nemojo

Bike Songs

a quick cull from the web. sorry no acknowledgements

Acoustic Motorbike - Luka Bloom (#10)

Boy Needs A Bike - Jewel

Bicycle (title track) - Livingston Taylor

Bicycle Race - Queen (#1 below), and Blümchen (cover/remix)

The Bicycle Trip - Bruce Cockburn (#5)

Bicycle Spaniard - Cracker

Bicycle Thief (not about bicycles)- New Order

Bike - Mal Webb (#12)

Bike - Pink Floyd (#7)

Bike (instrumental) - Autechre

Bike Pump Meets Bucket (instrumental) - Aphex Twin

Bike Song - Red Monkey

Bikes in White Satin - Tom (#2)

Blue Bike - Larry Yes

Busted Bicycle (instrumental) - Leo Kottke

Car Free Zones - ? (#8)

Cycling Is Fun - Shonen Knife

Dirt Bike - They Might Be Giants

Les Bicyclettes de Belsize - Connie Francis (#6)

My Bike - Ghoti Hook

My White Bike - Nazareth

Nice Bike (instrumental) - Ry Cooder

Pedaler's Lament - Jack Dingler (#3)

Red Rider - the Residents

Robin Hood - New Bad Things

Rockin' Bicycle - Fats Domino (#4)

South Carolina - John Linnell (of TMBG)

Vancouver Bike Summer Songs (#9)

a) Queens of the Road

b) Proud Bikeway

c) Pedal Power Round

d) Daisy Bell

e) Wholesome Undy

f) Beautiful City

g) Pedal Power Goddess

h) Oleum Petroleum

Christmas 2003 Songs (#11)

a) Bicycle Rock

b) Bikes For The World

c) Climate Change is Coming to Town

d) Deck The Road

e) O Come All Ye Cyclists

f) Ring Your Bells

g) Rudolph the Red-nosed Cyclist

h) The 12 Days of Christmas

also see http://bicycleuniverse.com/general/music.html

1. Bicycle Race - Queen

Bicycle! Bicycle!

I want to ride my bicycle

I want to ride my bike.

I want to ride my bicycle

I want to ride it where I like

2. Anyway, I started thinking about the Moody Blues "Nights in White Satin." And looking around at my fellow riders, I came up with this one:

Guys in tight lycra

With money to spend,

Looking for bike chix

Whom they might befriend.

Titanium tubing

On a custom built frame

Ride it each weekend

Unless it should rain.

We're all poseurs ... ohhh ... we're all poseurs ....!

Not that I'm anyone to talk. I'm one of the worst.

.................................Tom

3. Pedaler's Lament

Words by Jack Dingler

Sung to the tune of 'Streets of Laredo'

As I was out riding, as I do every Sunday

The sun it was shining and the road it was clear

I spied a young cylist lying sprawled on the roadside

Covered in road rash and cold as the clay.

"Oh, tap your cleats slowly and say 'on your left' lowly,

Talk of the tours as you carry me along,

Take me to the green valley and lay my bike o'er me

For I am a young cyclist and I've done nothing wrong."

"I see by your lycra that you are a roadie"

These words he did say as I boldly rode by,

"Come sit down beside me and hear my sad story,

I was hit by motorist and know I must die."

"Let sixteen tandems come tow my poor my coffin,

Let sixteen racers come to draft me along,

Take me to the graveyard and lay my bike o'er me

For I am a young cyclist and I've done nothing wrong."

"My friends and relations, they live for their autos,

They know not why, their poor cylist goes on,

Well I first started riding just to improve my condition,

For I am a young cyclist and I've done nothing wrong."

"Go write a letter to my gray-haired old mother,

And carry the same to my sister so dear,

But not a word of this shall you now mention

When a crowd gathers round you my story to hear."

"Oh, tap your cleats slowly and say 'on your left' lowly,

Talk of the tours as you carry me along,

We all love our bicycles so shiny and handsome,

We all love our bicycles although they give us such pain."

"There is another more dear than a sister

She'll bitterly weep when she hears I am gone,

Still it's me that she'll blame, for all of the riding,

Riding on roadsides, where autos belong."

"Go gather around you a crowd of young riders,

And tell them the story of this, my sad fate;

Tell one and the other before they go further

To educate motorists before it's too late."

"Oh wear your best jerseys, then ride your bikes merrily

Talk of the tours as you carry me along,

And bunny hop mountain bikes, right o'er my coffin,

There goes an unfortunate rider away to his home."

