Sporting hero songs?

Subject: RE: Sporting hero songs?
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 25 Aug 01 - 09:04 AM

That's the one. (There may be others, but that was the one lurking in my subconscious.)

Subject: Lyr Add: TURPIN-SUGAR RAY
From: GUEST,Roger the skiffler
Date: 28 Aug 01 - 03:36 AM

For once the memory was right> It was Randolph Turpin and it was the Critics>. Fortunately, the LP has the words which I transcribe here> Sorry I don't do dots, chords or MP3!

TURPIN-SUGAR RAY
(Fight of 1951 inspired Soho gambler "The Professor" to write this. Music by Ewan MacColl recorded by The Critics on "Sweet Thames Flow Softly" Argo ZDA47)

1.Come all you sporting citizens
Who like an honest fight
You gamblers who know the silver ring
All you who fancy leather
2.They said that Turpin was too young
To fight with Sugar Ray
And the champion he would cut young Turpin down
But you should have seen our Randy
Chewing up that Sugar Candy
On the night he won the right to wear the crown

3.There was eighteen thousand people
In the stadium that night
When Sugar Ray came prancing down the aisle
With his midget and his barber
And bags of old palaver
And Randy in his cornet he just smiled

4.The bell went for the first round
And the boys came out slow
As cagey as two lions in the zoo
And the punters they were sweating
On cleaning up the betting
With the odds on Sugar Ray at 5 to 2

5.Young Turpin came out fighting
When they belled the second round
And Sugar led a straight left to the chin
But that punch just sliced the air
For young Randy wasn't there
And those fighting boys just up and waded in

6.For six long rounds they mixed it
While Turpin set the pace
And Sugar Ray was showing all he knew
But Turpin's hooks and hammer punches
Upset all the punters hunches
And the betting now was down to 3 to 2

7.They mixed it in the seventh round
Exchanging blow for blow
And excitement in the crowd was rising high
Then the Yankee* boy back peddled
At the British boy's advance
The crimson it was flowing from his eye

8.They said that Turpin wouldn't last
Beyond the seventh round
But he went in there and showed 'em they was wrong
Eight more rounds he was attacking
And he gave and took a bashing
And all the time the punches coming strong

9.For seventy long minutes
Those heroes fought it out
A better fight no man did ever see
And the champion, Sugar Ray,
Fought young Turpin all the way
But the British boy he gained the victory

10.So join with me you sporting boys
And punters one and all
And join with me and sing young Turpin's fame
For he beat the Yankee down
And he won the champion's crown
We never shall forget young Turpin's name.

*"Yankee" used in the British sense, of course, as any US citizen
RtS (I'm sure I remember my Dad listening to this fight - Eamonn Andrews and W.Barrington Dalby commentating, I expect- on the wireless)

Subject: RE: Sporting hero songs?
From: MartinRyan
Date: 04 Jun 09 - 06:40 AM

Somewhat belatedly (I arrived at this thread by accident):

McGrath of Harlow mentioned

There's a song lamenting/celebrating the great days of hurling that I heard, centring round some great hurler that had just died, and I just can't remember a word of it. I'm hoping someone come up with that one.

That's probably Cuchullain's Sons about the Rackard brothers. We may have had it elsewhere - if not, I'll try to dig up a set. Fine song.

Regards

Subject: RE: Sporting hero songs?
From: The Sandman
Date: 04 Jun 09 - 06:55 AM

and a there is a song about Dan O Mahony,world champion wrestler from Ballydehob.

Subject: RE: Sporting hero songs?
From: breezy
Date: 04 Jun 09 - 07:06 AM

Has Joe Peel been mentioned, a quintessential song.

I wish Harveys was more specific but its still a good one from our Midi Bard

i didnt notice as i scanned

wasnt Joseph baker written by Pete Coe , who appears at The Pumphouse tomorrow in watford and possibly 'Floors' tonight at Redbourn

Subject: RE: Sporting hero songs?
From: oldhippie
Date: 04 Jun 09 - 07:19 AM

"The Ballad of Dale Earnhardt" by C W McCall

Subject: ADD: Cuchulainn’s Son (Tom Williams)
From: MartinRyan
Date: 04 Jun 09 - 07:28 AM

Here's the words for Cuchulainn's Son :

CUCHULAINN'S SON
(Tom Williams)

The challenge of an ancient game
Brought glory, glory to your name
Though March winds blew the crowds still came
To watch you gentle hero.
In life's long march you made us proud
And many a voice from out the crowd
Called out your name aloud, aloud
An echo still resounding.

