6 BABIES BORN AT ONCE

Underground Parking - Scarborough, Ontario, Canada

I seriously couldn't find a "decent" upload of The Boxer by Simon and Garfunkel on YouTube. But presto! I stumbled upon a remarkable cover version by Nick & Simon! - Mike

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"'The Boxer' is a folk rock ballad written by Paul Simon in 1968 and first recorded by Simon & Garfunkel. It was released as the follow up single to their number one hit 'Mrs. Robinson', and reached #7 in the US charts. It later appeared on their last studio album, Bridge over Troubled Water, along with its B-side 'Baby Driver'. It is particularly known for its plaintive refrain, in which the singer sings the tune as 'lie-la-lie', and the memorable finger-picking guitar played by guitarist Fred Carter, Jr.. Rolling Stone ranked the song #105 on their list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.

The original recording of the song is one of the duo's most highly produced, and took over 100 hours to record. The recording was performed at multiple locations, including Nashville, St. Paul's Chapel in New York City, and Columbia studios. Drummer Hal Blaine had set up his snare drum on a high rise building on 7th avenue in New York and discovered that when he played the drum, it greatly resembled the sound of a cannon due to the echo of the room he was in.

The version originally released on single by the duo features an instrumental melody written by Art Garfunkel and played in unison on pedal steel guitar and piccolo trumpet. The song also features a bass harmonica heard during the second and final verses. On the BBC, Paul Simon had Garfunkel's instrumental solo played with a soprano saxophone.

In the magazine Fretboard Journal, number 12, Winter 2008, 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 do a D, and tuned up the bass string to a G, which made it an open-G tunning, 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 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.'

The song's lyrics take the form of a first-person lament, as the singer describes his struggles to overcome loneliness and poverty in New York City. The final verse switches to a third-person sketch of a boxer, who, despite the effects of 'every glove that laid him down or cut him till he cried out', perseveres. At the last we are told the boxer cries out 'I am leaving, I am leaving' --but, the lyrics go on, 'the fighter still remains.'

It is sometimes suggested that the lyrics represent a 'sustained attack on Bob Dylan'. Bob Dylan in turn covered the song on his Self Portrait album, replacing the word 'glove' with 'blow.' Paul Simon himself has suggested that the lyrics are largely autobiographical, written during a time when he felt he was being unfairly criticized:

'I think I was reading the Bible around that time. That's where I t

SOJOURNER TRUTH(Isabella Baumfree) See picture of Truth
with President Lincoln in the White House in 29 October 1864.

Sojourner Truth (c. 1797–November 26, 1883) was the self-given name, from 1843, of Isabella Baumfree, an American abolitionist and women's rights activist. Truth was born into slavery in Tekill, New York. Her best-known speech, which became known as Ain't I a Woman?, was delivered in 1851 at the Ohio Women's Rights Convention in Akron, Ohio.

Early years

Truth was born around 1797 into slavery on the Hardenbergh estate in Swartekill, New York,[2] one of thirteen children, to James and Elizabeth Baumfree, who were slaves of a Colonel Hardenbergh. She spoke only Dutch until she was sold.[3] After the colonel's death, ownership of the family slaves passed to his son, Charles Hardenbergh.

In 1806, Hardenbergh sold Truth for $100 to John Neely, near Kingston, New York. She suffered many hardships at the hands of Neely, whom she later described as cruel and harsh and who once beat her with a bundle of rods. Neely sold her in 1808, for $105, to Martinus Schryver of Kingston, a tavern keeper, who owned her for 18 months. Schryver sold her in 1810, for $175, to John Dumont of New Paltz, New York.[2] Although this fourth owner was kindly disposed toward her, his wife found numerous ways to harass Truth and make her life more difficult.

Around 1815, Truth met and fell in love with a slave named Robert from a neighboring farm. Robert's owner forbade the relationship; he did not want his slave to have children with a slave he did not own, because he would not own the children. Robert was savagely beaten and Truth never saw him again. In 1817, Truth was forced by Dumont to marry an older slave named Thomas. They had five children, Diana, Elizabeth, Hannah, Peter, and Sophia

Freedom

The state of New York began, in 1799, to legislate the abolition of slavery, although the process of emancipating New York slaves was not complete until July 4, 1827. Dumont had promised Truth freedom a year before the state emancipation, "if she would do well and be faithful." However, he changed his mind, claiming a hand injury had made her less productive. She was infuriated. She continued working until she felt she had done enough to satisfy her sense of obligation to him by spinning 100 pounds of wool.

Late in 1826, Truth escaped to freedom with her infant daughter, Sophia. She had to leave her other children behind because they were not legally freed in the emancipation order until they had served as bound servants into their twenties. She later said:
“ I did not run off, for I thought that wicked, but I walked off, believing that to be all right ”

She found her way to the home of Isaac and Maria Van Wagenen, a Quaker family, who took her and her baby in. Isaac offered to buy her services for the remainder of the year (until the state's emancipation took effect), which Dumont accepted for $20 She lived there until the New York State Emancipation Act was approved a year later.

Truth learned that her son Peter, then 8 years old, had been sold illegally by Dumont to an owner in Alabama. With the help of Quaker activists, she took the issue to court and, after months of legal proceedings, got her son back, who had been abused by his new owner.

Truth had a life-changing religious experience during her stay with the Van Wagenens, and became a devout Christian. In 1829 she moved with her son Peter to New York City, where she worked as a housekeeper for Elijah Pierson, a Christian Evangelist. In 1832, she met Robert Matthews, also known as Matthias Kingdom or Prophet Matthias, and went to work for him as a housekeeper. In a bizarre twist of fate, Elijah Pierson died, and Robert Matthews and Truth were accused of stealing from and poisoning Pierson. Both were acquitted and Robert Matthews moved west

In 1839, Truth's son Peter took a job on a whaling ship called the Zone of Nantucket. From 1840 to 1841, she received three letters from him, though in his third letter he told her he had sent five. When the ship returned to port in 1842, Peter was not on board and Truth never heard from him again.

"The Spirit calls me"

On June 1, 1843, Truth changed her name to Sojourner Truth and told her friends, "The Spirit calls me, and I must go." She left to make her way traveling and preaching about abolition. In 1844, she joined the Northampton Association of Education and Industry in Massachusetts. Founded by abolitionists, the organization supported women's rights and religious tolerance as well as pacifism. There were 210 members and they lived on 500 acres (2 km?), raising livestock, running a sawmill, a gristmill, and a silk factory. While there, Truth met William Lloyd Garrison, Frederick Douglass, and David Ruggles (an African-American printer). In 1846, the group disbanded, unable to support itself. In 1847, she went to work as a housekeeper for George Benson, the brother-in-law of Wi