The Boxer

Everyone has heard the original recording of the song "The Boxer" written in 1968 by Paul Simon and performed by Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel. It was an instant classic and remains an enduring classic. Last night on American Idol, contestant Lee DeWyze did his version of the song, and it gave me goosebumps for a couple of reasons: first, Lee changed up the melody somewhat and put some high notes in it that were not originally in the song; second, the song itself is enough to stir anyone with a beating heart and a soul that is full of "divine discontent and longing," as Kenneth Grahame penned in the first chapter of "The Wind in the Willows" in 1908. This book is definitely worth re-reading (or reading if you have never done so), and this song is definitely worth revisiting.

Click on the hot link below to hear Lee DeWyze do justice to this well-written lyric.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=exbIO39VlZ8

The only other notable person to record "The Boxer" was Alison Krauss who sang it with her band in a Paul Simon tribute done in 2007. This is also classic Alison Krauss (with her unparalleled, magnificent band Union Station) before she went nuts going off the ranch with Robert Plant and singing all kinds of atonal modern stuff. I hope she comes back to herself and her bluegrass roots because she is an incomparable bluegrass writer and musician, and she knows how to put together one of the best string bands in the universe. I know God is proud of AKUS.

Click on the hot link below to get down and mellow with the AKUS version of "The Boxer." What a wonderful tribute to Paul Simon, and what a soulful gift to the rest of us. Thank you to Alison Krauss, her indomitable Union Station band, and to Lee DeWyze for reminding me of a song I've never forgotten but haven't heard for far too long.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v4Lwx9F81Zs

Emmylou Harris also admirably sang "The Boxer" at a concert in Stuttgart in 1994. She is accompanied by the not-shabby Nash Ramblers in the video below.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZNMBI9dutlM&feature=related

And, finally, here are the lyrics for your meditation. Try not to cry. I dare you.

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, 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)

Lie-la-lie ...

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."
But the fighter still remains.

Lie-la-lie ...