[Philippe Binette]

The topic Other Passions got me thinking.. which song represent golf at best, on which songs could you play golf.

My selections:

1) My way (Sinatra)
2) What a wonderful world (Louis Armstrong)
3) Rebel Heart (the Corrs, instrumental)
4) Heard it throught the grapevine (Marvin Gaye)

[Sean Walsh]

Big Yellow Taxi (The cover is by the Counting Crows - I forget who did the original.) It could even be the theme for this site.

"Oh it always seems to go,
You don't know what you've got 'til it's gone
Pave Paradise
And put in a waterfall (Parking Lot.)"

 

[Mark_Rowlinson]

Being a professional singer I often find that I can't get a particular piece of music out of my head as I play golf, and very often it is something infuriatingly trite and trivial.  However, being a dutiful golfer and switching off my mobile phone before playing, very often the last thing I hear is a series of bleeps which are the same notes and rhythm as the second subject of the opening Allegro of the Schubert Octet.  That's a nice one to carry around all day.  When I'm putting badly I can't help think of Die Bose Farbe from Schubert's Die Schone Mullerin (where are umlauts when you need them?).  The hateful colour was (you guessed) green.

The British Library, Bodleian, Scottish National Library and others have copies of old golf songs of which I'm trying to get copies. If they're interesting enough I might put them speculatively on a CD.....  

[Paul Payne]

I'd vote "one more cup of coffee" on Dylans album "Desire". It is a bit of a lament in which he talks (with some dread even) about having "one more cup of coffee before I go..... to the valley below". Always sounded like a fitting St. Andrews verse to me.

Otherwise who could deny Devo's "Whip it"

(Grip it?? Rip it??)

Didn't the Beatles write "The long and winding hole"?

I know whenever I hit a fairway I'm thinking "Still alive and well" by Rick Derringer

The you get those great twighlight rates and you find yourself humming "don't let the sun go down on me" -Elton

Clubhouse trash talk QUEEN! "We are the champions"

OK I give up.

[Kyle Harris]

Yesterday, I sent a golf rendition of the Genesis song: "The Return of the Giant Hogweed" to Tommy Nacc.

It's about an invasive plant species.

The golf version, as follows:
Turn and run!
Nothing can stop them,
Around every bunker and green side their power is growing.
Stamp them out!
We must destroy them,
They infiltrate each golf course with their shade providing coolness!

They are invincible,
They seem immune to all our arbocidal battering.

Long ago in the New York Hills,
A golfer found the regal Scots Pine by a tee,
He captured it and brought it home.
Botanical creature stirs, seeking revenge.
Memberships will not forget.
He came home to Planfield,
And made a present of the Scots Pine to the corner of the dogleg on 5!

Waste no time!
They are approaching.
Hurry now, we must narrow the fairways and over-water!

Water by night!
They are defenceless.
They all need the sun to make our course like emeralds!

Still they're invincible,
Still they're immune to all our arbocidal battering.

Fashionable country gentlemen had some wide open courses,
In which they innocently planted the mighty scots pine throughout the green!
Botanical creature stirs, seeking revenge.
Memberships they soon forgot.
Soon they escaped, spreading their seed,
Preparing for an onslaught, threatening the strategic school!

I used to putt listening to ELP and Genesis back in High School.

[Sean Walsh]

Paul,

Beatles - The Long and winding road.

Paul McCARTNEY - Mull of Kintyre

"O Mull of Kintyre
where Marchrihanish lies
O Mull of Kintyre."  

See he found it when it really was a hidden gem.

Where do you go to my lovely - Peter SONDSTEDT (or similar)

"Where do you go to my lovely
when you're alone on the course (in your bed)
tell me the (swing)thoughts that surround you
I want to get inside your head."

Can anyone tell I'm on nightshift and it's 5am

[Paul Payne]

Kyle,

That is funny. We just need big John to perform it this year at Augusta.

[Pat Howard]

"I'm Alright" by Kenny Loggins

[Andy Doyle]

"Top of the World" - Van Halen

"Oh, I know it won't hurt,  
I gotta have a little taste  
I just wanna sink my teeth in that  
Fine piece of real estate, yeah
 
Hey baby, make it nice and sweet,  
Oh, little darling  
Let's take a walk down easy street
 
Standing on top of the world ...
For a little while."

[Glenn Spencer]

Gimme Shelter- The Rolling Stones

Waaaarrrrr!!!! It's just a shot away, it's just kiss away!!

[Glenn Spencer]

Also, I like that song from the NBC broadcasts of the USGA events. In Celebration of Man, by Yanni

[Tony_Muldoon]

Sean

Big Yellow Taxi - Joni Mitchell
Peter Sarstedt

When I get to play a famous course and I've got a club in my hand waiting for my turn I can hear the Dan,

"We're standing just where he stood
it was, Chain  Lightning
It feels so GOOD...."

