“This heaven gives me migraine”
The beauty of music and sport
Jack White has appeared on the Conan O’Brien talk show and podcast several times over the years and has talked about the ubiquity of his “Seven nation army” song, a melody which has become implanted in sports culture across the globe. There is a funny video of Conan and Jack attending a Dodgers game, when the Seven Nation army song is played through the loudspeaker and Conan taunting him in jest after humming the melody and adding his own words. Ironically, the record label didn’t want to release that song as a single from the White Stripes ‘Elephant’ album in 2003, they were looking to go instead with the track “There’s No Room For You Here”.
The song was embraced initially by supporters of Belgian football side Club Brugge KV as a chant of the melody Oh ..O o o oh …ooh. It then traveled further having been taken on by Roma fans, then to Italy fans when they won a world cup. It has been used in several European football championships including 2012, 2016 and the World cup in Russia in 2018 before being adopted back in the US by NBA, college and football fans.
“It’s not mine anymore; it becomes folk music when things like that happen.” — Jack White
Watching this year’s European Championship semi final match between France and Spain, again Oh ..O o o oh …ooh could be heard being echoed from the stadium.
But I always loved when these worlds of music and sport collide or have a crossover cultural moment, just look at Journey’s Steve Perry’s excitement at a recent San Francisco Giants game when his song Don’t stop Believin’ is being played.
Growing up, sport and music were all around me in my house and especially football. It was a simple time, at 7 years old I just wanted to play football for Liverpool or be a cowboy being heavily influenced no doubt by Kevin Keegan, Kenny Dalglish and Glenn Campbell’s ‘Rhinestone Cowboy’. Match of the day would dominate the weeks TV and household conversations, much to the annoyance and heavy protestation from my sister, who regularly complained about her brothers’ and father’s obsession with the beautiful game and sport in general being constantly on the TV. But things would get to fever pitch altogether, when the European competitions or World cups would come around, a month of football I mean what a treat.
The first tournament I can remember is the 1978 competition in Argentina which although a bit hazy, some images are ingrained in my memory such as the long haired Mario Kempes celebrating, arms aloft after scoring for Argentina with all that ticker tape around him.
Reggae star Bob Marley was a huge football fan, and loved South American football, especially Argentina and Ossie Ardilles. During that 1978 World cup, he was living in London and would insist on scheduling any interview or studio work around the televised games. In the Marley book ‘Songs of freedom’, there is even a chapter dedicated to his relationship to football and mentions a documentary that was made called ‘Rasta and the ball’, exploring that.
For me, when I look back at the photos of a relaxed, care free Marley wearing classic retro Adidas tracksuits and boots, playing football there is just something wonderfully nostalgic about it.
During the 70s, Thin Lizzy, were another one of the bands introduced to me by my older brothers through their albums including Bad Reputation, Jailbreak and Fighting which had the track “For Those Who Love to Live”
Phil Lynott was another football fan who happened to be a Manchester United supporter, he used to dedicate the “For Those Who Love to Live” song to George Best when Lizzy were playing live.
Sport and music have been constants in my life since those early days, they have always been inextricably linked in my mind. Both have the power to evoke huge emotion, transcend language barriers, cross boundaries and conjure up a moment from memory, that can fill us with joy or indeed melancholy depending on the event, but let’s not mention any more of the 1977 Cup football Final when Liverpool lost 2–1. Football and Music, probably in that order is also what the city of Liverpool means to me.
Back then being much younger, it was the mythical birthplace of the Beatles and home of Anfield, both subjects that often came up in conversation. I finally got to make my first visit to the city and to Anfield back in 1993 and I have had enjoyed going back at each opportunity ever since. (They lost that day too, to Newcastle)
With every trip, I found myself feeling a little bit more at home in a city that I have always been made me to feel welcome in. (Apart from one rain-soaked mid-week night when I couldn’t get a ticket for Liverpool FC v Benfica Champions league game and they lost the same night, but that’s for another story). On more recent visits, I couldn’t help noticing an even more palpable sense of pride dwelling in the city. It continues to evolve and regenerate itself while keeping its sense of history.
That history is entrenched in its heart and can be appreciated when strolling through the streets of Liverpool on facades such as the St Georges Hall, the Town Hall, Liverpool cathedral, the Liver Building which have stood tall through many years. But also, it’s musical history with all the iconic reminders of the Beatles on display. The rejuvenation of Albert Dock and the Liverpool ONE retail district also has to be admired where more shops, restaurants have been added to the city’s mix of galleries, museums. In its shipping and trade heyday it was one of the centers of the world, but I guess to me even though a visitor it will always remain the center of my universe.
But it’s not just football that has a special bond with music, many other sports have similar figures and folklore.
