When I’m riding alone, on the open road, invariably one song comes into my head…
Wayfaring Stranger
I first heard this song over 45 years ago. It lay dormant until I started to ride again. While alone on the road, going nowhere in particular, it creeped into my consciousness, a little tune that grew louder and louder.
Now, it’s the go to music in my head. The rendition by Michael Parks and Bonnie Bedelia which was part of the pilot for hte TV show Then Came Bronson is indelibly etched in my brain and one of the few songs for which I know the words. I sing it while I ride and the acoustic magic inside the helmet has me convinced I’m a fine singer — so much so that I actually recorded the song and thought to cut Vespa pictures to it.
Some things are best left to the imagination.
I wonder if all riders have a default song playing in their head? And perhaps more interesting — why that song and what does it say about the rider?
I will start off with that there is always music playing in my head. Sometimes it is the last song I heard, others it is because of something someone said. The people that I work with like the fact that I whistle songs as I walk around because then they know I am coming & can pretend to work. Music is the one way I’m a scoff law. In my state you can only wear one earbud, I wear two. I love my iPod it has 8 gigs of music that I am about to change once again. There are a lot of songs that work for me but it is more situational. The one artist that does not work well is Rickie Lee Jones, if you have the sound so you can hear the quiet parts she will at some point in the song hit a high note the will decalcify you spine. Also I find classical music records much at a much lower level that others. Bonney Bell singing Mozart works quite well for mountain roads. Yesterday The Kinks singing Waterloo Station hit the curves just right for Glendora Mountain Road.
I love a Kyrie that I learned in glee club 56 years ago. Sometimes it’s London Bridge. Helmet acoustics are a fine asset.
Songs? Almost too many. For a while, I was listening to tunes on my little portable while commuting by bicycle to work (yes, figured out how to tune in without tuning-out to everything else around me), but gave that up for the sake of more quiet concentration – yes, even though my commute took me through “old” Times Square for a few years.
And, it’s true…a full-face helmet makes a swell sound booth.
I listen to nothing while riding…just me, the scooter and my thoughts. Just like you.
But also like you, I have a song in my head the entire way. Often, if I am riding well or doing a good job leading a group ride, the tune will be Carly Simon’s “Nobody does it better.” It can also be Devo’s “Whip It” or Frank Sinatra’s “French Foreign Legion.” I never know but something pops into my head shortly after hitting the road. The constant songs keep me company on the ride.
I have a feeling that Wayfaring Stranger will pop into my head on an upcoming ride.
Love reading your blog. Love the video, really cool. Thanks for the post.
I also don’t listen to music while riding. Sometimes on a long ride, I’ll listen to an audiobook or a podcast but I end up not remembering anything of what I heard. Too many other things to focus on while riding. I really don’t need the distraction.
At one point in my life I had three different audio reception devices on my GoldWing: AM-FM-cassette radio, CB radio and amateur radio. All piped into my helmet speakers. Such companies and J&M did not exist then in Canada. Made my own listening and speaking devices. Over time this all changed. Gradually the extra audio devies died or were removed; partly instigated by a new helmet that would not easily accept audio speakers.
Then too was learning to enjoy my own thoughts and yes ruminations of a particular audio track,often one with vocal. ,Even one that i may have been practising for days on the pipe organ for a future concert. . Some melodies stick in your head, and then over and over again they return to haunt you.
Giving your head a shake either imagined or actual physical often did no good; and then suddenly you are unable to recall anything. Time to move on…
I’ve never listened to music on two-wheels aside from what plays in my head. And in the car I don’t often listen to music either preferring the noise of talk radio or human voices to help dispel the boredom of driving.
You play a pipe organ? That’s not something you hear every day.