Often when I’m riding there’s a Vespa riding soundtrack in my head. Not one powered by any digital device — just the quiet humming or singing that rises from the solitude I find while riding. The selections vary depending on mood and circumstance, but the music plays often — a private performance that echoes in my helmet.
It’s rare for me to sing openly among others.
Wayfaring Stranger — Michael Parks and Bonnie Bedelia
The most common song I sing is Wayfaring Stranger. I’ve loved this song since I first heard it in the Pilot of Then Came Bronson. My solitary rides are often quiet meditations on life and where I’m heading — from an existential perspective. The song is in perfect harmony with those thought patterns.
Behind Blue Eyes — The Who
Behind Blue Eyes is harder to explain why it surfaces so often. The lyrics don’t resonate but the melody and arc of the music does as it seems to push through some sort of adversity. I find myself singing this at night. Or in bad weather.
America — Simon and Garfunkel
America is my sunny day song when the road is clear and the world awaits. It captures the thrill and excitement of exploration and discovery. That was true the first time I heard it, long before I was riding the Vespa.
Riding is not a single experience but reflects the baggage I bring along. While the road can disinfect and cleanse a troubled spirit, more often the ride conforms to the thoughts and feelings I’m having. And music seems to capture all of it, my unique Vespa riding soundtrack, as these tunes play in the Shoei Arena.
All my childhood memories have a sound track, there always seemed to be music playing ing the background. When I was young I wanted to be a disk jockey. I even attempted the venture but growing up in the largest radio market in the world made it almost imposable.
I am a whistler, if there is no music playing usually I am whistling a tune. My wife liked this early on but after 31 years it tends to annoy her. Either her or I have music playing around the house & for the most part we have the same musical taste. When riding I love my noise canceling earbuds I can play my music low and not totally blackout the outside world.
I believe everybody should have a theme song & this is mine
https://youtu.be/hPE1A-O7t4I
I like a song that tells a story
https://youtu.be/3uGyClRhGg0
These 2 voices always work on any kind of road.
https://youtu.be/VMUFn9D6xR8
It’s funny, but aside from the sort of classic Christmas music, I don’t have musical memories. At least not until I became a teenager and started buying records. But even then it didn’t really stick with me. No whistling allowed in my house. Didn’t take Kim anytime at all to find it annoying. She has introduced me to almost all the music of my life. I wasn’t a music listener. So I have a lot of memories infused with tunes now.
Listened to your three songs. Mark Knopfler was a great theme song. I’ll have to listen to more of him. The others were sort of an eclectic mix. Especially with Ella and Louis.
Beautifully written post, Steve, captures the riding experience perfectly!
Thanks. I wish I could transmit things to non-riders. Most just don’t get it. Or aren’t open at all because of the perception of death just a hundred feet ahead.
“While the road can disinfect and cleanse a troubled spirit” this is exactly how I feel when I go riding. It soothe my soul!
It’s amazing isn’t it? Too bad more people don’t experience it.
My song selection is eclectic … but there’s those times, when whatever song is presented by the shuffler, that it matches current riding conditions and views so well that it enhances “being in the moment”.
Then, there’s the more usual case, where I’m thankful I can easily skip to the next song….
I’ve never had the desire to listen to anything while riding. Quiet I seek aided by the most powerful foam ear plugs I can get. The music is in my head unless I begin to sing.
I don’t often listen to music in the car either. But I think it’s because I fear I’ll get “lost” in it and cut down on my awareness of the road. So I listen to talk radio instead. It keeps me wide awake…
Great music all!
There’s so much to choose from.
Well, ya know, if you had one of the big Harley models with a batwing fairing, you could play those songs on the CD player. : ) Ha, ha! Just kidding. Not your style, though I was surprised how much we enjoyed that feature on the Street Glide, not while riding, but while parked. Particularly memorable was the time we flicked the radio on while putting on our gear and In A Godda Da Vida was playing. We just stood there memorized listening to the whole 17 minutes. We’ll never forget that moment.
I rode a big BMW with a stereo system in the fairing. Seems really obnoxious to blast that sound going down the road. Though I suppose if you’re already making noise with a motorcycle what’s a few more dB…
Man — how many 17 minute songs are there…
I agree that adding to the noise by playing the radio loud enough to hear while riding down the road is wrong. We didn’t do that. What I’m saying is we were surprised at how pleasant it can be while parked, motor off. I may add that I purchased and added Vance & Hines’ Quiet Baffle to the system that was already on the Street Glide, and my current Harley retains the stock exhaust system.
Robert — aren’t you afraid Harley will come and repossess your motorcycle if you make it too quiet?
Seriously, some motorcycles are painfully loud. We used to have several here in the neighborhood that were used to commute to work or something. One lumbered by around 5:30am. And the other was returning home around 2:30am. Loud, windows vibrated, and the rider was careful to make the passing as loud as possible. If there’s anything that is inflicting damage to the motorcycle community in general it’s that kind of noise.
But then, it’s a free country right?
Loved this. The songs reflect perfectly what you have written about your style of riding (being slow, introspective…).