Hip hop and Hoops 🏀
Basketball over the years, especially the NBA has become synonymous with rap and hip hop music. In 1992 Ice Cube released his single “Good day”, where he raps about his love of basketball:
Get me on the court and I’m trouble
Last week, messed around and got a triple-double
Freakin’ brothers every way like MJ
I can’t believe today was a good day
But in 2017, he would take his fandom even further when he founded the 3-on-3 basketball league calling it the Big3. Earlier this year ahead of the WNBA 2024 Draft, he even invited the amazing Caitlin Clark to join and reportedly offered Clark $5 million for eight games. Clark has gone on to join the Indiana Fever WNBA franchise and is blazing a trail, breaking rookie records on her way.
Sports without music, it’s nothing but a game. Music adds the emotion. — Ice Cube
In former NFL wide receiver Julian Edelman’s recent podcast episode, in an interview with Baron Davis, among a range of subjects Davis speaks about other NBA players he admired including ‘Nick the Quick’ and his Bop,
“it’s like you know like.. the way, Nick Van Evel move was the way Jay-Z was like skipping over beats”
And Jay-Z loves to reference basketball in his his lyrics, from Nickles and Dimes:
“Watch me cook, throw no looks / Like Magic in his prime when Kareem skyhooked, yeah / Y’all not worthy.”
Eddie Vedder is a well known as a Chicago sports fan and a serious memorabilia collector, he can be seen performing onstage in his Walter Payton throwback Bears 34 jersey. But his band mate Jeff Ament penned a song “Sweet Lew” about a disappointing encounter he had with one of basketballs all time greats, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.
The following is an extract from I Wear the Black Hat by Chuck Klosterman
There’s a B-side from the rock band Pearl Jam titled “Sweet Lew,” written by guitarist Jeff Ament (the “Lew” in its title refers to Jabbar’s Christian name). If you listen to the song casually, you wouldn’t immediately perceive it as a criticism of Abdul-Jabbar, as the lyrics are mostly complimentary and kind of juvenile [“Wilt the Stilt had nothing on you / Lambchops and Afro-do, Milwaukee Bucks and a barbecue“]. But Ament’s interior motive for writing the song was based on a negative encounter he had with Abdul-Jabbar upon meeting him at a charity event. Ament (a lifelong hoop fan and a decent player as a high school student in Montana) was deeply hurt by Abdul-Jabbar’s abject lack of interest toward his personal fandom. He didn’t even pretend to care.
You can take ’em all to school
You can fly, wilt the stilt had nothing on you
Lambchops and afro-do, Milwaukee Bucks and a barbecue
Number 33 just like you
While LA based Red Hot Chilli Peppers have expressed their love for Lakers star Magic Johnson
Penetrating the lane like a bullet train
Comes Magic blood, a telepathic brain
Knucklehead suckers better duck when the buck comes through
Like a truck
Scott stops, pops, and drops it in
On his way back, gets a little skin
From the hand of a man named AC Green
Slam so hard, break your TV screen
The wonderful Band Of Horses crafted a song about the German basketball star Detlef Schrempf, who played for the Seattle Supersonics. Nicknamed “The Grand Teuton”, he shot over 50% from downtown in the 1995 season for the Sonics, playing alongside Gary Payton and Shawn Kemp.
“I was dealing with some Seattle issues when I wrote that song so I aptly gave it a Seattle kind of title. I love the dude’s name. I love his style or whatever. It’s more of just an homage to the way he spells his name, more than it is about himself as a person.”- Ben Bridwell , Band of Horses
It is such a shame that franchise was lost to OKC, the Sonics throwback jerseys are so iconic at this point. I hope the city is awarded a new franchise in the future, just imagine the possibility of Kevin Durant returning to finish out his career there!
Baseball ⚾
One of my favourite indie bands, New York’s Indie act Yo La Tengo have a passion for baseball. They’re another band that I have been to see live and am working my way to collecting their studio discography.
In Jesse Jarnow’s Yo La Tengo biography called Big Day Coming he explains the origin of their name coming from the Mets baseball loving fan band member, Ira Kaplin. He mentions in an effort to try help minimize collisions between fielders of different nationalities, Richie Ashburn and Elio Chacón, Ashburn was encouraged to use the phrase “Yo la Tengo” rather than “I’ve got it” when a fly-ball was coming their way.
Also a fan of the NY Mets, Belle and Sebastian front man Stuart Murdoch wrote the song “Piazza, New York Catcher”, on Mike Piazza.
