# What is Paul Simon’s “The Boxer” about? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [April 27, 2005, 1:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-paul-simon-s-the-boxer-about/301357 "2005-04-27T13:51:41Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![jebert](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ec9cab/32.png) [@jebert](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jebert)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2005, 1:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-paul-simon-s-the-boxer-about/301357/1 "2005-04-27T13:51:41Z")
I have never really understood what this song is getting at. It starts out with a lonely kid leaving home to make it in New York, where he stays lonely and eventually return home. Up to that point it makes perfect sense, but then it abruptly cuts to the clearing with the boxer. This evokes in me a picture of an old-time bare-knuckle pugilist in a green forest setting, and I have trouble reconciling this with the earlier part of the song. I confess: I’m still hazy after all these years. ---
**Author:** ![audiobottle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/bc8723/32.png) [@audiobottle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/audiobottle)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2005, 1:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-paul-simon-s-the-boxer-about/301357/2 "2005-04-27T13:52:48Z")
I think it’s about the immigrants coming to America and having to fight for everything. Specifically, I want to say it’s about the Irish, but that could be a mixed up memory with Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman boxing or something. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2005, 2:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-paul-simon-s-the-boxer-about/301357/3 "2005-04-27T14:03:09Z")
It’s about a boxer. He goes to the big city, can’t find a job, is promised fame, but ultimately is just a pug who fails. Not really all that complicated. ---
**Author:** ![Mollie\_Magill](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mollie_magill/32/20882_2.png) [@Mollie\_Magill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mollie_Magill)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2005, 2:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-paul-simon-s-the-boxer-about/301357/4 "2005-04-27T14:04:30Z")
I always thought it was based on Hemmingway’s Nick Adams stories. I think the collection which included the boxer character was **In Our Time**. ---
**Author:** ![JThunder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e95f7d/32.png) [@JThunder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JThunder)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2005, 2:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-paul-simon-s-the-boxer-about/301357/5 "2005-04-27T14:05:45Z")
It’s about a poor boy who squanders his existence for a pocketful of mumbles. ---
**Author:** ![audiobottle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/bc8723/32.png) [@audiobottle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/audiobottle)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2005, 2:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-paul-simon-s-the-boxer-about/301357/6 "2005-04-27T14:27:39Z")
> [@RealityChuck](#): > > It’s about a boxer. He goes to the big city, can’t find a job, is promised fame, but ultimately is just a pug who fails. > > Not really all that complicated. Don’t forget the hookers. The hookers hold the key. ---
**Author:** ![Caricci](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/85f322/32.png) [@Caricci](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Caricci)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2005, 2:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-paul-simon-s-the-boxer-about/301357/7 "2005-04-27T14:31:27Z")
> [@JThunder](#): > > It’s about a poor boy who squanders his existence for a pocketful of mumbles. Such are promises. ---
**Author:** ![pseudotriton\_ruber\_ruber](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/a9a28c/32.png) [@pseudotriton\_ruber\_ruber](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pseudotriton_ruber_ruber)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2005, 2:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-paul-simon-s-the-boxer-about/301357/8 "2005-04-27T14:36:17Z")
It’s just one “Lie” after another. ---
**Author:** ![Hey\_It\_s\_That\_Guy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/6f9a4e/32.png) [@Hey\_It\_s\_That\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hey_It_s_That_Guy)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2005, 2:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-paul-simon-s-the-boxer-about/301357/9 "2005-04-27T14:43:02Z")
And he meets Mr. Ed’s perverted brother when he gets “a come-on from the horse on Seventh Avenue.” ---
**Author:** ![ShibbOleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/848f3c/32.png) [@ShibbOleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ShibbOleth)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2005, 2:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-paul-simon-s-the-boxer-about/301357/10 "2005-04-27T14:53:12Z")
> [@Big Bad Voodoo Lou](#): > > And he meets Mr. Ed’s perverted brother when he gets “a come-on from the horse on Seventh Avenue.” Brilliant. FWIW, I always thought this was just about a guy who didn’t like briefs. ---
**Author:** ![Eonwe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eonwe/32/240_2.png) [@Eonwe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eonwe)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2005, 2:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-paul-simon-s-the-boxer-about/301357/11 "2005-04-27T14:58:33Z")
There is a verse in the song that isn’t on the album (but is in the Concert for Central Park version) that I think sums up a bit of the deeper ‘meaning’: - And the years are rolling by me. They are rocking evenly. I am older than I once was, and younger than I’ll be. That’s not unusual. It isn’t strange, After changes upon changes, we are more or less the same. After changes, we are more or less the same. \* Seems to tie in well with: _I am leaving I am leaving, but the fighter still remained_. ---
