It was 1971. I hadn't been back from Vietnam very long and I was involved in the antiwar
movement with other Vietnam veterans who shared my feelings. Around that time, a song
came out about a poor devil who had been an officer in Vietnam. Under enormous pressure,
this man cracked and ordered his men to kill everything that moved in this Vietnamese
village. This one man polarized a lot of people's feelings for and mostly against the war. The
song was called the ballad of so and so and it glorified him --- glorified him for blowing it.
At the same time, I had a hero who hadn't gone to war, he had conscientiously objected, and
for that was robbed of his ability to make a living as a prize fighter which is what he was. He
was also sentenced to five years hard labor and a half a million dollar fine. He didn't run,
which was an option. He stayed within the system and fought for his rights. That was
Muhammad Ali.
Well, I got busy and wrote a song called the ballad of Muhammad Ali. I’m going to try to put it
up on YouTube so all you fans of Houdini's ghost can hear it. I'm not a songwriter and I think
as a piece of music it was pretty lightweight but people who heard it seemed to dig the
philosophy.
A couple of months later, my future wife, an actress named Gerardine Arthur, found herself
on the same transatlantic flight as Muhammad and his wife Belinda. Gerardine sent a note
up to first class asking if she could have a word with Muhammad. He had the stewardess
bring her up to first class and she sat and chatted with him as Mrs. Ali slept with her head on
her husband's chest. Gerardine thanked him for seeing her and he said, "that's okay. I ain't
going nowhere."
He asked her why she was going to England and she told him it was because her father was
very ill, possibly dying. She told them her dad had been a big fan of his, called him Cassius.
Muhammad said, "you tell your dad Muhammad Ali says get up out of that sickbed and I'm
praying for him."
Then she told Muhammad, "listen, my boyfriend really loves you a lot and he's written a song
about you and you really should hear it." Muhammad wrote down his home address and
phone number and gave them to her. He told her how we should send the song on a
cassette. They chatted for quite a while and Muhammad told her, "you send me that song
now and you tell your dad to get well."
How's that for approachable? I mean true, they were stuck on the same plane, on a
transatlantic flight, but Muhammad Ali could not have been nicer.
It actually took a couple of tries to get the song to him. We were supposed to call him to
make sure he received it. I dialed the number he had given us and an internationally
recognized voice said, "city morgue!" I told him who I was and he said he was going to go
looking for the cassette and that I should call him back in 15 minutes. I did and he said he
couldn't find it. He said, "you see, I get about 500 pieces of mail a day and some of it doesn't
get through to me. You're going to have to send it again. This time send it to Belinda Ali."
Anyway, Ali got a cassette and we began playing phone tag. For some technical reason, my
phone wasn't working when Belinda told me Muhammad would call me so I gave her my
parents’ phone number. I then managed not to be there when he called. My mother spoke to
him and my fiancée spoke to him but they told him really that I was the guy he had to talk to.
He said he would call back in an hour and he did. My mother answered the phone, then said,
"Patrick, Muhammad Ali is on the phone."
I got on the phone and Muhammad said, "okay, I've got this cassette. It's in a box with flowers
on it."
"Yeah," I told him, "I wanted it to stand out."
He said, "I'm taking it out of the box, and putting it in my cassette player. Okay, here we go."
I heard this reedy voice singing, "what is a man if a man's not free, a man only has to be
what he wants to be, and if one man is enslaved, then no man is free, so I'm singing this
song about Muhammad Ali."
Then, Muhammad and I listened to the chorus, "he floats like a butterfly and sting like a bee,
go, Muhammad, go, you've got to flight to stay free." So far, he seemed to be liking it. He
gave these agreeable mmmms as he heard the lyrics.
Then we got to the lines, "on February 26, 1964, he said don't you call me by my slave name
no more." He stopped the cassette and said, "I wasn't being so defiant. Where did you get
these words?"
I said, "I took them from statements you've made."
Muhammad suggested we soften it a little and we settled on, "he said please don't call me by
my slave name no more." Then the song went on, "he'd taken a name to show the world he
was free, and from that day the man named Clay was known as Ali. The only man he is is
who he wants to be. Why, he doesn't even smoke or drink or use profanity. And all the power
of the system couldn't keep him from being free that's why I sing the ballad of Muhammad
Ali."
He stopped the cassette again. "That line all the power of the system couldn't keep him from
being free ain't exactly true cause the supreme court barely saved me."
We settled on, "and he was all prepared to go to prison for what he believed."
Then, we got to a line that said, "because he is a Muslim he opposes war, you don't have to
be a Muslim to do that anymore."
