I'll try launching this as a stand alone thread.
Make no apology - unable to run due to crapness in the bronchial department so filling time with inane Hi Fidelity style list-making . . .
Top Five Tunes to run to (via MP3/ Walkman/ Radio) please . . .
The harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph
I'm not sure where 'running songs' end and just 'favourite songs' begin, but if that means favourite songs at the rockier end of the scale then I suppose (of the stuff that people are likely to know) mine would have to include:
Jimi Hendrix - All Along The Watchtower
The Doors - Light My Fire
...in fact pretty much anything by Hendrix or The Doors.
Born To Run - Bruce Springsteen...not a huge Springsteen fan but this will always remind me of the whooping and yelling as we crossed the start line of the Chicago marathon.
I Feel Fine - The Beatles - again, pretty much any early Beatles
Highway 61 - Dylan
An honest answer to the question is that I don't have favourite music to run to because I never run with music, but I'd like to try more. Am just about to buy an iPod Shuffle, so will no doubt be doing more of it. I quite like the idea of the Shuffle, where you just load it up with hundreds of tunes, then get them popping up in a totally random order.
My true preference, for a long run, would be to have a whole range of stuff so that I'd get a variety. Plenty of old favourites like the artists mentioned above, plus some newer stuff that I'd like to listen to more like the Kaiser Chiefs, Antony and the Johnsons, White Stripes... these will sound like unadventurous choices to people familiar with the current music scene, but I can only really go on what I come across on mainstream late-night TV. I'm sure there are tons of other, less well-known but interesting bands around. And all that newer folky stuff that I need to catch up on - Damien Rice, Beth Orton, and the more obscure things I hear whenever I catch the Mike Harding Show or those Gaelic folk shows from Radio Scotland that the BBC offer in their Listen Again facility.
But best of all, I'd like to be able to download and listen to Late Junction, an amazing, but little-known nightly programme on R3 from 10:15. They play a staggering variety of often unusual but always fascinating stuff from Mongolian folk to modern jazz; from Bach to Tom Waits. You never know what's coming next. I recommend it. The Beeb always keeps the last week's shows online for relistening.
El Gordo
Great things are done when men and mountains meet.
Yes, the 'listen again' option from the Beeb - excellent for those of us too busy or untogether to keep up with scheduled programming. Tom Waits, eh? Used to hear a fair bit of Tom on the Peel show. There was an eclectic mix of styles and sounds, oft copied, rarely matched. I'll give that R3 show a listen.
The I-Pod shuffle sounds like a great idea.
Early on in my running life I tried running with a Sony Discman. It had an anti-jog facility which I always thought was there to prevent skipping on CDs. It turned out to be some sort of sinister campaign by the Japanese to stop people running to music. That is, the discs skipped horribly. It may be the delicate nature of the equipment was not designed to withstand a running style that, coupled with my considerable bulk, registered on the richter scale.
I use the DAB portable as a sort of shuffle device.
I can listen to live cricket - OK, not everyone's cuppa - or on occasion a live football match. I've done this a few times and it's especially good when I'm banking miles on a regular, well trodden path - time flies by. When I do tune in to Planet Rock I have no idea what's coming up - they cover a broad band from the '60's onwards.
I have a CD with a collection of favorite classical music - Beethoven, Wagner, Nessun Dorma - generally uplifting, powerful stuff. When the wind blows hard and the rain comes in sideways this is the only soundtrack for me.
The harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph
My top 5 would be in a state of constant flux, but just at the moment... well, jeepers, even at the moment it's tough. Let me break it down into decades perhaps...
1960s: Top running song of the '60s for me would have to be Steppenwolf's Born To Be Wild... not exactly a running song per se but try keeping still to it! Those opening bars for me are the epitome of "get going" music.
1970s: Ah, the decade of disco, Bowie and (dare I say it)... Abba. But my fave big hair song from then would be Deep Purple's Comin' Home, not one of their better known songs, but brilliant, and from their short-lived line up led by the inimitable Tommy Bolin - to my mind their bestest front man (sorry Purple fans).
1980s: Can't go past A Flock Of Seagull's I Ran which I can listen to again and again and again... useful long run stuff.
1990s: Soooo many great songs to choose from, but currently I'm revisiting Chumbawumba's Tubthumping which has so many drinking references that it's the perfect RC running song
2000s: Still love Jimmy Eat World's The Middle ... energetic, driving, fun stuff. Love it heaps and has got me through some difficult runs.
"The Middle" was a top 5 Billboard Hot 100 hit by American band Jimmy Eat World in 2002 from their Bleed American album of 2001. The song was a breakthrough hit for Jimmy Eat World who had self-financed the recording of the Bleed American album after having been dropped by Capitol Records in 1999.
As for Chumbawumba's Tubthumping, I would have thought it was written especially for you, Andy.
Mid Life Crisis Man Wrote:As for Chumbawumba's Tubthumping, I would have thought it was written especially for you, Andy.
Well, I just went and downloaded the song, and found that "Tubthumping" turns out to be the great (what I always knew as) "I Get Knocked But I Get Up Again".
Yeah, fair enough.
:o
El Gordo
Great things are done when men and mountains meet.
Kaiser Chiefs eh? They're bloomin' excellent. First caught them on Later with Jools Holland (another great musical crossroads, although Mr Holland can get under the skin with his Mr Bizarro style) and again at Live 8 when they stole the show in Philidelphia.
There's a good deal of good new(ish) stuff out there.
Chumbawumba are the merry troup that assaulted Mr Prescott at the Brits.
Worth an award in itself, n'est pas?
The harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph
There's a bloke from Chumbawumba who's a bit of a mean fell runner apparently.
I've been off the music scene for a while now... Val Doonican and Galician bagpipes anybody?
I don't listen to music but I can understand the Bob Marley, SP. It's the rydum of the reggae that would give you a good even running pace. I must try it.
I find driving with BMW on helps to slow down my driving and stops me from feeling stressful in busy traffic. I think pipping reggae into cars should be made compulsory. There would be fewer accidents and no road-rage.
I would probably opt for Kaya as my top album to skank/run to.
Not sure that Val baby does it for me - that'd be a bit like running to Rolf Harris songs methinks (at least Rolf's heavy breathing is appropriate). And Kevin Bloody Wilson? Wouldn't laughing during a run give you a stich SP?
Somewhere Sweder mentioned Tom Petty's "Running Down A Dream", which is great, but I also like "American Girl" - another rip snorter song to run to, although of course for me "Stop Draggin' My Heart Around" would be a more appropriate Petty song
Another great American band was (is?) Kansas, and the high-powered song "Down The Road" which would be great to belt along to. Some of the best hard rock violin playing anywhere! Sadly I only have it on vinyl at present.
I'm with you on the Kaiser Chiefs front. Saw them earlier this month and they ROCKED!
Andy - you might want to try Hard Fi for running if you like the Kaisers etc. The album's quite upbeat muscially (despite the fact that they sing about depressing things).
If you haven't already tried them (and I suspect you may already have), The Killers are also good. Oh, and Kasabian. And Maximo Park.
Sadly I am a lone female runner so don't listen to music outside when I'm running just in case some lunatic is coming up behind me (does that sound paranoid?) - but I do listen to music in the gym - and Sweder and Mid Life Crisis Man will know that's more often than not because of the damned shin splints!
- that'd be a bit like running to Rolf Harris songs methinks (at least Rolf's heavy breathing is appropriate). And Kevin Bloody Wilson? Wouldn't laughing during a run give you a stich SP?