Music and BJJ

Really I could have left the "and BJJ" off the title and been a little more transparent.  This post has little to do with BJJ other than I was reading Tangled Triangle, one of several BJJ blogs I really enjoy right now, and came across this post.  The post contains a video montage of dramatic BJJ and submission competition footage ranging from high level gi competition to MMA.  But what makes the video SO dramatic is the use of Moby's "Flower" as the soundtrack.

I was curious about the song but couldn't place it.  Tangled Triangle's author Megan uses Moby's name in the title to her post, a cue as to where the music came from.  But instead of trying to wend my way through 100's of Moby songs in search of this one, I googled the lyric "old miss lucy's dead and gone" and found several links to Huddie Leadbetter, better known as legendary blues master Leadbelly.  A little more digging lead me to this post on cocojams.net, providing a neat anthropological look at the underlying folk-rhyming that Moby samples in Flower.  The stomp and clap beat Moby uses gives the song a field spiritual element and while I love it, the connected connotations of exploitation make me wince.

And it doesn't end there.  A quick youtube search reveals the song's use in the film soundtrack for Nicholas Cage's barely bearable "Gone in 60 Seconds" among myriad other reuses, with or without permission, none of which seem to credit the original Leadbelly piece.  Here are a few examples:

Moby "Flower" (nevermind the misnomer or malapropist use of "Bring Sally Up")


Three Six Mafia


One of dozens of remixes


Thanks to Megan for posting the original BJJ vid, which I like too.  Inspiration for a little lunchtime anthropological excursion thanks to google and youtube!