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Lane Steinberg has just released a great solo album - Headspace. The third song is 'The Mountain' - https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=lane+steinberg+the+mountain
This got me thinking about other songs I like that are either directly about mountains or the mountain envirnoment, or have the musical essence of being in wild places.
The Beach Boys' California Saga (The Beaks Of Eagles) is one - youtube.com/watch?v=AMLEcCYmU4Q&
I also have a soft spot for Rev Hammer who I listened to a lot in my teens when I first fell in love with the mountains of North Wales. He sings about life in the hills, Welsh and Irish mythology and landscape. youtube.com/watch?v=IxclLi49UGg&
Maybe there are some recommendations from others? Cheers, Jamie
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In reply to Jamie Hageman:
There's a few mountain related songs from Runrig
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In reply to Jamie Hageman:
Not really about mountains but I often used to sing Meet on the Ledge (Fairport Convention) when belaying on some mountain crag.
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In reply to pasbury:
> Not really about mountains but I often used to sing Meet on the Ledge (Fairport Convention) when belaying on some mountain crag.
We used to sing 'Going Underground' by The Jam when marching up to some pot in the Dales. Some people might say my life is in a rut ...
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In reply to Jamie Hageman:
I always enjoy listening to John Smith so good excuse to share this, “Hares on the Mountain”
youtube.com/watch?v=6uwAiN2CGGg&
Post edited at 13:20
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In reply to Jamie Hageman:
Rogers and Hart, "Mountain Greenery"
"There could be no cleaner re-
-treat from life's machinery,
Than our mountain greenery,
Home."
Lorenz Hart, the greatest ever lyricist, closely followed by Cole Porter.
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In reply to Jamie Hageman:
In typical UKC style, this is not a song, but there was a poet from Saddleworth called Ammon Wrigley who died in the 1940’s who wrote some amazing stuff, one of my favourite quotes of his is from ‘Songs of a moorland parish’ 1912.
‘I could wander through a hundred cathedrals, I could hear a hundred learned divines preach from carved oak pulpits, I could hear a hundred surpliced choirs sing the Nunc Dimittis and feel more impressed than if someone had whistled in my ear ; but I could not tramp across a solitary stretch of moor without being moved by some deep and incomprehensible influence ; the silence, the vastness, and the awesome mystery of the great waste lands awake a feeling which, if not exactly reverence, is closely akin to it. I sometimes wonder if this feeling is merely an impression produced by great contrasts, say, where one has been hemmed in all week by man, − his works and his artificialities, − and then comes to be set down among the calm sincerities of lonely moorlands, where mighty forces, obeying unwritten laws, work silently and unceasingly age after age. The moors take the pride out of a man, the humble him by making the span of his life seem even more trivial than it really is ; their vastness makes his smallness even smaller ; to be conscious of this feeling now and then does a man good, it sets him square with himself’
well worth checking him out if you don’t know him.
13
In reply to Kryank:
Brilliant!!! Thank you
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In reply to Wimlands:
Thanks Wimlands. Great voice but it's a four chord song. I'll check out a few more John Smith songs though. I played a Fylde guitar once and thought it sounded great!
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In reply to pasbury:
Thanks for that. Great song!
In reply to Kryank:
That really resonates with me even more as I get older, grumpier and less enchanted with the human race. Ammon Wrigley even gets a mention by that much better known grump Alfred Wainwright on page 146 of his Pennine Way guide.
Post edited at 14:09
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In reply to Lankyman:
Yeah me too, I discovered his stuff about a year ago and it really hit a chord with me. And like you say especially as you get a few years under your belt! (Even though I am still a youngster in my late 40’s 😂).
if I remember right he worked in the mills from a young age and found his escape in the saddleworth moors. And for a so called uneducated man, he had a knack for putting pen to paper in the most honest and relatable way.
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In reply to Lankyman:
I didn’t know about the wainwright mention, I’ll check that out. I think there is a plaque on Standedge by the Pennine way dedicated to him.
In reply to Jamie Hageman:
There’s the song “Ben” by Michael Jackson. Pretty sure that’s about Ben Macdhui.
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In reply to Jamie Hageman:
‘Remember the mountain bed’ by Billy Bragg and Wilco
In reply to Kryank:
> I didn’t know about the wainwright mention, I’ll check that out. I think there is a plaque on Standedge by the Pennine way dedicated to him.
