Roadtrip Music: The Legend of Chavo Guerrero by The Mountain Goats

This series isn’t just songs used in wrestling, it’s also songs about wrestling.

This morning I woke up to the news Shane Warne had died. Given this is a wrestling site, that name may not mean a huge amount to some, but Warne is an all-time great cricketer that I grew up watching. As our commentary episode of the podcast reveals, we don’t mind a bit of cricket here on the Roadshow. It got me thinking about how as a wrestling fan, you almost get used to dealing with news like this. There’s the natural age difference of watching adults while you’re a kid, combined with the rigorous lifestyle of the business (as well as the freak accidents and suicides…) and it can feel like you quite often are reading news about your heroes passing.

Today’s song choice is at it’s core – a man writing about his childhood hero. John Darnielle (the singer and writer of the song) grew up in California with an abusive stepfather and sought escape in watching his hero triumph over evil. It’s a simple concept and in the world of social media, worked shoots and convoluted nonsensical booking, sometimes it’s good to go back to basics and realise what professional wrestling is all about. Heroes triumphing over villains and giving people hope.

The song is from The Mountain Goats’ Beat the Champ album which is a concept album about professional wrestling released in 2015. The album itself covers a range of topics from Bull Ramos to the murder of Bruiser Brody. Taking the wrestling associations away, it’s just a straight up great album. The Legend of Chavo Guerrero received praise from both it’s subject (Chavo Sr.) and his son (Chavo Jr., obviously) and the elder Chavo got the chance to be featured in the music video (alongside a few other familiar faces) before his 2017 death.

So here’s the video, enjoy the song, check out the album (I’m sure I’ll post more of it here over time) and don’t take your heroes for granted, they won’t be around forever.