Music that goes through your head on the Camino

[tyrrek]

While walking, I found that a few songs came into my head early on, and stayed for the rest of the Camino. I didn't have an iPod or similar, so they didn't come from that. I'm a bit embarrassed about some of the music concerned, but I'll start off with one of my less embarrrassing ones - Eva Cassidy's version of 'Fields of Gold'. Has anyone got any REALLY embarrassing music they walked to; either through an iPod or just in their mind?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M6n-_LuIzac

 

[SabsP]

Great thread Tyrrek!

I had very different kinds of music on my old fashioned cellphone/ musicthingie.
Some eighties pop ( yeah ! ) and Tallest Man on Earth with King of Spain...;-)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4y-jsHj7 ... re=related
Appropiate for walking in Spain...

Now for the more embarrasing moments...when I thought I was walking safely on my own this mad tonedeaf lady could be heard singing this....Aline by Christophe.....
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bj8-_QKN ... re=related
A massive tearjerker....ok will go now..... :mrgreen:

 

[tyrrek]

Nice one, SabineP. I have a really shocking one, but other people will have to share a few of theirs first!

 

[sulu]

Mine was 'Jake the Peg'. I sang it most of the way, it seemed appropriate

 

[Sagalouts]

"and you wake up in the morning and your head is twice the size where ya gonna go,where ya gonna go-where ya gonna sleep tonight"
in 2009 four of us sang this nearly every day,still in touch with all of them-still singing the song
Ian

 

[lynnejohn]

500 miles by Peter, Paul and Mary. (OMG how old am I, really?) and Daniel by Elton John. We eventually got to singing both which was a scary thing.

There. Embarrassing enough for you?

 

[Alan Pearce]

Hey, there are a lot of us out here who remember P,P and M with great affection. One of my favourite youtube videos is them singing on the forecourt of a newly-opened Sydney Opere House.

The song I sang the most is a hymn which begins "Lead me on thou great Jehovah, pilgrim through this barren land". I varied the tempo to suit my mood [and pace] of the day. It is also sung by Welsh rugby crowds when their national team plays at home.

Alan

Be brave. Life is joyous.

 

[tyrrek]

'Lead me oh Thou great Jehovah' is a fantastic pilgrim hymn! I wish I'd thought of that before I went. The only hymn that formed part of my mental repertoire was 'He who would valiant be', which I never really liked that much.

 

[GunnarW]

Re: Music that will go through my head on the Camino

edited

 

[tyrrek]

For motivation: 'You'll never walk alone'

"Walk on, through the wind
Walk on, through the rain
Though your dreams be tossed and blown
Walk on, walk on, with hope in your heart
And you'll never walk alone
You'll never walk alone"

 

[virveb]

I sang "It´s a long way to Tipperary... I mean to Santiago" and after walking 15 to 20 km a Finnish song "last 5 km are always sooooo long" was a hit http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n5B_aF4w ... re=related

 

[methodist.pilgrim.98]

Tyrrek, as a Manchester United fan I can only sing the alternative version.

(For those not in the know, there is intense rivalry between United and Liverpool football (soccer) fans. For Liverpool fans the original version of the song is their anthem. It is believed by United fans that Liverpudlians are work shy and only want to stay on benefits for which they must "sign on". At the last United-Liverpool match I attended both versions were sung, with fans trying to drown each other out).

(Omit first two lines)
Sign on, Sign on,
With hope in your heart
For you'll never work again, again,
You'll never work again.
Again, again.

It does just, if badly, fit.

What bothers me is that on the next Camino because of this thread I'll be signing this for most of the journey. It's a great thread, but damn you.

 

[Deleted member 3000]

John Philip Sousa

 

[Portia1]

Taize chants. So simple to chant--even without singing them out loud. They have helped me keep climbing when the body is protesting while focusing on what I seek

O Lord, hear my prayer
Wait with me
Bless the Lord my soul
Jesus, Remember me
In God alone my soul
Holy Spirit come to us
Veni Creator Spiritus
In the Lord I'll be ever thankful
Ubi Caritas
Eat this bread

and so on

 

[sillydoll]

We are walking el Camino (to the tune of We are working on the Railroad)

We are walking el Camino
all the live long day
We are walking el Camino
in wind and sun and rain
When we get to Santiago
we will hug St James
and we'll get the Compstela
to prove we've walked the way!