Muhammad said, "I don't want this song to say anything about my religion. I'm very
enthusiastic about my religion, but, in this country I'm free to be any religion I want so there's
no need pushing it at anybody. I have fans of every race and religion all over the world. And
I don't want none of my Jewish friends thinking I'm on this side or the other side of the Arab-
Israeli thing. We should leave religion out of this."
I said, "you know, I was thinking of putting in something about your exploits in the ring, but,
really, I wrote this song about your moral stand. I mean, somebody had to stand up and say
the war was wrong and you did no matter what it cost you."
He said, "don't bother with the sports, it's the moral stand that means something." I think we
actually came up with a better line, "his conscience told him that the war was wrong, he said
I've got nothing against no Viet Cong."
He finished playing the song then said, "this song praise me too much. I'm king of my house,
you see, but, my little daughter doesn't know it, she runs around and does anything she
wants and my wife has to give her a whippin’ to keep her in her place. And that's what
happens to people who don't know who they are." Then he asked, "what do you want to do
with this song?"
I said, "I'd like it to come out and kick some asses into giving you a title shot."
He said, "I've got some friends back here in the music business, let me see what they might
want to do with it."
I told him that would be great. I told him that the biggest thrill of all was the fact that he got to
hear it and I told him it was great getting to know him a little and that my fiancée thought he
was a great guy. He said, "call me in a week or so."
The next time I called, I got Belinda. Muhammad was away. She told me when to give it
another try, then added, "you know Muhammed loves your song. He's been playing it for
everybody and he calls it his official song. He's played it again and again." She told me she
liked the song too. I told her to watch for me on an episode of "Cannon" that was on CBS
that night.
When I got Ali on the phone a few days later we chatted about the antiwar movement and I
told him how the Vietnam veterans I knew felt about him. He told me he was about to leave
for training camp and he gave me the number there. He told me he loved the song and said
he'd call it his official song but hadn't had any luck trying to get someone to record it.
I told Muhammad that Maurice White of Earth Wind and Fire had taken it to a friend of his
who wanted to take a shot at it (they recorded a demo that was actually quite different from
my song, but, it didn't go anywhere.
Muhammad and I spoke a couple more times on the phone. He was a thoughtful, very nice
guy, and I have always treasured those conversations. It would be many years before I would
speak with him again.
I was walking along Hollywood Boulevard with a girlfriend, Lauren Hathaway, and I was
feeling kind of down. I'd been up for a part that I really wanted to play that I didn't get. As we
passed the Hollywood Magic shop, I looked in to see Muhammad doing magic for a crowd of
people. We went in and watched Muhammad do some excellent mental magic and sleight-of-
hand.
Then, Muhammad sat on a stool and signed autographs for everyone who wanted one. I
waited for a chance to say hello then asked him if he remembered "the Ballad of Muhammad
Ali." Yes, he did. I asked him what he'd been doing since his retirement from the ring and he
told me, "I'm more into the spiritual side of things now. I’m a Muslim and we believe you might
get 60 or 70 years on this planet, but, eternity in heaven if you earn it. And it's how you live
your time on this planet whether you earn eternity or not."
We talked philosophy a bit as we had on the phone in the old days. He asked me to
introduce him to my girlfriend, and when I did, he looked at me and said, "yeah, right! You
cain’t do no better, she can do better." When I tell people that, they think Muhammad was
putting me down. Actually, and people who know him know this, when he teases you that
means he likes you.
I ran into him a couple of other times. The most recent time, again at Hollywood Magic, I had
difficulty understanding him. I got my ears blown out in Vietnam and that last time I saw him, I
was even worse off than my usual half deaf. I missed what he was saying to me and I asked
him to tell me again. He gave me a look that said, "I can't."
I shook his hand and said, "I love you, Muhammad. Thanks for all you did to end that war.
Thanks for everything."
While I was in the magic shop, a woman came in with a baby. The kid couldn't know who
Muhammad was, he was about eight or nine months old. Muhammad started making faces
for the kid who was looking over his mom's shoulder. The woman finished her purchase and
started to leave but the baby protested vigorously, holding out his hands pleadingly toward
Muhammad. The kid had experienced Ali for two minutes and was ready to follow him
anywhere.
I want to mention Muhammad's eyes. They are the eyes of a saint. And, alternately, the eyes
of a class clown. When he speaks, you believe him, but laughter is never far away. One guy
in the crowd started dancing and shadow-boxing and said, "hey, Muhammad. I think I can
take you, Muhammad. Come on, man, let's rumble." Muhammad looked up and said, "If you
think that in your dreams, you better wake up and apologize."
movement with other Vietnam veterans who shared my feelings. Around that time, a song
came out about a poor devil who had been an officer in Vietnam. Under enormous pressure,
this man cracked and ordered his men to kill everything that moved in this Vietnamese
village. This one man polarized a lot of people's feelings for and mostly against the war. The
song was called the ballad of so and so and it glorified him --- glorified him for blowing it.
