Discovery Ride Movie Score

Well, it's not really a score but a selection of music that is significant for each segment of the trip

Movie Segment
Accompanying Lyric

Introduction (0:00 - 2:02)

  • Cast Your Fate to the Wind - George Winston. From the Linus & Lucy - Music of Vince Guaraldi album.
  • I wanted an upbeat instrumental song that helped to set the tone for the film. It had to be smooth but have distinct punctuative moments to make they synchronized still pictures pop out at the viewer.
  • Two years before he became the musician responsible for the great music featured in the classic Peanuts animated TV specials, Vince Guaraldi and his trio hit the charts with this great little instrumental that is the epitome of San Fransisco-style jazz. Vince Guaraldi was a master at Jazz piano and the artists who performed with him created truly great performances that any lover of jazz will be glad to have in their collection.
  • This song is appropriate since I "cast my fate to the wind" by setting off on this adventure. Wind isn't a particularly fun thing to deal with while biking unless it is a tailwind. The ease of riding is determined by wind and terrain. The terrain doesn't change but the wind is a very dynamic thing that affects touring cyclists greatly.

A Lyric for this tune that I found on the Internet

Cast Your Fate to the Wind

A month of nights, a year of days
Octobers drifting into Mays
You set your sail when the tide comes in
And you cast your fate to the wind

You shift your course along the breeze
Won't sail up wind on memories
The empty sky is your best friend
And you just cast your fate to the wind

That time has such a way of changing a man throughout the years
And now you're rearranging your life through all your tears
Alone, alone

There never was, there couldn't be
A place in time for men to be
Who'd drink the dark and laugh at day
And let their wildest dreams blow away

So now you're old, you're wise, you're smart
You're just a man with half a heart
You wonder how it might have been
Had you not cast your fate to the wind

Preparation & Virginia (2:02 - 6:42)

  • Pachelbel's Canon in D
  • This is a very classic song written by the great German composer, Johann Pachelbel in 1680. His lilting Canon in D is a throwaway little piece in comparison to his big sacred works, but its charming grace has made it a favorite filler of compilation CDs.
  • Coolio's C U When U Get There from his 1997 My Soul album sampled the Canon in D.
Part of Coolio's C U When U Get There [whole lyric]

As we walk down the road of our destiny
and the time comes to choose which it gonna be
the wide and crooked, or the straight and narrow
we got one voice to give and one life to live
stand up for something or lie down in your game
listen to the song that we sing
it's up to you to make it be
I guess I'll see you when you see me

Kentucky (6:42 - 8:17)

  • I Am A Man Of Constant Sorrow peformed by the Soggy Bottom Boys as featured in the 2000 movie "O Brother, Where Art Thou?"
  • This song just screams Kentucky redneck. I wanted to capture the feeling of Appalachia and I think this song does it pretty well. Besides, the lyric sings of a person who was born and raised in Kentucky.
  • The song was originally written in 1913 by blind songwriter Richard Burnett
  • Click here to see how the lyric evolved from the original version to the version that is heard in the movie

I am a man of constant sorrow

I am a man of constant sorrow
I've seen trouble all my days
I bid farewell to old Kentucky
The place where I was born and raised
(The place where he was born and raised)

For six long years I've been in trouble
No pleasure here on earth I found
For in this world I'm bound to ramble
I have no friends to help me down
(He has no friends to help him down)

It's fare thee well my old true lover
I never expect to see you again
For I'm bound to ride that northern railroad
Perhaps I'll die upon this train
(Perhaps he'll die upon this train)

You can bury me in sunny valley
For many years where I may lay
And you may learn to love another
While I am sleepin' in my grave
(While he is sleepin' in his grave)

Maybe your friends think I'm just a stranger
My face you never will see no more
But there is one promise that is given
I'll meet you on God's golden shore
(He'll meet you on God's golden shore)

Illinois (8:17 - 9:35)

  • Mountains of Illinois by Chet Atkins off his 1994 Read My Licks Album
  • An appropriately titled song for this state.
  • This instrumental song slowed things down a little bit and acts as an interlude between the bustle of Kentucky backroads with all their coal trucks and the awkward nature of Missouri residents and the rough hills of the state.
  • Illinois was a rather short state for my trip and I spent most of it cruising along relatively flat lands and climbing and descending long, gradual hills. The Mountains of Illinois are not quite as nuts as the surrounding mountain system so the song has a calmer nature than would be expected.
  • Chet died in the summer of 2001
-No lyric-

