Boxing and music are a match made in nirvana. From the Rocky
soundtrack to the ring walk-ons they have long gone glove in glove.
Here, our resident sports and punk rock correspondent Craig
‘The KO King’ Stephen rings the bell on 10 rounds of boxing and music
collaboration. Warning: there are a couple of low blows among them.
Warren Zevon - Boom Boom Mancini (1987)
“So hurry home early, hurry on home/ Boom Boom Mancini's
fightin' Bobby Chacon”.
Zevon’s tribute to one of the great Italian-American fighters of
the 1980s centres around a much-anticipated world title defence by Ray ‘Boom
Boom’ Mancini against a fellow bruiser and ex-world champion Bobby Chacon. But
he also takes the opportunity to defend the fighter who was unfairly maligned
after the Korean challenger Duk-Koo Kim died of his injuries after being
stopped in 14 rounds by Mancini five months earlier. In reality, there were other
factors at play, including Kim’s struggle to make weight.
“They made
hypocrite judgments after the fact/But the name of the game is be hit and hit
back,” sang Zevon and boxing was hit by the tragedy –
title fights were subsequently reduced to 12 rounds from 15.
Sun Kil Moon - Duk-Koo Kim (2010)
Ostensibly, this 14-and-a-half-minute epic from the Ghosts of
the Great Highway album has a focus of love and life’s ebbs and flows and references
Kim’s fight against Mancini to explore these subjects.
“The boy from Seoul was hanging on good/but the pounding took
to him/and there in the square he lay alone/without face, without crown/and the
angel who looked upon him/she never came down.”
Kozelek, who named this side project after a world super-flyweight
champion from South Korea, Sung-Kil Moon, also wrote another ode to a champion boxer,
featherweight legend Salvador Sanchez, on the song of the same name. The
Mexican was heading for mega bucks fights after a string of incredible wins but
a car crash took away his life at the age of 23.
“Mexico City bred so many/But none quite like him/ Sweet
warrior, pure magic matador.”
Bob Dylan - Hurricane (1975)
More of a protest song about the racially-motivated stitch-up
of an innocent black man than about boxing. For eight-and-half-minutes Dylan
goes into extensive detail about the frame-up of Rubin Carter and surmises
that: “In Paterson that's just the way things go/If you're black you might as
well not show up on the street/Less you wanna draw the heat.”
Carter was a top middleweight at the time of his arrest (but
not No.1 contender as Dylan claimed) and his trial and imprisonment killed his
career. The murder verdict was overturned in 1985.
Dylan also wrote ‘Who Killed Davey Moore’ (1963) which takes
the form of a conversation between the featherweight champion’s manager and his
widow, in which they debate who is to blame for Moore’s passing after a title
fight.
Dr Alimantado - The Return of Muhammed Ali (1987)
“I have Joe Frazier running around the ring”. This celebration
of The Greatest (who’s name is misspelt for reasons unknown) recalls Ali’s
three incredible fights against Smokin’ Joe Frazier – one of which it is
forgotten he lost on points – fought between 1971 and 1975 culminating in the
famous Thrilla in Manila.
This devotion to Ali – complete with “We Want Ali” background
chants hails from the good Doctor’s Born For A Purpose album. With its
recollection of Ali’s style, “dancing and prancing and skipping and jumping”, and
the famous Ali shuffle, ‘The Return of’ is a highlight from the album as it
revels in the pugilistic arts which were personified by these two titans of
1970s boxing.
DJ Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince - I Think I Can
Beat Mike Tyson (1989)
And talking of novelty records … this was a fun single
released when Tyson was in his prime.
When the dreamer does take on the heavyweight champion he
recalls how “for a second, I looked good out there.” Then the inevitable
occurred.
“But then Mike brought to reality my worst nightmare/One punch,
that's all it took/He hit me in my ribs and my insides shook/Now, how can I say
this and be a little discreet?/Let's just say that my bowels released.”
Miles Davis - Right Off (1971)
Davis’ 1971 album Jack Johnson was a tribute to the first black
world heavyweight champion.
There are two tracks, the 27-minute ‘Right Off’ and the
slightly shorter ‘Yesternow’. The latter concludes with a voiceover by
actor Brock Peters: "I'm Jack Johnson, heavyweight champion of the
world. I'm black. They never let me forget it. I'm black all right. I'll never
let them forget it.”
Davis was inspired by the political and racial subtext of
Johnson's battle against the establishment, and by the hard
rock and funk sounds of his own era. It’s as much a work about
the prevailing racism of the Jim Crow era as it is about boxing.
Morrissey - Boxers (1995)
Writing from imagination rather than experience, Boxers deals
with a fighter’s crushing disappointment of losing a bout with his own fans in
attendance. The opening lines make clear that there is no happy ending: “Losing
in front of your home crowd/You wished the ground/Would open up and take you
down.”
The video featured British super-middleweight champion
Cornelius Carr, who said it made him famous among Smiths fans and gave him more
publicity than any fight.
The NME was sceptical about Morrissey’s dalliance
with the sport, with their reviewer declaring the single was "just another
example of his tedious obsession with bits of rough who'd give him a kicking
given half a chance".
The Felice Brothers - The Ballad of Lou The
Welterweight (2009)
Hardly Green territory these guys … purveyors of Americana and
country rock. And I won’t pretend that I like this song just because it’s about
a boxer, a mythical one at that.
‘The Ballad of Lou’ revolves around the life of the eponymous
would-be hero. It begins with Lou excitedly telling his other half to get ready
for his bout.
Lou “had a way like Errol Flynn," the swashbuckling Hollywood
actor so we know he has plenty of bravado and showmanship as he enters the
ring.
But he is up against Joey from Flushing, a “big dumb kid” who
was there to be beaten up. However, Joey hits Lou low, leading to our
protagonist fumbling on the ropes and in the eighth it’s all over as “His eyes
were cast up to the rafters/And then they slowly sealed/In the silence.”
Simon & Garfunkel - The Boxer (1969)
This single which was included on their fifth and final album
Bridge Over Troubled Water, is a folk-rock ballad that tells the story of a
struggling man fighting against the odds.
“In 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, 'I am leaving, I am leaving,' but the
fighter still remains."
As we have learned though in today’s lesson, the song is a far
deeper meaning and lyrics were partially inspired by the Bible and
reference poverty and loneliness.
The Pogues - Peace and Love (1989)
The Pogues didn’t actually record any songs about boxing on
the album but it is famous for the cover. The pugilist is Hugh Cameron a
Scotsman who won a bronze medal in flyweight at the 1938 Empire Games. While he had a promising start to his
professional career, going 10-1-1, Cameron suffered a string of defeats to top
quality fighters and retired having lost more than he had won.
An interesting aspect of the cover is that the designer did
some photoshopping to add an extra finger to Cameron’s right hand, in order to
inscribe the words peace on that hand, and love on the other. Cameron had
neither tattoo. I imagine his family was none too plussed at the creativity.
