BoxRec

I am curious to know what music you would put to some famous boxers if you were to envision a sound track for each fighter.

Mile Davis in his Jack Johnson sessions had some tracks dedicated to Ray Robinson, Roberto Duran, Archie Moore and off course Jack Johnson.

I often associate blues and jazz to boxing.

Naturally a slow version of 'Night Train' could best go with Sonny Liston.

But for you guys what do you imagine should go with some boxers,


Kym

Wynton Marsalis's score for the HBO documentary of Sugar Ray Robinson was excellent.

It depends also of the nationality and race and even the time period of the fighter. Examples:

Jack Johnson: Music by Kid Ory or Bessie Smith

Jack Dempsey: Music by Bix Beiderbeck

Joe Louis: Music by Duke Ellington or Count Basie

Rocky Marciano: Music by Tony Bennett

Muhammad Ali: Music by James Brown or Sam Cooke

Mike Tyson: Music by 50 Cent

Julio Cesar Chavez: Music by Vicente Fernandez

Tito Trinidad: Music by Tito Puente

dagosd2000 wrote:It depends also of the nationality and race and even the time period of the fighter. Examples:

Jack Johnson: Music by Kid Ory or Bessie Smith

Jack Dempsey: Music by Bix Beiderbeck

Joe Louis: Music by Duke Ellington or Count Basie

Rocky Marciano: Music by Tony Bennett

Muhammad Ali: Music by James Brown or Sam Cooke

Mike Tyson: Music by 50 Cent

Julio Cesar Chavez: Music by Vicente Fernandez

Tito Trinidad: Music by Tito Puente

50 Cent isn't anywhere near aggressive enough for Tyson. DMX or Notorious B.I.G. (from the same town in Brooklyn as Tyson coincidentally) fit him much better. In fact in the late 90's he came out to DMX songs a few times.

I gotta think for a bit for some others... An interesting tidbit to note though is that Marco Antonio Barrera often has sported Roc-A-Wear trunks, Roc-A-Wear being Jay-Z's clothing label.

Diamond WEAPON wrote:

dagosd2000 wrote:It depends also of the nationality and race and even the time period of the fighter. Examples:

Jack Johnson: Music by Kid Ory or Bessie Smith

Jack Dempsey: Music by Bix Beiderbeck

Joe Louis: Music by Duke Ellington or Count Basie

Rocky Marciano: Music by Tony Bennett

Muhammad Ali: Music by James Brown or Sam Cooke

Mike Tyson: Music by 50 Cent

Julio Cesar Chavez: Music by Vicente Fernandez

Tito Trinidad: Music by Tito Puente

50 Cent isn't anywhere near aggressive enough for Tyson. DMX or Notorious B.I.G. (from the same town in Brooklyn as Tyson coincidentally) fit him much better. In fact in the late 90's he came out to DMX songs a few times.

I gotta think for a bit for some others... An interesting tidbit to note though is that Marco Antonio Barrera often has sported Roc-A-Wear trunks, Roc-A-Wear being Jay-Z's clothing label.

Thanks DW,the modern day stuff has gone past me. I couldn't name a top 40 song. I teach teenagers in school. When they talk about their music,they're teaching me.

Ray Mancini used to come into the ring with Pat Travers "Boom Boom" (out go the lights) playing in the back ground. It was pretty good.

dagosd2000 wrote:

Diamond WEAPON wrote:

dagosd2000 wrote:It depends also of the nationality and race and even the time period of the fighter. Examples:

Jack Johnson: Music by Kid Ory or Bessie Smith

Jack Dempsey: Music by Bix Beiderbeck

Joe Louis: Music by Duke Ellington or Count Basie

Rocky Marciano: Music by Tony Bennett

Muhammad Ali: Music by James Brown or Sam Cooke

Mike Tyson: Music by 50 Cent

Julio Cesar Chavez: Music by Vicente Fernandez

Tito Trinidad: Music by Tito Puente

50 Cent isn't anywhere near aggressive enough for Tyson. DMX or Notorious B.I.G. (from the same town in Brooklyn as Tyson coincidentally) fit him much better. In fact in the late 90's he came out to DMX songs a few times.

I gotta think for a bit for some others... An interesting tidbit to note though is that Marco Antonio Barrera often has sported Roc-A-Wear trunks, Roc-A-Wear being Jay-Z's clothing label.

Thanks DW,the modern day stuff has gone past me. I couldn't name a top 40 song. I teach teenagers in school. When they talk about their music,they're teaching me.

