Just watched ‘Concert in Central Park’ -
When did the:
'After changes upon changes, we are more or less the same.
After changes, we are more or less the same"
verse get added?
is that post 9/11? That was the song he sang on Saturday Night Live when they did their first show after.
Simon and/or Garfunkel have been singing the “After changes upon changes” verse in The Boxer in concerts since the early '70’s.
My guess is that it was either added shortly after the song was first released in 1969, or else was part of the song as originally written, but cut from the recorded version…maybe to shorter it up a bit after the “lie-la-lie’s” at the end went on so long?
The changes (upon changes?) were made long before 9/11. Like Miss Mapp said: the '70s, as a guess (The Concert in Central Park was, what? '82?)
On a similar vein, when did the lyrics for Kodachrome change?
It went from the silly (in the context of the song) and non-scanning “everything looks worse in black-and-white” to the more meaningful lyrics and better scanning “everything looks better in black-and-white”
I wonder if Kodak had anything to do with it? I know that Andrew Lloyd Webber had some legal problems using “Technicolor” in “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat”. Similar situation?
Fenris
Why is “everything looks worse in black and white” so much sillier than “better”? And…er, what IS a Kodachrome, I’ve always wondered.
It is a brand of film.
Thanks, man. 
re. Boxer - Thanks - I remember the line, but cannot remember how or why I remember it - oh well.
re. Kodachrome:
to appreciate this song, you must remember the huge, backlight ‘slides’ in (approx. 2’x4’) display boxes in photo supply store windows.
These were invariably smiling, happy white people playing in bright, beautiful sunshine in a warm, fuzzy (and very green) world - the kind of shot no self-respecting human would admit to owning, let alone displaying.
not a great shot at the ads, but a good try…
On the “better in B&W” vs “worse”
The point of the lyric is that his imagination is better than reality:
*If you took all the girls I knew when I was single
Put them all togther for one night
I know they’d never match my sweet imagination
Everything looks______________ in black and white.
Kodachrome
It gives us those nice bright colors
It gives us the greens of summers
Makes you (us?) feel (think?) all
the world’s a sunny day-oh yeah!
I got a Nikon camera
I’d love to take a (your?) photograph
So momma don’t take my Kodachrome away.
- (vagrities in the lyric from typing from memory.
He makes a point of telling you how Kodachrome captures the reality of the “nice bright colors” and “greens of summers”. But they’ll never match his hazy black’n’white memories/imagination.
With “better” you’ve got the nifty contrast between Kodachrome’s vivid colorful reality and his imagination. With “worse”, A) it contradicts the first couple of lines (about how reality 'll never match his sweet imagination) and B) It sounds like a Kodak commercial.
And besides, “worse” doesn’t scan at all. “Worse” is only one syllable and the line needs a two syllable word. If he did “Everything looks awful in black and white” it’d scan ok.
Fenris
I’m going to disagree with you on both counts.
First, “worse” definitely scans better than “better” in that line. (“worse” gives you a 13/9/13/9 beat count in the lines; “better” makes that 13/9/13/10). “Worse” just fits in with the rythym better.
Second, I also interpret the verse above the chorus differently than you. I think he’s referring to reality as “black and white”, and lamenting that reality is always worse than his imagination.
YMMV, of course, and what fun’s a song if everyone interprets it the same?