The song that played most in my head when riding was a country song written and sung by Billy Joe Shaver: Live Forever. And yes, I often sang it loudly when safely under my helmet on some open road where no one could hear me… 🙂
Nice song by Billy Joe Shaver. I have to admit that my understanding and appreciation of country music is sadly lacking. Other than a few crossover pieces I don’t find myself exploring that area. Maybe it’s time to make a change.
I wonder how many men and women sing in their helmet?
More than we will ever know! It’s the refined version of singing in the shower!
As to country music: I agree with you. However, Billy Joe Shaver is just a bit different. I’ve been a fan ever since listening to an interview Terri Gross did with him on NPR’s Fresh Air in 2005. Simple songs – yes. But mostly they are written about his own hard and tragic life and that makes them interesting in a very unique and special way.
Oh, by the way – that first hit that comes up when google’ing the song is not the original but a rather commercial version by some country duo featuring him. I am not fond of that one. This one and many other recordings are better:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oilwusvq5SI
Nuff said about that song under the helmet…
Thanks for the head’s up on the song.
I’ve put him on my list to explore further. Terri Gross is a great source of new ideas and experience. I’ve found a lot of new directions listening to Fresh Air.
Music is a big part of our traveling, like a third companion. XM radio channel, “Margaritaville” is always blaring on the highway. I guess I’m boring, lacking diversity, but this makes me smile to the core.
We all have our own formula that works for us — music or otherwise. Boring is someone else’s problem in these cases. Like what you like and ride on!
No music in my head except for the melodies the engine makes. The sound of perfectly meshing mechanical parts is symphony enough for me.
Hmmm, interesting. I certainly know what things should sound like but my awareness of the machine sounds only surfaces when it doesn’t sound right. And then it’s just annoying.
Not so much a song rather a musical selection can rattle in my brain for days and days. Seemingly it has attached itself to my being. Then suddenly it is gone. And of course when I do need to recall the selection, can’t find it for love nor money. I also tend to recite poetry in my mind, usually Wordsworth or similar; the other items that occupies my brain are passages from Shakespeare’s play, over and over and over again.
Ideally should be concentrating on the operation of whatevervehicle I have under my control at the time. That doesn’t alway occur.
Ideally the opposite tact is more successful, wipe my mindful thoughts completely so they do not infer or interfere with anything otherthan the present; even then trickles of inconsistency appear seemingly from nowhere.
Do know if i find some quiet spot (is there such a place out of audio or visual range of society today?) I meditate and do block with some practise all external happenings. Twice a day of late; seems to help me adjust to my aging pyhsical existenc.e
I’m familiar with the here now gone later effect. Very odd. I wish I could recite poetry. When I see someone in a movie doing it on the spur of the moment I am envious. But I’ve never done the work. The only poetry I can recite are a few nasty limericks…
Staying in the present is a challenge. I can achieve it writing, making photographs and riding. Otherwise I am in the past or the future a lot of the time.
As far as quiet places there are many here. But I’ve always been able to filter out a lot of noise. Have a harder time filtering music and conversation.
All great songs, Steve, and so appropriate for scootering.
As a high school kid in the early ‘90s, I had a recurring fantasy of leaving Utah for my “true home” in Canada, of arriving in my ’69 VW camper bus in a backwoods town and of sitting down to my first of many meals in the local café—Simon and Garfunkel’s Homeward Bound would be playing on the radio…
Then I was hung up on music and a vehicle almost thirty years out of their time. Later I’d become convinced that I should have been in my prime not in the ‘60s, but in the ‘40s. (sigh)
That bus never ran reliably, and though I still enjoy ‘60s music, I have yet to get to Canada (maybe this summer). Funny thing, I’ve always felt most at home in deserts. I don’t think there are too many of those up north.
Up north you have the Canadian shield and then on to the arctic tundra. A desert of sorts. Different color.
Traveling in a VW camper. Don’t get me started. I follow a number of the traveling couples on instagram. Oh to be forty years younger and a lot more aware…
Having a musical mind is a grand thing, although as Jim mentions, there are moments when just the gentle thrum (well, gentle in the Vespa’s case anyway) is more than enough accompaniment. That said, I can have any of a galaxy of songs running through my head (which is more frequent since I still haven’t fully reconstituted my hi-fi system since renovating the house – need to track down some still-missing pieces). I’ll see how this changes when I have my helmet fitted with a Bluetooth setup which I mainly intend to use for turn-by-turn GPS navigation and phone use, but which also can be used for music listening; when I was living and commuting in Manhattan way back in the 80s and 90s, I was the guy with the stereo mini-headphones tucked under his helmet while cycling to and from work, so I’m no stranger to piped-in tunes on two wheels, although it’s not as big a deal, nor do I regard it as so essential, now as I did then.
We have so many options now in the digital age for music and sound just about anywhere.
Like you, I often find the music of the Vespa to be more than enough to keep me happy.
Great selection. My blog used to have a soundtrack, once. I explained it in a post:
http://lxv125.blogspot.it/2016/07/radio-chuggabug.html
Quite the playlist. Love Cat Steven’s Miles from Nowhere…
It also makes a great title for a post 🙂
It does. Can I borrow it??
Oh, I guess you should ask good ol’e Cat 😉
(or Yusuf, as he nowadays calls himself)