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Walking Music

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In one of yesterday’s comments, Clyde mentioned taking a brisk morning walk in Mesa, Arizona while listening to this song by Peter Mayer.

Peter is a wonderful guy and this is a great song for many cosmic reasons. But one of the more cosmetically attractive things about it is that the music unfolds at a pace that is just right for walking. Same thing here, though a little faster, from Fats Domino.

The right music at a perfect pace can make a walk more pleasant, though caution is always advisable. There has been a recent flurry of attention devoted to the developing hazard of walking while fiddling with electronic gadgets, amplified by a viral YouTube video of a Pennsylvania woman tumbling into a shopping mall fountain because she was walking while texting. Inattention can have serious consequences, and it’s not a new problem. These NPR stories about distracted pedestrians are two years old.

Back to walking and listening to music – we’ve been doing this since the invention of the transistor radio, though at least in the pre-Sony Walkman days you didn’t have the immersive experience of headphones to seal off the outside world – just a single earplug to deliver the music. Or else you turned it up all the way and had the sound blasting out of the radio’s tinny little speaker through the tiny holes in its leatherette case.

And before that? We had to play the music back in our minds. Or, heaven forbid, sing it to ourselves! That’s the kind of strange behavior that caused our fellow pedestrians to cross to the other side of the street (after looking both ways, of course).

What’s your favorite walking music?

87 thoughts on “Walking Music”

  1. I’m partial to something that sets a quick pace. River of Justice by the DelLords is just perfect. Domino (Van Morrison) and Turbulence (Warren Zevon) also work well.

    I used to walk to work, and had a roughly 25-minute walk. But I had this one Walkman tape that I could use to get me there in eighteen minutes flat.

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    1. For the faster pace, there also a Pete Phountain (sorry) record that ncluded a song about walking Half-Fast that would be just about right.

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  2. This one might seem odd. This is officially “a walking song from Skye.” “My Father Sent Me to the House of Sorrow” appears on a wonderful special collaboration of Celtic artists organized by the BBC and broadcast as “The Highland Sessions.” There are, I believe, four.

    The link that includes this song (starts at the 3:00 minute mark) is here:
    http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-4902336240221187107#docid=4246371762294571885

    But, really, there are so many!

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    1. Nice music, Steve. I’ve learned to appreciate celtic music while living in Minnesota. The twin cities seems to be a hot spot for people who play this music. Boiled in Lead is my favorite with thier special way of playing these tunes.

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  3. a gracious good morning to You All
    Linda iSPWS – that’s quite a pace you set! impressive.

    i’ve never had device with an ear plug, but on the upside i’ve never walked into a fountain or off a hillside in Duluth because i wasn’t paying attention.
    out here one does not need music outside. plenty provided free of charge. the grouse are drumming, chickadees romancing, woodpeckers in the mood and sounding on anything that makes a nice noise.
    and, in the background, T is yelling “peese sent moor Gerls!” still. always. he is an unsubtle Guy – like the “wild and crazy guys” on SNL – not very appealing, but the Doe-girls sure love him. first batch of T-babies due in just over six weeks.
    Peter Mayer and Fats D. – great ideas for walking. Thanks, Clyde – thanks, Dale.

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    1. I agree Barb. In my opinion it is better to listen to the sounds of nature or other sounds, when walking, and not listen to a music player.

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    2. Just six weeks!?!

      Like Barb and Jim, I don’t do “plugged in”-devices are too spendy and have never found anything that does not eventually bother my ear(s).

      Of late, not much walking time either, and how I miss it.

      When I do get to walk, I tend to be of the “play the music in my head” sort. Not in the spring when the cardinals get going though. We have a lot in our little corner of St Paul and as our yard has all the “shrubbery”, they tend to congregate here. Had 5 males in one dogwood one morning-very lovely to see and hear (and Steve, don’t tell me what they are really up to, it is none of my beeswax).

      I do think it a pity with all the cell phones in people’s ears that you can no longer tell who is crazy by the fact that they are walking along having an impassioned discussion with themselves.

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  4. Good morning to all,

    I have tried mobile listening devices while walking and haven’t ended up doing this very much. I don’t like wearing head phones or ear buds while I’m walking. Also, I have trouble find a good way to carry the player, even if it is just a small ipod. I have made good use of these devices when riding on an airplane or just sitting some place.

    I do like music with a walking theme. I especially like another old Fats Domino tune, I’m Walking. I like the lyric “I’m walking, yes indeed I’m talking, about you and me, and I’m hopeing that you’ll come back to me” .

    A famous jazz tune that I really like is Walkin by Miles Davis and his band. You would have to walk at a quick pace to walk to this tune. When walking to this jazz tune you should use a cool hipster style of walking.

