Song By Song: "The Boxer" Trivia Quiz

Answer: False

"The Boxer" was recorded on the 1970 album "Bridge Over Trouble Water," which was the duo's fifth and last studio album together. On the U.S. Billboard Hot 100, "The Boxer" peaked at number seven. The song did well internationally, entering the top ten on the singles charts in Austria, the Netherlands, Canada, the U.K., Ireland, Australia, Spain, New Zealand, Norway, and Sweden.

Answer: pedal-steel guitar and piccolo trumpet

According to an article on BMI.com, session musician Curly Chalker "cut the part on pedal-steel guitar. While recording their lead vocal tracks in a Columbia University chapel a month later, however, Simon and Garfunkel came up with the idea of using a wind instrument as an alternate solo, and the call went out for a piccolo trumpeter. Rather than choose one part over the other, Halee, back in his East 52nd Street control room, experimented by making a single dub of the two diverse instruments."

Charlie McCoy played bass harmonica on the second and last verses of the song. The drumbeat, played only during the refrain (the "lie-la-lie" part) using a snare drum, was laid down by session drummer Hal Blaine.

Answer: True

"I didn't have any words!" Paul Simon said in an interview with "SongTalk" magazine in 1990. So "lie-la-lie" was used as a place holder for the chorus, but it eventually became a permanent part of the song. Simon told the magazine, "People like that and they put enough meaning into it, and the rest of the song has enough power and emotion, I guess, to make it go, so it's all right. But for me, every time I sing that part, I'm a little embarrassed."

Emmylou Harris covered "The Boxer" on her seventh studio album, "Roses in the Snow," which was released in 1980.

Answer: false

The song starts out with first-person ("I") narration:

"I am just a poor boy
Though my story's seldom told."

It continues in first-person narration for the next three stanzas. In the last stanza, however, it switches to third-person ("he") narration:

"In the clearing stands a boxer
And a fighter by his trade
And he carries the reminders
Of ev'ry glove that laid him down..."

Chet Atkins covered "The Boxer" on his 1970 album "Pickin' My Way."

Answer: Paul Simon

"I think the song was about me," Paul Simon told "Playboy" magazine. "Everybody's beating me up, and I'm telling you now I'm going to go away if you don't stop. By that time we had encountered our first criticism. For the first few years, it was just pure praise."

Waylon Jennings covered "The Boxer" on his 1996 album "Right for the Time."

Answer: his resistance

"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
All lies and jests
Still a man hears what he wants to hear
And disregards the rest."

Lured by false promises, the boxer has not resisted the things or people he should have, and he now seems to regret the fact.

"The Boxer" was included on "Rolling Stone" magazine's list of "The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time." It ranked number 106. The magazine describes the song as being "about a New York kid who can't find love, a job or a home."

Answer: cut

"And he carries the reminders
Of ev'ry glove that laid him down
Or cut him till he cried out
In his anger and his shame
'I am leaving, I am leaving'"

Despite the abuses he's taken, and his momentary despair, the boxer ultimately endures; he never actually leaves:

"But the fighter still remains, mmm mmm."

Paul Simon makes copious use of alliteration in this verse of the song, with "clearing," "carries," "cut," and "cried."

Mumford & Sons covered "The Boxer," and their version appears as a bonus track on their 2012 album "Babel."

Answer: Bob Dylan

"Self Portrait" was Bob Dylan's 10th studio album. Over half the songs on the album were covers of songs that had influenced him in some way (thus the title). It included traditional songs as well as some more contemporary covers, such as Paul Simon's "The Boxer."

Bob Dylan could perhaps relate to the song as someone who was often criticized for the way he invented and re-invented his music, such that he was even booed when he went electric at the Newport Folk Festival. Given that Dylan left his small hometown of Hibbing, Minnesota when he was just 19 to come to New York City to play, he might have been able to relate to this verse:

"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
Running scared,
Laying low, seeking out the poorer quarters
Where the ragged people go
Looking for the places
Only they would know."

Answer: Joan Baez

Joan Baez celebrated her 75th birthday on Saturday, January 27, 2016 with a live concert at Bacon Theatre in New York. She performed with Paul Simon, Emmylou Harris, The Indigo Girls, Mavis Staples, Jackson Brown, and others. Joan Baez has frequently sung "The Boxer" in live concerts, and one of her renditions may be heard on her 2008 album "Joan Baez Live."

Answer: True

The extra verse contains the following lines:

"Now the years are rolling by me
They are rockin' evenly
I am older than I once was
And younger than I'll be and that's not unusual.
No it isn't strange
After changes upon changes
We are more or less the same
After changes we are more or less the same."

The verse was most likely omitted to shorten the length of the song to make it more usable as a single. This additional verse has often been sung live, however, and can be heard on "The Concert in Central Park" which was recorded live in 1981 and released as a live album in 1982.