Lyrics

[Megapixel]

So there are some great posts on WB about favorite music to listen to while hiking. I would like to learn of your go to songs where the lyrics somehow tie into hiking. Ill get the ball rolling, besides some of the southbounders soundtrack there is The Avett Brothers: I and Love and You::

Load the car and write the note.Grab your bag and grab your coat.
Tell the ones that need to know.
We are headed north.
One foot in and one foot back.
But it don't pay to live like that.
So I cut the ties and I jumped the tracks.
For never to return.

[Slugg]

ABB - Ramblin' Man, Midnight Rider, Southbound, Blue Sky
CCR - Bad Moon Rising, Up around the Bend, Who'll Stop the Rain, Have you Ever seen the Rain, Run through the Jungle, Green River
Atmosphere - Became

[Slugg]

Widespread Panic - Surprise Valley, Travelin' Light, Climb to Safety, Ain't Life Grand, Walkin'

[Sarcasm the elf]

Got a wife and kids in Baltimore, Jack
I went out for a ride and I never went back
Like a river that don't know where it's flowing
I took a wrong turn and I just kept going…

[johnspenn]

I took a little journey to the unknown
And I come back changed, I can feel it in my bones
I f*d with the forces that our eyes can't see
Now the darkness got a hold on me
Holy darkness got a hold on me

Meet me in the woods tonight...

[4shot]

the road is long
with many a winding turn
that leads us to
who knows where
who knows where
but I'm strong
strong enough
to carry him
He ain't heavy
He's my brother

[rocketsocks]

Try imagining a place
where it’s always safe and warm
Come on in she said I’ll give you
Shelter from the storm~Bob Dylan

[rocketsocks]

Cold ground was my bed last night
and rock was my pillow too
they say your feet is just to big for your shoes
Talkin’ Blues~Bob Marley

but I always called it “walkin’ blues”

[Traffic Jam]

She came to me, said she knew me
Said she'd known me a long time
And she spoke of being in love
With every mountain she had climbed
And she talked of trails she'd walked up
Far above the timber line
From that night on I knew I'd write a song
With Carolina in the pines

[Dogwood]

Take a step outside
Time to step outside
Whoa
Whoa
Oh
Whoa
Will you step outside
Dark as night
Let a light guide you...

Jose Gonzalez Secret Life of Walter Mitty

[Dogwood]

Step out...

[Vanhalo]

R.E.M. - Murmur (https://youtu.be/pFIuaeDfFRA?t=37m50s)

Calling out in the transit

West of Fields
.....
We walk through the woods we walk
Take oasis take oasis take oasis take oasis
Up the stairs to the landing
Up the stairs into the hall oh oh oh
Take oasis Marat's bathing

[Dogwood]

Now the time has come (to awake and break camp)
Though the night seems young
Is at an end
Only change will bring
Out of the darkness
In this moment everything
Is born again
Reach up for the sunrise
Put your hands into the big sky (and pack up)
You can touch the sunrise
Feel the new day,
Enter your LIFE
Reach up for the sunrise
Put your hands up to the big sky (and put your pack on)

Duran Duran Reach Up for the Sunrise

[soilman]

The sweet Georgia breezes, safe, cool and warm
I headed up north, you headed north
On and on and on and on
What side are you on?

Left of the Dial by the Replacements

[chknfngrs]

When years pass between us and the light shines on the water
I ask please leave one thing leave shelter when it’s raining

The Samples, When It’s Raining

[map man]

Since a number of artists have set Robert Frost's The Road Not Taken to music I am going to cheat and call that great poem a song lyric for purposes of this thread:

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that, the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I --
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

Many remember this as "the road less traveled" poem and think of it as a kind of anthem for people who march to the beat of a different drummer. But something I find poignant is that he chose to emphasize the road he did not take when he titled the poem, so that a sense of loss lives right beside the positive feelings he cherished for choosing to walk down the road he did.

This brings to mind a moment on my last hiking trip. I was on the Colorado Trail and had thought I might or might not go off trail for two or three hours to walk to the top of Mount Yale. So when the morning came and I reached that potential parting of the ways I sat on a log for a few minutes contemplating the pros and cons of either choice.

[Recalc]

Talkin' to myself again
Wondering if this travelin' is good
Is there something better we'd be doing if we could
And oh the stories we could tell
And if this all blows up and goes to hell
I can still see us sittin on the bed in some motel
Listenin' to the stories we could tell

Stories We Could Tell - Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers

[map man]

....again I hear
These waters, rolling from their mountain-springs
With a soft inland murmur.--Once again
Do I behold the steep and lofty cliffs....

....These beauteous forms,
Through a long absence, have not been to me
As is a landscape to a blind man's eye:
But oft, in lonely rooms, and 'mid the din
Of towns and cities, I have owed to them
In hours of weariness, sensations sweet,
Felt in the blood, and felt along the heart....

