We learn that Ray’s carrying on in the family business (“like father like son”). Calling Mancini a “light weight contender” signals the famous desperation of Marlon Brando in the movies (“I coulda been a contenda…”) and establishes that Mancini must compete for all he’s to get. Mancini’s not from somewhere in America he’s from Youngstown, Ohio, a place by the early 1980’s well past its prime where the only types of luck found were hard and none. He fought for the title with Frias in Vegas In the first verse, we glimpse an entire life:įrom Youngstown, Ohio, Ray Boom Boom ManciniĪ lightweight contender, like father like son Zevon’s paean succeeds with the sparseness and incisiveness of a Raymond Carver story. Zevon tells the tale of Ray “Boom Boom” Mancini, a true story, but the art comes in selecting the facts and telling them right. ( Here’s a clip of a live performance from the Letterman Show.) Peter Buck fills out the sound with wailing guitar riffs. No jingle-jangle here as Berry pounds the drumheads. His voice – direct, insistent, in your face, singing from a place that has learned some hard lessons – finds its match in the pounding and furious rhythm laid down by Bill Berry and Mike Mills of R.E.M. It comes from Warren Zevon’s song “Boom Boom Mancini,” as tough and hard a song as you will ever hear. Write a line like that and you can go home knowing you’ve done your job. “The name of the game is be hit and hit back” There’s a bizarre video of Zevon performing this song live at Boston’s South Station. To listen to Zevon perform this on the Letterman show, click here. He said, "Someone should have stopped the fight, and told me it was him.You can hear the studio version in this tribute video to Boom Boom Mancini. If you can't take the punches it don't mean a thing Some have the speed and the right combinations Seven weeks later he was back in the ring When Alexis Arguello gave Boom Boom a beating ![]() Note: the text of this song's lyrics is not under the same copyright license as the wiki's encyclopedic text, it is used under fair use/ dealing.īoom Boom Mancini's fighting Bobby Chaconįrom Youngstown, Ohio, Ray "Boom Boom" ManciniĪ lightweight contender, like father like son The song is also available in sheet form in The Warren Zevon Guitar Songbook. The lyric "hurry home early" later served as the title of the Warren Zevon tribute album Hurry Home Early: the Songs of Warren Zevon, on which a version of the song is performed by Tom Flannery. The song also appears on the compilation albums I'll Sleep When I'm Dead (An Anthology) and Genius: The Best of Warren Zevon. Also, instead of fading out the ending segues into the intro of " Jungle Work". This version is, in fact played in E minor, not F minor. The song was also played on the live acoustic album Learning to Flinch. The song features two blues based guitar solos and a piano solo as the outro fades out. The guitars are tuned to standard "E" tuning with a capo on the first fret making the song being playing in the position of E minor, but toned in F minor. The song sounds in the key of F minor, however, written in E minor. The song is heavy on distorted electric guitar. William Zevon, Warren's father, also worked as a boxer, and this may have been what lead to Zevon to write this song. He has said that the hardest moments came when people approached him and asked if he was the boxer who "killed" Duk Koo Kim. Kim suffered brain injuries that led to his death five days later and Mancini went to the funeral in South Korea, but he fell into a deep depression afterwards. The song's bridge also documents Mancini's match against the South Korean challenger, Duk Koo Kim, his first title defense. ![]() The song documents Mancini's now legendary fight with Alexis Arguello for the lightweight title, as he started out strong, however was defeated in the end. ("And he put him away in round number one.") In what was often called the best first round in boxing history, Frias wobbled Mancini and bloodied the challenger's nose in the fight's opening minute, only to have Mancini drop him and win the fight by knockout in the last minute of the first round. ![]() The chorus documents, in the first verse the Mancini- Arturo Frias fight in Las Vegas on May 8, 1982. The song is greatly based on lightweight boxer Ray "Boom Boom" Mancini.
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