At the same time, I had a hero who hadn't gone to war, he had conscientiously objected, and
for that was robbed of his ability to make a living as a prize fighter which is what he was. He
was also sentenced to five years hard labor and a half a million dollar fine. He didn't run,
which was an option. He stayed within the system and fought for his rights. That was
Muhammad Ali.
Well, I got busy and wrote a song called the ballad of Muhammad Ali. I’m going to try to put it
up on YouTube so all you fans of Houdini's ghost can hear it. I'm not a songwriter and I think
as a piece of music it was pretty lightweight but people who heard it seemed to dig the
philosophy.
A couple of months later, my future wife, an actress named Gerardine Arthur, found herself
on the same transatlantic flight as Muhammad and his wife Belinda. Gerardine sent a note
up to first class asking if she could have a word with Muhammad. He had the stewardess
bring her up to first class and she sat and chatted with him as Mrs. Ali slept with her head on
her husband's chest. Gerardine thanked him for seeing her and he said, "that's okay. I ain't
going nowhere."
He asked her why she was going to England and she told him it was because her father was
very ill, possibly dying. She told them her dad had been a big fan of his, called him Cassius.
Muhammad said, "you tell your dad Muhammad Ali says get up out of that sickbed and I'm
praying for him."
Then she told Muhammad, "listen, my boyfriend really loves you a lot and he's written a song
about you and you really should hear it." Muhammad wrote down his home address and
phone number and gave them to her. He told her how we should send the song on a
cassette. They chatted for quite a while and Muhammad told her, "you send me that song
now and you tell your dad to get well."
How's that for approachable? I mean true, they were stuck on the same plane, on a
transatlantic flight, but Muhammad Ali could not have been nicer.
It actually took a couple of tries to get the song to him. We were supposed to call him to
make sure he received it. I dialed the number he had given us and an internationally
recognized voice said, "city morgue!" I told him who I was and he said he was going to go
looking for the cassette and that I should call him back in 15 minutes. I did and he said he
couldn't find it. He said, "you see, I get about 500 pieces of mail a day and some of it doesn't
get through to me. You're going to have to send it again. This time send it to Belinda Ali."
Anyway, Ali got a cassette and we began playing phone tag. For some technical reason, my
phone wasn't working when Belinda told me Muhammad would call me so I gave her my
parents’ phone number. I then managed not to be there when he called. My mother spoke to
him and my fiancée spoke to him but they told him really that I was the guy he had to talk to.
He said he would call back in an hour and he did. My mother answered the phone, then said,
"Patrick, Muhammad Ali is on the phone."
I got on the phone and Muhammad said, "okay, I've got this cassette. It's in a box with flowers
on it."
"Yeah," I told him, "I wanted it to stand out."
He said, "I'm taking it out of the box, and putting it in my cassette player. Okay, here we go."
I heard this reedy voice singing, "what is a man if a man's not free, a man only has to be
what he wants to be, and if one man is enslaved, then no man is free, so I'm singing this
song about Muhammad Ali."
Then, Muhammad and I listened to the chorus, "he floats like a butterfly and sting like a bee,
go, Muhammad, go, you've got to flight to stay free." So far, he seemed to be liking it. He
gave these agreeable mmmms as he heard the lyrics.
Then we got to the lines, "on February 26, 1964, he said don't you call me by my slave name
no more." He stopped the cassette and said, "I wasn't being so defiant. Where did you get
these words?"
I said, "I took them from statements you've made."
Muhammad suggested we soften it a little and we settled on, "he said please don't call me by
my slave name no more." Then the song went on, "he'd taken a name to show the world he
was free, and from that day the man named Clay was known as Ali. The only man he is is
who he wants to be. Why, he doesn't even smoke or drink or use profanity. And all the power
of the system couldn't keep him from being free that's why I sing the ballad of Muhammad
Ali."
He stopped the cassette again. "That line all the power of the system couldn't keep him from
being free ain't exactly true cause the supreme court barely saved me."
We settled on, "and he was all prepared to go to prison for what he believed."
Then, we got to a line that said, "because he is a Muslim he opposes war, you don't have to
be a Muslim to do that anymore."
