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The Boxer

Paul Simon

This is a simplified version of the song that I created for a 6-year-old student. It's played on just the 6th string. Instead of chord names, only the 6th string fret number is provided.

Playing a bass line on the 6th string is the easiest way to play a song on guitar--perfect for total beginners or kids who want to sing and play at the same time.

 

5 (2)

I am just a poor boy, though my

  5                   2  
story's seldom told, I have

    0 (2)

squandered my resistance for a

 10 (2)                                          5 (2)

pocket full of mumbles such are promises

5                  2  
  All lies and jests, still a

    0                           10
 man hears what he wants to hear
        10                 5

And disregards the rest.  Lie la

 0 (2)

lie lie lie la lie

 

/ 10 - - - / 5 - - - / - - - - / - - - - / - - - - /

 

            5 (2)

When I left my home and my family I was

  5                     2
no more than a boy, in the

  0 (2)
company of strangers, in the

10 (2)                                          5 (2)
quiet of the railway station running scared

5               2
     Laying low, seeking

0                      10

out the poorer quarters where the

  10                 5
ragged people go looking

  0                 10                       5 (2)
for the places only they would know

 

           5 (2)
Asking only workman's wages I come

  5                 2
looking for a job, But I get no

   0 (2)
offers, Just a

10 (2)                                               5 (2)
come-on from the bores on Seventh Avenue. 

5             2
   I do declare, there were

 0                             10

times when I was so lonesome

  10                          5
I took some comfort there.  Lie la

0 (2)

lie lie lie la lie

 

/ 10 - - - / 5 - - - / - - - - / - - - - / - - - - /

 

Instrumental Verse

 

Chorus

 

               5 (2)

Then I'm laying out my winter clothes

         5                  2
And wishing I was gone, going

   0 (2)
home, where the

10 (2)                                      5 (2)

New York City winters aren't bleeding me

9 (2)                2 (2)
    Bleeding me

           0      10 (2)

going home

 

/ 5 - - - / - - - - / - - - - / - - - - /

 

            5 (2)
In the clearing stands a boxer

          5                    2
And a fighter by his trade

             0 (2)
And he carries the reminders

     10 (2)                                             5 (2)
Of every glove that layed him down or cut him till he cried out

          5                    2
In his anger and his shame

           0                 10
"I am leaving, I am leaving"

10                 5
But the fighter still remains.

 

/ 0 - - - / 10 - - - / 5 - - - / - - - - /

 

Lie la

 

 

lie

 

Instrumental Verse, End on 5

This file is the author's own work and represents his interpretation of this song. It's intended solely for private study, scholarship or research.