Guitar Sessions 18: Play Simon and Garfunkel’s “The Boxer”

Learn a complete arrangement of Paul Simon’s classic story song “The Boxer” in Episode 18 of Guitar Sessions.

Check out the full song, and download a free mp3, below.

A little background…

Bridge over Troubled Water is at the root of my life in music. It’s the first album I memorized note for note as a kid, enthralled by the range of songwriting styles, stories, rhythms, and instruments.

Like so many guitarists, I learned “The Boxer” years ago, but I was never able to figure out how to re-create the gorgeous guitar intro or other special elements of the original recording. It wasn’t until decades later when, as editor of Acoustic Guitar magazine, I interviewed Paul Simon (a conversation included in the book Rock Troubadours) and also published an interview with Nashville session player Fred Carter Jr. that revealed the guitar secrets of “The Boxer.”

Getting in tune with “The Boxer”

On Bridge over Troubled Water, Carter and Simon played closely intertwined parts in different positions and tunings.

Carter used an open tuning on a baby Martin guitar, with all the strings tuned a third higher than usual. In relation to standard tuning, his tuning was a variant of open G: G A D G B D, with the sixth string tuned up a step and a half and the first string tuned down a step from standard. But on his baby guitar, all these pitches were up a third, so the strings actually sounded as B C# F# B D# F#, or open B.

To simulate Carter’s tuning on a regular-sized/pitched guitar, tune to his version of open G (G A D G B D) and use a capo at the fourth fret.

I don’t really like tuning the sixth string up so far and putting that much tension on the neck, however, so in my arrangement I opt to tune the sixth string down to D instead. My tuning, D A D G B D, aka double dropped D, gives me a nice low bass note on the sixth string when I go to a D shape, while still allowing me to play Carter’s intro and other riffs.

For his part, Simon plays C shapes in “The Boxer.” On Bridge over Troubled Water, his guitar was tuned down a half step, so his C shapes sound in B. In other live recordings, Simon plays “The Boxer” in higher keys. On Simon and Garfunkel’s The Concert in Central Park, he plays in C# (standard tuning, capo 1). On Paul Simon’s Concert in the Park from 1991, he plays in C (standard tuning, no capo).

The guitar arrangement I teach in this lesson (again, D A D G B D tuning, capo 4) is a composite of Simon’s and Carter’s parts. It includes not only a fingerpicking rhythm pattern and Carter’s guitar intro, but also the instrumental interlude (played on the original track on pedal steel and piccolo trumpet) and even the dobro lick that sets up the climactic verse.

The complete tab and charts for the lesson are available on Patreon.

About the arrangement

Below is a full performance of “The Boxer,” plus a free mp3 download, with Wendy Sassafras Ramsay joining me on vocals and flute. Together we perform as Pepper and Sassafras.

When we were working out this arrangement, we debated about whether to include the extra verse that was not on Bridge over Troubled Water but that Simon and Garfunkel (and Simon by himself) sang in some later live performances.

This verse (“Now the years are rolling by me…”) departs from the main story line of “The Boxer,” yet Simon inserts it into the middle of the song. Maybe it’s just because I’m so attached to the Bridge over Troubled Water version, but to me, the extra verse feels misplaced that way. It breaks the momentum of the story.

So what to do in our cover? Wendy proposed using the extra verse at the end instead—letting the story of the boxer build to its climax and treating the extra verse like a coda. That’s what we do here.

Chord/lyric charts and guitar tab for every episode of Guitar Sessions are available on Patreon.

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