Missouri (9:35 - 11:45)

  • Standing on a Rock by the Ozark Mountain Daredevils from their 1973 "The Quilt" album which is their second. They continue to perform today.
  • I timed this song to the pictures in the movie so that the lyrics start when I'm at the Elephant Rocks State Park standing on a huge granite outcropping.
  • It has just enough twang and swing to fit the feeling of the Ozark rivers and mountains of Central Missouri.
  • Chords, guitar tablature & lyrics

Downhill ride segment (11:45 - 14:26)

  • No music
Standin' on the rock

I been standin' on the rock - waitin' for the wind to blow
I been standin' on the rock - waitin' for the wind to blow
I been standin' on the rock - waitin' for my seeds to grow
I been walkin' on the ground - waitin' for the guns to quit
I been walkin' on the ground - waitin' for the guns to quit
I been walkin' on the ground - waitin' for the pieces to fit

HARP SOLO (1 harp)

HARP SOLO (2 harps)

HARP SOLO (3 harps + fiddle)

better get back to the country - look around and find you a home
better get back to the country - look around and find you a home
better get back to the country - that's where we all come from

I been standin' on the rock - waitin' for the wind to blow
I been standin' on the rock - waitin' for the wind to blow
I been standin' on the rock - waitin' for my seeds to grow (whew!)
I been standin' on the rock - waitin' for my seeds to grow
I been standin' on the rock - waitin' for my seeds to grow

Kansas - (14:26 - 17:53)

  • Dust in the Wind by Kansas. It was a 1978 hit that went to #6 on the Billboard charts.
  • This song is very appropriate for the Kansas segment not only because it is from the group Kansas but because it talks about wind - which there is plenty of in Kansas.
I close my eyes, only for a moment, and the moment's gone
All my dreams, pass before my eyes, a curiosity
Dust in the wind, all they are is dust in the wind.
Same old song, just a drop of water in an endless sea
All we do, crumbles to the ground, though we refuse to see

Dust in the wind, all we are is dust in the win
[Now] Don't hang on, nothing lasts forever but the earth and sky
It slips away, and all your money won't another minute buy.

Dust in the wind, all we are is dust in the wind
Dust in the wind, everything is dust in the wind.

Colorado (18:09 - 20:34)

  • Rocky Mountain High by John Denver. This 1972 hit is one of the defining tunes of John Denver's Career. Colorado is John's home state.
  • I was exposed to John Denver's work by Ken Kirsch, the head ranger at the camp I worked at for ten years. Ken plays John Denver songs incessantly and everyone who works with him grows to have an appreciation for Ken's love of the music and sometimes an appreciation of the music itself.
  • This lyric to this song is very close to my personal experience in Colorado. I hate to sound cliché but it almost is like the song was tailored for my trip thirty years in advance. Let me give you some examples of what I mean:
    1. "He was born in the summer of his 27th year" I was 26 when I took this trip (that makes it my 27th year of life).
    2. "Coming home to a place he's never been before" Colorado is a great place with its beautiful ruggedness and great skiing. I would like to live there, but Pennsylvania is my home for now.
    3. "When he first came to the mountains his life was far away" My life in Central Pennsylvania is decidedly far from Colorado
    4. "On the road and hanging by a song" I was certainly on the road a lot and listened to music all the time on the trip.
    5. "Well he climbed the feeble mountains" I climbed many mountains and went over a few major pases in Colorado. They weren't really feeble but I felt a great sense of power over them by simply cresting them on a bike.
    6. It goes on and on...

Rocky Mountain High

He was born in the summer of his 27th year
Coming home to a place he's never been before.
He left yesterday behind him. You might say he was born again.
You might say he found the key to every door.

When he first came to the mountains his life was far away
On the road and hanging by a song.
Well the string is already broken and he doesn't really care.
It changes fast and it don't last too long.

But The Colorado Rocky Mountain High
I've seen it raining fire in the sky.
Shadow from the starlight is softer than a lullaby.
Rocky Mountain High
Rocky Mountain High

Well he climbed the feeble mountains.
He saw silver clouds below
He saw everything as far as you can see.
They say that he got crazy once and he tried to touch the sun.
He lost a friend but keep the memory.

Now he walks in quiet solitude thru the forests and the streams
Seeking grace in every step he takes.
His sight has turned inside himself to try and understand
The serenity of clear blue mountain lake.