"It was once in the saddle I used to go sprinting

Once in the saddle I rode all the day,

First down to the crits and then to the road race

Got hit by a motorist, I am dying today."

"Get six jolly racers to carry my coffin,

Get six biker chicks to carry my pall,

Put bunches of roses all over my coffin,

Put roses to deaden the clods as they fall."

"Then ride your bikes slowly, and rattle your chains lowly,

And give a wild shout as you carry me along,

And in the grave throw me and lay my bike o'er me

For I am a young cyclist and I've done nothing wrong."

"Go bring me a bottle, a bottle of sports drink

To cool my parched lips," the cyclist he said;

Before I could turn, the spirit had left him

And gone to its Giver --- the cyclist was dead.

We tapped our cleats slowly and said, 'on your left' lowly,

And bitterly wept as we bore him along,

For we all loved our partner, so brave, young and handsome,

We all loved our fallen partner who'd never done wrong.

* Jack Dingler *

* jdingler@onramp.net *

4. Rockin' Bicycle - Fats Domino:

Ain't got a Cadillac or a big automobile

I'm just a little guy not a big time wheel

But I can prove my love is true

On my rockin' bicycle that's built for two

5. The Bicycle Trip - Bruce Cockburn (1970):

Drift along

Hear the gravel crackle

Butterflies

Shades of the eternal dancer

God has buttered the land with sunlight

Sunlight

Corn grows high

Like a tall watusi

Katydid

Hums a monotonous tune

Rather hypnotically

Hmmmmmm

Overhead there's a parrot with boxing gloves

Singing like me

What a clever bird

Even knows the words

But he doesn't seem to see

Making my great escape

You can just take so much of your own advice

Who needs a king

Sitting in a tree

So loquaciously

Pigeonholing everything

Pigeons have a way of taking wing

Back again

Purple thistles bristle

All around

Bane of the Eternal Dancer

Hmmmmmm

Home is just around the bend...

The end

6. Les Bicyclettes De Belsize - Connie Francis (Lyrics by: Les Reed/Barry Mason)

Turning and turning

The world goes on.

We can't change it, my friend.

Let us go riding all through the days,

Together to the end, to the end.

7. Bike - Pink Floyd (Lyrics by Barrett, 1967 )

I've got a bike

you can ride if you like.

It's got a basket,

a bell that rings

and things to make it look good.

I'd give it to you if I could

but I borrowed it.

8. Car Free Zones [tune: Monty Python Theme]

The cars go in and the cars go out,

But rarely do you see

A lane, a space, a path, a place

For you, my bike, and me.

And as for bridges, well it's clear

There's no safe place to be!

Oh car free zones, car free zones

Are what we want to see!

There's glass and metal, rocks and stones

On every Portland street,

And when you ride here on the side

They're right beneath your feet.

They're thrown here by each passing car

And so we must repeat

Oh, car free zones, car free zones

Would sure be really neat!

I'm being followed by a gas-guzzler

Who thinks I am too slow,

He gives a beep from his big jeep

And to the ground I go,

And as I lay there he drives past

And screams, "Get off the road!"

Oh car free zones, car free zones

We need to change the Code!

The Transportation Planning Rule

Declares, "Spend two per cent

Of every dime and planners' time

On bike development."

But when it comes to budgeting

There's not a single cent

For car free zones, car free zones

The money's all been spent!

9. Songs from Vancouver B.C. Bike Summer (2001)

Here is text of Vancouver Bike Songs that are part of bike culture in

Vancouver. These songs have been part of Critical Mass and Bike Summer,

especially the Lantern Ride, a very Northwest Coast arty Critical Mass.

Pedalsinging was started here by our Saint who got smashed by a truck and

is now joined to the Pedal Power Goddess in the sky. She called us Singing

Cyclists. Choral singing or chanting can really unify a bike ride and

communicate a message to the public without a PA system. It is challenging

to develop this unanimity among cyclists, but a

The lyrics here are full of the passions and words of the Singing

Cyclists focused by Gavin and heavily crafted by me.

I hope you can sing them with us. We gather fairly regularly, so let us

know if you want to join a pedalchoral evening.

If you live in another place please do try singing some of them to the

well-known tunes we sing them to.

a) QUEENS OF THE ROAD [tune: King of the Road]

=====================

Sometimes we travel slow,

And take time

to stop and say "hello"

Sometimes we travel fast;

We never whine

about the price of gas.

It's simple, you can see

Bikes are good for you and me

We'll be folks of means

by all means

Queens of the road.

