Music while you walk

[Caberfeidh]

Sometimes music is ok, others not. Sometimes it is quite ethereal, others just annoying. Climbing up Sgurr Alasdair in bright sunshine listening to Pink Floyd's Echoes was a memorable experience, seeing all Skye laid out like a map below me, and then realising there was no way I would survive trying to climb back down the gully to the Great Stone Chute. I had to cadge an abseil down on some Yorkshire climbers' rope in to Corrie a Grunnda. Modern music doesn't fit somehow, but fiddley folk music does, as well as some of the better sixties/early 70s stuff. We had this conversation some years ago...
https://www.walkhighlands.co.uk/Forum/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=751&sk=t&sd=a#p3149

[Glengavel]

In the early 70s there was an hour of Peel a week on BBC and an album cost half a day's wage. So in a student flat there was only so much music and you heard all your mates' stuff you didn't like - Dark Side of the Moon or Second Hand's Death may be your Santa Claus. All that stuck in your head, leading to earworms on a hill half a century later. Meanwhile I was inflicting Rory Gallagher and the Incredible String Band on them, so we'd all something to complain about.

Had to look that one up - never heard of them, but now I'm intrigued.

I would forgive you Rory Gallagher, but the Incredible String Band seemed a bit too twee, not that I've heard a lot by them.

[Marty_JG]

The examples you gave in the same post were your opinion.

The examples I gave are examples others have made, for example music critic Fiona Shepherd (Bon Jovi) and music critic Kevin Maidment (Pink Floyd).

As I say, I'm only reporting the news not making it.

[LeithySuburbs]

The examples you gave in the same post were your opinion.

The examples I gave are examples others have made, for example music critic Fiona Shepherd (Bon Jovi) and music critic Kevin Maidment (Pink Floyd).

As I say, I'm only reporting the news not making it.

Fair enough, although I'm not sure how I was meant to know that!

[Glengavel]

Your views are equally as valid as any music critic's.

I've occasionally contributed to music articles on Wikipedia but one thing I do not bother about is genre-labelling, it's all subjective nonsense and there are some ridiculously protracted edit wars over whether artist Joe Bloggs should be in the X genre and/or the Y genre.

[Marty_JG]

Fair enough, although I'm not sure how I was meant to know that!

But now you know I'm the sort who'll bring the receipts and a bibliography.

[Pointless Parasite]

Sometimes music is ok, others not. Sometimes it is quite ethereal, others just annoying. Climbing up Sgurr Alasdair in bright sunshine listening to Pink Floyd's Echoes was a memorable experience, seeing all Skye laid out like a map below me, and then realising there was no way I would survive trying to climb back down the gully to the Great Stone Chute. I had to cadge an abseil down on some Yorkshire climbers' rope in to Corrie a Grunnda. Modern music doesn't fit somehow, but fiddley folk music does, as well as some of the better sixties/early 70s stuff.

I thought Ivor Cutler would be more your thing Caberfeidh. Ideal listening for walks in the Highlands, especially 'My leg has gone beserk". Personally I don't feel the need for music to be 'appropriate'. Try listening to some Nigerian afrobeat such as Fela Kuti or possibly some kalimba sounds from the Congo.

[Top Fun]

I agree that it’s a personal choice whether to listen to music on climbing a hill. I prefer to listen to the sounds around at the time, such as the sound of a curlew or the roar of the stag in a glen but sometimes there’s a tune that gets in your head that makes the climb that more appealing. Although, on occasion, on summiting the top of a hill clagged in mist, with no view to be had, that Beatles song Fool on the Hill just seems to get in there..

[HalfManHalfTitanium]

Your views are equally as valid as any music critic's.

I've occasionally contributed to music articles on Wikipedia but one thing I do not bother about is genre-labelling, it's all subjective nonsense and there are some ridiculously protracted edit wars over whether artist Joe Bloggs should be in the X genre and/or the Y genre.

I’ve never understood genres: they always remind me of the Comic Strip episode -

“I’m not getting back in the tour van, unless he says we’re heavy metal.”

I like individual pieces of music, and some composers / bands (should be obvious from my WH name!).

But I wouldn’t want to listen to The Trumpton Riots (or the Hebrides Overture) while on the hill.

Tim

[Lightfoot2017]

Your views are equally as valid as any music critic.

Good point well made.

A few years ago I was active on a web forum all about Beethoven. (I was going through a very intense LvB phase at the time! )

I mentioned in one post that, musically speaking, I was utterly talentless, couldn't play a note, couldn't read music, or knew one end of a piano (or any instrument for that matter!) from the other. I was a talent void, a black hole if you will.

A short while later a German composer / conductor chap responded saying what I had posted was nonsense. "Good composers need good conductors. Good conductors need talented musicians. And they all need talented listeners. Without you being there to listen to and appreciate their effort, the music means nothing. You are an essential link in that chain."

I've always felt very comforted by that.

[Glengavel]

Your views are equally as valid as any music critic's.

I've occasionally contributed to music articles on Wikipedia but one thing I do not bother about is genre-labelling, it's all subjective nonsense and there are some ridiculously protracted edit wars over whether artist Joe Bloggs should be in the X genre and/or the Y genre.

I’ve never understood genres: they always remind me of the Comic Strip episode -

“I’m not getting back in the tour van, unless he says we’re heavy metal.”

In real life most bands hate to be pigeonholed. Lemmy of Motorhead used to say that they weren't really heavy metal, just a rock and roll band. And just try getting *any* member of a prog-rock band to admit that they are prog-rock.

[HalfManHalfTitanium]

In real life most bands hate to be pigeonholed. Lemmy of Motorhead used to say that they weren't really heavy metal, just a rock and roll band. And just try getting *any* member of a prog-rock band to admit that they are prog-rock.

That reminds me of another 80s classic comic moment, from Spitting Image…

Interviewer: What are your influences?

Fish, lead singer of Marillion: Soul, funk, folk, new wave, blues, ska and rock’n’roll. And NOT Genesis.

Interviewer: What about your new song, Supper’s Nearly Ready?

Fish: It’s a fusion of soul, funk, folk, new wave, blues, ska and rock’n’roll. And it’s nothing like Genesis’s Supper’s Ready. That would be ridiculous - just like those people who say our song Watcher Of The Pies is based on Genesis’ Watcher Of The Skies!

[weedavie]

Getting back on track, today I just kept hearing soaring larks, first for me this year. Headphones would have blocked the joy. Mind you, lark song has always struck me as more Hendrix than Vaughan Williams.

[Coop]

Saw a fox up high on one of my local Grahams yesterday .
"Fox on the run" by manfred mann stuck in my head all yesterday and today!!

[Caberfeidh]

I thought Ivor Cutler would be more your thing Caberfeidh.

Can't abide Ivor Cutler. I once set off into the Cairngorms with that droning repetitive Kylie Minogue song repeating endlessly in my head. The one that goes "La-la-la, la-la-la-la-la..." ad infinitum, ad nauseam. Some years later I stood outside her apartment in Sydney, wondering if I could get away with throwing a brick through her window in revenge...