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  5. Morning all. I’ve never owned a walkman or iPod or even a transistor back in the day, so I’m in the “sounds of nature” camp. Or the “sounds of conversation” camp if I’m walking with someone. But I love hearing everyone else’s musical choices!

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  6. Back in ’72 hiking the Sierras, I/we sang an entire album of traditional Hungarian (folk) Dances from some workshop I had attended. Amazing how when you listen to an album enough times, it’s all there in your subconscious, and walking seems to allow you to access it all! I could hear all the instruments in my head – it was an extremely rich experience.

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  7. I’ve tried walkmen, transistor radios (especially when I couldn’t miss a moment of the Morning Show) and I do have an iPod, but lately I have been doing chores to the rhythm of the animals. When I did a lot of downhill skiing in Colorado, I found that tunes from “Jacques Brel Alive and Well and Living in Pairs” helped me find my rhythm going down the hills…in particular, “Carousel” which has a strong downbeat.

    Sidetrack here: The other day someone (forgive me for forgetting who) mentioned cooking to Nana Mouskouri’s “Adieu Angelique” I could go anywhere anytime with Nana providing background music…and seeing her name pop up in this group reminds me why I love being (albeit intermittent) on this blog.

    Thanks, y’all, for being here. Time to do the chores-in-rhythm thing,

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    1. Oops…not “Carousel”…”You’re Not Alone (Love) You’re Not Alone…” that was what I heard in my head to help me down the Vail hills.

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  8. Rise and stroll Baboons:

    Well, I’m the gadget baboon of the group. I am using the second ipod of my life and love having it. I always walk in the morning–that is when I am energetic, so I used to listen to, ta-da, the Morning Show, when I walked if I wanted music. But otherwise I listen to audio books while I walk many, many miles every week. It makes the walk my special private haven. I’ve been so busy the last 15 years that this is how I read.

    20 years ago I listened to cassette tapes on a Walkman and wore out many of those, then along came books on CD, so I started to use those until I broke them. Now I listen on an ipod, downloading books from Audible.com or songs from itunes. The best music is Johnny Cash (for walking OR driving). That boom-dah-dah-boom-dah-dah beat that was his signature sound gets me into the groove and bouncing down the sidewalk.

    But if I need to fiddle with a gadget, I stop walking. And I never take my cell phone on a walk. Sometimes I walk and just listen to the birds. At the bottom of our hill is a little wetland full of frogs. In the Spring and Summer that is a symphony, too.

    Hope to see you at Liberty.

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  9. About 1976 I took a solo pheasant hunting trip with Brandy, my springer spaniel, who was one hot pistol of a rootin’ tootin’ hunter. On the trip down to Iowa I happened to hear the new Dire Straits single (featuring one of the gods of guitar, Mark Knopfler) doing their “Sultans of Swing” number. The tune lodged in head . . . one of those brain worm things. When I turned Brandy loose she hit the ground running at exactly the beat of the “Sultans of Swing.” We hunted three exhausting days, and it was a queer experience because the whole time I had this tune in my head and Brandy was charging along at just that same beat; and by the time we were done I was so spaced out on endorphins I couldn’t have passed any drug test.

    Here is the astonishing version of “Sultans of Swing” by Mark Knopfler backed up by Eric Clapton. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EQ-JyAGUsys

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    1. quite an image, Steve – thanks. and love those Springers. boing! boing! boing! (mine wasn’t well trained 🙂

      Cynthia – that animal rhythm is magical, not? i’m the only one that ever misses a beat.

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      2. ha, ha, Jacque! but no pulling PLEASE, says Ms. Dream and i bet Ms. Poplar also. my hands do hurt in the morning but as soon as i begin milking they loosen up and feel better. therapeutic in many, many ways.

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    2. Thanks for that link Steve… have you seen Dire Straights or MK in concert? I’ve got all the CD’s and saw MK the last two times he came through Minneapolis… I use “Sultans” as my alarm.
      There’s a blog of his last few tours at
      http://www.guyfletcher.co.uk/index.php
      Guy Fletcher is a keyboardist that has been touring with Mark.

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      1. always liked that tune but never folowed the dire straits as a gorup. mark knoffler escaped my radar until he popped up a year or so ago with his duet album with his wife emmy lou harris, she is one of my favorites and the voices together are wonderful and it gave me an opportunity to listen to him up close for the first time. used to think the sultans of swing reminded me of dylan during the long dylan hiatus

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  10. When you walk in a neighborhood with a lot of kids, and you have a friendly basset hound with you, a 30 minute walk takes you about 6 blocks and you likely wouldn’t get through a whole song. Which is just fine by me. I fall in to the “would rather listen to the world around me” camp than the earphones camp. Barney is an inquisitive beast and likes to be sure to greet everyone (and smell everything). Plus, he’s right at kid-height and looks a bit like a cartoon character, and is a bit of a kid magnet. So really, walking with Barney is more of a pause (for petting and sniffing) interrupted by occasional movement. Not really exercise, but a nice time out and about none-the-less.