 

[sillydoll]

We are walking el Camino (to the tune of We are working on the Railroad)

We are walking el Camino
all the live long day
We are walking el Camino
in wind and sun and rain
When we get to Santiago
we will hug St James
and we'll get the Compstela
to prove we've walked the way!

 

[Deleted member 3000]

Does that fit the tune, "We're off to see the Wizard?"

 

[sillydoll]

Only if you've had too many San Miguels! :lol:

 

[ksam]

This is posted with deepest apologies to the folks in Santiago that I must have passed muttering this as I tromped the last 5 km into the cathedral! Somehow, while a great walking song, seemed a tad strange for an early Sunday morning sing! That said...it got me there in time for noon Mass!

<iframe width="420" height="345" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/69AvNm8zubo?rel=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

ok dunno if the above will work... ? Sorry techno challenge!!

 

[ksam]

On a more normal sorta day...music in my head varied from church choir music, Amazing Grace, to Pink singing F**kin Perfect and Raise your Glass! Nothing like a little variety!

 

[tyrrek]

This is my great confession. 'I don't want to walk without you', and, yes, the Barry Manilow version. How bad is that? Have I tainted the Camino somehow?

 

[methodist.pilgrim.98]

In the UK if 100,000 people sign an online petition about a specific issue then the government has to undertake some debate on the issue in Parliament.

Maybe we could petition Ivar to bar for one week the person who gives us the most embarrasing song.

At the moment Tyrrek is at the top of my list. "You'll never walk alone", was bad enough but Barry Manilow.........?

 

[tyrrek]

I warned you that it was bad, and indeed embarrassing. However it's quite a good one to sing if nobody else is around. "I don't want to walk without you, Baby...walk without my arms around you Baby" etc. If I'm banned from this forum I will accept my penance knowing in the depths of my heart that at least I don't support Manchester United.

 

[revrenjen]

My favorite to sing was the South African hymn "We Are Walking in the Light of God." It had the perfect tempo to walk to and had the advantage of being remarkably adaptable. When going up a hill, "We are climbing in the light of God." After missing a yellow arrow and going a couple of miles out of way, "We are looking in the light of God."

Lots of other hymns and praise songs, including "Morning Has Broken" as the sun came up, "All Creatures of Our God and King" "Fairest Lord Jesus" and "Give Thanks."

In the afternoon, to the tune of "Going to the Chapel" when I was getting closer where I would stop and needed some encouragement for those last kilometers:

Walkin' El Camino and I'm gonna drink some vino tinto
Walkin' El Camino and I'm gonna have a nice hot shower
Yes, my feet are tired but my heart is glad
'Cause I'm walkin' El Camino today.

It's fun to see others' "trail songs' and remember my own.

Buen Camino--
Rene

 

[tyrrek]

Ha! Rene - Post a recommended You Tube link to 'We are walking...'. Sounds excellent!

 

[WolverineDG]

Well, one Camino, I decided to leave my iPod at home (big mistake), so for the first week or so, the only song in my head was "Good Morning Baltimore" from the movie "Hairspray." After that experience, I never walked without my iPod because at least I could find another song to kill whatever ear worm was torturing me at the moment.

Oh & I do have Barry Manilow on my iPod, as well as several Sousa marches, my high school's two fight songs.

Kelly

 

[Sagalouts]

This is my great confession. 'I don't want to walk without you', and, yes, the Barry Manilow version. How bad is that? Have I tainted the Camino somehow?

mmmmmmmm now I know why there is the original Gibbet in Halifax.
"from Hell Hull and Halifax May the good lord deliver us"
any Bob Dylan works for me or grateful dead Ripples though must confess to singing my fathers favorite songs "I am just a country boy,money have I non,but I have silver in the stars ,and gold in the morning sun" and the Vienna boys choir "I love to go a wandering along the mountain track,falde rie flada ra.
if truth be told i spend the whole Camino singing.
Ian ( Yorkshire lad )

 

[methodist.pilgrim.98]

What Ian? No Ilkley Moor b't hat.

