Rowan

This is a little different from the parallel thread runnning on "music to describe touring by". And... it's been a little difficult to find the right word to describe what I mean. "Epiphanal" comes close -- the music that spiritually takes you back to an experience.

A couple of examples for me:

"Blinded by the Light", a Bruce Springsteen composition made most famous by Manfred Mann's Earth Band, became the music to remember the experience Machka and I had going to and from BMB and the 24H race in Iowa/Illinois in 2006, and especially around the Great Lakes where the radio stations LOVED playing the song.

"Peacekeeper", a haunting and poignant piece by Fleetwood Mac; it's not well known, but enough to be repeated daily on the Rocket FM rock station based in Holland and which broadcasts right through to Belgium. It became the song I waited anxiously for each day as my inspiriation as Rocket played its song on a rotational roster. It's the song I relate only and directly to that tour.

"Bitter Sweet Symphony" by The Verve. The lilting strings that introduce this song really stopped me dead on the Eyre Highway at the head of the Great Australian Bight in 1997 on my Perth-Adelaide trip. I couldn't get enough of it, and I was delighted to get to Adelaide and see the video clip at the hostel.

We didn't really listen to any radio or MP3 players last year in Europe, and there are probably songs that if I heard now would remind me of some of the other tours I have done.

There are others in my lifetime, of course, but not related to cycling.

"Don't Cry for Me Argentina" by Julie Covington remains the epiphanal song for my experience living and working on the wild West Coast of Tasmania, and especially as the first time I heard it was while driving through an isolated area after midnight with my then-wife; the area doesn't exist anymore, having been flooded by a lake.

"Antarctica" by Vangelis was a piece I turned up so loud as I sat by my Range Rover in the an isolated part of the Southern Tasmanian forests as a control waiting for rally cars to arrive; it snowed among the silent gum trees. That in itself was a remarkable experience.

And "Wonderful Land" a short piece by Mike Oldfield, was my theme song as I drove home from work in Cairns up to the Atherton Tablelands for three months -- I turned up the tape player in the same Rangie, and blasted through the darkness and monsoonal rain with "Wonderful Land" and a few other Oldfield favourites.


What about you? Are there songs that represent events in your life and every time you hear them, you travel instantly back to those experiences?

brunop

jigga
ghostface

paul2

A few of my tours have had what I call theme songs, that always make me think of the tour when I hear it.

When I cycled the California coast, my cycling partner's mother's favourite song was "All I Wanna Do" by Cheryl Crow. When we arrived at Santa Monica Boulevard, he was very excited.

In New Zealand I kept singing "It's Raining Again" by Supertramp in my head. One morning we heard it on the radio in the kitchen of the campground, cementing it as the theme song for the tour.

When we cycled the Alps, on the second day of big climbing I realized that I was singing a song in my head, and it was the same song I'd been singing the day before, but I didn't pay any attention to it. About an hour later I realized it was a Skydiggers song. About an hour later I thought about the song, and realized it was "Just Over This Mountain."

When I cycled the Gaspe, my theme song was "St. Brendan's Way", by the Lowest of the Low, with the line, "And nothing can match the beauty/In the sight of Gaspe."

As for noncycling, "California Dreaming" will always remind me of trekking in Nepal. And Aqua's "Barbie Girl" will always make me think of Christmas in New Zealand.

jackBEAR

i enjoy real jazzy hip hop. Great for riding through the cities. mos def, mf doom, people under the stairs -great cycling music.

neilfein

I write my own music; I've gotten one song out of commuting and one out of a five-day tour in the rain.

BigBlueToe

I was a music major in college and played in a really fine wind ensemble (just like a concert band, except with minimal players - usually one or two per part.) We played a piece by Percy Grainger called "Lincolnshire Posy". It's a bunch of folk songs with really inventive, fun arrangements. I've recently found a recording on Rhapsody and put it on my mp3 player. Whenever I play it I'm back in the middle of the band.

Remember that song, "I Would Walk 500 Miles" by those two brothers from Scotland? When I rode the RAGBRAI, that was out, and my friend and I would sing it and laugh. Now when I hear it I'm back in Iowa.

When I hear "Hot Town, Summer In the City", or "Eve of Destruction", I'm 15 years old again, on vacation at Lake Pend Oreilles, Idaho.

I've got dozens more. Ahh, but who else cares?

paul2

When I hear that song I'm reminded of the summer I drove to San Diego and back.

Rowan

Well... that's why I started the thread, so you could think about them, and we could psycho-analyse why

Go on, list 'em anyway. It's winter in your parts, what else have you got to do except transport yourself back in history with music?

Chris L

Bumping this thread because I can. For me the answer usually depends on which CD I had on high rotation immediately before/after the tour in question. Yet there are a few individual tracks that stand out.

On my first tour across northern New South Wales in Australia it was "Weir" from Killing Heidi. There seemed to be something about breaking free and taking a risk that I got from that song, perfectly suited to a first tour. 18 months later, when I was riding across the high plateau near Queen Mary Falls in Queensland, the song was "History" from the Verve. It always takes me back to that ride, as does "Storm Clouds" from the same CD -- largely because that day ended with a sudden downpour.

"Pink Bullets" from The Shins reminds me of those tranquil, overcast days on Tasmania's East Coast -- especially Triabunna and Maria Island. In fact, most of the tracks on that album ("Chute's Too Narrow") take me back to some part of Tasmania. I actually missed seeing them play in Brisbane because I was flying to Hobart to start the tour on the same weekend. Have a listen to "Building Bridges, Digging Caves" from The Boat People for a song that perfectly encapsulates riding along the west coast of New Zealand's South Island, or at least it does in my mind.

