional lyrics
"Now the years are rolling by me, they are rockin even me
I am older than I once was, and younger than I'll be, thats 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"
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Good song; I usually sing along to it in the car. Boy, that S&G, what a duo, huh?
ReplyDeleteWhen I heard that song, I often think of an image of a poor immigrant lonely in a big, cold metropolitan city. Or sometimes, not an immigrant but kind of a Holden Caufield, a young boy who had lost the childhood and was now learning to survive in a cruel world.
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