“My friend Nate was the first person to take me to Shea Stadium — it was in the late Nineties, and that’s when I first got involved with the Mets, I was almost instantly drawn to Piazza. That’s the thing about him; he was a talisman wherever he went. He was the kind of player people tended to follow, and we thought he was a good guy.” — Rolling Stone 2016
It is only in more recent years that I have really started watching and taking a deeper interest in baseball, immersing myself with the game with the arrival of the magical and generational talented dual star, Shohei Ohtani at the Angels. (Ohtani has since gone on to sign the biggest contract in sports history, agreeing terms with the Los Angeles Dodgers for a reported $700 million over 10 years.)
Ohtani is one of the best things to happen in all of sports and it has been just fascinating to watch this spectacular player continue on his career trajectory. The difficulty of being a dual star in the modern era cannot be underestimated. I signed up for a MLB trial because of him and no matter who he plays for, I just get great enjoyment from watching Shohei pitch or hit a home run and hear that “Cracckkk” of his bat.
But even before watching Shohei, as a general sports fan I was still aware of some of the greats of the game from popular sports culture with many song references from the likes of Simon and Garfunkels “Mrs Robinson”
“Where have you gone, Joe DiMaggio? Our nation turns its lonely eyes to you. Woo-woo-woo.”
Also, Creedence Clearwater Revival’s John Fogerty wrote “Centerfield”, about one of the most famous and remarkable catches, by the legendary Willie Mays who passed away in June this year at the age of 93.
So say hey, Willie, tell the Cobb
And Joe DiMaggio
Don’t say it ain’t so, you know the time is now
the centerfielder was always the best fielder on the team. He was the power hitter and fast and could handle everything. If you think about all the center fielders who’ve played the game, they’ve normally been the best players, too. DiMaggio, Mickey Mantle, Willie Mays — John Fogerty
Incidentally there is an essay by Roger Daniels well worth reading on the legendary number 24 and some science on that amazing catch by Mays. I enjoyed watching the Say Hey, Willie Mays! documentary and learning more about him, there is also a superb Chuck D tribute song to Willie Mays where Nabaté Isles plays trumpet wonderfully on.
Cycling 🚵
In the Tour de France, riders burn through 6,000 calories in a day in this grueling event. Kraftwerk created their track as a single after the race, Ralf Hütter and Fritz Hilpert both being cycling enthusiasts, well more cycling fanatics in reality. It features mechanical sounds associated with cycling. As described in ‘Publikation’, David Buckely’s biography of the band, he mentions
“the song itself was a celebration of the joys of that most famous of professional cycling competitions, the wonder of the terrain and the consolations of male bonding. Hütter’s vocal would then give way to the gasps for oxygen of a cyclist on a long climb, rhythmically incorporated into the electronic beat of the song”
Hockey 🏒
Hockey players probably don’t get enough credit for their technical skills, as they traverse the ice with such ferocity and elegance at the same time. The Tragically Hip did help to immortalize one player in their song “Fifty Mission Cap”. William “Bashin’ Bill” Barilko played for the Toronto Maple Leafs, and he scored the over time goal for the Leafs to win the Stanley Cup in 1951. (He also helped them win four Stanley Cups.) A few months later Barilko who was only 24 at the time, went missing mysteriously after his plane journey went awry and the wreckage from the accident wasn’t discovered until 1962.
Wayne Gretzky known as the “Great one” is often referenced as the one of the all time greats, across all sports.
While he doesn’t have a song dedicated to him just yet, this years Stanley Cup finals brought wider attention to the potential successor to Gretzky in Conor McDavid, who is a joy to watch him as he maneuvers the ice. Gretsky still has a set of a gazillion records but McDavid has equaled some of them already. My major reason for being enticed to watching this years playoffs was to witness McDavid, and a fact that I found difficult to absorb in that the last time a Canadian team were in the finals was with the Great one 31 years previously.
Football ⚽️
When spending some time looking into other songs with sporting references for footballers, I came across “God’s Footballer” by Billy Bragg, based about Peter Knowles who played for Wolverhampton scoring 64 goals in 191 games before deciding to give up football and follow his faith to become a Jehovah’s Witness. His brother Cyril, played for Spurs. There’s a lovely piece from his team mate Frank Munro, describing how “After the game he just left the ground and didn’t come back. There were no big goodbyes.”
Sadly, another true entertainer and footballer Stan Bowles passed away earlier this year. The story of when he decided to wear two different football boots in the same match, as he had signed 2 different boot deals still makes me smile each time I hear reference to it.
“He was a true maverick — very charismatic with an abundance of skill and talent…who then went and p***** most of it up the wall,” — Singer Dominic Masters told BBC Sport.
