On June 27, 1988, Mike Tyson obliterated Michael Spinks in 91 seconds — one of the fasted heavyweight title fight KOs ever. The legendary fight ended with Spinks physically and mentally defeated, slumped on the floor, terrified. Yesterday, The Awl posted a fascinating, passionately-written tidbit about Tyson’s entrance music. While Spinks entered to Kenny Loggins’ “This Is It,” Tyson came out to John Balance and Peter Christopherson’sexperimental, post-industrial noise band Coil.
Whatever power of Spinks’ entrance had immediately evaporated when a deafening drone of noise started swirling in the air. As it crescendoed into a maddening roar, the crowd at the Atlantic City Convention Center arched to follow the procession of men, all cops and security guards, emerging out of Tyson’s locker. Tyson, bare-chested and already soaked in sweat, slowly materialized from the back and meandered to the ring, barely blinking. The broadcast announcer Bob Sheridan, struggling to define the scene, played it straight: “It’s interesting Mike Tyson selected as his pre-fight music just noise; every once in a while you hear the clanging of chains. I think that’s what he’s got in mind to do to Mike Spinks’ head, but we’ll wait and see. Everything that Tyson does is intimidating.”
That song — “loud, chaotic, undulating electronic sound with a formless sort of purpose,” “a mysterious force that was terrifying, compelling, illogical, and intentionally unpleasant” — was Coil’s debut single “How to Destroy Angels.”
You can hear around 2:12.