Shame on you.

 

[andy.d]

after four days when all there was to eat was lomo and chips:

http://pilgrimpace.wordpress.com/2009/11/23/lomo/

 

[Arn]

I didn't take any music...except what was in my head.

As mentioned previously, I walk with a specific beat in my mind that will vary my pace. As with Falcon, I thoroughly enjoy, and spent many years, marching to John Philip Souza. The music by Enya is always floating around, especially:

Anywhere Is

I walk the maze of moments
but everywhere I turn to
begins a new beginning
but never finds a finish
I walk to the horizon
and there I find another
it all seems so surprising
and then I find that I know

Every beat matches perfectly and it speaks deeply of the Camino experience for me as in "begins a new beginning"...because the Camino never finishes...at least for me.

Also, I really appreciate pipes and drums. From the slow walk to a quick march...I'm there!

Buen "marching to my own drum" Camino

Arn

 

[Artemis]

It rained 10 days straight when I walked in 2006 so I spent a lot of time singing Raindrops are Falling on My Head, Singing in the Rain and My Favorite Things. Also I sang Climb Every Mountain, Ain't No Mountain High Enough when I came to the steep parts. I need to learn some lyrics before my next Camino because it seems I only know about 10 words to any song.

 

[mikevasey]

I am tone deaf when it comes to singing or playing instruments, but i tend to meet people who are musical and i love it!!! Give me a place where there are people improvising and i will be quite happy. I wont take a music player with me, but when i walk the CP in a few weeks i will maybe scout around for some Fado on my first night in Lisbon, then the same when i get to Coimbra and Porto. It is such a beautiful music http://youtu.be/yejaUUBqtr0

 

[newfydog]

We had an "earworm" contest one trip, where we tried to plant the most irritating song in each other's head.

I launched my offensive with "I never promised you a rose garden", but went down in flames when a friend countered with the theme song to "Green Acres". We're talking days of misery.

 

[tyrrek]

I quite like 'I never promised you a rose garden'.

"Along with the sunshine, there has to be a little rain sometime". Quite appropriate.

I'm digging myself into an ever deeper musical hole, aren't I?

 

[WolverineDG]

Oh Mandy, well you came & you gave without taking....

(just adding to the ear worm contest)

Kelly

 

[miguel_gp]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tM0sTNtWDiI

 

[grayland]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tM0sTNtWDiI

Interesting....youtube has blocked that music in the U.S.
Must be really annoying. :shock:

 

[miguel_gp]

It was just The Proclaimers - 500 Miles, so more like a :shock: :shock:

 

[Arn]

Then, of course, is the old camp standby:

I,000 bottles of beer on the wall...1,000 bottles of beer.
Take one down and pass it around...999 bottles of beer on the wall!

no apologies...

 

[WolverineDG]

Wow, why couldn't I go to camp with Arn?! Back in my day, there were only 100 bottles of beer on the wall....

Kelly

 

[Tia Valeria]

For a song that will keep going round in your mind try The green anaconda song on Youtube.

Our own choices, enjoyable not embarassing, are from our days in N Argentina and choruses from the church there including:-

Por los montes y los valles la iglesia sigue caminando (x3) sigue caminando para predicar.
Oh Gloria aleluya..........(lit. Through the mountains and the valleys the church keeps walking... to preach.....)

Jehova es mi pastor nada pues me faltará (Ps 23)

Muéstrame, Jehová, tus caminos;enséname en tus sendas a andar.......(Ps 25 v4)

All have very good tunes for walking to.

 

[mmm042]

Once, during a long trail race, some of us got that "Shaving Cream" song stuck in our head. From the '70s, I think.

Shaving cream,
be nice and clean,
shave every day and you'll always look keen ...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fWFg5i9rE0M

 

[NorCal_llama53]

Bass Player looking for other blues travelers
Bringing a very small acoustic bass with me looking to hook up with fellow blue's lovers to play at all crosroads along the way will be in Roncevalles september 7th

 

[Paulus]

Just 2 songs in our heads:

On the road again-Canned Heat ( before lunch)
Another 45 miles to go- Byrds ( after...)

