Walking themed Songs

[macq23]

Came across this song by the Barenaked Ladies called "Gonna Walk" which is a great wee tune -

Can anyone come up with other songs that are walking-related??

[4shotB]

When I hiked the Appalachian Trail here in the States, I had an old Neil Diamond (or Hollys) song that looped a lot in my mind called (He Ain't Heavy) He's My Brother. Too lazy to post a link but it starts out with the lines "The road is long, with many a winding turn..". Not really much of a hiking song after that first line or so but it is a classic tune. One the younger set may not be familiar with but it is worth a look on Youtube.

As an aside, my and two younger fellows that I hiked with off and on spents hours while hiking on the topic of "worst songs ever written". Will not stray off topic, but we had fun with that subject.

[Cairngormwanderer]

Fats Domino - Walking to New Orleans... although singing that as you wander up a Scottish glen might lead fellow hikers to assume you're lost and call out the rescue.

[Sunset tripper]

Kid Rock - Roll On. This usually gets played on the boom box at a remote bothy but only if there's no other residents wouldn't want to upset any peace loving mountain folk Recently heard playing at the Tarf hotel

Roll on, there's mountains to climb
Roll on, were on borrowed time

[CharlesT]

No-one yet mentioned "These boots are made for walking" a dreadful 60's earworm from Nancy Sinatra!

On a more elevated level "Winterreise" and "Die Schone Mullerin" are the quintessential journey song cycles from Franz Schubert and as both last over an hour should satisfy any long distance traveller in need of a reminder of their mortality and the futility of their existence.

[Border Reiver]

More appropriate for Scotland - "The Road to The Isles" and "The Hiking Song". I remember my dad singing these when we were young. He says many such songs were sung in bothies and around camp fires in the 1940's. 1950's.

[rockhopper]

500 miles ?

[Caberfeidh]

This subject has arisen before ~ http://www.walkhighlands.co.uk/Forum/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=751&p=3248&hilit=music#p3149 . I reckon some foot-tapping fiddley stuff or bagpipes are just the thing for accompanying a day out in the hills.

[Lightfoot2017]

"Liathach" by Jo Hamilton...

An absolutely gorgeous, haunting song which has absolutely nothing at all whatsoever to do with the mountain.

The vid is worth a look too....

[4shotB]

Another just came to mind, depending on the topography of course....Kate Bush "Running Up That Hill". Not that I actually run up them...trudge would be a more fitting word in my case.

[nigheandonn]

I quite often walk to Runrig's 'Stamping Ground' in my head - 'the glens where your great rivers run'.
'Summer Walkers' is topical, but only the chorus is any good for walking to ('and it's up by the Shin, and up by the Naver...').

Mostly I get fiddle tunes in my head, though.

[nigheandonn]

Or maybe we could get the Low Level Rock Bands to play some for us

[john923]

I rather like the lines from the Grateful Dead's New Speedway Boogie.

"I spent a little time on the mountain, I spent a little time on the hill
Things went down we don't understand, but I think in time we will."

Perhaps expresses how walking gives that time for reflection and thought?

[basscadet]

I always think dark Island is a good one, with lines like 'Away to the westward I'm longing to be, where the beauty of heaven, unfolds by the sea ' and 'I'll roam forever more, the dark island' sum up this walking malarkey pretty well

[IanEzzi]

The Ballad of Jim Jones by The Brian Jonestown Massacre.

Absolute classic, easy to sing, easy to play (even I can manage A-A-A-E) great harmonica/whistling solo and relevant lyrics.

Probably offensively purile songwriting to the Dylan-o-philes but it served me well walking along a rain-soaked Canadian forest road and needing something to sing out to warn bears of my approach...

'I walk from New York and back from LA,
I lived on the mountain and once by the bay,
I bought an apartment and I slept in the hay,
But nowhere is softer than...'

(I don't actually know what he's alluding to in the last line, plenty of obvious possibilities...).