songs about traditional Wrestlers

Subject: Wrestlers
From: trevek
Date: 14 Jun 08 - 01:45 PM

Recently someone sent me an old article about Devonshire wrestlers. It had a fragment of an old poem or song. Does anyone know of any othr songs about traditional wrestling (NOT Smackdown!)?

Subject: RE: songs about traditional Wrestlers
From: Sue Allan
Date: 14 Jun 08 - 02:10 PM

There's a broadside in a collection in Carlisle called 'A New Song on the Cumberland and Westmorland Wrestlers'. It starts:

Come all you Cumbrians and listen to my song,
Likewise you men of Westmorland, I'll not detain you long.
It's about Carlisle Wrestling, the truth I will unfold
Took place on the Race Course for a handsome purse of gold.
Chorus:
So we'll drink success to _________, and cheer him three times three,
And not forgetting _______ ________, long happy may they be.

Seven verses in all, and it's on a sheet with a song about Carlisle Races. No printer or publisher's name is marked.

Sue

Subject: RE: songs about traditional Wrestlers
From: Jack Campin
Date: 14 Jun 08 - 02:24 PM

In Turkey, oil wrestling is traditionally accompanied by davul/zurna music. The davul is a bass drum played with one heavy and one light stick, generating very complicated rhythmic patterns, and the zurna is a shawm played by circular breathing. It's a challenge for the zurna player because the matches can go on for a very long time - they run as a knockout tournament, starting with dozens or even hundreds of wrestlers competing at once and with half the number in each succeeding round.

I would guess there will be examples on YouTube - there is lots of davul-zurna music. Oil wrestling is "yagli guresleri".

There are probably Turkish folk ballads about it but I can't think of any.

Subject: RE: songs about traditional Wrestlers
From: Sorcha
Date: 14 Jun 08 - 02:45 PM

Interesting info (and a sound file I think) about a sumo song in Japan. Click here

Subject: RE: songs about traditional Wrestlers
From: The Sandman
Date: 14 Jun 08 - 02:55 PM

there is a song about Dan OMahony,BALLYDEHOBS, most famous son world champion in the 1930s.PM ME,if youare interested.

Subject: RE: songs about traditional Wrestlers
From: Malcolm Douglas
Date: 14 Jun 08 - 08:06 PM

A little closer to home, see thread The wrestling match for a song from the Baring-Gould collection about a Cornish wrestling incident.

There are a few broadsides dealing with wrestling at  Bodleian Library Broadside Ballads:

wrestling broadsides

See also these past discussions, which in places touch on the question:

Folklore: English wrestling

folk music and professional wrestlers

Subject: RE: songs about traditional Wrestlers
From: reggie miles
Date: 14 Jun 08 - 09:14 PM

In downtown Everett, WA there now resides a new multi-purpose stadium where all sorts of functions take place, but not many recall that at one time there used to be an old arena in uptown Everett where all of the events of the day used to happen. I used to be a regular during the women's wrestling events that took place there. There emerged, from among all of the various contestants that would compete there, one woman who became well known for her prowess on the mats. She became such a favorite that they awarded her the title of Queen wrestler and since her name was Leana, they started calling her Leana The Queen O' The Uptown Arena.

Leana the queen o' the uptown arena's
The girl that I adore
She spends her nights, wearin' lavender tights
Being bounced around the floor

How I suffer, how I suffer
When Brunhilda the Brute starts to rough her
She goes Ah! Ahh! Ah! Ahhh!
Ouch! She's pulling my hair!

I love her half nelson, there's nobdy else
In the world who's so divine
And Leana, the queen o' the uptown arena
Will soon be mine.

Leana, the queen o' the uptown arena
She gives me such a fright
I have to pay to see my fiancé
Being strangled every night

She can handle gorgeous Gertie
But when Gert uses holds that are dirty
She goes Ah! Ahh! Ahhh! Ahhhh!
Ouch! She bending my knee

Her clothes will be tattered
Her teeth will be scattered
But how the sun will shine
When Leana, the queen o'
The uptown arena
Is mine all mine.


;o)

Subject: RE: songs about traditional Wrestlers
From: trevek
Date: 15 Jun 08 - 01:32 PM

Wonderful stuff. Thank you everyone.

Jack, I've seen Yagli Guresh in Macedonia and actually have cam-film and a cassette of the music.

Subject: RE: songs about traditional Wrestlers
From: trevek
Date: 15 Jun 08 - 03:11 PM

Sorry, had to pop out for a second.

Yes: re: Turkish wrestling, I have a text somewhere from an old ethnographic account of Turkish wrestlers in Bulgaria. It is a song of dedication sung to young wrestlers by an old wrestler. Interesting stuff... I'll try to dig it out.

Used to do a bit of Backhold wrestling when I lived in Scotland (like C/W wrestling) and met some Breton Gouren wrestlers as well as Icelandic/Swedish Glima wrestlers.