Yes, he shows an illustration of the plaque and mentions a little about Wrigley and the Saddleworth moors.
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In reply to Jamie Hageman:
Ewan Maccoll - The Joy of Living.
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In reply to Jamie Hageman:
Rev Hammer is great. Another of his on the theme is Old Welsh Soul.
I absolutely love this, Matterhorn, by The Country Gentlemen.
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In reply to Jamie Hageman:
Roddy Woomble did "I came in from the mountain". He also used to write for one of the outdoor mags
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In reply to Jamie Hageman:
I should check out the brilliant Townes Van Zandt album Our Mother the Mountain. As you'd expect, a number of mountain-themed songs, including this gorgeous thing, My Proud Mountains, which will resonate with all of us who fancy having our ashes chucked into the wind off a favourite crag or hill...
https://youtu.be/lsiNzbFnVVQ?si=Owox1W-Os00Nv_Rb
Post edited at 16:33
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In reply to Jamie Hageman:
I can only offer John Denver's "Rocky Mountain High".
A few others came to mind, but despite mountain being in the title it's more the metaphorical type.
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In reply to nathan79:
I came up with an early Neil Young one…Sugar Mountain. Not one of his best…
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Does Solsbury Hill count as a mountain?
There's also White Mountain, from Trespass, by Genesis. And, Dance on a Volcano.
And, Man on the Silver Mountain by Rainbow.
Misty Mountain Hop, by Led Zeppelin.
There must be lots more.
Post edited at 19:26
In reply to Jamie Hageman:
My playlist on a similar theme (with a few slightly tenuous choices):
-Night on Bare Mountain; Mussorgsky
-Mountains; Biffy Clyro
-Wild Mountain Thyme; [take your pick, I went for The Byrds]
-Running Up That Hill; Placebo
-Misty Mountain Hop; Led Zeppelin
-Climbatize; The Prodigy
-The Hall of the Mountain King; Greig
-Run to the Hills; Iron Maiden
-Mountain Fern; Laura Cantrell
-Foggy Mountain Breakdown; Flatt & Scruggs
-Mississippi Queen; Mountain
-River Deep, Mountain High; Ike & Tina
-Going Up Country; Canned Heat
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In reply to Pero:
How could I have forgotten John Otway & Wild Willy Barrett's Misty Mountain, I think I still have the single somewhere
youtube.com/watch?v=K5gtNeEUkCE& (I was somewhere in the audience when this was filmed)
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In reply to Jamie Hageman:
'Fool on the Hill' by the Beatles. Something I've felt like quite often.
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In reply to Jamie Hageman:
Good to see Half Man Half Biscuit getting in there; the lyrics to Mod Diff V Diff Hard Severe in full:
Up on a ledge, I could do with chalk
I’d only gone for a sensible walk
I didn’t bank on espying your form
You said you were Yosemite-bound
You said we’d never get off the ground
I’m well aware it’s a love in vain
You’re a peak I can never attain
I’m so low-level I’m in the drain
Grade 1, loose scree I’m OK
Trapped on Cloggy though, no way
Mod, Diff, V. Diff, Hard Severe
How do I climb out of here?
Half-past cragfast here I cling
Call me a blockhead, a shell of a man
Call Llanberis, quick as you can
Dreams are wheeling on thermals
Streams of thought gone awry
Schemes embarked on sent reeling
Whaling the tar out of me
Call out to the ghost of Kirkus
I call out to the ghost of Kirkus
You say I’m stupid, you say I’m a clown
You call me Incapability Brown
So you’re the best chance of getting me down
Ropeless maybe, hopeless no
My jacket’s pumpkin – Páramo
Mod, Diff, V. Diff, Hard Severe
Won’t you winch me out of here
Headcam, dead ram, not my scene
M-E-N-L-O-V-E, let me hide myself in thee
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In reply to pasbury:
Good call - for the uninitiated, HMHB tracks are full of UK hillwalking references from Twmpa to bothies on Knoydart, the Stiperstones to Pen y Ghent.
My youngest son one day pointed out the would like to "fall asleep in the boulders strewn between/Glyder Fach and Glyder Fawr" which made me very proud (as I sit here in my Dukla Prague away kit typing this - perhaps I have a problem?).
