The Big Apple Songs: The Boxer

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Wow, it’s bake a cake in the mailbox hot today. Thankfully, my A/C works fine, I don’t have to be outside, and there’s plenty of frozen fruit in the freezer to make fake sorbet with! Here’s a song that mentions cold weather, so maybe that’ll help you think cool thoughts as we travel by song to New York City! The Boxer - Simon & Garfunkel Max Crisp (@Orson_Kart ) has been enamored with the oft-repeated New Orleans theme of hookers. Well, here they are in New York City! One of my favorite memes spoofs that line with a guy walking with a mare next to him, captioned, “I get no offers, just a come-on from the horse on 7th Avenue.” One other great joke about this album is how you can put your hand over Paul Simon’s face on the album cover and it looks like Art Garfunkel is sporting a massive Cossack mustache. All jokes aside, this is a masterpiece of an album. It’s amazing how many of those songs are well-known, from the title song to “The Only Living Boy in New York” (which lost out to this song as Simon & Garfunkel’s representation on this list) to “Baby Driver” (love that song). This was the first single from the album, and wow what a set-up! This is one of Simon’s best compositions, if you ask me, using the metaphor of a professional prizefighter who keeps getting beat…but keeps getting back up and back into the ring (“he cried out in his anger and his shame, ‘I am leaving, I am leaving,’ but the fighter still remains”), explaining why the “poor boy” who’s “wishing I was gone, going home” doesn’t leave, despite all the negativity. It’s a sad song, but it’s also an optimistic analogy for taking the punches life throws at you. The Boxer Written by Paul Simon Recorded by Simon & Garfunkel From Bridge Over Troubled Water, 1970 NYC LYRICS: Where the New York City winters aren’t bleeding me