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      2. My prior basset was Norma – both were “gently used” (rescues) and came pre-named. Barney was originally a “Rudy,” but his foster home renamed him Barney, which does fit him much better than Rudy. They are a goofy breed, but charmingly so.

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    2. well, Anna, try walking a cat. i had an old kitty i’d take out on a leash when we lived in Duluth. it took 30 minutes to get halfway around the house – walk one step, stop and smell the bushes, smell the bushes more, smell the bushes even more. after 30 minutes i’d carry her back into the house 🙂

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      1. I am always in awe of those who can get a cat to consent to a leash. Neither of mind would ever do it. To them, a leash meant, “time to sit down and get this thing off me at any price”, they would not budge until the wretched thing was gone.

        Twixie of the gravatar does insist on getting out (even in the cold) and will walk me to the door when I get home from work (and from there, straight to the kitchen and the supper dish-let’s not get crazy!)

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      2. Some cats do. Friends used to have a cat (Nanook, Cat of the North!) that would accept a leash. But they could walk this cat off-leash, too. As they walked, the cat ran around but kept right near them like an obedient dog.

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      3. One of my cats, Sammy, will walk on or off a leash. Usually I walk him without, but the leash becomes necessary if he spots another cat that he perceives as being on his turf.

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    1. Catch the Wait, Wait “Bachmann Link” snark remark tomorrow at 2 on MPR. I nearly drove off the road listening today at noon.

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    2. JACQUE – can you share the link to that article? I would love to read it. And yes, it was me that referred to Ms. Bachmann as a whack job. The very thought of her running for president just makes me ill ….

      Cynthia in M – what was the show you listened to today that I can hear again tomorrow? Details, details, ladies! As one of the oppressed in the 6th District, I want to hear all the dirt about her. If not on the blog, email me at jmjensen(at)izoom.net or any other baboon who wishes to contact me!

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      2. Thanks, Jacque! Oh yeah, excellent snarkitude. I still can’t figure out what gives her the right to rebut the President’s speech when she’s small potatoes in the GOP …

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  12. What’s the appropriate music for walking into a custard shop? I want to join the troop today but have to give a lecture and am call so my time is not my own. Will do my best!

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  13. Sans bike, thus walking here, very much in the heart of a senior citizen compound. The only nature to listen to in this brick and concrete blight in the early morning is the sound of golf carts. I seldom walk for exercise anymore; usually bike. Did do many mile of the Superior Trail when I lived right by it and then nothing but the sound of nature in my ears. When I bike I listen to MPR classical (TMS before its death of course) so that I can just turn it on and forget it with no fiddling, thus not riding into any fountains. I rarely bike on a busy street. I find the music at a certain volume makes me hear the sound of traffic even better, with my strange hearing issues. On a rural biking trail such as the Sakatah I will go to the music on the MP3. My favorite then is the sound track from Juno.

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    1. I think you are in Phoenix, right? 2 of our kids live there so I spend time there, but my feelings about the place are similar. And the air is dirty.

      Chin up.

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    3. love the soundtrack form juno, my kids are used to my being the last out of a movie theater, waiting to see the locations in the movie is the usual reason, for juno it was because the closing song was as good as all the others in the movie. great stuff.

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  14. Morning–

    I’m not much of a walker… and other than an actual Sony cassette Walkman back in 1982 I don’t own any sort of mobile music device. Wait, does my cell phone count? Cause it does music now I guess, plus maps and calendars and camera…. oh, and I can call people too.

    Our daughter always has her CD player when in the car and sometimes taking away her CD player is punishment. But she told me once ‘OK fine! I have music in my head anyway!’
    Welcome to the club daughter, welcome to the club…

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  15. I am afraid that if I listened to music while I walked I would injure myself or someone else since I would be too distracted. I love to crank it up while I drive. Holst’s Planets is pretty awesome on the long stretches of nothing we have out here, as well as anything Celtic or Copeland. I was never happier than when the State replaced the crop of state vehicles with ones that had CD players. Radio stations are pretty one-dimensional out here and the pickings slim. I suppose I would be a distracted driver if I can’t even walk and listen, but somehow I haven’t crashed yet.(Maybe its because there is very little to run into.) We are predicted to have 4-8 inches of fluffy, blowing snow tomorrow into Monday, so the trip to Bismarck to have the braces removed may have to be postponed.

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  16. Wow! Thanks for all the good music this morning, Dale and everyBaboon! I’ve enjoyed all of the selections.