This too is not a song lyric, but a couple fragments of a lyrical poem, Tintern Abbey, by William Wordsworth. He was known to take long rambling walks through the lake district in England back in his day. And like a lot of notable poems about the natural world the poem is not so much about the experience of walking through nature, but instead about what he makes of that experience when thinking about it afterwards. I can't live an adrenaline or endorphin raising adventure every minute of every day, so it's handy that we have this capacity called "memory" which can bring back experiences to us in moments of quiet contemplation. It can make us think; it can lift our spirits.

[Slo-go'en]

If the river was whisky
and I was a duck
I'd dive to the bottom
and never come up

[GoldenBear]

I love to go a-wandering
Along the mountain track
And as I go, I love to sing
My knapsack on my back
Val-deri, val-dera, val-deri,
Val-dera ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha.
Val-dera
My knapsack on my back

I love to wander by the stream
That dances in the sun
So joyously it calls to me
Come join my happy song
Val-eri, val-dera, val-deri
Val-dera, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha
Val-era
Come join my happy song

I wave my hat to all I meet
And They wave back to me
And blackbirds call so loud and sweet
From ev'ry green wood tree
Val-eri, val-dera, val-deri
Val-dera, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha
Val-era
From ev'ry green wood tree

Three wonderful versions of this song:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rZUdIbX52So
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nqHMZxxmqVk
Strangely enough, I've yet to meet these ladies while hiking the A.T., even though they claim to be avid mountain hikers. Maybe I'd meet them if I hiked in Germany.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NpanPmIfBs4
Jim Henson always had a wicked sense of humor.

[handlebar]

Once in while I sing what I can remember of the German version of the Happy Wanderer:

Mein Vater war ein Wandersmann
Und mir steckt's auch im Blut;
Drum wandr' ich froh so lang ich kann
Und schwenke meinen Hut.
Valeri, valera,
Valeri, valera ha ha ha ha ha,
Valeri, valera,
Und schwenke meinen Hut.

Das Wandern schafft stets frische Lust,
Erhält das Herz gesund,
Frei atmet draußen meine Brust,
Froh singet stets mein Mund.
Valeri, valera,
Valeri, valera ha ha ha ha ha,
Valeri, valera,
Froh singet stets mein Mund.

Warum singt dir das Vögelein
So freudevoll sein Lied?
Weil's nimmer hockt, landaus, landein
Durch and're Fluren zieht.
Valeri, valera,
Valeri, valera ha ha ha ha ha,
Valeri, valera,
Durch and're Fluren zieht.

Was murmelt's Bächlein dort und rauscht
So lustig hin durch's Rohr?
Weil's frei sich regt, mit Wonne lauscht
Ihm dein empfänglich Ohr.
Valeri, valera,
Valeri, valera ha ha ha ha ha,
Valeri, valera,
Ihm dein empfänglich Ohr.

Drum trag ich's Ränzel und den Stab
Weit in die Welt hinein,
Und werde bis ans kühle Grab
Ein froher Wandrer sein.
Valeri, valera,
Valeri, valera ha ha ha ha ha,
Valeri, valera,
Ein froher Wandrer sein.

[wookinpanub]

Compliments f James Taylor:

"Walking Man"


Moving in silent desperation, keeping an eye on the Holy Land.
A hypothetical destination, say, who is this walking man?

Well, the leaves have come to turning and the goose has gone to fly,
And bridges are for burning, so don't you let that yearning pass you by.
Walking man, walking man walks.
Any other man stops and talks but the walking man walks.

Well the frost is on the pumpkin and the hay is in the barn.
Pappy's come to rambling on, stumbling around drunk down on the farm.

And the walking man walks. Doesn't know nothing at all.
Any other man stops and talks but the walking man walks on by, walk on by.

Most everybody's got seed to sow. It ain't always easy for a weed to grow, oh no.
So he don't hoe the row for no one, for sure he's always missing,
and something ain't never quite right.
Ah, but who would want to listen to you kissing his existence good night?

Walking man walk. Walk on by my door. Well, any other man stops and talks
but not the walking man. He's the walking man, born to walk, walk on walking man.
Well now, would he have wings to fly? Would he be free?
Golden wings against the sky, walking man, walk on by.
So long, walking man.

[HighlandsHiker]

Talkin' to myself again
Wondering if this travelin' is good
Is there something better we'd be doing if we could
And oh the stories we could tell
And if this all blows up and goes to hell
I can still see us sittin on the bed in some motel
Listenin' to the stories we could tell

Stories We Could Tell - Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers

Wow, I always thought that was a Buffett song - had to look it up, apparently it was written by John Sebastian of The Lovin' Spoonful - learn something new every day!


Here's my entry -

"When through the woods, and forest glades I wander
And hear the birds sing sweetly in the trees;
When I look down from lofty mountain grandeur
And hear the brook and feel the gentle breeze:

Then sings my soul, my Saviour God to Thee;
How great Thou art, how great Thou art!"

