Paul Simon: The Boxer

Tune all strings down one half step to match album version
(Eb Ab Db Gb Bb eb)

C                                             Am
I am just a poor boy though my story's seldom told. I have
G                               G7           G6
squandered my resistance for a  pocketful of mumbles such are
C                     Am
promises. All lies in jest still a man
G             F/C                                C
hears what he wants to hear and disregards the rest
C           G      G7                 C
Hmm,- hmm,-hmm hmm hmm,____________   hmm, hmm.____________

C                                                Am
When I left my home and my family I was no  more than a boy in the
G                            G7            G6
company of strangers, in the quiet of the railway station
C                                       Am               G
runnin' scared._________     Lay-ing    low,    seeking out
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the poorer quarters where the ragged people  go,________ lookin' for
G            F/C                C
the places only they would  know.                      Lie la lie
Am                   Em
lie la lie__ lie_ la lie__lie  Lie la lie
       Am            G                                C                                                        
lie la lie__ lie_ la lie__lie  Lie la lie la la la la lie.
@2nd time to CODA

  C                                              Am
Asking only workman's wages I come looking for a job
              G             G7                 G6               C
but I get no offers, just a come on from the whores on Seventh Avenue.
       Am                 G              F/C
I do declare, there were times when I was so lonesome
                    C               G     G7 G6 C
I took some comfort there. La la la la la la la la
Instrumental verse
C                                             G/B        Am
G                                                        G7

C                                                        Am(V)

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@CODA
C

 And I'm  laying out_ my     winter clothes and wishing I   was

Am          G
gone, goin' home,
 G7              G6            C
where the New York City winters aren't bleeding me,

Em                                       Am 				    G

  leading me, __________________________________________   goin' home

G                                     G7                 C
 


In the clearing stand a box-

  Am                 G 
 er and a fight-  er    by his     trade   and he carries     the remind-

C
 ers       of   every glove that laid him down or     cut him till he

G/B        Am                 G
 cried out     in his anger and his shame.__     I   am     leaving, I am

  F/C                                    C       G/B Am     G
leaving but the fight- er  still remains.     Hmm___     hmm.
 
F/C                C                                     Am    
 Lie la lie.___ 
 
 Em                                    Am
 
 
 G                    Play 8 times     C
H
G/B        Am                 G
 

C
 

G/B        Am                 G

F/C                                   C                  G

F/C                C