Country Songs to Run By!
I see articles, blog entries, etc. all the time about what songs are on a runner's iPod, CD player, etc. However, I never see any country music songs! (And I must admit there aren't that many good "running songs" either by words and lyrics or a beat.)
I've got a bigger list on the laptop at home, but here are four (4) that always stick out in my mind:
1.) "How Bad Do You Want It?", Tim McGraw -- This is the first cut on his current CD, "Live Like You Were Dying," that has been out since last summer. I swear that it should be the perfect finish line song! (You may have heard it a little bit during either the NLCS or World Series coverage on Fox.) The chorus goes like this:
How bad do you want it?
How bad do you need it?
Are you eating, sleeping, dreaming
With that one thing on your mind?
How bad do you want it?
How bad do you need it?
Cause if you want it all
You've got to lay it all out on the line
2. "Run", George Strait -- Other than being the most obvious titled running song there could ever be, this is actually a song that is kind of relaxing - although not twangy - and gives (to me, at least) a little bit of imagery of soaring. It is off the "Road Less Traveled" CD. The song's prominent line that makes you think that the finish line is calling you to it:
Baby run, cut a path across the blue skies
Straight in a straight line
You can't get here fast enough
Find a truck and fire it up
Lean on the gas and off the clutch
Leave Dallas in the dust
I need you in a rush
So baby run
3. "Ready To Run", Dixie Chicks -- Another classicly titled running song. The first track on their sophomore CD, "Fly", it was also a big part of the Julia Roberts' movie, "Runaway Bride". And as much as I wouldn't be disappointed if they never recorded another CD, it is an song with an upbeat tempo that figuratively should get you ready to blast off the start line. The song's key tag line is:
Oh yeah
Ready, ready, ready, ready...ready to run
All I'm ready to do is have some fun
What's all this talk about love
I'm ready to run...I'm ready to run
4.) "Runnin' Kind", Merle Haggard -- One look at Merle Haggard and you'd probably think that the words "Haggard" and "running" were about as far apart as the east is from the west. This song is cut out of the same ilk that the earlier Strait song is.
I was born the runnin' kind
With leaving always on my mind
Home was never home to me at any time
Every front door found me hoping
I would find the back door open
There just had to be an exit
For the runnin' kind
Other songs for various reasons will pop into my head while I'm running. One recently was during the Rocky Raccoon 25K in Huntsville last month. Earlier in the morning, I had met race director Paul Stone, whose full-time job is with the Palestine Herald Press. Stone, however, was originally a sportswriter - a skill set that I have in my bag of tools.
Just released about three weeks before the event was Gretchen Wilson's new CD, "All Jacked Up". The last song is one titled, "Not Bad For A Bartender." It's a song, written by Wilson, that talks about her meteoric rise in music being not too bad for a bartender, which she did during her climb to the top. So I started singing to myself on the trails, "Not bad for a sportswriter ...!" When I crossed the finish line, I walked back by Paul and said, "Hey, not bad for a sportswriter, huh?" :)
I've got a bigger list on the laptop at home, but here are four (4) that always stick out in my mind:
1.) "How Bad Do You Want It?", Tim McGraw -- This is the first cut on his current CD, "Live Like You Were Dying," that has been out since last summer. I swear that it should be the perfect finish line song! (You may have heard it a little bit during either the NLCS or World Series coverage on Fox.) The chorus goes like this:
How bad do you want it?
How bad do you need it?
Are you eating, sleeping, dreaming
With that one thing on your mind?
How bad do you want it?
How bad do you need it?
