Simon and Garfunkel, the Boxer played by Fred Carter jr.

[elroyjetsn]

One of my favorite AG songs, The Boxer I understand has 4 guitar parts all played by Fred Carter jr. on the original recording. Sounds to me like there are 2 FT acoustics, a Dobro and a pedal steel(played along with a Piccolo Trumpet?) Just love that harp-like intro riff.

Has anyone else been influenced by that tune?

[El Conquistador]

My band opens every gig with The Boxer.

Steve

[string1399]

Yep, I've been recently mesmerized by the opening riff and how they incorporate that riff in other parts of the song. I searched different tutorial videos on how to play it, until I stumbled on this one which appears to me to be the most likely method used.

[Andromeda]

The Boxer was one of the top 3 or 4 songs that made me want to learn to play. I cannot sing this song in the original key so I play it now in G with a capo at the second fret.

[zmf]

Originally Posted by string1399

Yep, I've been recently mesmerized by the opening riff and how they incorporate that riff in other parts of the song. I searched different tutorial videos on how to play it, until I stumbled on this one which appears to me to be the most likely method used.

That's imaginative. Kind of makes me glad I never tried too hard to figure that one out.

[OddManOut]

Originally Posted by elroyjetsn

Has anyone else been influenced by that tune?

I am heavily influenced by Paul Simon. Though I've never been a great finger picker, Paul Simon's inherent musicality (along with Steely Dan) helped me get to a very different musical place than much of my early musical diet might have suggested (lots of Deep Purple, Led Zeppelin, and the like).

The Boxer and The 59th Street Bridge Song serve as my basic alternating fingerpicking exercises...and I need all the practice I can get.

[Howard Emerson]

Fred Carter had a great interview in FJ a while back. Great background on a lot of things.

The Boxer made me want to buy a Hohner Bass Harmonica.

Charlie McCoy knocks those 2 verses out of the box.

HE

[Notguildy]

I really doubt Paul is not playing one or two guitars himself.

I think there's a Nashville tuning guitar.

[Chin music]

In around 1990, a monthly magazine called Guitar for the Practicing Musician had published an acoustic version of their mag, and in it was a tablature transcription of The Boxer. I spent the entire summer trying to get that song down, and by the time the summer was over finally had alternating-bass/travis picking under my fingers. Perhaps not true travis picking as I wasn't proficient at all really (and still am not) in picking an underlying melody out while my right hand pumped away, but nonetheless it was a huge breakthrough for me at the time.

Since then, I've lost the muscle memory - through a combination of bad habits and lack of consistent practicing - for that song, and usually drill on it a bit as part of every practice.

[es335td]

Great song, and that guitar part is sublime. Does anyone have that FJ interview with Mr. Carter? I read it years back, but somehow recall that part was played on a nylon string with a capo on the second fret in the key of A. The intro part doesn't sit quite as well; but the rest of the song works better for the alternating bass line throughout the song. I'm interested in opinions - but this is an iconic song in many AGF'ers repertoire.

Also, in the accompanying DVD of the rerelease, Roy Halle says the high solo part was a fusion of two instruments - I'll try to find that today. I play it on electric guitar with a volume pedal.

[Pitar]

That is certainly one way to do it but there's a impler ways in standard tuning (capo'd to pitch). I think it's a conflict between a good ear and too much theory presented here.

[es335td]

Originally Posted by Pitar

That is certainly one way to do it but there's a impler ways in standard tuning (capo'd to pitch). I think it's a conflict between a good ear and too much theory presented here.

Well, most of us know how to play the notes in C (tuned 1/2 step down), but it's satisfying to play it authentically. Do you feel the intro line is easy (and sounds natural) in C? If "good enough" is what you're after, I concur.

[jomaynor]

Originally Posted by string1399

Yep, I've been recently mesmerized by the opening riff and how they incorporate that riff in other parts of the song. I searched different tutorial videos on how to play it, until I stumbled on this one which appears to me to be the most likely method used.

Thanks for this informative clip. And I like the presenter's calm and clear manner, as well.

[jomaynor]

Here is Mr. Carter's account of the recording:


In the magazine Fretboard Journal, Fred Carter, Jr. recounts:

"I had a baby Martin, which is a 000-18, and when we started the record in New York with Roy Halee, the engineer, and Paul [Simon] was playin' his Martin — I think it's a D-18 and he was tuned regular — he didn't have the song totally written lyrically, but he had most of the melody. And so all I was hearin' was bits and pieces while he was doing' his fingerpicking . . . I think he was fingerpicking in an open C. I tried two or three things and then picked up the baby Martin, which was about a third above his guitar, soundwise.

"And I turned down the first string to a D, and tuned up the bass string to a G, which made it an open-G tuning, except for the fifth string, which was standard. Did some counter fingerpicking with him, just did a little backward roll, and Iucked into a lick. And that turned into that little roll, and we cut it, just Paul and I, two guitars. Then we started to experiment with some other ideas and so forth. At the end of the day, we were still on the song. Garfunkel was amblin’ around the studio, hummin’ and havin’ input at various times. They were real scientists. They’d get on a part, and it might be there [unfinished] six weeks later.

On my guitar, they had me miked with about seven mics. They had a near mic, a distant mic, a neck mic, a mic on the hole. They even miked my breathing. They miked the guitar in back. So Roy Halee was a genius at getting around. The first time we were listenin’, they killed the breathing mic. And they had an ambient mic overhead, which picked up the two guitars together, I suppose. And so, I was breathin’, I guess, pretty heavy in rhythm. And they wanted to take out that noise, and they took it out and said, ‘Naw, we gotta leave that in.’ That sounds almost like a rhythm on the record. So they left the breathin’ mic on for the mix. I played Tele on it and a 12-string, three or four guitars on it. I was doing different guitar parts. One was a chord pattern and rhythm pattern. Did the Dobro lick on the regular six-string finger Dobro — not a slide Dobro.

"I never heard the total record until I heard it on the air . . . I thought: That’s the greatest record I heard in my life, especially after the scrutiny and after all the time they spent on it and breakin’ it apart musically and soundwise and all of it. There was some magic in the studio that day, and Roy Halee captured it. Paul and I had really nice groove.“

[elroyjetsn]

Thanks for posting that quote from Mr. Carter!!

I think the notes played are:

Gb Eb Db
Eb Eb A
Eb Db Gb
Eb Db Gb
B A G B

I wonder how many other guitar/banjo players incorporate banjo technique in their guitar playing?