Songs Like The Boxer by Simon & Garfunkel
By Dan Cohen · Published 2026-09-05
The Boxer comes in at 42 on our 100-point intensity scale, carrying a dynamic range of 7 at 85 beats per minute — layered, softly sung, shifting only mildly. Its mood tags are cathartic and heavy — and that second tag on an acoustic folk record is the interesting part.
Why a folk song reads as heavy
The tag is not about distortion. It is about weight and travel: a dynamic range of 7 on a song that begins with one guitar means the arrangement grows a great deal before it is done. The famous crashing refrain is what our columns register — not as a genre marker, but as distance covered between softest and loudest.
Sharing both tags — cathartic and heavy
- For a Few Dollars More — Ennio Morricone. Intensity 41, dynamic range 7, 95 BPM, instrumental.
- Trouble — Ray LaMontagne. Intensity 45, dynamic range 8 — travels further than the seed.
- Gotta Serve Somebody — Bob Dylan. Intensity 45, dynamic range 6.
- Motherless Children — Eric Clapton. Intensity 46, dynamic range 6, 88 BPM.
- No Me Pidas Perdón — Banda MS. Intensity 44, dynamic range 6.
Sharing catharsis only
- No More ‘I Love You’s’ — Annie Lennox. Intensity 42, dynamic range 7, 85 BPM — identical to the seed on all three figures.
- The Mission — Ennio Morricone. Intensity 42, dynamic range 8, 70 BPM.
- White Rabbit — Jefferson Airplane. Intensity 43, dynamic range 7 — another long single build.
The Boxer appears on Simon & Garfunkel’s 1970 album Bridge Over Troubled Water; the single was released in 1969. The reading of “heavy” as distance travelled rather than distortion is our interpretation. Figures are our own measurements, read from the public API at build time. The genre and era spread is a consequence of measuring sound rather than style — it is not a claim that these artists resemble each other in any other way. No lyrics are reproduced.