What song lyrics motivate/compel you to hike?

[D'Artagnan]

I find certain song lyrics compel me to head out and hike. This morning while I was walking before work, I was listening to my iPod Shuffle when Simon & Garfunkel's Slip Slidin' Away came on. The lyrics that made me long for the Trail were:

I know a woman
Became a wife
These are the very words she uses
To describe her life
She said a good day
Ain't got no rain
She said a bad day's when I lie in bed
And think of things that might have been

Slip slidin' away
Slip slidin' away
You know the nearer your destination
The more you're slip slidin' away

Just curious if there are others out there who have favorite song lyrics that push them to the great outdoors?

[SGT Rock]

No lyrics, just the tune to March Slav by Tchaikovsky. Never was there a better soundtrack to uphills.

[Footslogger]

James Taylor's ..."Walking Man"

'Slogger

[Tabasco]

My first day of this year's section hike was April 2nd, from Springer to Gooch Gap. Spent most of it alone in the blowing snow,

All I could hear in my head was the lyric from Green Day

"I walk alone, my shadow's the only one that walks beside me..."

[wacocelt]

I found I could somehow get up tough climbs in Maine, while SoBo'ing, without resting if I sang 'Devil went down to Georgia'. Makes absolutely no sense but it worked.

[Nightwalker]

A song that almost wrote itself during my AT section this year. Here's the chorus:

I was born a rambler, rambler through and through.
I was born to ramble, ramblin's what I do.
And if you walk with me just a little while,
you might become a rambler, too.

I wrote a number of verses, too, but forgot most of 'em.

[cakeman21k]

2 come to mind
1. Lord I was born a ramblin man by the Allman brothers
2. I'm Walkin by Fats Domino

Both are too fast to actually hike to, but they get the idea of walking in my head!

[The Solemates]

anything bluegrass, which is what i listen to most of the time, so im always wanting to hike!

[hiker5]

I find the first two verses of "How Great Thou Art" particularly inspiring when in the wilderness.

(1) O Lord my God, When I in awesome wonder,
Consider all the worlds Thy Hands have made;
I see the stars, I hear the rolling thunder,
Thy power throughout the universe displayed.

(R) Then sings my soul, My Saviour God, to Thee,
How great Thou art, How great Thou art.
Then sings my soul, My Saviour God, to Thee,
How great Thou art, How great Thou art!

(2) 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 see the brook, and feel the gentle breeze.

[D'Artagnan]

Hiker5, you're absolutely right. Every time we sing this hymn now in church (which is often since I'm a Methodist) I can't help but envision myself on the trail. Thanks for posting the words. It's one of those goosebump hymns for me.

[Frosty]

I make my best hiking time reciting poetry out loud. Certain poems work very well for rhythm. I like Longfellow's stuff (iambic pentameter).

Picture a hiking pole hitting the ground on each capitalize sylable:

it WAS the SCHOON-er HES-per-US,
that SAIL-ed the WIN-try SEA

or

[B]UN-der the SPREAD-ing CHEST-nut TREE
the VIL-lage SMITH-y STANDS
the SMITH a MIGHT-y MAN is HE
with LARGE and SIN-ewy HANDS

Edgar Allan Poe works, too:

ONCE up-ON a MID-night DREAR-y
WHILE i PON-dered WEAK and WEAR-y


When you get to the good parts of the poems:
at DAY-break ON a BLEAK sea BEACH,
a FISH-erman STOOD a-GHAST
to SEE the FORM of a MAIDen FAIR
LASHed CLOSE to a DRIFTing MAST

the tempo just naturaly picks up and the miles just slip right by

[Backtrack]

Name that tune:

(1)
"What price freedom?
Dirt is my rug
Well I sleep like a baby with the snakes and the bugs
And I woke up this morning with the cold water,
with the cold water, with the cold water..."

(2)
"In that cool mountain air, on the Appalachian Trail...
Oh, life is better there."

And of course:

(3)
"I'm takin a walk in the woods, &%#* yeah!
It's nice, very very nice..."

[briarpatch]

Robert Johnson's "Walkin' Blues" - with my own verses

Woke up this mornin'
feel 'round for my shoes.
You know 'bout that, baby,
Got them ole walkin' blues.
This mornin',
Got them ole walking blues.

Gotta get outta bed,
just to walk 20 miles,
puzzling to some,
but it gives me smiles,
this walking,
all day makes me smile.

Got puds in Georgia,
but views at the top,
gotta keep on walkin,
ain't gonna stop.
Puds ain't pointless,
beats punching a clock.

and so on. . . . . . . .

[Dances with Mice]

Robert Johnson's "Walkin' Blues" - with my own verses

Woke up this mornin'

As all good blues songs should start!

Personally, when the sun starts heading downward in the western sky….

….and the miles behind me have been pretty long….and kinda rough….

….and the trail immediately in front of me turns kinda vertical…

….and my head thinks it’s one, maybe two, or maybe even three more climbs before the day’s walkin’ is done….

…but my bod says it’s time, way past time, to be done right here and now….

…that’s when the MP3 player’s Marley folder gets selected. And suddenly I’m Bob, Bob, Bobbin’ along.

Soul Shakedown Party (Tonight!!). Lively Up Yourself! Keep on Moving! Then mix in a little Police: Everything She Does is Magic! Walking on the Moon! Before I know it there’s the summit then a downhill to bop down. Another climb? No problem, bring it on!

Marley and Sting have gotten me up some climbs I didn’t feel like doing from down in the gap.

[Big Guy]

When things get tough I always hear Amazing Grace in my head. This is also my favorite hym.

[Ridge]

In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida.............Baby.......

[digger51]

They Call The Wind Moriah from the movie Paint Your Wagon. Also I Was Born Under A Wandering Star from the same movie.

[coyote]

Any Military Marching or Running Cadence. I sing em with my kids on the trail or buy myself or hiking partner when I hike with one.

example

Up in the morning with the rising Sun
Gona walk all day till the day is done

There once was a man from Nantucket
Who's (well nevermind) some of you know the rest. lol

[wacocelt]

I also enjoy switching up the lyrics to some of my favorite songs to fit the trail ie. Dock of the Bay - Otis Redding

Hiking in the mornin' Sun,
I'll be hikin' when the eeevnin' co'omes
Watchin' the rain rolli i'in
And I watch it roll awa'ay agi'in

Or perhaps Turn the Page - 'Uncle' Bob Seager

At a dark and lonesome trailhead
Miles and miles from home
You can listen to the north wind
Moanin' out it's long cold song
You can think about the buffet
That you ate in the town before

But your thoughts will soon be wanderin'
The way they always do
When you're hikin sixteen miles
And theres nothin' much to do
And you don't feel much like hikin'
You just wish your day was through...

You get the picture, it's a blast!

[The Hog]

This Pretenders song refers to Santa Claus, but I use several of the lines to evoke thru hiking:

He's co-uh-uh-uh-uh-ome....
2,000 mi-eye-eye-eye-iles...
It's very far.

The snow is falling do-ow-own,
I miss you.
-------------------

I don't know all the words to this Chicago song - I only use a few lines - especially when the going starts to get tough, the sweat is pouring off, and there's a long way to go, and further, that's exactly the moment I'm hankering for and immersing myself in:

Only the beginning,
Oh yeah, just the start....

Only the beginning,
What I want to feel's forever...