I Am the Greatest!
This rerelease of Cassius Clay’s legendary 1963 recording provides the champ’s fans with a portrait of the pugilist as a sassy young man. Divided into eight playful “rounds” of verbal shadowboxing, I AM THE GREATEST! features young Cassius Marcellus Clay (soon to become heavyweight boxing champion Muhammad Ali) performing his clever, boastful rhymes before a live audience of admirers. In the famous title track, Clay predicts that he’s destined to be the champ: “I’m the man this poem is about/I’ll be champ of the world; there isn’t a doubt/Here I predict Mr. Liston’s dismemberment/I’ll hit him so hard he’ll wonder where October and November went.” On one of the CD’s funniest cuts, Clay begins with a parody of the “Friends, Romans, Countrymen” speech from Shakespeare’s JULIUS CAESAR and then proceeds to demolish Sonny Liston rhetorically — something he’d do for real in the ring soon enough. The CD bonus tracks include a few musical numbers not on the original LP: the single of “I Am the Greatest!” (a truncated version, cut up collage-style and backed with music), his unfortunate cover of “Stand by Me,” and the “Dancing in the Street“-style novelty jam “The Gang’s All Here.” It’s all a great deal of fun and a perfect example of the youthful confidence and charisma that made Ali a star of worldwide magnitude. — D.G. [written for Barnes&Noble.com]