It's all good, we can't all necessarily be encyclopedic about every genre... I also forgot to mention the interesting fact that 2Pac was a good friend of Tyson's and would occasionally be a part of his entourage in the mid-90's despite the fact that Pac obviously had his beef with Tyson's own hometown Rap hero Biggie. Pac actually would make for a good sountrack to Tyson as well, but in all honesty I'd say DMX's paranoid, bipolar, self-destructive themes fit Tyson like a glove.

Roy Jones Jr.: Jay-Z (Jay like Roy has the mass appeal and reigned for years as the MC of MC's, and even in his weaker moments album-wise he's always maintained his popularity. Jay defines style and flash with substance.)

Floyd Mayweather: 50 Cent (Now 50 definitely fits Floyd. Both in his persona of how people tend to either overestimate or underestimate his ability, as well as his focus on money and glory.)

Zab Judah: Cassidy (Cassidy like Judah seems obsessed with a street life that he's left behind and both can't seem to stay out of trouble. Cassidy's aggressive style epitomizes Zab but so does his sometimes hit-and-miss nature in that in some songs he sounds like he might be the best lyricist alive, and in others he just seems to be going through the motions uninspired.)

Juan Diaz: Nas (Diaz seems to have a certain sense of class and substance. Nas is known for being a true Rapper's Rapper, somebody who makes everyone want to step their game up and he has a smooth style that can turn aggressive and potent in a heartbeat when impassioned, much like Diaz when he's being pushed to his own limits. When either gets into the zone, they're practically unstoppable, and in Nas' case one only need to look at how he tore apart Jay-Z in the song "Ether".)

Shane Mosley: Rakim (Mosley is the type that seems like he's all business. He doesn't brag too much and simply lets his abilities speak for themselves. He has a subtle confidence and a powerful style with lots of speed. Rakim is similar in his very stoic flow where although he constantly brags about his ability, he does it in a similarly subtle way by masking the boasts within his impressive wordplay and punchlines filled with a unique vocabulary. Like Mosley he's also one that can easily change gears from slow to fast and from calm to aggressive in a virtual heartbeat from song to song.)

Paul Malignaggi: Kanye West (Paulie seems like the type who simply doesn't give a fornicate, and in that attitude and the fact that he's always willing to speak his mind. He also seems a bit full of himself like Kanye and also like Kanye can often be under-appreciated for how good he actually is. Like Kanye he also has a lot of flash and moments of great brilliance in his technique, but doesn't necessarily represent an ATG talent.)

Jack Johnson - Jack Johnson... Duh.

..ezzard charles had a song named after and dedicated to him. ezz liked to play bass and sit in with jazz groups. one of them was was headed by george russell, and he wrote "ezz-thetic" for him. max roach probably had the best known recording of it a the time and later it was recored by charlie mingus.

Jaclem wrote:..ezzard charles had a song named after and dedicated to him. ezz liked to play bass and sit in with jazz groups. one of them was was headed by george russell, and he wrote "ezz-thetic" for him. max roach probably had the best known recording of it a the time and later it was recored by charlie mingus.

What level was Ezzard Charles in playing the bass?

Harold Johnson was a drummer and had a musician's union card.

granberry wrote:

Jaclem wrote:..ezzard charles had a song named after and dedicated to him. ezz liked to play bass and sit in with jazz groups. one of them was was headed by george russell, and he wrote "ezz-thetic" for him. max roach probably had the best known recording of it a the time and later it was recored by charlie mingus.

What level was Ezzard Charles in playing the bass?

Harold Johnson was a drummer and had a musician's union card.

Now you're talkin....

It always got me how a lot of the fighters,especially the black fighters,had an educated ear for jazz. There's a great shot of Joe Louis,Ezzard Charles,and Joe Walcott at the Royal Roost dressed to the "nines" catching a set by Charlie Parker. 52nd Street and Harlem got plenty of business from boxers who appreciated what those "Bop" musicians were saying when guys like Guy Lombardo called it "Chinese Music" Lombardo wasn't much of a fighter anyway.

Archie Moore was thinking giving up boxing to join a group with Lucky Thompson,Horace Silver,and Kenny Clarke. Arch met his last wife Joan at Small's Paradise in Harlem.