And The Colorado Rocky Mountain High
I've seen it raining fire in the sky.
Talk to God and listen to the casual reply.
Rocky Mountain High
Rocky Mountain High

Now his life if full of wonder
But his heart still knows some fear
Of the simple things he cannot comprehend.
Why they try and tear the mountains down
To bring in a couple more, more people, more scars upon the land.

And The Colorado Rocky Mountain High
I've seen it raining fire in the sky.
You know he'd be a poorer man if he never saw an eagle fly.
Rocky Mountain High

The Colorado Rocky Mountain High
I've seen it raining fire in the sky.
Friends around the campfire and everybody is high.
Rocky Mountain High (repeat 6x)

Wyoming (1st part) (20:34 - 22:59)

  • Good Riddance (Time of Your Life) by Green Day from their Nimrod album
  • I liked this song from the moment it was released. It is so not Green Day. They are a punk band that real punk fans consider to be a sellout - especially with this song.
  • When I screened my movie with the students in my classes at school they all recognized it and said "this song is so old!" in each class. I couldn't believe it! This is one of the only songs in the movie that was written in the past three decades! I guess that goes to show how long music memory is with younger generations. Interesting...
  • By the time I hit Wyoming I was having the time of my life since I was entirely into bicycle touring, completely comfortable with the daily routine of riding, and very confident with my ability to complete the journey.
Good Riddance (Time of Your Life)

Another turning point, a fork stuck in the road.
Time grabs you by the wrist, directs you where to go.
So make the best of this test, and don't ask why.
It's not a question, but a lesson learned in time.
It's something unpredictable, but in the end is right.
I hope you had the time of your life.
So take the photographs, and still frames in your mind.

Hang it on a shelf in good health and good time.
Tattoos of memories and dead skin on trial.
For what it's worth, it was worth all the while.
It's something unpredictable, but in the end is right.
I hope you had the time of your life.
It's something unpredictable, but in the end is right.
I hope you had the time of your life.
It's something unpredictable, but in the end is right.
I hope you had the time of your life.

Wyoming (2nd part) (22:59 - 25:58)

  • Dynamite Walls by Canadian Singer/Songwriter Haden Desser off the Skyscraper National Park album (2001 Universal/Hardwood). Download MPEG-3.
  • This song is the result of an exhaustive search for an appropriate song for northeastern Wyoming. I spent more time looking for this song than any other and am happy that my persistance paid off.
  • It's just a great song for this part of the movie and has "National Park" in the lyric just as I'm passing through Grand Teton and Yellowstone National Parks in the movie.

Dynamite Walls

Open your eyes
Put it in drive
get on the road and just go.

City lights
turn the tree lines
and National Park signs
Mountains approach
with small winding roads
and the air turns to falling snow

Miles away or just up ahead.
It doesn't matter what,
Any of us is looking for.
We'll never find it, because
It's not even there.

high beams showing
falling rock warning
construction work, slowing

The engine blazes
The elevation raises
The dynamite walls contain us

everyone's wathcing
for animals crossing
through the part of the glass
that's defrosted

Miles away or just up ahead
It doesn't matter what,
any of us is looking for
We'll never find it, because
it's not even there.

Open your eyes
put it in drive
get on the road and just go.

City lights,
turn the tree lines
and National Park signs.
Mountains approach,
with small winds in the road
and the air turns to falling snow.

The engine blazes
the elevation raises
The dynamite walls contain us

Montana (25:58 - 28:04)

  • Wild Montana Skies by John Denver (with Emmylou Harris)
  • Appropriate song for Montana (obviously) and Emmylou Harris' voice makes this song come to life. It was very nice to have this song for the National Bicycle Touring Gallery segment - for some reason it just worked perfectly.