Also: Public Service Broadcasting's "Everest" :
Once, there was a mountain called Peak 15
Nothing was known about it
But in 1852, the surveyors found it was the highest in the world
And they named it Everest
When men were first drawn to Everest, it was an unknown quantity
Something entirely beyond them
A climber, climbs with his guts, his brain, his soul, and his feet
All of them bound for a cold and white world
A world that is all up and up
The air is getting thinner and thinner
At such heights when you're lacking oxygen
You may think you're normal, but you're not
You're moving in a dream
A dream that deludes and debilitates
Two very small men cutting steps in the roof of the world
Why should a man climb Everest?
Because it is there
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In reply to Jamie Hageman:
From the occasionally brilliant Hell is for Heroes: I Can Climb Mountains.
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In reply to Jamie Hageman:
All time favourite for me is Tom Patey' s song ""Aiguilles des Cairngorms" to the tune of " The Mountains of ,Mourne"
Fiddler Duncan Chisholm recently released a very atmospheric album of fiddle tunes, "The Black Cuilinn"
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In reply to Jamie Hageman:
Calexico and Iron & Wine - Father Mountain
In reply to Jamie Hageman:
The Living Mountain by Jenny Sturgeon. Inspired by Nan Shepherds the living mountain and the musicians own background in the cairngorms.
Not quite mountainy but a climbing area.
The dark peak and the white by Bella Hardy.
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In reply to Lankyman: yes! Also doors “break on through “ on digs …
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In reply to Jamie Hageman:
Mountain Song by Jane’s Addiction
A great track but possibly not with the feel you are seeking
In reply to Jamie Hageman:
To add to the Half Man Half Biscuit list there's also "Lord Herefords knob"
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In reply to Boris's Johnson:
Thanks for all these suggestions. I have to go through and google things later.
In reply to Jamie Hageman:
Someone has already suggested Town Van Zandt Our Morher the Mountain which is a fantastic album.
mountain theme or mountain related tunes from Scotland:
Willie’s Ghost (a song about a man being killed by a ghoul in the hills)
the Hills of Glen Orchy
Cold Winds from Ben Wyvis
Much of Duncan Chisholm’s output (Black Cuillin, Cannaich)
some of the late Martyn Bennet’s work (Bothy Culture, tracks like Shputnik in Glenshiel)
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In reply to Dr.S at work:
> Surely this must be up there?
Wow!!
It just clicked what all those people with 'phones or earbuds are listening to out there in the hills! All of them, all the time, everywhere, every day!!
Personally I fear I'll now hear that forever and constantly in my head when I'm out there, without any electronics necessary....
In reply to Siward:
> Tenpole Tudor?
Always liked that one, even when it was in the charts, people sang it in the chain gang working digging for Durham County Council that summer
Ghost town was iin that summer too - we were out refurbing some kind of deserted education centre out in Hamsterley Forest - sounded really spooky echoing round there. And someone in the gang tried out a new product for his lunch - a Pot Noodle which he found sadly inadequate
Post edited at 13:15
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In reply to Jamie Hageman:
Surely this Northern Soul banger:
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In reply to Jamie Hageman:
Mountain Jam by the Allman Brothers. A good version, short at 34 minutes, is found on "At Fillmore East" 1971 a great album.
Plenty of long road trips through the US have had the Allman's as my soundtrack.
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In reply to Adam Hill:
Not so much music, but an inside cover of - I think a Yes album, by Roger Dean, features a painting clearly based on a picture of Frank Cannings on Omen, published in an early Mountain.
I always wondered how he came across that image:
In reply to Rob Exile Ward:
Keeping with the Yes theme - Roundabout features the lyric 'Mountains come out of the sky and they stand there'.
oh - and Dream Theater's 'A view from the top of the world' album cover has the band standing on the shores of Wastwater as unlikely as that may seem. (tho I fear some photoshoppery may have occured)
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In reply to Rob Exile Ward:
oh - meant to say, that image was on the booklet that came with Fragile.
In reply to Jamie Hageman:
Has no-one mentioned Iron Maiden 'Run to the Hills'? I'm sure this will probably be blasted out of the speakers at the start of every fell race.
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In reply to pasbury:
Thanks for sharing! I can’t believe I’ve not heard that before, I love abit of half Man Half Biscuit!
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In reply to Jamie Hageman:
Bury Me Deep in Love by The Triffids, has a couple of lines relating to mountains. Older readers may (sadly) know this as the song that played over Harold and Madge's wedding in Neighbours (and probably earned more money for the band than the rest of their output combined)
In reply to Jamie Hageman:
I find it quite funny that no one’s mentioned the screamingly obvious ‘The Sound of Music’ - perhaps deliberately, to avoid a cliché?
