Music and sports are textbook bedfellows! Whether you’re watching Steve Caballero shred on The Warped Tour with Bad Religion or NOFX playing in the background or watching your favorite basketball team raise a banner to the rafters as We Are the Champions brings tens of thousands of fans together, music and sport are intermingled to near perfection. What would a soccer match be without fans singing O’le in unison, I could barely imagine a contemporary American football game without hearing The White Stripes blaring from the loudspeakers. Could you even have modern team sports without hearing “Steam’s” 1969 hit Na Na Hey Hey Kiss Him Goodbye playing as the game comes to a close?
Music is there when we train, there when we win, there when we lose. Music helps solidify the memories we make. It’s there to help us find resolution in the agony of defeat, and to help us cherish the euphoria of victory.
Several years ago, the community at our climbing gym had an unwritten rule that if any Metallica song came on the radio, the climbers were required to hop on a 5.12. Every climbing road trip and every day-trip I’ve ever been on has earned an accompanying soundtrack with music spanning all genres from punk to classical.
I can’t say exactly what it is about music and sport, or more specifically about music and climbing that works so well, but I can say that one without the other is just not the same!
With that, I have decided that each month, I am going to create a new climbing playlists for each decade going all the way back to the 1920’s. A hundred years of music! Not necessarily the best songs from each decade, but songs that I can envision on road trips, at the crag, at the gym, on training days, and on the send train.
I’m only picking ten songs from each decade, but if anyone has an extra song that belongs on the playlist, let me know and I’ll add it!!!
1920’s (In no particular order)
- Five Foot Two, Eyes Of Blue – Gene Austin
- When The Red, Red Robin Comes Bob-Bob-Bobbin’ Along – Al Jolson
- St. Louis Blues – Bessie Smith / Louis Armstrong
- Ain’t Misbehavin’ – Fats Waller / Louis Armstrong
- My Blue Heaven – Gene Austin / Paul Whiteman
- Pine Top’s Boogie Woogie – Pine Top Smith
- Makin’ Whoopee – Eddie Cantor/ Paul Whiteman (Bing Crosby)
- Black And Tan Fantasy – Duke Ellington
- Sweet Georgia Brown – Ben Bernie / Isham Jones / Ethel Waters
- I Ain’t Got Nobody – Marion Harris / Sophie Tucker / Bessie Smith
This project is impossible, I could have made an entire list of songs by Bessie Smith and another by Louis Armstrong, and another by Duke Ellington. I’m immediately in love with music from the 20’s the power in some of their voices is almighty. Apologies to songs like Singing in the Rain, Corrine Corrina, Tiptoe Through the Tulips, Charleston, and It Had To Be You, but rules are rules!
You can find the 1920’s playlist HERE!
thedihedral.com 
This is so fun. This year I am actually doing a list of songs that have been a part of my life journey (almost 73 years around the sun). It’s amazing what we can learn from music thru the years (decades) of our own lives. The memories flood with so many different songs.
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That sounds awesome sunyamar, you’ll have to share the playlist with us once you have it put together!
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What a great idea! I have several playlists for my power walking and each one is arranged according to tempo – starting with warm-up, working up to peak and then down again to cool-down, so for my chosen sport, music is all about setting pace.
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That is a level of organization that I strive to achieve, what a spectacular way to organize your music. I think I need to try this ASAP!!! Thank you for the inspiration!
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I’ve always liked everything…when I ran our RRoom store, my Ipod was the soundtrack..the 20 something staff never knew what they’d hear….it could be Motorhead, it could be brother Zee and over the rainbow, how can I stop myself from singing and then the Spice Girls (yes the Spice Girls)….I never know what’s going to get me out the door…usually it’s not the music but what it reminds me of…..a movie, a video…lately it’s been a heart song I heard on a YouTube video about three blond skiers who call BC and Norway…keep your love alive
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Looking forward to each decade! In 2014 a film came out – “Alive Inside”. Much like “Awakenings” (with Robin Williams) looked at movement disorders, this documentary looked at music and dementia. They provided folks with dementia with an iPod and a personal playlist (assembled by family/friends). When they listened to the music they loved, they came back! Folks who didn’t interact began to interact. Non-verbal people talked again. http://www.aliveinside.us/#land. Based on that I began my own playlist. It’s harder than it sounds. It also helps if/when you are stuck in a hospital for a long time (where nothing is familiar) and/or not fully conscious (brain injury, sedation).
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That movie sounds so great, I’ll check it out for sure. Now I’m looking forward to this goal even more! Thank you for the intel!
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Love what you created. listening to the 20’s . Never thought of this connection before! gail@ladyjaynesreckonings.com
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Right on Lady Jayne, hopefully we can keep bringing the goods!
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