**Author:** ![Gangster\_Octopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a8b319/32.png) [@Gangster\_Octopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gangster_Octopus)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2005, 3:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-paul-simon-s-the-boxer-about/301357/12 "2005-04-27T15:06:57Z")
> [@Eonwe](#): > > - > > I am older than I once was, and younger than I’ll be. > That’s not unusual. > \* One of my all-time favorite lyrics. ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2005, 3:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-paul-simon-s-the-boxer-about/301357/13 "2005-04-27T15:15:37Z")
In the early days of prizefighting, the sport was actually illegal in most places, forcing fights to be in temporary locations with the word passed around to fans by word of mouth. A fight might well have been held in a forest clearing. The song is about dreams of easy success in the big city being crushed by reality, and the singer’s new determination to press on with more realistic expectations but retaining his hopes. The boxer who “still remains”, after deciding not to quit even while getting his ass kicked, is a metaphor for himself. ---
**Author:** ![WordMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e8c25b/32.png) [@WordMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WordMan)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2005, 3:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-paul-simon-s-the-boxer-about/301357/14 "2005-04-27T15:16:15Z")
Wow - I don’t have the lyrics in front of me, but I listen to it as the story of someone trying to make on their own. The first couple of verses are about someone trying to make it in the big city, and how lonely it is and how they find cold comfort wherever they can, such as the “whores on 7th Avenue.” Then, the lyrics shift: to me, the last verse is a parable/metaphor: > [@](#): > > In the clearing stands a boxer - and a fighter by his trade > and he carries the reminder > of every glove that’s laid him out or cut him 'till he cried out - in his anger and his shame - “I am leaving, I am leaving” but the fighter still remains. What I read here is that you are on your own - and every day you have to face the same battles - such as being alone and trying to make it in the big city - and when you face each day, you carry the scars of all the lessons you have learned and rejection you’ve faced. And sometimes, you have faced so much rejection in a specific situation that you give up on that situation and flee. And you feel like an ashamed coward. But you know what? There is still a fighter inside you, and that spirit will carry you to another day. Doesn’t that make sense for the song and the lyrics? ---
**Author:** ![WordMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e8c25b/32.png) [@WordMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WordMan)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2005, 3:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-paul-simon-s-the-boxer-about/301357/15 "2005-04-27T15:17:43Z")
> [@ElvisL1ves](#): > > The song is about dreams of easy success in the big city being crushed by reality, and the singer’s new determination to press on with more realistic expectations but retaining his hopes. The boxer who “still remains”, after deciding not to quit even while getting his ass kicked, is a metaphor for himself. In preview, what he said. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Hey\_It\_s\_That\_Guy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/6f9a4e/32.png) [@Hey\_It\_s\_That\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hey_It_s_That_Guy)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2005, 3:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-paul-simon-s-the-boxer-about/301357/16 "2005-04-27T15:19:02Z")
> [@WordMan](#): > > The first couple of verses are about someone trying to make it in the big city, and how lonely it is and how they find cold comfort wherever they can, such as the “whores on 7th Avenue.” :smack: Well, I like my interpretation better. ---
**Author:** ![WordMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e8c25b/32.png) [@WordMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WordMan)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2005, 3:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-paul-simon-s-the-boxer-about/301357/17 "2005-04-27T15:33:29Z")
> [@Big Bad Voodoo Lou](#): > > And he meets Mr. Ed’s perverted brother when he gets “a come-on from the horse on Seventh Avenue.” **BBVLou** - you know, you scare me a little sometimes. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Abbie\_Carmichael](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/49beb7/32.png) [@Abbie\_Carmichael](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Abbie_Carmichael)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2005, 3:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-paul-simon-s-the-boxer-about/301357/18 "2005-04-27T15:36:48Z")
The harmonies in that song make me want to cry. Gorgeous. ---
**Author:** ![teela\_brown](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/d9b06d/32.png) [@teela\_brown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/teela_brown)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2005, 3:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-paul-simon-s-the-boxer-about/301357/19 "2005-04-27T15:52:49Z")
I like the use of the song in the opening of the movie _Intolerable Cruelty_. The scene is Geoffrey Rush, a well-to-do producer, driving his Jag home to his place in Beverly Hills, and singing along with this song on the radio. You can tell that he thinks he can relate to the “poor boy” in the song! Later in the movie, of course, he does more relating than he wants to, but that opening scene was funny. ---
**Author:** ![picunurse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/7bcc69/32.png) [@picunurse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/picunurse)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2005, 4:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-paul-simon-s-the-boxer-about/301357/20 "2005-04-27T16:34:26Z")
[slight hijack] Did anyone else think the line about “seeking out ther poorer quarters…” was seeking out the poor reporters? Ok, I’m an idiot! :smack: [/hijack] carry on [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-paul-simon-s-the-boxer-about/301357.md?page=2)