Playlist: Gotta Ramble

My brother in law Bill was the first person I ever heard refer to the “Gotta Ramble” song as a type. “You know: ‘Everything’s great here, I love you, but…gotta ramble!'”

Anybody want to contribute to a list?  I’ll offer Tom Waits’ “Shiver Me Timbers” to start things off.

Comments

  1. Mel-not the Mel says

    Is “Babe I’m Gonna Leave You” (Led Zepplin) to obvious….?

    • Mel,

      I would think “Ramble On” was even more obvious. There’s a sort of ultimatum invovled in “Babe..” Do x or I do y.

      Golum gave the fella no choice, though – and come to think of it, this song is a rotation and a search, perhaps.

      Also, to switch things up a bit (the reverse of a ramble but still a rotation) I’ll throw in “Belle Dame Sans Merci” by Keats – which is he considered a ballad and which someone no doubt has or will put to music:

      O what can ail thee, knight-at-arms,
      Alone and palely loitering?
      The sedge has withered from the lake,
      And no birds sing.

      O what can ail thee, knight-at-arms,
      So haggard and so woe-begone?
      The squirrel’s granary is full,
      And the harvest’s done.

      I see a lily on thy brow,
      With anguish moist and fever-dew,
      And on thy cheeks a fading rose
      Fast withereth too.

      I met a lady in the meads,
      Full beautiful—a faery’s child,
      Her hair was long, her foot was light,
      And her eyes were wild.

      I made a garland for her head,
      And bracelets too, and fragrant zone;
      She looked at me as she did love,
      And made sweet moan

      I set her on my pacing steed,
      And nothing else saw all day long,
      For sidelong would she bend, and sing
      A faery’s song.

      She found me roots of relish sweet,
      And honey wild, and manna-dew,
      And sure in language strange she said—
      ‘I love thee true’.

      She took me to her Elfin grot,
      And there she wept and sighed full sore,
      And there I shut her wild wild eyes
      With kisses four.

      And there she lullèd me asleep,
      And there I dreamed—Ah! woe betide!—
      The latest dream I ever dreamt
      On the cold hill side.

      I saw pale kings and princes too,
      Pale warriors, death-pale were they all;
      They cried—‘La Belle Dame sans Merci
      Thee hath in thrall!’

      I saw their starved lips in the gloam,
      With horrid warning gapèd wide,
      And I awoke and found me here,
      On the cold hill’s side.

      And this is why I sojourn here,
      Alone and palely loitering,
      Though the sedge is withered from the lake,
      And no birds sing.

      “Sweet moan” indeed!

      JOB

    • Mel,

      Which isn’t to say your pick’s not a ‘Ramblin’ On’ sort of song – only that LZ’s “Ramble On” actually has the words in the title – so I’m just showing my own shallowness, I guess. Yours is the better less obvious pick.

      I’m fighting for the basement position is all.

      JOB

  2. Mel-not the Mel says

    Souls say too obvious- stop laughing Angelico! It’s only two so far….

  3. everydayness says

    I’m leaving on a jet plane, don’t know when I’ll be back again …

  4. Angelico Nguyen, Esq., OP says

    ‘Butchie’s Tune’, by the Lovin’ Spoonful.

    And, because someone has to say it: ‘FREEBIRD’!

  5. Angelico Nguyen, Esq., OP says

    These songs are all, of course, about ‘rotation’, in the Kierkegaardian sense.

  6. The Duffer says

    Urge for Going–Joni Mitchell

    Also works as a laxative.

  7. Matthew Lickona says

    Step it up, people, or I’ll bring up Whitesnake.

  8. At least people think about inviting you to parties, then reject the idea. To be rejected you have to first be in the realm of acceptance. People who invite me to parties cordon off that time and brace themselves for the experience. Maybe they will have some kind of reward waiting at the end of the travail, like a tab of oxy.

  9. Matthew Lickona says

    Neil Young, Four Strong Winds.

  10. Today (while the blossoms still cling to the vine) John Denver.

    AMDG,
    Janet

  11. Matthew Lickona says
  12. And then there’s the serial rotation:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xmyPHfu9c0c

    JOB

  13. notrelatedtoted says

    I’m not sure I fully understand the concept, but I’ll submit the following for your consideration:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dixxse4dpQ4

    The good old days of Godsbody were partially responsible for my introduction to Mr. Waits.

    Steel-cage, gravel-voice deathmatch: Waits or Dylan? FIGHT!

    My money’s on Waits. Both lyrically and physically.

  14. This is a cover, but – “Can’t Help But Wonder Where I’m Bound.”

    • Matthew Lickona says

      Love love love that album.

      • Southern Expat says

        I do, too, and I saw her a couple of times live. She started getting more political, esp. with regard to abortion, and I sort of drifted away as a result, but I was a huge fan for many years.

  15. Matthew Lickona says

    Doesn’t quite fit, but…50 Ways.

  16. Southern Expat says

    P.S.: This is my new favorite tag. Restraining self from retroactively applying it to every single thing I have ever posted.

  17. Anyone else born in ’54, ’66, ’78, or ’90?

    “The number one characteristic of the Horse is the fact that they like to roam. The Chinese 2013 horoscope for Horse shows us that this is a person who wants to check out what’s going on in every pasture. The key to happiness, especially in 2013 year of the black Snake, is for the Horse to know when it’s time to settle and when it’s time to keep moving.”

    Happy Chinese New Year! (I wish Catholics had an equivalent of a horoscope.)

  18. Jonathan Potter says

Leave a Reply to Jonathan Potter Cancel reply

*