PicoBlog

I started playing around this week - I’m not running, see, as I’m injured - putting together a Spotify playlist of songs about running. It’s a niche area, it turns out. People sing about a lot of things, but very few people sing about running. Now, you may have all sorts of songs popping into your head that you think are about running, but trust me, most of those are using running in the wider context of “running away” or “run into my arms” or “running my life”. How many are actually about running?

Barely three, as far as I could tell. So I expanded my search to include songs that used running as a metaphor. Songs that, as a runner, you could listen to and imagine they were actually about running, even if in reality they weren’t. OK, it’s not an exact science, but I know what I mean, and I think the final playlist, when you listen to it, definitely has a strong running theme that leaves you smiling to yourself at the slightly ridiculousness of all these songs being together in one place, and also thinking about maybe going out for a run, because you’re totally now inspired.

So, since I haven’t been running this week, and I didn’t watch any running, or even barely talk about running, I thought, to avoid moaning about that, I'd share with you my list. The Guardian do this series called Ranked! where they (as the name suggests) rank various cultural entities in order, so it may be the songs of Abba or the best bathtub scenes in films. Well, I’ve shamelessly copied their format, to bring you The 20 Best Songs About Running - Ranked!

Enjoy …

[Editor's note: The original posting of this article somehow failed to include Keep On Running by The Spencer Davis Group. That glaring omission has now be corrected.]

21. Middle Distance Runner - Sea Wolf (2007)

This song delves deep into the running metaphor: “It’s been a long day on the track/And it’s stamina that I lack.” Of course, like most songs about running, it’s really about something else, in this case it’s about relationships and the fact the singer can’t fully commit to his girlfriend, which is described using the line “I’ll only ever be a middle distance runner.” That is not really fair on middle distance runners, as it suggests that they’re sort of half runners, not fully committed like long distance runners. It doesn’t quite work, in my pedantic runner’s mind, but the song is melodic and wistful and has lots of lines about running in it, so it makes the cut. Just.

20. Run, Run, Run - Joel Plaskett (2009)

“Best pick up your pace/And run/Run, run, run you must/‘Cause if you walk, you rust.” The slow (one might say walking pace) rhythm may not make this song ideal for actually running along to, and it switches up to being a song about a train midway through, but still, it says run, run, run, you must. It could be a good motivating song at the start of a “getting psyched to run” playlist.

19. Wonderful People - Q And Not U (2004)

A first this doesn’t seem to be much about running, but it has a nice funky guitar rift. But then the singer says ”I lost myself in the streets/People softly running running” and then it just goes into a bit a of a running spiral (both people and water, oddly, are “running running running”). It’s a lot of running, at high energy; it’d be sure to get you picking up the pace if you listened to it on a run.

18. 27 - Passenger (2014)

A 27-year-old singer going through an existential crisis who has probably never done any running might be a strange choice for this list, but it’s a nice song and the chorus, filled with angst and youthful reflection, is: “Don’t know where I’m running/But I know how to run/‘Cause running’s the thing I’ve always done.” It’s sung with enough energy to get you pumped up and wanting to go out and run.

17. Long Distance Runner - Winterbourne (2022)

Apart from the chorus (and title) this song seems to have nothing to do with running, but that pause, and then it comes back in with the key lines: “Long Distance Runner/Coming home by the dark of the night/Step step and another” is enough to make this song a worthy inclusion in this list. It has a great, driving melody that I can imagine being perfect to listen to on a run.

16. Run Like A Child - Truckstop Honeymoon (2014)

We all need a little country and western in our lives occasionally, and this one brings some nostalgic, old time, homespun wholesomeness to running. “You’re running like a child through the tall grass/You’re running wild and you’re running fast/Kicking up dust on dirt track/You never ever wanted to look back.” We can all get behind that, I’m sure.

15. Run - Spiritualized (1991)

If you want a song that just keeps repeating the word “run”, then this one is for you. “They call me the breeze/I keep rollin’ down the road” is a great line, taken directly from JJ Cale’s Call Me The Breeze, and evokes tripping along effortlessly, albeit with early 1990s shoegazer guitars and the words “run, run, run, run” echoing along after you.

14. 10K - Obongjayar (2020)

“I wake up every morning and I run.” And so starts this song by hoarse-voiced, Nigerian-born Obongjayar as he extols you to “run for your life”. There’s also a lot in the song about “everything burning” and “21st Century paranoia” and the tone is more fighty than peaceful running, but it ends with “I still run and I won’t stop”. It’s not clear why the song is called 10K, but it makes you think there must be some actual running inspiration behind it.

13. - The Runner - Foals (2019)

Big, dirty guitar riffs accompany the lines “Keep on running/Keep on running.” It’s a rock anthem to running, simple, yet catchy enough to get you playing air guitar mid run. Keep on running! Yeah!

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