Peach Pit wrote:
Looking for some songwriting inspiration, what are some songs about running? Best I can come up with off the dome is Running With the Devil by Van Halen (meh), Run Away With Me by Carly Rae (goated song), Run by Coin, run! by Willow
uhhhh On the Run by Pink Floyd, Rabbit Run by Eminem
There's also like a billion songs called Running Out of Time, my favorites of which are probably Paramore's and Lil Yachty's (best psych rock artist of the 2020s).
Most of these are using run as some kind of symbolism of running away, whether that be Carly Rae (literally "Run away with me"), Coin ("Don't you tell me you never though/Maybe we could run"), or Pink Floyd (lady talking in an airport as a plane crashes across your eardrums, footsteps of guy running away).
Anyone have running songs that are more about running? Or just bangers that have run in the title to add to the running playlist?
And for those of you wondering, Peach Pit (the band, not me) does not have any songs about running. Best I could find was "Run your morning bath in sea foam" in Alrighty Aphrodite (maybe the best guitar in a song in all of the 2010s).
Bonus shoutout to Runaround Sue by Dion for being a 10/10 and having run in the title but not even close to being about running.
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This post was edited 1 minute after it was posted. Reason provided: removed previous mentioned song00
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The Ingebrigsten one
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Bonus points to Bassist Guy Pratt for running in place at the end.
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I'm feelin' pretty confident that this one hasn't been posted yet. A Seattle band.
She ran, she ran, she ran, .... away from me.
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How has the greatest running song ever not yet been mentioned? Coach used to play this at full blast when we were warming up
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Nowhere to Run, at a solid 180 bpm!
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She's runnin' out the door
She's runnin' out
She run, run, run, run
Run00 -
Runnin' Down a Dream by Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers.
Chorus:
I'm runnin' down a dream
It never would come to me
Working on a mystery, going wherever it leads
I'm runnin' down a dreamMy favorite. Very motivational. If you want it, don't wait for it to come to you, run after it!
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Ruxton Towers XC wrote:
Stranger Things brought this running song back - "Running Up That Hill" by Kate Bush
I would tell you that I hate to be "that guy," but it would be a lie. The song has nothing to do with running. It's about the female half of a couple showing willingness to swap places with her male partner to understand his struggles in the relationship.
Kate Bush wrote:
If I only could/I'd make a deal with God/And get him to swap our places.It was almost titled "Deal with God" but the religious imagery was considered too controversial for the era. Source:
It also happens to be rapper Big Boi's favorite song of all time, and I love how he ends his commentary here with a wry "Would you?" if given the chance to follow through on the song's premise:
And hey, all of this probably seems jerky, so apologies. I'm really into music trivia, not trying to shame you.
If we broaden the definition of "songs but running," here's one that merits consideration:
This Plain White T's his is about...well, here's the relevant part from the Wikipedia article linked below:
Wikipedia wrote:
The song was written by frontman Tom Higgenson after meeting Delilah DiCrescenzo, a nationally ranked American steeplechase and cross country runner,[6] through a mutual friend around 2002.Higginson was smitten with DiCrescenzo, but he failed to win her over. I think it might have been because she already had a boyfriend. Anyway, it was a huge hit and most people don't know the story behind it.
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"She was a middle distance runner"00
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Again, if we can stretch the premise a bit, Bob Seger's "Against the Wind" fits the bill nicely:
-The song is about navigating life's ups and downs, especially vis-a-vis learning who you can and cannot trust. But it was inspired by it's performer's actual experience of running *against the wind* while participating in high school cross country races.
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JustMe22 wrote:
This Plain White T's his is about...well, here's the relevant part from the Wikipedia article linked below:
Higginson was smitten with DiCrescenzo, but he failed to win her over. I think it might have been because she already had a boyfriend. Anyway, it was a huge hit and most people don't know the story behind it.
FWIW There are exactly three people on the entire planet who don't know the story behind it.
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Nice job here, well researched, thought out, Impressive.
But I'm about to change all that.I AM IRON MAN.
"Heavy boots of lead
Fills his victims full of dread
Running as fast as they can
Iron Man lives again"10 -
Long distance runaround Yes
Long distance runaround
Long time waiting to feel the sound
I still remember the dream there
I still remember the time you said goodbye
Did we really tell lies
Letting in the sunshine
Did we really count to one hundred
Cold summer listening
Hot color melting the anger to stone
I still remember the dream there
I still remember the time you said goodbye
Did we really tell lies
Letting in the sunshine
Did we really count to one hundred
Long distance runaround
Long time waiting to feel the sound
I still remember the dream there
I still remember the time you said goodbye
Cold summer listening
Hot colour melting the anger to stone
I still remember the dream there
I still remember the time you said goodbye
Did we really tell lies
Letting in the sunshine
Did we really count to one hundred
Looking for the sunshineSource: LyricFind
Songwriters: Chris Squire / Jon Anderson00 -
Running on Empty wrote:
Jackson Browne - "Running on Empty"
This song, amongst others, gave Forrest Gump the fuel to run from one coast to the other!
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Although there's no specific mention of running, Instant Karma always takes me back to my early HS XC and Track days in the 90s because of that Nike Commercial.
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Slip kid and Bell Boy the Who
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More an incel song about a runner than running.
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"If I run I can free my worried mind"
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