Oh Crap! – Musings of an Unperfect Mommy

Music Monday – The Boxer

August 15, 2016

I’ve decided on a 70’s song for today’s offering – The Boxer by Simon and Garfunkel. Although it tells the story of a boxer from his arrival in a big city as a young boy to his career as a fighter and beyond, there are things mentioned that are similar for most of us. I found this very excellent article on the song, meanings, and how Paul Simon wrote it. I like information like that because it rounds out the song for me. As I’ve mentioned before it’s not just the tune, it’s really the words that draw me into a song. I have included the extra stanza that is usually only performed live, but I wish it was in the original song because it really completes it. With all that said, let’s go on to the song with my notes.

I am just a poor boy
Though my story’s seldom told
I have squandered my resistance
For a pocketful of mumbles
Such are promises
All lies and jest
Still, a man hears what he wants to hear
And disregards the rest

When someone tells their life story they know so much more than when they started out. Humbled (or hardened) by life, they can understand now what they couldn’t at a younger age. I am at that point in my life now – beginning to see things a little clearer now. So much truth in those last two lines too. What’s that thing about hindsight? Ugh.

When I left my home and my family
I was no more than a boy
In the company of strangers
In the quiet of a railway station
Running scared
Laying low, seeking out the poorer quarters
Where the ragged people go
Looking for the places only they would know

Lie-la-lie . . .

I like to think this song takes place in the early 20th century when boys did often leave home quite young for many reasons. This boy probably ran away from home, and he knows where to look for help – with the people he is acquainted with due to his station in life. The poor and ragged ones. I understand some of that. The times when we have had very little money, it was so much easier to go to stores where most of the people were poorer too. There is a camaraderie there and I feel like I have friends in those places – friends that don’t give a crap how you dress or how much money you have but know the struggle you are in.

Asking only workman’s wages
I come looking for a job
But I get no offers
Just a come-on from the whores on Seventh Avenue
I do declare there were times when I was so lonesome
I took some comfort there
Lie-la-lie . . .

This is the way it was for many immigrants in the early 20th century, and of course for most men in 1930’s during the depression – looking for a job but finding nothing. For a man, it is a heavy burden not to have a job to bring in money for your family or just for yourself to live on. Almost a disgrace. Harper Lee described the depression in these words: “There was no hurry, for there was nowhere to go, nothing to buy and no money to buy it with”. Some people might think it terrible that this man engaged with prostitutes, but don’t judge, unless you walk in that man’s shoes you don’t know how crushing loneliness like that can be. This man was looking for companionship where he had none and found it in the only place he knew to go.

Now the years are rolling by me
They are rocking evenly
I am older than I once was
And younger than I’ll be
But 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

Lie la lie…

Okay, here is the stanza that’s left out of the recorded song and I think it was a mistake. This is the part that connects all of us to this song. And now that I’m in my 50’s it has much more meaning. Although for me the years aren’t rocking evenly, but the narrator is probably talking about after retirement and he’s looking back and accepting the aging process. I am beginning to accept my getting older, but I have been looking back a lot lately to earlier days trying to hold on to what’s been and wondering if maybe it’s time to let go of some of it. I especially like the line “that’s not unusual” speaking of getting older. In other words aging is a normal process. We ALL get older and all that goes with it – that’s the way life is.

Then I’m laying out my winter clothes
And wishing I was gone
Going home
Where the New York City winters aren’t bleeding me
Leading me
To go home

Here we have circled back to earlier days and probably the boxer is fighting in cheap fights because he has to make a living. He wishes he could go home, but he probably knows that it’s impossible now. While I don’t live in a northern state, I do know of some winters here that were brutal and I get the gist of those lines. And again, it’s about life when it isn’t going well – wishing we could go somewhere else but realizing we must stay because this is our home now and we must still live our lives the best we can.

In the clearing stands a boxer
And a fighter by his trade
And he carries the reminders
Of every glove that laid him down
Or cut him till he cried out
In his anger and his shame
“I am leaving, I am leaving”
But the fighter still remains
Lie-la-lie . . .

When I hear these lines I see the boxer – the man – standing in the ring with his hands raised to his face trying to protect himself in a fight. He is angry and hurt inside and out. Sometimes he wants to leave but he won’t – fighting is “his trade”. It’s become part of him and he’s in it for better or worse. Some of us also stand broken and bruised by life and wanting to quit sometimes, but we know we’ll stay for the long haul. We know there will be better days so we keep on going.

I want to mention the actual music here – simple like the boxer, reminiscent of the 20’s or 30’s. This is what makes a song great – the music ties in with the lyrics in a very powerful way so we get the full meaning of the song and it engages with us on a very personal level. A lot of Simon and Garfunkel’s songs are like that – powerful words with simple but evocative music.

So that is today’s Music Monday. Please take a moment to listen to the song – it is worth the time. And sing along if you already know it well.

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» Music Monday – The Boxer » Oh Crap! – Musings of an Unperfect Mommy

Music Monday – The Boxer

August 15, 2016

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