 

[skilsaw]

On my first day, I walked the valcarlos route to Roncesvalles. In the afternoon it started raining, and as we gained elevation, it changed to wet snow.

I marched in to Roncesvalles to the Mickey Mouse Club anthem.

Who's the leader of the club that's made for you and me?
M-I-C - K-E-Y M-O-U-S-E
Mickey Mouse, Mickey Mouse,
Forever let us hold our banner high...

To make it worse, those were the only lyrics I could remember so I repeated them over and over.

 

[Rebekah Scott]

The final, overheated, over-asphalted day of the Vadiniense in July the greatest torture to me was hearing, over and over in my head, for hours:

"bar bar bar, bar Barbara Ann
Bar bar bar bar Barbara Ann
Ta-aake my hand
Barbara Ann
You got me rockin and a rollin, rockin to the rhythm
Barbara Ann, bar bar
Barbara Ann."

By the immortal Beach Boys.
Pure hell it was.

 

[newfydog]

the greatest torture to me was hearing, over and over in my head, for hours:

"bar bar bar, bar Barbara Ann
By the immortal Beach Boys.
Pure hell it was.

Oooo, that's a nasty one. I'll try to dump that on my "Green Acres" friend. I just wonder, how do you plant these in someone's ear with getting afflicted yourself?

 

[Rebekah Scott]

I think walking 500 miles, snorers, and bedbugs are punishment enough for the average pilgrim, without being infected with ear-worms!

A wise person once told me that praying will get rid of the ceaseless music, that when it starts up you just let it drift past your consciousness and concentrate on The Real Meaning of the Lord´s Prayer or some such holy writ. It does work while walking, but when you wake up in the night with "S´Wonderful, S´Marvellous" blasting in your head, what can you do?

It is solved, they say, by walking.

 

[Arn]

When I was very young and had bad dreams my mom told me that I should "just change the channel!"

That worked great until I entered adolescence and I changed the channel, got the Mickey Mouse Club and started to dream about Annette.

Combat can bring a whole new bag of "stuff" with it. I think I had the only 45rpm player in the country. I'd take the batteries from our radio and crank it up to "Cherish" by the Association and "Yellow Submarine" by the Beatles. Both songs still rotate on a regular basis whenever the "stuff" sneaks back into my head.

I guess my point being: When on Camino, especially when walking alone, we may look back on what our life has been up to then...our successes, hiccups, loves and hopes for the future.

I had a special song that I'd hum (can't carry a note) when on Camino to lighten the load. Sadly, I've gotten on in years and can't remember what it was!!!

Buen, er...(ah yes) Camino

Arn

 

[Deleted member 3000]

After Villafranca del Bierzo, ¨Follow the Yellow Brick Road.¨

 

[newfydog]

After Villafranca del Bierzo, ¨Follow the Yellow Brick Road.¨

That one got me too. All those dwarves in their helium voices. Proof of TV causing brain damage.

 

[SisterPearl]

"I'm Alive" by Don Fardon
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X13dSfxCd_s&ob=av2n
I am not in the least bit embarrased by it, and I often sang it loudly and proudly, though I am sure it annoyed the heck out of some of my fellow walkers.
Whatever, it gave my the 'get-up-and-go' energy to continue on during some of the toughest days!

 

[tyrrek]

Sisterpearl. That's different from Pearl Jam's 'I'm still alive', isn't it? Either one is appropriate when you get up to O Cebreiro.

 

[ksam]

It was just The Proclaimers - 500 Miles, so more like a :shock: :shock:

"JUST"? I love this damn song...it got me into SDC in time for Mass!! Up the hills, round the corners and all with a bounce in my step. So I damn near collapsed when I got into the Cathedral and friends had to drag me to a bed...it worked!! I was trying to post this too, earlier, but was having computer issues...but I think I found a link that should work...to annoy everyone else here too!

Maybe next time I will turn and walk back to it too!