Muhammad said, "I don't want this song to say anything about my religion. I'm very
enthusiastic about my religion, but, in this country I'm free to be any religion I want so there's
no need pushing it at anybody. I have fans of every race and religion all over the world. And
I don't want none of my Jewish friends thinking I'm on this side or the other side of the Arab-
Israeli thing. We should leave religion out of this."
I said, "you know, I was thinking of putting in something about your exploits in the ring, but,
really, I wrote this song about your moral stand. I mean, somebody had to stand up and say
the war was wrong and you did no matter what it cost you."
He said, "don't bother with the sports, it's the moral stand that means something." I think we
actually came up with a better line, "his conscience told him that the war was wrong, he said
I've got nothing against no Viet Cong."
He finished playing the song then said, "this song praise me too much. I'm king of my house,
you see, but, my little daughter doesn't know it, she runs around and does anything she
wants and my wife has to give her a whippin’ to keep her in her place. And that's what
happens to people who don't know who they are." Then he asked, "what do you want to do
with this song?"
I said, "I'd like it to come out and kick some asses into giving you a title shot."
He said, "I've got some friends back here in the music business, let me see what they might
want to do with it."
I told him that would be great. I told him that the biggest thrill of all was the fact that he got to
hear it and I told him it was great getting to know him a little and that my fiancée thought he
was a great guy. He said, "call me in a week or so."
The next time I called, I got Belinda. Muhammad was away. She told me when to give it
another try, then added, "you know Muhammed loves your song. He's been playing it for
everybody and he calls it his official song. He's played it again and again." She told me she
liked the song too. I told her to watch for me on an episode of "Cannon" that was on CBS
that night.
When I got Ali on the phone a few days later we chatted about the antiwar movement and I
told him how the Vietnam veterans I knew felt about him. He told me he was about to leave
for training camp and he gave me the number there. He told me he loved the song and said
he'd call it his official song but hadn't had any luck trying to get someone to record it.
I told Muhammad that Maurice White of Earth Wind and Fire had taken it to a friend of his
who wanted to take a shot at it (they recorded a demo that was actually quite different from
my song, but, it didn't go anywhere.
Muhammad and I spoke a couple more times on the phone. He was a thoughtful, very nice
guy, and I have always treasured those conversations. It would be many years before I would
speak with him again.
I was walking along Hollywood Boulevard with a girlfriend, Lauren Hathaway, and I was
feeling kind of down. I'd been up for a part that I really wanted to play that I didn't get. As we
passed the Hollywood Magic shop, I looked in to see Muhammad doing magic for a crowd of
people. We went in and watched Muhammad do some excellent mental magic and sleight-of-
hand.
Then, Muhammad sat on a stool and signed autographs for everyone who wanted one. I
waited for a chance to say hello then asked him if he remembered "the Ballad of Muhammad
Ali." Yes, he did. I asked him what he'd been doing since his retirement from the ring and he
told me, "I'm more into the spiritual side of things now. I’m a Muslim and we believe you might
get 60 or 70 years on this planet, but, eternity in heaven if you earn it. And it's how you live
your time on this planet whether you earn eternity or not."
We talked philosophy a bit as we had on the phone in the old days. He asked me to
introduce him to my girlfriend, and when I did, he looked at me and said, "yeah, right! You
cain’t do no better, she can do better." When I tell people that, they think Muhammad was
putting me down. Actually, and people who know him know this, when he teases you that
means he likes you.
I ran into him a couple of other times. The most recent time, again at Hollywood Magic, I had
difficulty understanding him. I got my ears blown out in Vietnam and that last time I saw him, I
was even worse off than my usual half deaf. I missed what he was saying to me and I asked
him to tell me again. He gave me a look that said, "I can't."
I shook his hand and said, "I love you, Muhammad. Thanks for all you did to end that war.
Thanks for everything."
While I was in the magic shop, a woman came in with a baby. The kid couldn't know who
Muhammad was, he was about eight or nine months old. Muhammad started making faces
for the kid who was looking over his mom's shoulder. The woman finished her purchase and
started to leave but the baby protested vigorously, holding out his hands pleadingly toward
Muhammad. The kid had experienced Ali for two minutes and was ready to follow him
anywhere.
I want to mention Muhammad's eyes. They are the eyes of a saint. And, alternately, the eyes
of a class clown. When he speaks, you believe him, but laughter is never far away. One guy
in the crowd started dancing and shadow-boxing and said, "hey, Muhammad. I think I can
take you, Muhammad. Come on, man, let's rumble." Muhammad looked up and said, "If you
think that in your dreams, you better wake up and apologize."
| How Muhammad Ali met Houdini's Ghost Patrick Culliton |
 | |  | |  | |  | |  | |  |