Soul of Sweet Science

By ROB PATTERSON

Back in the late 1980s, I had a wonderful girlfriend, Norma, who, like me, was a writer and editor. She had worked at Women’s Wear Daily as the fragrance editor. If somebody famous came out with a cologne or perfume or were associated with a fragrance, she was at the top of every publicist’s list of media people for them to meet and talk to.

I’ve also interviewed many famous figures as a music journalist. One evening, just for fun, I challenged her to compete on which one of us had interviewed the more famous celebrity.

Me first. I pondered it for a bit. Not just someone famous in America, but worldwide. Maybe not just famous in the first world but the far less media connected third world. I recalled being told how another music journalist I knew had backpacked across Africa, and more than once, in the most primitive huts, she came across a picture or poster of a certain music star.

I figured I had a likely win. “Bob Marley,” I announced.

Norma snorted at me with playful derision. And then matter-of-factly stated. “Muhammad Ali.” Bam! She took the win handily.

So it’s no surprise that Ken Burns and his crew, our prime documentary cinematic storytellers of America’s most significant tales, have now turned their attention to the man who was arguably the biggest champion in boxing, and likely sports overall. I won’t even entertain any professional critic’s quibbles here about Burns and his work. He’s as much at the top of his game as Ali was at his in his prime, in a way. His films are impeccably researched, surefooted and nimble in their execution, entertaining and smartly structured, and highly informative, even to someone like myself, who in my younger years witnessed Cassius Clay rising to fame as a fighter and public figure and all that followed.

I was an admirer of Ali from the start – even if I was delighted that one of his early opponents, Floyd Patterson, shares my surname (we didn’t yet understand the implications of slave names, an issue Ali’s name change brought to the forefront). And the doc underscores the qualities that impressed left-leaning whites, most Black Americans and, in time, much of Africa and the Third World: “[H]e was the bravest, the kindest and the most excellent of men,” as Bob Dylan put it. Yet his Islamic faith and objection to the draft during the Vietnam war prompted many to condemn him as un-America.

But as novelist Walter Mosley notes, in his day, Ali “was the most important man in the world.” Hence a quite-fitting symbol of America in a time when burgeoning Black power and pride were roiling longstanding social and political conventions. Though not an activist, he was nonetheless a civil rights icon. He was both at once a lightning rod for controversy and a lighthouse illuminating the way toward a potentially better and more just future.

Finally, as the practitioner of a brutal sport, Ali had a stunning skill and, in his early years, a balletic grace that made sense of the description of boxing as “the sweet science,” marking him as potentially history’s greatest athlete. On the minus side, he could be wickedly violent in the ring and verbally cruel – his taunts aimed at opponent Joe Frazier were especially ugly, which Ali later said he regretted. Though very much a family man, at the same time Ali was also a relentless womanizer.

Yet for all his flaws, the man had an abundance of commendable qualities: goodness and generosity, integrity, humor, racial pride and courage. As Norman Mailer said of Muhammad Ali, “he was the soul of the 20th Century.” This honest and comprehensive telling of his life story backs that contention. Given the current resurgence of white supremacy and the rise of Black Lives Matter, the timing of it could not be more fitting.

Populist Picks

Music Album: “Welcome 2 America” by Prince – Made some 10 years ago and then shelved, this set emerges with an almost prescient sense of current life and times. It’s also a delightful and dynamic listening experience that underscores the late artist’s musical genius.

TV Series: “Last Tango in Halifax” – I’m not big on many shows and movies that qualify as rom-coms. But at the core of this touching and quite realistic tale of extended family matters is the late-in-life love of a couple who missed their chance as teens. The dramas and turmoil of life and love in their romance and the lives of those around them invoke knowing chuckles from this winning English series on Netflix with star turns by two of my favorite UK thespians: Derek Jacobi and Nicola Walker.

Rob Patterson is a music and entertainment writer in Austin, Texas. Email orca@prismnet.com.

From The Progressive Populist, October 15, 2021

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