CHORUS
And Blackstairs men who saw you then
Still speak of you in awe,
On Carman's green where you had been
They tell of what they saw,
We watched you on September fields
And lightning was the drive
You were the one Cuchulainn's son in 1955.

The hand that held the stick of ash,
And the man who led with style and dash,
Oh! Carrigtwohill once felt the crash
And Bennettsbridge and Thurles.
And when in later life, you met
The devil on that lonely street
You showed us how to take defeat
With dignity and courage.

CHORUS

The last parade was sad and slow
The last oration spoken low
And as, on green fields long ago
The Diamond stood beside you
Old friends they flanked you side by side
And the tears they shed were tears of pride
An ash tree toppled when you died
And scattered seeds at random.

CHORUS

In the cold light of day, it reads as almost banal and over-sentimental - and is sometimes sung that way! But to hear one of the Berry brothers of Wexford sing it to (and with) a crowd of hurling enthusiasts is quite something.

I know there was a final verse added when the last of the three Rackard brothers died, recently - but don't have it to hand.

Regards

---

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zInKWfztHbQ
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicky_Rackard

Subject: RE: Sporting hero songs?
From: Nigel Parsons
Date: 04 Jun 09 - 09:34 AM

Frank Hennessy does "Dyn Arbennig, Dyn Mawr Iawn" (A special man, A Great man) a tribute to Ray Gravell, Wales & Scarlets rugby icon

Subject: RE: Sporting hero songs?
From: Tattie Bogle
Date: 04 Jun 09 - 11:42 AM

There's another John Thomson song recorded by (and I think written by) John Watt from Fife, and on his CD "Heroes".
The last line of the chorus is:
John Thomson cam frae Bowhill, Bowhill, Cardenden.

Subject: RE: Sporting hero songs?
From: breezy
Date: 04 Jun 09 - 12:18 PM

Has 'The Flowers of Manchester' been mentioned ?

Subject: RE: Sporting hero songs?
From: GUEST,TJ in San Diego
Date: 04 Jun 09 - 12:39 PM

One would think, what with all the purple prose used by sportswriters of the 1920's and 1930's in the U.S. such as Grantland Rice and Ring Lardner, et al, that there must have been songs sung in celebration of Red Grange, The Four Horsemen, Bobby Jones, Babe Zaharias and the rest. I have had no luck finding them as yet. Our companions in song from across the broad waters can't possibly have a monopoly on this...or can they?

Subject: RE: Sporting hero songs?
From: Nigel Parsons
Date: 04 Jun 09 - 12:52 PM

Breezy:
yes, Suzanne (skw) linked to it back in 2001 on this thread!

Subject: RE: Sporting hero songs?
From: GREEN WELLIES
Date: 05 Jun 09 - 07:58 AM

Christy Moore - Ballad of Ruby Walsh, or has this already been mentioned.

Subject: RE: Sporting hero songs?
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 05 Jun 09 - 08:38 PM

Thanks, Martin - yes, that was the song I had in mind. Heard it sung in a bar in Clonmel at the end of a Fleadh Ceoil, and it made the hairs stand up on my neck.

I hads a look just now, and found a youtube rendering - George Lawlor and "a crowd of hurling enthusiasts" in Wexford

Subject: RE: Sporting hero songs?
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 06 Jun 09 - 08:01 PM

Here's one about the Cork hurling legend Christy Ring (with a nod to the Rackard brothers):

A Song For Christy Ring
by Brian McNamara.
(air of Old Skibbereen)

Come gather round me boys tonight and raise your glasses high,
Come Rockies, Barrs and Rovers stars, let welcome hit the sky,
Let bonfires blaze in heroes praise, let Shannon echoes fling,
For homeward bound with hurling crown comes gallant Christy Ring.

So all you hurlers from the Nore, you lads from Corrib's side,
From Garryowen gay and bold with Tipp's own men beside,
You may have hurlers straight and tall who can a caman swing
But whose the name can play the game with Cork's own Christy Ring.

When we were young we read in school in the days of old,
The young Setanta showed his worth with shield and spear of gold,
As hurling hard on royal sward he'd hurling heroes fling,
My soul today, he'd yield the sway if he met Christy Ring.

A health to faithful Wexford boys, to the Rackards and their team,
Should Cork surrender Ireland's crown may victory on them gleam,
John Kelly's name we hold in fame - of '98 we sing,
But Slaney's plan must find a man to equal Christy Ring.