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In reply to Jamie Hageman:
For something current, Afraid of Heights by Boygenius is a grown up look at risk-taking and relationships. Impressive lyrics...
youtube.com/watch?v=tB0YjuHYbPE&
Post edited at 12:24
In reply to Jamie Hageman:
Timely topic as have been putting together a climbing/mountains playlist for an upcoming trip. So far I have (and sorry, it's all a bit eclectic an some of them are very tenuous!)
- Ain't No Mountain High Enough Marvin Gaye & Tammi Terrell
- Always Ascending Franz Ferdinand
- Big Rock Candy Mountain Motorcycle Boy
- Blue Ridge Mountains Fleet Foxes
- Broken Stones Paul Weller
- Cut Me Down Lloyd Cole & The Commotions
- Fall, Fall, Fall Razorlight
- Foot Of The Mountain Paul Weller
- Gravity Embrace
- Harrowdown Hill Thom Yorke
- Heavy Weather Jarvis Cocker
- Hold On Razorlight
- Hold On Alabama Shakes
- Hold On I'm Coming Sam & Dave
- I Walk The Hill Big Country
- Into The Valley The Skids
- Kill Devil Hills The Wedding Present
- Levitate Me Pixies
- Marvel Hill The Cardigans
- Mod Diff V Diff Hard Severe Half Man Half Biscuit
- Mountains Biffy Clyro
- Movin' On Up Primal Scream
- Moving On Up M People
- The Only Way Is Up Yazz
- Place Your Hands Reef
- Pull Me Back To Earth Friendly Fires
- Red Hill Mining Town The Joshua Tree
- River Deep Mountain High Tina Turner
- Running Up That Hill Kate Bush
- Snowden Doves
- Solsbury Hill Peter Gabriel
- Sprawl II (Mountains Beyond Mountains) Arcade Fire
- Stumble And Fall Razorlight
- The Sun's Comin' Over The Hill Karine Polwart
- Tiger Mountain Peasant Song Fleet Foxes
- Vertigo U2
- Violet Hill Coldplay
- Wild Mountain Thyme The Byrds
- Wonderwall Oasis
- You Keep Me Hangin On Kim Wilde
In reply to Jamie Hageman:
catchy/cheesy: youtube.com/watch?v=uSer4wdHvm8&
In reply to Jamie Hageman: anything by the fall
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In reply to mike123:
same old rock: youtube.com/watch?v=XYt2ASdw_WQ&
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In reply to Jamie Hageman:
The Ledge by Mary Gauthier
In reply to magma: play guitar a bit can them two , they should have been in a band
In reply to pasbury:
That is awesome. Thank you.
In reply to Jamie Hageman:
youtube.com/watch?v=NfzwM4pdyxU&
I'm not a massive 'modern' Biffy fan but I do like this one.
In other Scottish rockstar news, I once met Roddy Woomble after an acoustic show he did at Paisley Arts Centre. He seemed impressed when I told him I took the missus up the Buachaille on our first date.
Post edited at 19:38
In reply to Jamie Hageman:
Meet on the Ledge, - Fairports, Richard Thompson
Taking Tiger Mountain by Strategy. - Brian Eno
In reply to Jamie Hageman: iv looked up and down thus thread but cant see Stornoway who surely should be here. Among others, The Road You Didnt Take doesnt have hill or mountain in the title, but its all about the experience of hill walking and always makes me want to jump in my van and run away to remote hills for the weekend
In reply to Jamie Hageman:
I'm afraid that the first that came to mind is a dreadful dirge that started
and then I climbed another mountain to see your eyes so blue
and something something love for you, followed by ditto...true! Etc
Hope you are well and still painting inspiring mountains
John
Post edited at 22:32
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In reply to jcw:
Hi John, all well here thanks and yes indeed, I'm painting and painting at the moment and enjoying it. How are you?
My favourite music for lying in the tent looking out at the stars and feeling insignificant, is sacred choral music, particularly a lot of Faure and some Mahler. To me Faure's Requiem is the perfect soundtrack to high mountain bivvies. I am at my happiest and most content listening to Agnus Dei sipping a dram while wrapped up in my sleeping bag on a cold Winter's evening above the snow line. I actually never listen to the Requiem anywhere other than up in the mountains and never have - I ration it as it's so very special.