Then there was the Glaswegian band Travis who's big hit was "Why Does It Always Rain On Me?". Imagine hearing that in a Scottish pub near the end of a month-long tour during which you've been rained on almost every day (true story). Some of the songs on their latest album also come to mind when I think back on that tour -- particularly "Battleships" and "Selfish Jean" (no, I don't know why). There's also that song from the Manic Street Preachers called "Your Love Alone Is Not Enough". I first heard that on the flight from Australia to the UK, and listened to it several times, so that song now seems to be permanently associated with that trip. It was also appropriate as I was feeling a little unlucky in love at the time, but that's another story.

And finally (at last I hear you say), there were two different Manic Street Preachers albums that hark back to my two tours in Victoria, Australia. In Western Victoria it was songs like Epicentre (when I was riding away from the coast across the plains and rolling hills toward the centre), Freedom Of Speech Won't Feed My Children, Let Robeson Sing and The Year Of Purification (I could name half a dozen other songs from Know Your Enemy if I really wanted to). For some reason, "Outside of Me" from Killing Heidi came up on the Great Ocean road. I'm almost certain that was just a matter of which CD I was listening to at the time.

In 2004, in Eastern Victoria, there was one particular Manics track -- "Solitude", that seemed to express a solo tour perfectly ("Solitude sometimes is"), and also "Cardiff Afterlife" from the same album. That tour also came as I was discovering Sarah Blasko, and tracks like Sweet November (the tour was in November), Cinders (one of my all time favourite songs) and Perfect Now. Perfect Now seems appropriate because for me it suggests falling in love with something/someone, but somehow knowing that you can't stay there, and knowing that the view you have of it at that moment is idealised and the reality could never match up with it.

I'm sure several others will leap to mind the second I log off.

cyclezealot

When on the bike, I appreciate the scenery and stay attuned to nature. I don't need music. If I were to, I think i'd want something that blends in with nature. Maybe, something from Enya.

ken cummings

When I did my first long tour from Denver and had gotten my loaded Miyata 1000 over the 8,000 foot climb up Loveland Pass and the continental Divide I spontaneously started signing as I headed down the other side. "Ive got a home in glory land that outshines the Sun . . ." As I reached the first switchback and had to smoke my brakes to make it I had reached the phrase, " Do Lord, oh do Lord, oh do remember me" and the brakes worked and I made it safely down into Breckenridge.

awc380

When I tour I am so attuned to nature that the animals sing to me.

I am THAT good at bicycle touring.

BigBlueToe

I just got back from a two-week tour. I had my MP3 player - wonderful technology that makes listening to music while biking so great. I probably listened to it about half of the time I was riding. I was alone and it helped to pass the time. I would pick the music based on my mood at the time, and the choices varied widely. One time I picked Basia and it was a very wrong choice. I was concerned about the weather and grizzly bears and finding a campsite, and the Basia music just made me more uptight. I turned it off and listened to the sounds of riding. But some mornings on a peaceful road I'd put on just the right music and the miles would fly by.

The Figment

5/8/77
6/13/85
11/20/71

Neil_B

Recording by who? I think the Fennell/Eastman Wind Ensemble is the 'best', or at least best known.

Neil_B

Bruckner symphonies. Any, although I prefer the 4th and 7th.

MTBMaven

We're on a road to nowhere by the Talking Heads
I like to joking sing this at those points late in the day when it seems like you will never see the end. David Byrne is a cyclist BTW!

Hezz

Dvorak: New World Symphony

Aaron Copland: Billy the Kid, El Salon Mexico, Appalacian Spring Suite

xilios

Lucky man by the Verve.
Every time I hear this it takes me back to the first tour my wife and I took (Maastricht, NL to Barcelona Spain).

Seneca

For my Vienna to Amsterdam tour it was.

Modest Mouse "We were dead before the ship even sank"

I listened every day and when I listen now, I can feel the sun, see the forests and smell the brush. What an amazing sensory connection this creates!

I think "what album" doesn't matter, it just needs to be new (I bought the album right before the trip). It COULD have been Megadeath perhaps =) if I had chosen to listen to that daily on my ride instead.

Seneca

raybo

While I do listen to music while I tour (and train for that matter), I mostly listen to audio books. I check them out of the library and rip them just like a CD.

On my recent trip to France, I listened to Jon Krakauer's "Into the Wild." Not only is it well-written, but I could relate to most of what he wrote. I listened to it as I was riding through a rainy day in the Dordogne Valley. It added an unexpected dimension to the entire experience.

Ray

Lifelonglaugh

On those big mountain passes, Stevie Ray Vaughan's "My Thighs are Cryin'" is a personal favorite!

jamawani 

Nothing is more glorious than Mozart.

MTBMaven

I actually listen to audiobooks mostly. Great way to educate myself while rolling along. Next up The Secret History of the American Empire: The Truth About Economic Hit Men, Jackals, and How to Change the World by John Perkins, which is the follow up to his bestselling Confession of an Economic Hit Man book. Highly recommended. Other highlights include The Tipping Point, the Greenspan book, and Freakonomic.

HillCusser

I find Tim O'brien's music fitting for most occasions - good stuff! https://www.cmt.com/artists/az/o_brien_tim/albums.jhtml