    Listening to music is difficult for me. I don’t mean that it’s difficult to listen to music, it’s just incredibly difficult for me not to participate in it in some way, usually singing along. If I listen to classical music, I can’t resist conducting. If it has a good beat, I find myself tapping along to the rhythm. Music can be disruptive for me when I’m really trying to focus on something else. I tend to drop whatever it is I’m doing and go participate in the music. I have to set aside time for listening to a particular CD because of the untamed musician in me who must play along.

    Ear buds or headphones don’t work for me – besides I’d be singing while walking down the street. I can’t afford the gadgets anyway. So, I listen to the music in my head or the sound of nature around me. I walk in Sakatah State Park a lot and I love to listen to the sound of the wind in the trees, the streams as they run down to the lake, and the waves hitting the shore. Sometimes it’s deafeningly loud in the silence of the forest. I feel like part of nature and wouldn’t miss it for the world. Today at my bird feeder the chickadees are making their spring calls – how reassuring!

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    1. thats funny my wife cant have music on she needs talk radio for background noise and i cant have talk radio i get caught up in the story and get nothing done.

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  17. Nature is best – no argument there, but when I’m on the treadmill the only way I can stick with it is to have music going. A favorite album of late is Dave Rawlings Machine.
    The last song is lovely and works well to cool down to.

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  18. this new ipod world gas me in constant what was that mode. i hit the button and ask it to mix all the music in the mix randomly and it is intersting when it is out of context how difficult it is to figure out what you are listening to. the classical and jazz mixes make up a good portion of the mix so the violin and cello concertos and the riffs on sax and trumpet and piano do all make you walk at different tempos. i have alway been a huge carry along music guy. back in the old days i was the only person i knew who had installed a headphone jack into their car stereo . i justified it being ok because i used the koss open air headphones and could hear sirens and horns but the sound was way better than the radio. today i have the ipod but my good headphones got ripped off on my trip to winnepeg a while back and i hate hate hate the earbuds. its like toothpicks in my ears so i muddle through with whatever is around until i am willing to pop for the big bucks for super headphones again. day o comes to mind to put a little attitude in my step. or i feel good

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  19. Image of the week: Second night I’ve noticed as I leave HCMC in the dark (well, as dark as it gets downtown), and cross 8th street to the parking ramp: a big blackbird flying into a tree in the little one-block park kitty corner across the street. I look into the park and realize that every tree there is full, full of blackbirds; each tree (depending on its size) has dozens or hundreds of them, reminiscent of <The Birds. It’s kind of cool, actually, a little comforting, all these birds smack in the middle of downtown Mpls, keeping watch over HCMC.

    Yep, a couple of you nailed it, ’twas a nice boring day with some progress. Hope the Liberty Custard sendoff went well…

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    1. Wonderful imagery. Just keep your eyes down if all the birds leave the trees at once!

      Liberty Custard outing was fun. We had Word Girl, S&H, Ben (Jacque’s son) and the teenager in attendance as well!

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    3. great image. feels a bit like hearing nature instead of the tunes. if you had been nose first into your i pod you would have missed the birds. something to be said for being here now eh?

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    4. Fun to meet some of the next-generation Baboons. (BiR – I snagged a pint of chocolate for you…) Sorry I missed any discussion of King’s Speech and Billy Elliot – the latter I have seen and it’s fabulous, the former I am much looking forward to seeing (but will wait, sort of patiently, until it gets to the Riverview).

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  20. The King’s Speech after Liberty Custard, was impressive. FYI, the R rating must be because the speech therapist has the King yelling F*** and Sh*** for emotional release. Otherwise, the only exposed flesh was the King’s knee in a kilt.

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    2. thanks for the update. its too bad when our societal prudishness gets in the way of quality. looking forward seeing it myself. thanks for the fun afternoon get together at liberty custard. nice to meet your son. a very nice young man.

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    3. i recommended billy madison at the discussion. while billy madison is funny in a slapstick way.( my kids are big adam sandler fans and this is classic adam sandler) what i meant to recommend was billy elliot. an amazing ballet story. also i saw the kids are alright , the oscar nomination vehicle for annette benning and i can recommend skipping it. not much there in a lesbian raising kids and having issues story.

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      1. I disagree, tim. On “The Kids Are Alright.” I think it is a fine script that deals honestly with believable human foibles. At one point it feels like one of the characters is going to make the big summary statement that gives focus to everything that has happened. And what she says is something like, “And marriage . . . marriage . . . well marriage is HARD! It is really HARD!” And I take that to be about the most honest summary statement I’ve ever heard in a movie. I won’t argue it is a great film, but I think it has more merit than you do. : )

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    1. Thanks for bringing that up, Jean. McFerrin is truly amazing. I wonder if he ever re-did that song as “I’m My Own iPod”?

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  22. Not sure about my favorite walking music, but my favorite walking musician is Woody Allen, playing cello as part of his high school marching band, in his first real movie (not to disparage What’s Up Tiger Lily), Take The Money And Run (1970?).

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