Nottingham Forest fan and The Sultans of Ping frontman Niall O’Flaherty, was inspired by Brian Clough’s comments in an interview on John Robertson
“John Robertson was a very unattractive young man. If one day I was feeling a bit off colour, I would sit next to him. I was bloody Errol Flynn compared to him. But give him a yard of grass and he was an artist. The Picasso of our game.” -Brian Clough
Back in 2006, Scottish post rock band Mogwai provided the soundtrack to an art house film about the legendary footballer Zidane, A 21st Century Portrait (2006, Wall of Sound)
Johan Cruyff’s known for his skill and Total Football philosophy, had fourteen rules to help teach young people that sports can also be translated into every day life. One of which was “Bring beauty to the sport”, he played football to entertain the public. New York’s Parquet Courts released an album called Wide Awake with the song “Total Football”.
“Total Football’ comes from an association football theory stating that any player on the field can play any position or role, To me, that was a good starting point to write a song that was broadly about the duality of collectivity and individuality. It’s kind of railing against this idea of clichéd, American masculine hyper-individuality.” -Parquet Courts
In his autobiography ‘My turn’, Johan Cruyff also spoke about how winning is supposed to be the holy grail of professional sports. “Of course the result is important, but the most important thing is the fans: the people who feel the club flowing in their blood. You’ve got to give them the good feeling too.”
Sadly, this year’s Euros has been a dour affair so far, with no real excitement or world class moments, just teams boring us into state of suspended animation and our attention spans along with it. The Spanish youngster Yamal at only 16, did briefly provide a spark with an incredible finish.
At it’s not just Europe, just recently another great Argentinian, Marcelo Bielsa currently the manager of the Uruguayan national side delivered a wonderful insight at this year’s Copa America:
“Football has more and more spectators but is becoming less and less attractive, No matter how many people watch football, if you don’t ensure that what people watch is something pleasant, it will only benefit the business. Because the business only cares about how many people watch it.”
But I fear for sports and all team games in the modern era as they are fast becoming a coaches game, rather than a players game. The modern day over coaching and over emphasis on analytics in sports could will be the ruination of it, in both professional and amateur codes.
Rugby is another sports example which has suffered because of too much analytical emphasis on kicking away possession, and becoming a poorer spectacle as a result despite what the data says. Ahead of his time, the French rugby legend Jean-Pierre Rives commented back in 2015:
“We need a revolution. So many coaches are imprisoned by rules too. The rules are the enemy. Style comes from character, but character has been killed in so many ways. The players on the field are the boss so let them decide. We have to manage the rules so that the system shows that talent. The ball is the star. People want to see the ball. Kids want to see it being passed. But now they copy the older players and they hide the ball too! It’s not very glamorous! Everyone should pass the ball, otherwise it’s not very funny, not exciting.”
And as far as player welfare there wont be any longevity to playing careers as there is too much emphasis on physicality and the “system”, next man up with a focus on conditioning over individual flair and skills. We continue to see the toll of this and longer seasons, more games in many sports including the NBA, where this seasons grueling playoffs were missing many of the top players due to injuries.
In baseball now it is widely accepted that pitchers who are chasing their velocity stats, will end up having to go through Tommy John surgery as they are facing an injury cliff, it is just a matter of when. Ulnar collateral ligament reconstruction, is the official medical term for the procedure and it is caused by the mechanics of over throwing at full effort and maximum speed, plus with the extra spinning of different pitches. The procedure was first performed successfully on the player Tommy John while at the Dodgers, who not only returned to pitching but continued on playing until 1989. Shohei Ohtani has already had to undergo that surgery, and is batting only this season while he rests his throwing arm.
When I saw a new pitcher called Ben Joyce step up a few months ago, he was drafted by the Angels in 2022 I was intrigued to see him throw, mainly because of his surname initially.
But reading a bit more about the Tennessee star, whom is also a twin with his brother Zach having been picked up by the Angels too I couldn’t believe reading that he already had the surgery even before entering major league. So it will be more common that pitchers could even have to undergo a second surgery, during their MLB career which is just hard to comprehend. (There are also some great points in this piece by Derek Thompson on how analytics changes the product for fans.)
In Jim Jarmusch’s documentary about the Stooges, called ‘Gimme Danger’ Iggy Pop looks right into the lens and say “Music is life, and life is not a business”. I mean way to go Iggy!! who understands that music (and sports) obsessed folks are not consumers, we are fans with dreams and songs to sing, hopefully we will still have the stars to sings about in the future.
Footnote:
Baron Pierre de Coubertin as Le Rénovateur (“The Reviver”) brought the Olympic Games back to life. But he also strived to the renew the ancient Greek tradition of quadrennial celebrations of athletics and the arts, with what he called the ‘spirit of Olympism’, which was based on the ancient games where athletes shared the stage with musicians, philosophers, scholars, poets, sculptors. A Cultural Olympiad is still held in tandem with the Olympic games every four years.
Belle and Sebastian, aren’t just baseball fans, they’re fans of the Olympics and back in 2016 recorded a song with the Rio games in mind, called "Olympic Village, 6AM,"