Wild Montana Skies

He was born in the Bitterroot Valley in the early morning rain
Wild geese over the water headin' north and home again
Bringin' a warm wind from the south
Bringin' the first taste of the spring
His mother took him to her breast and softly she did sing

CHORUS:
Oh Montana, give this child a home
Give him the love of a good family and a woman of his own
Give him a fire in his heart give him a fire in his eyes
Give him the wind for a brother and the wild Montana skies

His mother died that summer and he never learned to cry
He never knew his father and he never did ask why
He never knew the answers that would make an easy way
But he learned to know the wilderness and to be a man that way

His mother's brother took him in to his family and his home
Gave him a hand that he could lean on and a strength to call his own
And he learned to be a farmer and he learned to love the land
And he learned to read the seasons and he
Learned to make a stand

*Chorus*

On the eve of his 21st birthday he set out on his own
He was 30 years and runnin' when he found his way back home
Ridin' a storm across the mountains and an aching in his heart
Said he came to turn the pages and to make a brand new start

He never told the story of the time that he was gone
Some say he was a lawyer, some say he was a John
There was somethin' in the city that he said he couldn't breathe
And there was something in the country that he said he couldn't leave

*Chorus*

Now some say he was crazy and they're glad that he is gone
But some of us will miss him and we'll try to carry on
Giving a voice to the forest, giving a voice to the dawn
Giving a voice to the wilderness and the land that he lived on

*Chorus*

*Repeat Chorus*

Idaho , Oregon and Washington (28:04 - 32:22)

  • The River by Garth Brooks
  • I'm not much of a country music fan but had to listen to a lot of it during my trip. Most radio stations in our nation's heartland are either country or christian music. Like the waitress in "Blues Brothers" says, "We've got both kind of music here - country and western."
  • This song just seemed to work well here and is a tribute to all the hard working farm and other rural folks I met along my path. It is also meant to make my video more musically eclectic and give it a sense of spirituality.

The River

You know a drean is like a river
Ever changing as it flows
And a dreamer's just a vessel
That must follow where it goes
Trying to learn from what's behind you
And never knowing what's in store
Makes each day a constant battle
Just to stay between the shores...and

Chorus:
I will sail my vessel
'Til the river runs dry
Like a bird upon the wind
These waters are my sky
I'll never reach my destination
If I never try
So I will sail my vessel
'Til the river runs dry

Too many times we stand aside
And let the waters slip away
'Til what we put off 'til tommorow
Has now become today
So don't you sit upon the shoreline
And say your satisfied
Choose to chance the rapids
And dare to dance the tide...yes

Repeat Chorus

And there's bound to be rough waters
And I know I'll take some falls
But with the good Lord as my captain
I can make it through them all..yes

Repeat Chorus

Yes, I will sail my vessel
'Til the river runs dry
'Til the river runs dry

Daily Chores segment (32:22 - 33:27)

  • Flight of the Bumblebee composed by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov. I selected an orchestral arrangement under the direction of Aaron Copeland for this movie.
  • Obvious choice for a fast motion video. I compressed 15 minutes of tape down to just over one minute using iMovie 2's fast speed function.
-No lyric-

Low Rider segment (33:27 - 35:31)

  • Low Rider by War
  • This song is awesome for a few good reasons. The day after I met Joe and Geert in Kansas he started calling me the "low rider" and occasionally sang the "low rider" song. Within an hour or so the song came on the radio. I couldn't believe it! Joe cranked the cheap radio he had bought to keep him company and we rode along side each other singing a terrible karaoke version of the chorus. Sometimes music just makes the moment. It's almost like someone called in a request to play the theme song I never knew I had.
  • Sort of as an inside joke but more to remind me of that nickname, I included this in the video accompanied with some footage and stills of me riding my recumbent.
  • Great tune!
Low Rider

All my friends know the low rider
The low rider is a little higher

The low rider drives a little slower
Low rider, is a real goer

Hey

Low rider knows every street, yeah
Low rider, is the one to meet, yeah

Low rider don't use no gas now
The low rider don't drive too fast

Take a little trip, take a little trip
Take a little trip and see
Take a little trip, take a little trip
Take a little trip with me

Sunset/By the Numbers segment (35:31 - 37:55)

  • Beethoven's Piano Sonata #14 in C# minor, the "Moonlight Sonata"
  • This song was played on the local NPR station when I was in Oregon on Day 60. I had been thinking about the song to end the video. It had to be slow but not sad. It should convey a sense of comfort and closure but not or regret. The end of the video is where I had planned to do the "By the Numbers" sequence and I didn't want the music to be distracting.
  • Beethoven wrote this piece in 1802 just as he was noticing his deafness and some believe he lost his lover at the same time. It's not surprising that the first movement reflects his sadness.

Dog Dedication Segment (37:55 - 38:15)

  • Interlude in Moonlight Sonata for live audio footage

Web site/Credits (38:15 - 39:20)

  • Moonlight Sonata continues
-No Lyric-

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