(Credits: Far Out / Sony Music Entertainment)
Sun 18 January 2026 20:30, UK
Five albums in, and American folk duo Simon and Garfunkel had hit their critical and commercial stride.
They were an odd twosome. Originally spinning rock and roll tunes as Tom and Jerry in the late 1950s, the folk revivalism that struck the early 1960s yielded a fitting soundtrack for Paul Simon’s pensive songcraft. While the countercultural trends around them jumped between garage beat, psychedelia, and roots rock by the decade’s end, S&G stuck to their guns, releasing records more indebted to Britain’s balladry over the far-out happenings seizing the day’s Billboard charts.
Yet, S&G’s final LP bow would stand as their defining statement. Featuring the immortal title track, 1970’s Bridge over Troubled Water would subtly expand its musical scope away from folk rock and bring in a little of gospel, some jazzy flourish, and the right amount of pop accessibility, bringing in six Grammy Awards and record-breaking levels of sales, the biggest-selling album ever at the time.
The taste of Bridge Over Troubled Water’s sonic direction would be offered a whole nine months ahead of the album’s release when ‘The Boxer’ was dropped, initially as a stand-alone single but included on the LP at the last minute. Their most complex production yet, over 100 hours were pulled into its grandiose presentation, cut across multiple locations, including Columbia University’s St Paul’s Chapel for its dramatic acoustics, and mixed on two eight-track recorders.
It was clear S&G were pulling no stops for their rousing number. In a pugilist mood, Simon was eager to hit back at the critics and purist folkies naysaying their new direction and calling his songwriting’s integrity into question. What resulted was Simon’s lyrical tale of a young man navigating poverty in New York City for the majority of ‘The Boxer’s weary wander: “I am just a poor boy / Though my story’s seldom told / I have squandered my resistance / For a pocket full of mumbles such are promises.”
“I think the song was about me,” Simon revealed to Playboy. “Everybody’s beating me up, and I’m telling you now I’m going to go away if you don’t stop.”
As well as further lyrical grabs from the Bible, Simon rounded the single off with a final verse in the third person, entering life’s boxing ring as we observe our protagonist refusing to be knocked down by the endless barrage of criticism and press naysaying: “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.”
Coupled with its memorable snare reverb and “lie-la-lie” refrain—a placeholder line but left in when felt the song spoke enough already—singer Art Garfunkel knew they had something special the moment he laid down his exquisite harmonies. “We were tapping into something that went way back for us,” he said. “I had a particular feel that I could do really well, and match Paul and make the whole thing ripple and articulate it just right.”
He wasn’t wrong. ‘The Boxer’ would peak at number seven on the Hot 100 and help push Bridge over Troubled Water to the top of the album charts in both the UK and the US. Through strenuous production schedules and an aggrieved lyrical pen, S&G managed to pull from their songwriting ether a number that stands as one of their most enduring works.
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