Got healthy heart and legs,

Never go to Jenny Craig.

Don't pay no parking fees.

Don't need no I.C.B.C.

We sold the Chevrolet

'Cause we found a better way.

Now we're girls of means

by no means

Queens of the road.

Bikes don't use up the earth a lot

Or turn it all into a parking lot.

Bikes don't add to air pollution.

Bikes are the urban green solution.

Sometimes we travel slow...

....

Queens of the road.

b) PROUD BIKEWAY [tune: Proud Mary]

=====================

Got a good job in the city,

Workin' for the man

every night and day,

Getting stuck in traffic,

Drivin' down the highway,

Looked around a corner,

saw a better way:

Bike wheels keep on turnin',

Bike culture keep on growin',

Rollin', Rollin',

Rollin' through the city.

Left the car parked

the next morning,

Telling Shell Oil to take a hike.

Then I got to see

the good side of the city

When I cycled downtown

on my recycled bike.

Bike wheels...

Cycled on down the Seaside,

'long the False Creek Trail,

up the Adanac Way,

No more smoke and traffic,

friendly nods and smiles,

People on the bikeway

are easy to hail.

Bike wheels...

c) PEDAL POWER ROUND

=====================

Pedal power rolls down the right-of-way,

Rockin' way to get around every day.

Living way to go.

Breathing, don't you know that

bikes are here to stay.

d) DAISY BELL

=====================

1900 HE:

Daisy, Daisy, give me your answer, do!

I'm half crazy all for the love of you!

It won't be a stylish marriage.

I can't afford a carriage,

But you'll look sweet upon the seat

Of a bicycle built for two.

1950 SHE:

Arthur, Arthur, here's your answer true:

I'm no martyr and I will not marry you.

If you can't afford a Mercedes,

Well you can go to Hades.

And I'll be damned if I'll be crammed

On a bicycle built for two.

2000 He: Daisy...

2000 SHE:

Michael, Michael, Here's your answer true:

I like to cycle. I'm happy that you do too.

So cool, you're not a gas junkie

and your quads are ripped and hunky.

But I must be in charge

of the front handlebars...

HE:

Then I'll check out your glutes

and let you choose the routes...

ALL:

On our bicycle built for two.

e) WHOLESOME UNDY [tune: Cwm Rhonda]

=====================

Hey, Vancouver, in one week

A road rage orgy in False Creek.

The Molson Indy in our town

Roaring squealing round and round.

Indy No, Undy Yes.

The Wholesome Undy is the best.

The Wholesome Undy is so cool;

Organic produce is the fuel.

The Wholesome Undy smells like folks

And no un-wholesome race car smoke.

Indy No, Undy Yes.

The Wholesome Undy is the best.

The Wholesome Undy sounds so sweet,

A pedal chorus in your street.

The Wholesome Undy sings along

A little traffic calming song.

Indy No, Undy Yes.

The Wholesome Undy is the best.

The Wholesome Undy looks so bright.

The Undy folks can travel light.

The Wholesome Undy looks so smart

With pedal power, life and art.

Indy No, Undy Yes.

The Wholesome Undy is the best.

Gaunch is wholesome, ginch is cute

And so's a cyclist's birthday suit.

Teddy's sexy, thong is hot,

Boxers cover up a lot.

Indy No, Undy Yes.

The Wholesome Undy is the best.

f) BEAUTIFUL CITY

=====================

Bike lanes over the inlet,

Bike lanes over the river,

Bike lanes on all the bridges,

Bike paths on scenic ridges,

And bike lanes through the middle

of the city.

cho:

Let's make us a beautiful city,

Let's make us a beautiful city

With bike lanes in the city

of Vancouver.

Who's up the road

with those flashing lights?

Some hot little cuties in spandex tights.

On bike lanes in the city of Vancouver.

Cho.

Who's that behind us in a traffic jam?

It's the old roadragers

from Coquitlam.

But a windway can speed them

to Vancouver.

Cho.

Who's that thinking globally?

It's the folks that are biking locally

On the bike lanes in the city of Vancouver.

Cho.

g) PEDAL POWER GODDESS

=====================

There's a pedal-power goddess

in the sky

And she turns the Milky Way

between her thighs.

She's the pedal-power goddess

And she doesn't wear a bodice,

She's the pedal-power goddess

in the sky.

There's a pedal power goddess

in the stars.

In the cosmos there's no lasting

place for cars,

So the goddess doesn't drive one

And her energy's a live one

And there are no fossils burning

in her arse.