Buen Camino,
Karin

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O3tNylJr7Z4

 

[Sagalouts]

I would not dare to steal Karin's thunder
but here is the charity version for "red nose day" featuring a bunch of aging british comics
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JnUOPsjC2qk
on a wall on the Camino is graffiti that simply say's "Grateful Dead" when I pass it I always sing this song.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=671AgW9xSiA
"there is a road,no simple highway"
Ian

 

[SisterPearl]

Sisterpearl. That's different from Pearl Jam's 'I'm still alive', isn't it? Either one is appropriate when you get up to O Cebreiro.

Haha, I LOVE that Pearl Jam tune -- one of my theme songs when I was a 'grunge kid' in high school in the nineties But yes, they are very different songs, in style, anyway. Pearl Jam's "Alive" is a grunge anthem about surviving under incredibly difficult circumstances and despite the odds. Don Fardon's "I'm Alive" is just a straight, from the gut proclamation of how good it is to be alive and be who you are.

But I agree -- both are fantastic tunes to belt out to get the weary pilgrim through tough days like O Cebreiro!

 

[ksam]

Ian...you stole the thunder and the clouds....I'm still wiping the tears from my eyes!! After which...I may have to gouge them out!!! The visual there was too much! Loved it..

Funny thing is I'd just sent a friend the same GD video...along with Touch of Grey! Which was another one that kept going thru my head! Loved the comment under Ripple..."The picture doesn't move boys and girls, for the hundredth time. " more tears of laughter!!

On an incredibly dreary morning...this has been a real blast of sunshine!!

Gracias

PS...what is havering by the way?

 

[andy.d]

Is this the way to Santiago?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=plBAvHv_ ... re=related

What a long strange trip it's been

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pafY6sZt0FE

Andy

 

[Sagalouts]

"the picture doesn't move"
what!! tell me it isn't true
to haver or havering means to talk rubbish or to mumble,something I've often been accused off,I blame the 60's
Ian

 

[Catalinda]

I am woman by Helen Reddy got me through a lot of hard spots. Sometimes it was on my iPod, sometimes I just sang the bits I could remember.

Though the songs that annoyed my walking partner were all of my bible school songs, I am a promise, We love, and there's always if you're happy and you know it (though it was usually if you're tired and you know it)

 

[+@^^]

Hallelujah
by Leonard Cohen
and made popular again by the cover by Jeff Buckley
better known as the Shrek Song
.
the song was triggered by the bar owner with all the shells hanging from the ceiling on the vdlp
and he played some real retro music
as well as the music to slash your wrists to ..... the great Leonard Cohen
.
i knew the tune, but not the words
so my daughter smsed me a verse a day
.
belting it out at top volume was big
sometimes i got a bit emo and the words stuck in my throat
beautiful

 

[Chori]

So funny to read about the diverse music going through everyone's heads. I had a few songs that keep rotating through my head too. "Amazing Grace", "She'll be coming 'round the Mountain", "Country Roads" (by John Denver), and the worst - "99 bottles of beer on the wall, 99 bottles of beer....

 

[Debinq]

hola

On the road again (Canned Heat)
"I ain't goin' down that lonesome ol' road by myself again'

and Jackson Browne's The Pretender

"Out into the cool of the evening
Strolls the Pretender
He knows that all his hopes and dreams
Begin and end there"

wishing all happy trails - from one 'happy idiot'

Peter

alles sal reg kom

 

[vjpulver]

I sang my way across northern Spain - everything from Rogers and Hammerstein musicals to classic rock and popular tunes to folk songs by Woody Guthrie and Pete Seeger. I also had some military marching songs and cadences helping me move along smartly. A few times I met people who said they had observed me dancing and singing as I walked along alone...and as often as not, my decorative walking stick was being twirled and tossed in the air like a baton...as if I were the marshall at the start of a grand parade! Yes, there were time when I was quiet and meditative as I walked, but quite often it was about giving thanks, rejoicing and singing and dancing for joy (depsite some blisters and knee pain!). Life is good.
"Ginn"
Peregrina Pulver, the Segeant from USA
May 2009

 

[catherinemccoy]

I'm in Carrion de Los Condes tonight and the Meseta has been hot hot hot. I don't know where this came from but the one song that keeps me going is 76 trombones in the big parade...... My walking poles make great batons. Maybe I'm losing my mind?

