Quote:
Originally Posted by BJ9RW
Always excellent, Glenn. Love your covers, your voice is so good, the picking spot on.
Since other commenters have touched on the intro, the extra verse, the wordless chorus, and the drums, here's some trivia I picked up about the original recording, from the book The Wrecking Crew, about the group of studio musicians who played on so many of the great singles and LPs of the 1960s and spent 100 hours with Simon & Garfunkel recording The Boxer.
The drum part is legendary. Hal Blaine (the de facto leader of the Wrecking Crew) suggested to Paul Simon that he do an explosion with the drum on the chorus. They found a spot in the hallway facing the elevator where the echo was just right. At one point, the elevator doorsopened right as Blaine banged the drum, the security guard inside getting quite a fright.
The wordless chorus was a placeholder, Simon intending to write lyrics. But he never did, and they all liked it with the lie-lie-lies, so they left it that way.
The intro was created by Fred Carter Jr., the second guitarist on the track. He said he had his high E tuned down to D and his low E tuned up to G, which may explain why it's so hard to get it right when you play it in standard tuning.
The extra verse was cut out of the original recording because they wanted a solo, and the song was already too long by the standard of the day for singles. Simon always sang the verse in concert (still does). The solo by the way is a piccolo trumpet and pedal steel guitar playing in unison.
So if you want to re-do the song, Glenn, now you know what you need -- just kidding of course, your cover is fantastic.
Dubi
|
Hi Dubi!
Wow! What a fantastic bunch of information you have managed to share with us about The Wrecking Crew and their work on "The Boxer." I'm going to have to get hold of that book!
I knew a little bit about the "lie-lie-lie" chorus and how Paul Simon had intended to write words later, but it seemed to work as it was. I think it's the power of their singing and their harmony that made the chorus work so well even without words. It's hard to imagine words in there now, it has become such a part of the song.
That is really interesting stuff about Hal Blaine and that big echoing drum during the choruses. I considered adding a big echoing drum, but decided that for me on a video like this, it would just seem hokey. The good thing about leaving the drum out is that the guitar is so much more up-front in the recording, and being a guitar player, I like that.
I knew none of the information you shared about the extra verse and that instrumental verse with the piccolo trumpet and pedal steel guitar playing in unison. That is really interesting stuff!
Thanks so much for your comments and the interesting information you've added to this discussion! And I am very pleased that you like how this song came out!
Thanks so much for your contributions here, Dubi!
- Glenn