Watch Paul Simon announce Muhammad Ali's death, in the middle performing of 'The Boxer'

(Image credit: Ilya S. Savenok/Getty Images)

last updated 6 June 2016

Paul Simon was nearly finished with the 1969 Simon & Garfunkel classic "The Boxer" at a concert in Berkeley, California, on Friday night when he paused the song. "I'm sorry to tell you this, and this way," he said, as the audience clapped, "but Muhammad Ali passed away." The crowd responded with audible sadness, and Simon picked up the song again: "In the clearing stands a boxer, a fighter by his trade..." Boxing legend Ali's death on Friday, at age 74, had just been publicly disclosed.

The song was during Simon's six-song encore, reports Jim Harrington at the San Jose Mercury News, "and the swift change in mood seemed to make the last song of the night — Simon & Garfunkel's sobering 'The Sound of Silence' — seem all that more poignant.” You can watch that moment below. Peter Weber

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Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.