(Second verse of the famous hymn)

[El JP]

Marching on... Rain or shine
Mammoths of the forest... Worlds collide

Darkthrone

[handlebar]

Wow, I always thought that was a Buffett song - had to look it up, apparently it was written by John Sebastian of The Lovin' Spoonful - learn something new every day!


Here's my entry -

"When through the woods, and forest glades I wander
And hear the birds sing sweetly in the trees;
When I look down from lofty mountain grandeur
And hear the brook and feel the gentle breeze:

Then sings my soul, my Saviour God to Thee;
How great Thou art, how great Thou art!"

(Second verse of the famous hymn) Also one of my favorites. Sang it at a non-denominational Sunday service at Kennedy Meadows during my PCT thru. When I want to get a move on for a road walk, for example, I like to put on Boston. One of my favorites is "Walk On" last verse:

Everybody's got to find a way
And everybody's trying everyday to remind you
What's standing behind you?
What's it take to see?
What's it take to believe right from wrong/
Never knowing where you belong
Walk On
Walk On
Walk On
There's no turning back
Walk On
Get your train on the track

[johnspenn]

Here's my entry -
"When through the woods, and forest glades I wander
And hear the birds sing sweetly in the trees;
When I look down from lofty mountain grandeur
And hear the brook and feel the gentle breeze:
Then sings my soul, my Saviour God to Thee;
How great Thou art, how great Thou art!"
(Second verse of the famous hymn)

That verse is certainly applicable to being out in nature. But, the third verse of that same hymn really packs a punch =)

Some other hymns that come to mind when I'm out hiking from time to time-
Walking in Sunshine
"Walking in sunshine, all of my journey, over the mountains, through the deep vales..."
This is my Father's World
"This is my Father's world, and to my listening ears, all nature sings and round me rings the music of the spheres..."
Who?
"Who flung the stars out into space and holds them in their proper place, who like a curtain stretched the sky and made a place for birds to fly..."
For the beauty of the Earth
"For the beauty of the earth, for the glory of the skies, for the love which from our birth, over and around us lies..."

[KnightErrant]

I love that Avett Brothers song and that Lord Huron song! Both excellent hiking music. Another good Lord Huron one is "Ends of the Earth"

If you want something with very obvious relevance, I like "Keep On Walking" by Passenger, or "Take a Walk" by Passion Pit. Especially this rhyme in Keep On Walking:

"And I thought to myself, "Oh, son
You may be lost in more ways than one"
But I've a feeling that it's more fun
Than knowing exactly where you are"

I also like the song "Carry On" by Fun

"If you're lost and alone
Or you're sinking like a stone
Carry on
May your past be the sound of your feet upon the ground
Carry on"

And there's this very applicable song by Jared and the Mill. (They kinda sound like a Mumford and Sons cover band so they're a good listen if you like banjos and angst)
"[Verse 1]
Rode south before the winter
I took shelter in your eyes
Perched all the way to Brooklyn
I didn't ask for nothin'
But a place to spend the night
And I've never felt the winds blow
Like they do in Tennessee
They weren't all that strong
But carried them a song
That reminded you to me

[Chorus]
But can you tell me
About the moon that rises earlier up north?
Or how the hills, where they sing
In the early part of spring?
Where the road goes on forever
Like the pictures that we see
When we're lost, scared and tired
When we run free

[Verse 2]
But they say, "Boy, you're looking skinny
Should you really go this hard?
You're doing it for nothin'
These risky miles you're truckin'
Are crazy as they are far"
Well, I know that there's a reason
Why the rains keep rolling in
The creosote is bloomin'
The wrens are busy croonin'
And the stark is turning in



And if you don't want something so brooding and more about just relishing a moment in the outdoors in good weather, I love this song by Oh Honey:


"Fresh cut grass, one cold beer
Thank the Lord I am here and now, here and now
Summer dress, favorite park
Bless your soul, we are here and now, here and now
I'm wide awake, so what's the point of dreaming when your life is great?
Celebrate the feeling, celebrate the feeling
Can't complain about much these days, I believe we'll be okay
Oh oh oh oh
Can't complain about much these days, I believe we'll be okay
Oh oh oh oh, We're sleeping out, I believe we'll be okay
Sun kissed skin on my lips
Thank the Lord I am here and now, here and now
Fireflies after dark
Bless your soul, we are here and now, here and now"

[Seatbelt]

That verse is certainly applicable to being out in nature. But, the third verse of that same hymn really packs a punch =)

Some other hymns that come to mind when I'm out hiking from time to time-
Walking in Sunshine
"Walking in sunshine, all of my journey, over the mountains, through the deep vales..."
This is my Father's World
"This is my Father's world, and to my listening ears, all nature sings and round me rings the music of the spheres..."
Who?
"Who flung the stars out into space and holds them in their proper place, who like a curtain stretched the sky and made a place for birds to fly..."
For the beauty of the Earth
"For the beauty of the earth, for the glory of the skies, for the love which from our birth, over and around us lies..."
Quite refreshing to see this on Whiteblaze! Thank you!