 

[grayland]

It maybe time to upgrade this thread to include the 2012 and 2013 pilgrims.

Any earworms created are the fault of newfydog for resurrecting this thread.

 

[Tumbleweed]

Oh when the Saints go marching in, Oh when the Saints go marching in, Lord how I want to be in that number, Oh when the Saints go marching in.

We are traveling in the footsteps
Of those who've gone before
But we'll all be reunited (but if we stand reunited)
On a new and sunlit shore (then a new world is in store)

Oh when the saints go marching in
When the saints go marching in
Oh lord I want to be in that number
When the saints go marching in

And when the sun refuse (begins) to shine
And when the sun refuse (begins) to shine
Oh lord I want to be in that number
When the saints go marching in

When the moon turns red with blood
When the moon turns red with blood
Oh lord I want to be in that number
When the saints go marching in

On that hallelujah day
On that hallelujah day
Oh lord I want to be in that number
When the saints go marching in

Oh when the trumpet sounds the call
Oh when the trumpet sounds the call
Oh lord I want to be in that number
When the saints go marching in

Some say this world of trouble
Is the only one we need
But I'm waiting for that morning
When the new world is revealed

When the revelation (revolution) comes
When the revelation (revolution) comes
Oh lord I want to be in that number
When the saints go marching in

When the rich go out and work
When the rich go out and work
Oh lord I want to be in that number
When the saints go marching in

When the air is pure and clean
When the air is pure and clean
Oh lord I want to be in that number
When the saints go marching in

When we all have food to eat
When we all have food to eat
Oh lord I want to be in that number
When the saints go marching in

When our leaders learn to cry
When our leaders learn to cry
Oh lord I want to be in that number
When the saints go marching in

 

[JP]

An old Folk Song by a long dead but beloved Québec Poet and Singer named Felix Leclerc, "Moi mes souliers ont beaucoup voyagé (Those shoes of mine have traveled a long way)".


- http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=0wcLjT4nZQo

Moi mes souliers (Those shoes of mine)

Moi mes souliers ont beaucoup voyagé (Those shoes of mine have traveled a long way)
Ils m'ont porté de l'école à la guerre (They carried me from school to the War)
J'ai traversé sur mes souliers ferrés (I have traveled on my steel soled shoes)
Le monde et sa misère (The world and its miseries)

Moi mes souliers ont passé dans les prés (Those shoes of mine have traveled through the meadows)
Moi mes souliers ont piétiné la lune (Those shoes of mine have trampled the moon)
Puis mes souliers ont couché chez les fées (Those shoes of mine have slept with the fairies)
Et fait danser plus d'une. (And danced with more than one)

Sur mes souliers y'a de l'eau des rochers (My shoes have dipped in water from Mountain streams)
D'la boue des champs et des pleurs de femmes (Covered in mud from fields and with women's tears)
J'peux dire qu'ils ont respecté le curé ( I can say they treated the Priest with respect)
L'pays, l'bon Dieu et l'âme (My Country, God and my soul)

S'ils ont marché pour trouver l'débouché ( If they walked to find the path)
S'ils ont traîné de village en village (If they walked from Village to Village)
Suis pas rendu plus loin qu'à mon lever (I am still at the same place since I got up this morning)
Mais devenu plus sage (But much wiser now)

Tous les souliers qui bougent dans les cités (All the shoes that moved about in the City)
Souliers de gueux et souliers de guerre (Shoes of the Poor and shoes of War)
Un jour cesseront d'user les planchers (Will one day stop wearing out the floors)
Peut être cette semaine (Maybe this week)

Moi mes souliers n'ont pas foulé Athènes (Those shoes of mine did not walk in Athens)
Moi mes souliers ont préféré les plaines (Those shoes of mine preferred the plains)
Quand mes souliers iront dans les musées (When my shoes will go into a Museum)
Ce sera pour s'y, s'y accrocher (It will be to be hung up on display)