Cause if you want it all
You've got to lay it all out on the line
2. "Run", George Strait -- Other than being the most obvious titled running song there could ever be, this is actually a song that is kind of relaxing - although not twangy - and gives (to me, at least) a little bit of imagery of soaring. It is off the "Road Less Traveled" CD. The song's prominent line that makes you think that the finish line is calling you to it:
Baby run, cut a path across the blue skies
Straight in a straight line
You can't get here fast enough
Find a truck and fire it up
Lean on the gas and off the clutch
Leave Dallas in the dust
I need you in a rush
So baby run
3. "Ready To Run", Dixie Chicks -- Another classicly titled running song. The first track on their sophomore CD, "Fly", it was also a big part of the Julia Roberts' movie, "Runaway Bride". And as much as I wouldn't be disappointed if they never recorded another CD, it is an song with an upbeat tempo that figuratively should get you ready to blast off the start line. The song's key tag line is:
Oh yeah
Ready, ready, ready, ready...ready to run
All I'm ready to do is have some fun
What's all this talk about love
I'm ready to run...I'm ready to run
4.) "Runnin' Kind", Merle Haggard -- One look at Merle Haggard and you'd probably think that the words "Haggard" and "running" were about as far apart as the east is from the west. This song is cut out of the same ilk that the earlier Strait song is.
I was born the runnin' kind
With leaving always on my mind
Home was never home to me at any time
Every front door found me hoping
I would find the back door open
There just had to be an exit
For the runnin' kind
Other songs for various reasons will pop into my head while I'm running. One recently was during the Rocky Raccoon 25K in Huntsville last month. Earlier in the morning, I had met race director Paul Stone, whose full-time job is with the Palestine Herald Press. Stone, however, was originally a sportswriter - a skill set that I have in my bag of tools.
Just released about three weeks before the event was Gretchen Wilson's new CD, "All Jacked Up". The last song is one titled, "Not Bad For A Bartender." It's a song, written by Wilson, that talks about her meteoric rise in music being not too bad for a bartender, which she did during her climb to the top. So I started singing to myself on the trails, "Not bad for a sportswriter ...!" When I crossed the finish line, I walked back by Paul and said, "Hey, not bad for a sportswriter, huh?" :)
posted by WalkSports.com | 6:50 AM
7 Comments:
I can't run to country music- and I like the Dixie Chicks. 2 strikes against me Jon? hehehe
I'm in the process of reloading my running mp3 player. I'll have to post my tunes. I don't run with my ipod- it's too big. I've got a teeny tiny samsung I use for running. It's smaller than a car key.
I'm like Toby Keith regarding the Dixie Chicks. Like their music, don't like their politics. :)
We may need to talk more about the portable music stuff. If I knew how to load it, etc., I might get something like that.
Jon you can get many an mp3 player (tiny like mine or Cassie's -- mine holds 256MB which isn't much but it's enough for running -- I also don't run with my iPod b/c it's too heavy) that are *very* easy to use. Mine is just like a USB memory stick. Plug it in, drag the mp3 files onto it, plug it back into the player battery pack and voila.
I don't run to any country...mostly rock and pop, something with a steady, quick beat. I haven't updated the songs on my players in years -- I always know exactly what song is coming next. I *really* need to update with some new stuff.
I have two Garth Brooks songs on my Nano: Standing Outside The Fire and Callin' Baton Rouge. Got some CCR on there, too.
i had some alan jackson on my mp3 at one time and really had a hard time running to it. made me want to go lay out at the beach.
i have 4 country songs on there now....
"Honky Tonk Badonkadonk," "Hicktown," "Save a horse....," and "That Ain't my truck."
I can run while listening to those.
Also, like a little Blackeyed Peas, U2, Eminem, 50 cent, Queen (I'm sure Holden likes that), Jessica Simpson, Kelly Clarkson, Maroon 5.....
I don't listen to songs when I run, but since we're picking songs that have 'run' or 'road' in the name I submit:
On the road again - Willie Nelson
Run to you - Bryan Adams
The road goes on forever - Robert Earl Keen
A verse from my personal favorite:
"You call it jogging, I call it running around.
Draggin' that silly old towel all over town.
You come home grinning with your hair all wet.
Smelling like shampoo instead of sweat.
You call it jogging, I call it running around."
from "You call it running" by Jimmy Buffet off the Beach House on the Moon album.
doug
I don't own an MP3 player or an I-pod... those are ill advised on a bike. However, if you come across me at a stop light before I'm running you'll very likely hear Rage Against the Machine blaring at very, very, very loud volumes.
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