Nov 172008
Simple topic: Of all the songs about athletes, which is the best?
Early vote is pictured above: “Boom Boom Mancini” by Warren Zevon.
Simple topic: Of all the songs about athletes, which is the best?
Early vote is pictured above: “Boom Boom Mancini” by Warren Zevon.
I like “Hurricane” by Bob Dylan. At least that’s the first one I like that comes to mind.
“Jack Johnson” by This Bike Is a Pipe Bomb.
Miles Davis’ Tribute to Jack Johnson is pretty awesome, even if it’s an album and there’s no track on it called Jack Johnson.
Catfish by Bob Dylan.
“Joe DiMaggio Done It Again” by Billy Bragg and Wilco (lyrics by Woody Guthrie)
Not my favorite, but that Belle & Sebastian song about Mike Piazza as a gay icon, or whatever that song’s about, is a good one.
Really they had a song like that? Is that why he had that press conference in which he said he wasn’t gay?
I think the song came out after the press conference – or am I getting everything mixed up? Let me do like HVB and cut in the full lyrics. As usual, I have little idea what the song’s really about, even after looking at the lyrics.
Piazza, New York Catcher
Elope with me Miss Private and we’ll sail around the world
I will be your Ferdinand and you my wayward girl
How many nights of talking in hotel rooms can you take?
How many nights of limping round on pagan holidays?
Oh elope with me in private and we’ll set something ablaze
A trail for the devil to erase
San Francisco’s calling us, the Giants and Mets will play
Piazza, New York catcher, are you straight or are you gay?
We hung about the stadium, we’ve got no place to stay
We hung about the tenderloin and tenderly you tell
About the saddest ending of a book you ever had to read
The statue’s crying too and well he may
I love you I’ve a drowning grip on your adoring face
I love you my responsibility has found a place
Beside you and strong warnings in the guise of gentle words
Come wave upon me from the wider family net absurd
“You’ll take care of her, I know it, you will do a better job”
Maybe, but not what she deserves
Elope with me Miss Private and we’ll drink ourselves awake
We’ll taste the coffee houses and award certificates
A privy seal to keep the feel of 1960 style
We’ll comment on the decor and we’ll help the passer by
And at dusk when work is over we’ll continue the debate
In a borrowed bedroom virginal and spare
The catcher hits for .318 and catches every day
The pitcher puts religion first and rests on holidays
He goes into cathedrals and lies prostrate on the floor
He knows the drink affects his speed he’s praying for
a doorway
Back into the life he wants and the confession of the bench
Life outside the diamond is a wrench
I wish that you were here with me to pass the dull weekend
I know it wouldn’t come to love, my heroine pretend
A lady stepping from the songs we love until this day
You’d settle for an epitaph like “Walk Away, Renee”
The sun upon the roof in winter will draw you out like
a flower
Meet you at the statue in an hour
Meet you at the statue in an hour
I have only ever heard 30-45 seconds of Belle and Sebastian. A friend tried to “get me into them”. I told him if they sound as pussy as their name, I am shutting the stereo off. So that’s why I have only ever heard 30-45 seconds of Belle and Sebastian…
Ted F’n Williams by The Baseball Project
Belle & Sebastian’s Stars of Track and Field isn’t about a famous athlete, but it’s a terrific song, better than the Piazza one.
I agree, BigSteve, but it’s not about a famous athlete. Is it about AN athlete? I can never quite make out the lyrics on that song as well. If so, I’m backing that one over the one I suggested.
Second Mockcarr.
BUMMER! I wanted dibs on BOOM-BOOM!
Being from Chicago I can never remember if rodeo is a sport or not. Like NASCAR.
If it is I vote for ‘Rodeo Song’. Full of gritty cinematic realism and a swell breakdown too…
If rodeo and NASCAR count as sports (why not?), then chess counts, in which case I’ll say that Yes song with the chess imagery – is it the beginning of “I’ve Seen All Good People” I’m talking about?
“The Crusher”
Michael Jackson’s song about tennis player Billie Jean King.
dock ellis by sf seals. mp3:
hiptran.typepad.com/blog/2007/12/story-of-the-da.html
Captain Lou Albano by NRBQ
My friend Barrence Whitfield did a song about Jack Johnson on a album he did w/Tom Russell.
Jonathan Richman did a song about the famous Washington Senators pitcher Walter Johnson on one of his mid-80s albums.
Also, if Mr. Mod accepts chess as a sport, how about “One Night in Bangkok” by Murray Head?
While I won’t suggest that they are the “best” songs in this catagory, my band has two songs about wrestling: “King Day”, which is about Sputnik Monroe, and “The Wrestler”.
The Village People had a song about Randy “Macho Man” Savage who was a minor league catcher. It’s the suckiest song about an athlete.
“Captain Lou” by NRBQ
Speaking of “The Wrestler,” although he’s anonymous, does any song beat “The Boxer?”
Randy “Macho Man” Savage was a pro wrestler, not a baseball player.
He was a catcher before he was a wrestler.
I can’t believe there aren’t more songs about athletes. There’s that Wedding Present album named after soccer star George Best, but there was no song about him on the album.
And most of the suggestions here are from boxing and wrestling, which aren’t even really sports. Rodney Crowell has a song Oh King Richard about Richard Petty, but NASCAR isn’t a sport either.
There are tons, just not many are well known or good! Here’s a couple:
“I think I can beat Mike Tyson” by DJ Jazzy Jeff and The Fresh Prince
“Sweet Lew” by Pearl Jam about Kareem Abdul Jabbar
You guys are missing some pretty big ones though….keep going
In the “worst song about an athlete,” I offer:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lAd2odz3KRc
… George Harrison’s tribute to Jackie Stewart, who raced in the very *real* sport of Formula One.
HVB
Well, the one Lennon wrote for Ringo called “I’m The Greatest” could be about Ali…
Then there’s the Curtis Mayfield song about Jimmy “Superfly” Snuka.
It may have nothing to do with long distance running so far as I can tell but “Marathon Man” by Cotton Mather is a great song.
Is horse racing a sport? If it is, the horse is the athlete, so I’m nominating Richard Thompson’s The Angels Have Taken My Racehorse Away.
“Philadelphia Freedom” is a tribute to Billie Jean King, who was coaching the Philadelphia franchise by that name in the Women’s World Team Tennis League.
Mr. Mod, I think that part of the Yes song is called Your Move.
Clevelanders are real homers, and we pretty much don’t care about any other teams. Check out the Plain Dealer sports page sometime. So the only song I can think of is “Bernie, Bernie” about Bernie Kosar. It’s stupid as hell, but I sang it in the Muni Lot with my friends plenty of times!
Hank Greenberg and Jackie Robinson by The Tinklers.
And then there’s this little gem about Rodney Cline Carew:
http://music.metafilter.com/1427/Rod-Carew
Cool song and cool site, bruinskip! Is that you singing? I know Carew played for the Angels for years, but to me he’s always in a Twins uniform.
nah, it’s not me. i’m with you on carew & the twins, though angels does work better in the context of the song.
http://www.buysportscollectibles.com/products/Rod%20Carew.jpg
If the USA had an oral tradition like Ghana, Row Carew would have like six hundred songs about him. That guy was a beast – I HATED seeing him come to bat with a runner in scoring position.
My first song about Rod Carew is going to be:
HE STOLE HOME SEVEN TIMES IN ONE SEASON