Au paradis parait-il mes amis (My friends, they say In Heaven)
C'est pas la place pour les souliers vernis (It is not the place for shiny shoes)
Dépêchez-vous de salir vos souliers (Hurry up and get dust on those shoes)
Si vous voulez être pardonnés (If you want to be forgiven)
Si vous voulez être pardonnés (If you want to be forgiven)

 

[tploomis]

While walking, I found that a few songs came into my head early on, and stayed for the rest of the Camino. I didn't have an iPod or similar, so they didn't come from that. I'm a bit embarrassed about some of the music concerned, but I'll start off with one of my less embarrrassing ones - Eva Cassidy's version of 'Fields of Gold'. Has anyone got any REALLY embarrassing music they walked to; either through an iPod or just in their mind?

The Eagles's "Desperado" (First line: "Desperado -- why don't you come to your senses?"). The first line morphed into "Ponferrada -- why don't you come to your senses?", which morphed into "O'Cebreiro - why don't you come to your senses?", then it became "Santiago -- why don't you come to your senses?", and finally it was "Tom Loomis -- why don't you come to your senses?" I'm still singing that last one.

 

[t2andreo]

After Navarette, in early May 2013, thoroughly drenched by rain, cold from the wind and single-digit temperatures (centigrade), my "ear-worm" reared his head and started belting out "The Impossible Dream" from the musical "Man of La Mancha." The 1965 play was about the main character in the classic novel "Don Quixote," as written by Sr. Miguel de Cervantes.

Most of you likely read the book at some point or another. If you have not done, I highly recommend it. It is a classic of not only Spanish literature but of all western literature. I tend to re-read it every decade or so. Much of the story takes place in the La Mancha region of central Spain. In Santiago there is even a Praza de Cervantes not to far from the Cathedral along the Rua de San Beito.

I vividly recall as a pre-teen - I was 12 in 1965 - we had to learn to sing this song in the thrice-weekly music classes we were all subjected to. As I cannot carry a tune in a bucket I also remember the uncomfortable feeling when told "okay - now the boys only... ." Accordingly, until and unless I suffer from dementia or amnesia, the tune is permanently seared into my grey cells - those that remain anyway...

By 1972, the play was developed as a film, "Man of La Mancha." The title role, Don Quioxte, went to Peter O'Toole, James Coco was Sancho, and Sophia Loren was Aldonza. What a cast! Peter O' Toole - fabulous actor - R.I.P. December 2013

My "worm" must have realized that I needed something stirring to endure the daily rain, wind, and mud - always mud. Hence these words (I cheated slightly and searched for the correct lyrics). Mea culpa, mea maxima culpa:

The Impossible Dream
By Mitch Lee and Joe Darion, 1965

To dream...the impossible dream...
To fight...the unbeatable foe...
To bear...with unbearable sorrow...
To run...where the brave dare not go...
To right...the unrightable wrong...
To love...pure and chaste from afar...
To try...when your arms are too weary...
To reach...the unreachable star...

This is my quest, to follow that star...
No matter how hopeless, no matter how far...
To fight for the right, without question or pause...
To be willing to march into Hell, for a Heavenly cause...

And I know if I'll only be true, to this glorious quest,
That my heart will lie will lie peaceful and calm,
when I'm laid to my rest...
And the world will be better for this:
That one man, scorned and covered with scars,
Still strove, with his last ounce of courage,
To reach...the unreachable star...

In passing, it is interesting to note that the term "Compostela" translates roughly to "field of stars." So, there you go! I have a very devious and clever "ear-worm."

But it worked!

 

[DebR]

I had a bit of a "Sound of Music" moment on a sunny morning near Torres del Rio, which I unashamedly embraced, but had many more ear worm moments with truly relentless disposable pop stuck in my brain. Whenever it got too much...I recited the seven times table for half a kilometre or so. It replaced one annoying brain pattern with a much less offensive one, and it really worked. Plus, it was the perfect metronome walking rhythm!

Buen Camino!

 

[simply B]

prior to and at SJPP: 'River of Dreams' (Billy Joel)

after SdC: 'Things Have Changed' (Bob Dylan)

"earworm-y", but each has great lyrics