My favourite recording of the Requiem is the 1975 Academy of St Martin-in-the-Fields.
Post edited at 14:32
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In reply to Lankyman:
Also a statue in Uppermill
In reply to Jamie Hageman:
In reply to Jamie Hageman:
Foot of the Mountain - A-ha
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In reply to Jamie Hageman:
Yes, I learnt early not to overplay your favorites and now never listen to music as background
There is something I want to send you if you want it. Can you kindly send me by email to my @gmail.com address which I think you have a personal update address to use please
John
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In reply to Jamie Hageman:
Oh, I love to climb a mountain
And to reach the highest peak
But it doesn't thrill me half as much
As dancing cheek to cheek
Fred Astaire
Well, I stand up next to a mountain
And I chop it down with the edge of my hand
Well I pick up all pieces and make an island
Might even raise a little sand
Jimi Hendrix
The way is up
Along the road
The air is growing thin
Too many friends who tried
Were blown off this mountain with the wind
Sandy Denny
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In reply to Jamie Hageman:
Have we had kate Bush yet ? fnar. King of the Mountain.
In reply to Jamie Hageman:
She Climbs the Munros by Hushman youtube.com/watch?v=6OWUSpcvOEo&
In reply to Jamie Hageman:
‘I never asked to be your mountain’ by Tim Buckley is a good one. Also the cover by Beth Orton/Chemical Brothers.
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In reply to Jamie Hageman:
Faure's Requiem on Classic FM right now. The Agnus Dei.
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In reply to Wimlands:
> I came up with an early Neil Young one…Sugar Mountain. Not one of his best…
I think it’s a beauty and an early sign of misunderstood genius. The imagery presented by the lyrics is layered and fabulously rich. He was 19 years old when he finished that, it must have been in his list for two or three years before that.
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In reply to oscaig:
Good list.
I think Mt. by The Super Furry Animals would be a good addition. Once listed to driving up to the Ben Nevis upper car park early one winters morning.
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In reply to Jamie Hageman
The Big Rock Candy Mountain by Harry McClintock
”where they hung the jerk that invented work”
It’s been a long day …
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In reply to Jamie Hageman:
It's an odd one and not fantastic but Mt by super furry animals
Edit, just seen already suggested ^
Ok maybe,
Fire coming out of the monkeys head - Gorillaz
Post edited at 22:15
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In reply to Jamie Hageman:
youtube.com/watch?v=Bilb5U5u8I8&
mountain man by dirtwater is my favourite
In reply to Jamie Hageman:
Ok shameless plug but my side project EP just released and is mountain inspired (inc track names/mood) - it was a refreshing bit of fun to balance my main group that is a bit more structured. If you like weird ambient sounds and moog paraphonic synth improvisation…. (Its a small demographic I suspect)….
https://music.apple.com/gb/album/from-the-clouds-awoken/1719642910
https://open.spotify.com/artist/5EDbfZ5IFe9b7gdIQfgwW6?si=mZOKbinxRLqKrgq0s...
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In reply to Jamie Hageman:
Here’s two from Joe Bonamassa
Mountain Climbing
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=3qJ8bT3W1D0&pp=ygUfam9lIGJvbmFtYXNzYSBtb3...
Or the full Bonamassa experience, Mountain Time
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=xiMqvPYPvQ0&pp=ygUbam9lIGJvbmFtYXNzYSBtb3...
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In reply to Jamie Hageman:
It's about time we had The Fall represented;
Mountain Energei (also about fishing)
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In reply to Jamie Hageman:
Anything by Cliff
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In reply to Boris's Johnson:
And "descending the stiperstones"
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In reply to J72:
This is great JJ!!! I've only had time to listen to the first one this morning, but will get to more soon. You've inspired me to take my sound recorder into the hills and add some extras at home - guitar and synth, and maybe some found sounds. Josie Long get ready!
In reply to Jamie Hageman:
Thanks Jamie - I’d had that thought too, partly inspired by Matthew Halsall’s most recent album which is influenced by general wandering and contains some field recordings: https://music.apple.com/gb/album/an-ever-changing-view/1690852104
…UKH/UKC Christmas album incoming then! Do share where you get to with that!
In reply to pasbury:
Anything by the Fall works for the list. How could I have missed off Jamming by Bob Marley too! :-D
In reply to oscaig:
There's an Ivor Cutler album "Jammy Smears" - no reference to climbing intended, but it would make an excellent name for a route employing both skills.
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