Mad Dog Vachon

With all the recent news about Montreal born Chris Benoit and his murder/suicide freakout (not to mention the Dr. Mengele-type experiments he was doing on his son), I thought I would shine a light on a more positive (not to mention musical) member of Montreal's wrestling fraternity, Mad Dog Vachon.

Like fellow Canadian Bad News Brown, Vachon was a "real" wrestler who actually wrestled in the Olympics. And like Bad News, he had far more monetary success as a villain in the squared circle. Vachon achieved that rare level of success for a true heel: to have people love to hate him. With his shaved head and beard, the diminutive Vachon cut a striking figure in the ring. And, of course there was his voice. He sounded like he consumed a steady diet of rusty razor blades and washed it down with battery acid. It was voice made for spitting out the evil patter of a wrestling villain. And it sounds great on record, too!

In the fine tradition of vinyl oddities like Classy Freddie Blassie's "Pencil Neck Geeks" and the WWF's Wrestling Album, Vachon was beloved enough to warrant Denis Pantis of DSP records recording him "singing", of all things, A RAP SONG! Yes, "Le Rap A Mad Dog."

In a way, it makes perfect sense. Montreal was a huge disco town, yet at the time it didn't have a sizable enough black population to have its own genuine hip hop scene. So, in the tradition of Mel Brooks' "It's Good to be the King" (a fairly big rap record in 1981), it made sense to combine Montreal's homegrown disco sound and a homegrown wrestling villain with the novelty known as rapping.

Vachon's lawnmower voice and sizable personality are more than up to the task. I can’t understand anything he is saying (and it be would doubtful I could even if he was speaking English), but the sheer ridiculous force of Vachon’s schtick propels the track. The backing band does a credible job of mimicking the sounds of New York, with divebombing synthe blips, vamping guitars, and handclaps. Vachon calls out Rambo, Rocky, Reagan, Mr. T, Superman, Batman, Spiderman, Iron Man and more before devolving into a series of incoherent grunts and mumblings.

I have this on 7”. I have no idea if it came out on 12” or not. As DSP was not really a disco label, it may well have not have, as it was probably marketed more as a novelty record than as a genuine disco record, so the need to push it towards real club DJ’s was probably minimal. I also don’t know what year it came out, although my guess is 1982.
Mad Dog Vachon- Le Rap A Mag Dog