I AM THE GREATEST

I AM THE GREATEST by Cassius Clay.

I was musing the other day about what's fun about blogging and what's hard. The fun part is easy enough, the hard part, though, is kinda unique to the kind of blog we have here (and the other one). Basically, every post has about the same tone--I'd call it "enthusiastic exposition." Tell you about how great this song is. Never, this song is average, or let me rip into this thing six ways from Sunday. What would be the point of that? Just don't post the song! But using the same writing tone does get old. I need some more synonyms for great! funky! beautiful! etc.

I bring that up in this post because for this song it's no trouble at all being enthusiastic. I Am The Greatest is mind-blowing and hilarious. It's just Cassius Clay talking smack over a jazzy, bouncy beat, with crowd noise pumped in. I can and have listened to it a million times just for the sheer enjoyment of it. It's the title track from an album Clay released in 1963, shortly before fighting Sonny Liston and before changing his name to Ali. It used to be impossible to find, but it's been re-released on CD. You should get it!

LISTEN.

Photo: Soho, early evening.