There's a pedal power goddess

on the way

And we pedal by her power

every day.

Through the road rage

and pollution,

We will make a velorution,

By the goddess

we will find a better way.

h) OLEUM PETROLEUM

=====================

You can't get to heaven in a limousine

'Cause the Lord don't sell no gasoline,

no Oleum Petroleum.

You get bad karma from a Mercedes

'Cause others pay for your life of ease,

for your..Oleum Petroleum

There's bogus karma in an S.U.V.,

Ain't neither sport nor utility,

it's just Oleum Petroleum.

You can't get to heaven in a four-by-four

'Cause heaven 's got a real narrow door,

no Oleum Petroleum.

We ain't a-gonna burn no fossil fuels,

We ain't a-gonna be such fossil fools,

We ain't a-gonna be such fossil fools.

We don't burn diesel, we don't burn gas,

We burn the lard right off our ass,

Not oleum petroleum.

You can roll into heaven

on a rickety old bike.

The angels will shout,

"That's what I like,

Not oleum petroleum."

#10 Acoustic Motorcycle - Luka Bloom

The day began with a rainbow in the sand

As I cycled into Kerry

Cattle grazing on a steep hillside

Looked well fed well balanced

Close to the edge

Chorus:

Pedal on, pedal on, pedal on for miles

Pedal on

Pedal on, pedal on, pedal on for miles

Pedal on

I take a break, I close my eyes

And I'm as happy as the Dolphin

In a quiet spot talking to myself

Talking about the rain

All this rain

Chorus

You see whenever I'm alone

I tend to brood

But when I'm out on my bike

It's a different mood

I leave my brain at home

Get up on the saddle

No hanging around

I don't diddle-daddle

I work my legs

I pump my thighs

Take in the scenery passing me by

The Kerry Mountains or the Wicklow Hills

The antidote to my emotional ills

A motion built upon human toil

Nuclear free needs no oil

But it makes me hot, makes me hard

I never thought I could have come this far

Through miles of mountains, valleys, streams

This is the right stuff filling my dreams

So come on, get up on your bike

Ah go on, get up on your bike

Chorus

Finally

With my face to that bitter wind

I bombed it into Killarney

Skin raw like a sushi dinner

And an appetite

That would eat the hind leg of the lamb of God

Even though you know I wouldn't dream of doing such a thing

Then settle down for a quiet night

Think about what I've seen and done

And wonder

There's no reason for this

Now is the time to speak of the problem troubling my mind

Sick of the traffic choking our towns

Freaking me out, bringing me down

Knock down houses, build more lanes

Once was a problem, now it's insane

My solution it's one that I like

It's Muddy

The Acoustic Motorbike

So come on, get up on your bike

Chorus

Ah go on, Ah go on

Get up on your bike

# 11 Christmas 2002 Songs

(by amy stork et al)

a) Bicycle Rock

(to the tune of Jingle Bell Rock)

Bicycle, bicycle, bicycles rock

Bicycles roll and bicycles go

Spinning and grinning, itís baskets of fun

Now the biking age has begun

Bicycle, bicycle, bicycles rock

Cyclist whoop and Cyclists hoot

Pedal and revel in Courthouse Square

In the misty air

What a bright time, itís the right time

To bike the night away

Bicycle time is a cool time

To go riding on a two-wheeled sleigh

Giddy up, iron horse, donít be a poke

Bicycle round the clock

Mix and mingle with your jingling spokes

Thatís the bicycle

Thatís the bicycle rock!

b) Bikes for the world

(to the tune of Joy to the World)

Bikes for the world! The time has come

Let earth receive clean air

Let every heart, beat steadily

And heaven and nature sing

And heaven and heaven and nature sing

Bikes rule the road, with speed and grace

And make our nation free

From oil rigs and corporate greed

So ride your bicycle

So ride, so ride your bicycle!

c) Climate change is coming to town

(To the tune of Santa Claus in coming to town)

You better watch out, you better not drive

You better ride bikes Iím telling you why

Climate change is coming to town

Weíre making it hot, weíre raising the sea

Gonna feel life at a hundred degrees

Climate change is coming to town

If people keep on driving

The poles will soon be lakes

The air will stink like petrol fumes

Ride your bike for goodness sake

Weíre making a list, weíre checking it twice

Weíre gonna find out who drove and who biked!

Climate change is coming to town

d) Deck the road with tons of cyclists

(to the dune of Deck the Halls)

Deck the road with tons of cyclists