[Tim Gavrich]

When I'm playing badly, I'd have to say "Man of Constant Sorrow," by Bob Dylan, or "One Bourbon, One Scotch, One Beer," by George Thorogood, or maybe "I'm Bad, I'm Nationwide," by ZZ Top.
On a good day, perhaps "Crazy Little Thing Called Love (Golf)," by Queen, or maybe "Money," by Pink Floyd (if I'm in a big match), or, for a good beat and melody line, "Carmichael," by Neil Young.  I find that I sometimes play well when I just hum some classical music, like "Jupiter," (I don't know how many classical music fans we have) or the Promenade from "Pictures at an Exhibition."  Golf is a walking game, after all.

[Gene Greco]

The song played prior to the golf telecasts on ABC in the 70s.

I believe it was called "Love's Theme".

[William King]

This has got to be more personal than even putting style!  

For shear rythmn it has got to be Godzilla by Blue Oyster Cult

He picks a club up
and puts a ball down
and knocks it through the center of town!

Hey Ho that ball just goes and goes
Go go Godzilla!

[Tim Taylor]

Several others have done that song but it was written and originally done by Joni Mitchell.

TimT

Big Yellow Taxi (The cover is by the Counting Crows - I forget who did the original.) It could even be the theme for this site.

"Oh it always seems to go,
You don't know what you've got 'til it's gone
Pave Paradise
And put in a waterfall (Parking Lot.)"

 

[Brian_Sleeman]

I always liked the traditional "Greensleeves."

Anything waltzy is good for tempo, but occasionally the terrible song will creep in.  I remember one college tournament where someone on the team wanted to play Snoop Dogg on the way to the event.  I would go along in consistent stretches here and there, even par for about 7 or 8 holes, when suddenly Snoop would hit and I would blow up with a quad.

I get a little superstitious with songs in my head, since it's usually something that always occurs and I can control it a little.  "When I Paint My Masterpiece" (a Dylan song covered by The Band) was a good one for awhile.

Neil Young's always been good.  Get "Harvest" stuck in your head (the title track) and it'll work for you.

If you get sick of it after your round, put on "Kashmir" by Led Zeppelin and it will eliminate it completely.  It will get rid of any song, guaranteed.

[Mike_Young]

the Masters Theme song by Dave Loggins....when the words are used

[Mark Brown]

It's got to be "Stairway to Heaven" or on a bad day...
"Purple Haze -- all through my brain"

[Doug Braunsdorf]

I'll make a slight addendum to the preceedings as to what I prefer to listen to on the way to play--as it helps focus my thoughts on what will be upcoming-

I very much like the soundtrack from "Last of the Mohicans", as the music captures different moods and textures, different points in the film.  It is quite dramatic, and has a distinct ebb and flow much as a round of golf does.  

However, my favorite record to play in the car on the way to a round is "Sinatra At The Sands".   It simply puts me in a great mood to play.

Neither albums are too crazy or intense, but the Sinatra album is probably a little better as it builds slowly and helps me ease into mentally preparing for the round.  

"Kind of Blue" by Miles Davis works well also, perhaps better for early-morning rounds.  

No rock--just too crazy, will get me too keyed up and jumpy.  

[Peter Pallotta]

"I Can't Get Started"

(words & music by Ira Gershwin; the Bunny Berrigan version is terrific; and if you drop the second verse and go right to the bridge, it's the perfect song for this perfectly frustrating  game)

"I've flown around the world in a plane;
I've settled revolutions in Spain;
The North Pole I have charted,
But I can't get started with you.

(Bridge)
You're so supreme, lyrics I write of you,
Scheme, just for a sight of you,
Dream, both day and night of you,
And what good does it do?

In nineteen twenty-nine, I sold short;
In England, I'm presented at court,
But you've got me down-hearted,
‘Cause I can't get started with you."

The only trouble is the second verse I mentioned (and dropped). Ira was either a very good golfer, or he was lying, or he just needed a rhyme for "star", i.e.

"Around the golf course, I'm under par,
And all the movies want me to star;
I've got a house, a show place,
But I get no place with you"

Me and golf, summed up in a song title. Geez, I should really get a life

Peter

[Jay Flemma]

Hmmm...when my tempo gets out of whack, I keep a Bpwling for Soup song in my head to slow down.  Kyle's Old Genesis knowledge deserves serious respect, Hogweed is a rare and excellent song...

I have a great one for golf by Genesis, Firth of Fifth (not the live version, the version on selling England by The Pound, complete with amazing grand piano intro...)...its has the word "firth" to harken to Scotland and its about beautiful nature.

[Glenn Spencer]

Character Flaw from the Tin Cup soundtrack.

[Sean_A]

I am often caught whistling "If I Only Had a Brain".  It must have started 15 or so years ago.

Ciao

Sean

[Joe Hancock]

This always changes as I discover new stuff. This morning, I was listening to something through headphones and couldn't shake the parallels between the music rythem and flow vs. what we ever hope to experience on the golf course. The link I'm going to post isn't a "song", but a 3 hour set of songs, recorded live. It's a mixed bag, but I would say it's a great combo of funk, jazz and rock. Some songs are instrumental, some have lyrics. One thing that really caught my ear with this set was not only the parallel in time (3 hours) but also, about a third of the way into the set there is a song called "3 Sisters". I think you know the reference.

http://www.archive.org/audio/etree-details-db.php?id=10919&from=browsePopular

That will require some download time and, if you want it on CD, some conversion time...but I promise it is well worth it.

Joe

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