Behind the Drums: Hal Blaine Playing Paul Simon’s: The Boxer

You know the artists who have the power to take you back in time by name. Paul Simon is certainly one of them. How did his songs come to life? “Some of the best sections of this book go behind the scenes at key recording sessions. Mr. Hilburn describes how percussionist Hal Blaine got that amazing drum sound on ‘The Boxer’—it sounds like a cannon firing!—by using the resonance of an empty elevator shaft,” writes Ted Gioia at the WSJ in his review of the Paul Simon biography, Paul Simon: The Life, by Robert Hilburn.