The Boxer

Simon & Garfunkel

Tuned down half-step

C                                             Am
I am just a poor boy though my story's seldom told
       G                             G7                            C
I have squandered my resistance on a pocketful of mumbles such are promises
             Am           G                 F
All lies and jest still a man hears what he wants to hear
                   C          G    G7   C
and disregards the rest

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

       Am           Em   Am   G   G7  C
Lie la lie   etc....

Asking only workmen's wages I come looking for a job 
But I get no offers, just a come on from the whores on 7th ave.
I do declare, there were times when I was so lonesome I took 
some comfort there  Ooh la    la   la la la la la 

Instrumental

Lie la lie    etc.....

C
Then I'm laying out my winter clothes and wishing I was gone
Am      G                G7                     C
going home.  Where the N.Y. city winters aren't bleeding me,
Em             Am                  G    G7   C
leading me,              going home.
C                                                      Am
In the clearing stands a boxer, and a fighter by his trade
        G                       G7
And he carries the reminders of every glove that laid him down 
     C                                                 Am
or cut him till he cried out in his anger and his shame, "I am 
  G            F                                       C  G  F  C
leaving, I am leaving."  But the fighter still remains.
Lie la lie    etc.....