![\"Paul](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/Paul-Simon-1975-Musician-Far-Out-Magazine-F-1140x855.jpg\")
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(Credits: Far Out \/ Harry Chase, Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n
When thinking about the traits of a world-famous artist, being humble or shy isn\u2019t typically one that comes to mind. We imagine them as praise-hungry beasts skulking the world for validation, or, once that comes in abundance, batting their devotees away with cool thank yous or a callous, \u2018I know\u2019. But even music\u2019s biggest celebrities are people under it all, burdened by the humanity of insecurity and a good dose of pride, or, in Paul Simon<\/a>\u2019s case, embarrassment even. <\/p>\n But it must get weird. So often, even after years and years of working away in the shadows, success comes in a sudden boom, bringing a million voices racing towards a person or a collection of people. Simon and Garfunkel were just two kids from Queens working on their musical projects when their big break happened pretty much by accident. They were releasing songs, but it wasn\u2019t until some producer remixed \u2018Sound Of Silence\u2019 and started playing that version<\/a> on the radio that things truly took off. Suddenly, everyone wanted a piece of them as suddenly they were one of folk\u2019s major players.\u00a0<\/p>\n Obviously, it\u2019s a dream come true for two musicians who have dreamed of being exactly that. But when it all comes at once, and when the noise of all the new praise can be deafening, the real people under it all can get overwhelmed. <\/p>\n For Simon, especially, it was all very strange. After trying and failing to make things happen for a long time, the band\u2019s new onslaught of praise was a trip for his ego. While some would wind up with a big head, he seemed desperate to bat it away, refusing or being unable to accept all these new compliments.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cFor the first few years, it was just praise,\u201d he said. But it felt like that\u2019s all it was. He felt like no one truly knew them as he added, \u201cIt took two or three years for people to realise that we weren\u2019t strange creatures that emerged from England but just two guys from Queens who used to sing rock \u2018n\u2019 roll. And maybe we weren\u2019t real folkies at all! Maybe we weren\u2019t even hippies!\u201d<\/p>\n To process his complex feelings about it all, Simon turned to his music.\u00a0On their final album, the duo purged many demons<\/a>, including this one: \u2018The Boxer\u2019 sees the singer dealing with the oddness of new success and the isolation of being turned into a hero but almost forgotten as a person.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI am just a poor boy, though my story\u2019s seldom told \/ I have squandered my resistance for a pocketful of mumbles \/ Such are promises,\u201d the song begins with Simon cutting himself down to merely a boy in the grand, using the tradition of storytelling folk to make his point. <\/p>\n But as the song goes on, this tale of loneliness and attempts for success finds an apt conclusion given that the group were splitting; \u201cIn the clearing stands a boxer \/ And a fighter by his trade \/ And he carries the reminders \/ Of every glove that laid him down \/ Or cut him till he cried out in his anger and his shame \/ \u201cI am leaving, I am leaving\u201d, but the fighter still remains,\u201d he sings. In this case, the gloves and cuts are the industry, the broken-down boxer is him<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cI think the song was about me: everybody\u2019s beating me up, and I\u2019m telling you now I\u2019m going to go away if you don\u2019t stop,\u201d Simon said of the track, capturing a man buckling under the pressure of notoriety and blocking the deafening compliments that had begun to feel like bruises.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n Related Topics<\/p>\n Subscribe To The Far Out Newsletter <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"(Credits: Far Out \/ Harry Chase, Los Angeles Times) When thinking about the traits of a world-famous artist,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":122026,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3936],"tags":[77,269,47998,54330,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-122025","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-music","8":"tag-entertainment","9":"tag-music","10":"tag-paul-simon","11":"tag-simon-and-garfunkel","12":"tag-uk","13":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114550494358978646","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122025","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=122025"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122025\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/122026"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=122025"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=122025"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=122025"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}