How oft I've watched him from the Hill move here and there in grace,
In Cork, Killarney, Thurles town or by the Shannon's race,
"Now Cork is bet; the hay is saved!" the thousands wildly sing-
They speak too soon, my sweet garsun, for here comes Christy Ring.

When age has gained this warior brave, when ended is the fight,
And o'er the hearth he hangs at last his stick and trophies bright,
Come counties all both great and small who boast a hurling King,
Can one tonight hold candlelight to Cork's own Christy Ring?.

Subject: RE: Sporting hero songs?
From: Vic Smith
Date: 07 Jun 09 - 02:06 PM

From somewhere in the hidden depths of my mind comes the image of a rather dumpy, squat Canadian singer/songwriter called Vera Johnson who we used to book at our club in Lewes in the 1960s. She was a most unlikely looking performer but had a good number of fine committed songs and a pleasing voice. One she wrote the Vietnam draft refusal of Mohammed Ali (Cassius Clay). As I remember it, the chorus went -

They cheered you in the ring, Mohammed Ali,
Revered you llike a king, Mohammed Ali,
But you wouldn't go to war,
They don't like you any more,
Where's the crown that you once wore, Mohammed Ali?

I'm sure that I have the words written out in one of my many old song books if anyone is really that interested.

Subject: RE: Sporting hero songs?
From: GUEST
Date: 02 Jul 09 - 07:47 PM

I would love to see the words. I once heard it on the radio in the 1960's and it made such an impression that I have never forgotten it. I did a Google search using the words of the chorus and yours was the only reference to the song that it produced.

Subject: RE: Sporting hero songs?
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 05 Sep 09 - 06:50 AM

Here's a YouTube of "The Ballad of Muhammed Ali", a new song in this "sporting hero" tradition, written by Dermot Kelly of Ennis. It was written to mark the visit paid this week by Ali to the town, from where his great-grandfather came back in the 19th century.

I put up a thread about the visit, in which the song came in, but I thought it'd be handy to have it in here as well.

Come gather around me a story I'll tell
About a great boxer, a hero as well
Has come from the US his people to find
Who left dear old Ireland so warm and so kind.
Muhammed, Muhammed, Muhammed Ali
Come float like a butterfly, sting like a bee,
From Grady's, The Turnpike, your ancestors came,
Brought glory to Ennis, to Ireland great fame.

Your style was so graceful, your hands were so swift.
Your smile so beguiling, your mind full of wit,
Your flashing foot movements, your body so big,
Somewhere in there was a real Irish jig.
Muhammed, Muhammed, Muhammed Ali
Come float like a butterfly, sting like a bee,
From Grady's, The Turnpike, your ancestors came,
Brought glory to Ennis, to Ireland great fame.

You were for peace, not a man for the war,
Refused to enlist, Ali you were a star,
You shone like a beacon to guide the ship home
To County Clare, Ireland, to be with your own.
Muhammed, Muhammed, Muhammed Ali
Come float like a butterffly, sting like a bee,
From Grady's, The Turnpike, your ancestors came,
Brought glory to Ennis, to Ireland great fame.

Boxers may come, boxers may go,
Some with great skill, some melt with the snow,
But you were the greatest, an oak standing tall,
The best, still the best, still the best of them all.
Muhammed, Muhammed, Muhammed Ali
Come float like a butterfly, sting like a bee,
From Grady's, The Turnpike, your ancestors came,
Brought glory to Ennis, to Ireland great fame.

Subject: RE: Sporting hero songs?
From: Jack Campin
Date: 05 Sep 09 - 07:16 AM

Weren't there any broadside songs about Daniel Mendoza?

Subject: RE: Sporting hero songs?
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 05 Sep 09 - 09:28 AM

I used to watch Tommy Lawton play — have never seen a striker [or centre-forward as the proper English term has it] who could score with such nonchalant elegance. Brilliant song above by Harvey Andrews.

About the second or third post of this thread mentions the song about Joseph Baker, the runner 'who lived in Delamere': nobody seems to have pointed out it was one of the firmly Cheshire-based songs of Peter Coe of that county:- "And sportsmen came from far and near To challenge Baker's speed; From every place, in every race, They strove to do that deed. For a butcher came from Nantwich, And a baker came from Sale, And a sailor came from Birkenhead, And a grocer came from Hale" [all towns in Cheshire - from memory: if I've misremembered the detail - sorry Pete].