..archie moore...."old folks" - sonny stitt

Lucky Thompson traveled with Archie for years. He was one of my favorite tenor players. Sadly, thompson ended up sick and mostly homeless and died in obscurity a few years ago at the age of 81. Actually, compared to coleman hawkins and lester young, for example, who had some fame and success beyond the jazz world, thompson was a highy respected player in the jazz world but not known much beyond it. seldom headed a group under his own name but played with so many of the best of his contemporaries.

I don't intend to go into a jazz discussion on this boxing site (though dagos and i could , i suspect, fill it with threads), but because of his realtionship with archie we can slide him in. lucky's career , like to many other jazz greats, is kind of a parallel to too many boxers....an outstanding talent who never got his due beyond those who were folowers of the genre....lucky and others in jazz...charlie burley and jimmy bivins,, for examples, in boxing.

granberry....I don't know on what level ezzard played . he was good enough to sit in with some good professionals, but i don't think by any means he considered himself more than a talented amateur.

a little known bit of ezzardiana...he played cello, and i have been told he played it well, but he kept it a virtual secret....the cello didn't strike him as the kind of instrument a prize fighter should be associated with.

oops....thought of an anecdote that ray brown, the great bass player told me. ray saw joe louis standing arond at a club where ray was playing. he went up to joe and gave him a little poke in the side and louis said "Hi, ray", and gave ray what the bomber thought was an equal poke on the arm.
Ray said he knew joe didn't mean to hurt him but he said, "And damn, I couldn't play for two days!!!"

I like the way Buzz , Dagos and Jaclem portray those older fighters and there connection to Jazz.
It just seems right.Smooth ...class.
I also think of that opening scene in Fat City when hung over broken down Billy Tully is layin in that flea bag hotel and Kris Krisstoffersons song "Help Me Make it through the Night "is played.
That and some of those old country Style ballads capture guys who might have been some body at one time and are now struggling some.
Bobby Chacon that tune would work for,
Yaqui Lopez an actual Stockton fighter also.

Expug wrote:I like the way Buzz , Dagos and Jaclem portray those older fighters and there connection to Jazz.
It just seems right.Smooth ...class.
I also think of that opening scene in Fat City when hung over broken down Billy Tully is layin in that flea bag hotel and Kris Krisstoffersons song "Help Me Make it through the Night "is played.
That and some of those old country Style ballads capture guys who might have been some body at one time and are now struggling some.
Bobby Chacon that tune would work for,
Yaqui Lopez an actual Stockton fighter also.

You know buddy those songs would work for Bill Tully,but pugs like "Yaqui" and Bobby Chacon and Manuel Ortiz would listen to Mexican "Norteno" music. Mexican groups with the musicians wearing "Tejanas"(cowboy hats made of palm) and leather boots. An accordian,maybe a horn or two,an electric keyboard. Songs of losing a sweetheart or getting drunk. Combine that with carne asada tacos and some cold Coronas and let the fiesta begin. The music,the aroma of the meat cooking,and dancing with the pretty girls . Mexicans always find a reason to have a party like that. Oh what the hell,you don't have to have a reason at all!

Thanks for the replies guys.

I am a big jazz and blues fans and I find it interesting to see
how a lot of old time guys fit into that scene.

Jack Johnson,He prefereed to listen to the"Masters' then jazz(at least according to his 1927 autobiography)Although at one point he did list his occupation as orchestra leader or something.Ever see the footage of him conducting the "Tiger Rag"?

Brutu wrote:Jack Johnson,He prefereed to listen to the"Masters' then jazz(at least according to his 1927 autobiography)Although at one point he did list his occupation as orchestra leader or something.Ever see the footage of him conducting the "Tiger Rag"?

Is that the same one at the start of Kings Of The Ring - The version where they profile Johnson, Dempsey, Louis & Ali?

yeah,where he does some good foot work while conducting the band.
I think that was filmed around 1929.

I dont even think 50 cent was in the music buisness when Tyson was champ.
I always think of the LL Cool J song"Mama said Knock you out"
Or Fresh Prince's"Nobody can beat Mike Tyson".

Dont forget Larry Holmes theme song" during the late 1970's early 1980's.
........."Aint No Stopping Us Now".

Sonny Liston recorded a single record/demo in Las Vegas not too long before he died in 1970/1971.
Once thought lost ,someone found a copy wedged in an album they bought at a garage sell a few years ago.
I cant remember the tilte but it was produced by a well known soul singer.

Is that the song that Holmes came in with against Cooney
?

Robinson wrote:Is that the song that Holmes came in with against Cooney
?

The very same.

Dont you love the early 1980s