Ten For Tuesday – Running Songs April 27, 2010
Posted by Matt in top ten.Tags: Blues Traveler, Bruce Springsteen, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Mark Knopfler & Emmylou Harris, Neil Young, Phish, Pink Floyd, running, songs, The Beatles, Tom Petty, top ten, Van Halen
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In keeping with the running theme from today’s earlier blog entry, I put together a list of ten songs with the word “run” in the title. These are not necessarily good songs to run along with, but they do include the word and I will add a few of the lyrics pertaining to running. Some of these are from memory and some are from my Ipod, but I’m sure I left a lot of great ones out. Let me know what should be added.
10. Blues Traveler – Run-Around
Why you wanna give me a run-around?
Is it a sure-fire way to speed things up
When all it does is slow me down.
9. Mark Knopfler/Emmylou Harris – All the Roadrunning
If it’s all for nothing
All the road running has been in vain.
8. The Beatles – Run for Your Life
You better run for your life if you can, little girl
Hide your head in the sand little girl
Catch you with another man
That’s the end’a little girl
7. Phish – Run Like an Antelope
Set the gearshift for the high gear of your soul
You’ve got to run like an antelope, out of control
6. Creedence Clearwater Revival – Run Through the Jungle
Better run through the jungle,
Whoa, don’t look back
5. Pink Floyd – Run Like Hell
Run, run, run, run
You better run all day
And run all night
4. Tom Petty – Running Down a Dream
I’m running down a dream
That never would come to me
Working on a mystery
Going wherever it leads
Running down a dream
3. Van Halen – Running with the Devil
(Ahh!) Runnin’ with the devil (Ahh-hah! Yeah!)
(Woo-hoo-oo!) Runnin’ with the devil
2. Neil Young – Long May You Run
Long may you run, long may you run
Although these changes have come
With your chrome heart shining in the sun
Long may you run
1. Bruce Springsteen – Born to Run
Baby this town rips the bones from your back
It’s a death trap, it’s a suicide rap
We gotta get out while we’re young
‘Cause tramps like us, baby we were born to run
Ten for Tuesday: Songs for 4/20 April 20, 2010
Posted by Matt in top ten.Tags: 4.20, Amy Winehouse, Beastie Boys, Black Sabbath, Bob Dylan, Cypress Hill, Grateful Dead, Johnny Cash, Little Feat, marijuana, Oasis, Tom Petty, top ten
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Disclaimer: While I may support its legalization, I am far from being a supporter of using marijuana – it just does not hold any appeal to me.
Today is 4/20, otherwise known as the marijuana holiday, a day in which many across the country will gather together to consume cannabis, followed by what I imagine is the ritual of eating mass amounts of Cheetos. While I don’t condone or participate in these activities, I do recognize the importance of marijuana in the national consciousness – particularly when it comes to the music we listen to. Over the years there have been countless songwriters who found their inspiration while under the influence or who pointed to this section of the counterculture in the words they composed. So, to commemorate this day, I searched through my Ipod and found ten songs that make mention of the wacky weed. Let me know what you think.
10. Black Sabbath – Sweet Leaf
Sample Lyric: My life was empty, forever on a down / Until you took me, showed me around / My life is free now, my life is clear / I love you sweet leaf, though you can’t hear
Yeah, I think that last line (though you can’t hear?) is proof that ol’ Ozzy was enjoying the aforementioned leaf a bit.
9. Little Feat – Don’t Bogart That Joint
Sample Lyric: Don’t bogart that joint, my friend / Pass it over to me.
Subtlety, thy name is not Little Feat.
8. Beastie Boys – Hold it Now, Hit It
Sample Lyric: Miller drinkin’, chicken eatin’, dress so fly / I got friends in high places that are keepin’ me high / Down wit’ Mike D. and it ain’t no hassle / Got the lades of the eighties from here to White Castle.
Extra credit for “ladies of the eighties” and “White Castle.”
7. Johnny Cash – Sunday Morning Comin’ Down
Sample Lyric: On a Sunday morning sidewalk / I’m wishin’, Lord, that I was stoned.
So he drinks beer for breakfast and wishes he was stoned while walking around the neighborhood smelling fried chicken. Nice.
6. Tom Petty – You Don’t Know How it Feels
Sample Lyric: Let me get to the point / Let’s roll another joint / And turn the radio loud / I’m too alone to be proud.
Tom Petty knows his stuff, especially when it is stuff you smoke. You could have also included “Last Dance with Mary Jane.”
5. Grateful Dead – High Time
Sample Lyric: I was having a high time / living the good life / well I know.
You can’t have a list of drug references in music without including the Dead.
4. Amy Winehouse – Addicted
Sample Lyric: When you smoke all my weed, man / You gotta call the green man / So I can get mine and you get yours.
Marijuana is the least of Amy Winehouse’s worries, but I guess an ode to weed would be better received than one to crack.
3. Oasis – Campagne Supernova
Sample Lyric: How many special people change / How many lives are living strange / Where were you while we were getting high?
Senior year, 1996 – not because we smoked pot, but because we listened to this a lot.
2. Cypress Hill – Insane in the Brain
Sample Lyric: Like Louis Armstrong played the trumpet / I’ll hit that bong and break ya off somethin’ soon / I got to get my props / Cops, come and try to snatch my crops.
Some artists write about love. Some express the deepest desires of their hearts. Some try to change a broken world. Cypress Hill rap about marijuana. Period. And they’ve been doing it for more than 15 years.
1. Bob Dylan – Rainy Day Women #12 & 35
Sample Lyric: They’ll stone you when you’re trying to be so good. / They’ll stone you just like they said they would. / They’ll stone you when you’re tryin’ to go home. / Then they’ll stone you when you’re there all alone. / But I would not feel so all alone / Everybody must get stoned.
Sure the song isn’t only about drug use, but it is as countercultural a tune as you are going to find.
So, what should I have included? What should I have not included?
