Three times a week during corona-lockdown we get 90-minutes outside, and with a little stretching first, I can knock off an eight mile run on the little track in the Yard. Here's my playlist for the run these days:
Lana Del Ray - Doin' Time.
Summertime and the livin' is easy.... Easing into the run, imagining being anywhere but here on a lazy summer day.
Dave Matthews Band - All Along the Watchtower.
Dave is the soundtrack of my college years, and when he sings Dylan's line: "There must be someway out of here," well, 'Nuff said. Starts off nice and easy like a jog but then builds to a manic jam!
Led Zeppelin - Hey Hey What Can I Do.
Midtempo, getting into the run now, energetic, but nails my helpless feelings during lockdown: "Hey Hey What Can I Do?"
Matthew Sweet - Girlfriend.
Picking up the pace now. If you've never heard this 90's classic, you're missing out. Song straight out rocks! Whatever happened to Matthew Sweet?
Carrie Underwood - Smoke Break.
When you are running in little circles for an hour, you need more than just a beat, and this one tells a good story. Though I don't smoke or drink, this song expresses so well that need to just escape from life for a minute: :...make the world stop and watch it fade away."
One Republic - Counting Stars.
3 miles down, lap 7 on our track, this one's upbeat and energizing, wailing, "Everything that kills me makes me feel alive!" I'm thinking, whatever happens, I'm coming out the other side alive!
Marshall Tucker Band - Can't You See.
Nice training pace, just cruising along now. "Gonna take a southbound all the way to Georgia, Lord, 'til that train runs out of track." I feel like Forrest Gump, want to find an exit and just keep running...anywhere but here.
The Head and the Heart - All We Ever Knew.
Midtempo, chugging now, I sing along to help pace myself. "It's time to wake up from this." For me, of course, "this" being the holding pattern that is prison. The song reminds me to snap out of my funk and get on with living.
Nirvana - Smells Like Teen Spirit.
This tune shouts alienation, disillusionment, anger - says pick up the pace, six miles approaching, hit it strong.
Old Crow Medicine Show - Alabama High Test.
I like this song for two reasons: (1) I could use a boost about now, and (2) I'm sure as hell running from something - maybe just my past - but I definitely don't want to get caught.
The Toadies - Possum Kingdom.
Onto mile 7, pick 'em up and put 'em down. Just smile and keep on rollin'.
Mumford and Sons - Little Lion Man.
No idea what they meant when they wrote it, but this song means a lot to me. About owning up to what you did, knowing that you hurt people, not hiding from it, but with a little defiance in there, too. Here's a line to my wife, kids, Mom, Dad, sibling, everyone I hurt:
"It was not your fault but mine/and it was your heart on the line. I really fucked it up this time/didn't I my dear?"
The Cure - Just Like Heaven.
Surprisingly upbeat coming from these emo-rockers; loved this tune in high school and just recently rediscovered it.
Miley Cyrus - Party in the USA.
Impossible to get out of your head ear worm that makes me smile every time. Passing the one hour mark now. Some studies claim you can run harder if you smile, and I believe it.
Kelly Clarkson - Stranger.
"What doesn't kill you makes you stronger."
"Think you got the best of me? Think you got the last laugh?"
I dedicate this song to the current run, to the coronavirus, to lockdown, to prison, and to the shambles I made of my life. I'm down, but I'm not out.
Kid Rock - Only God Knows Why.
I know Kid Rock is no Bob Dylan, but he nailed it on this song. "Somehow I know there's more to life than this, I've said it many times and I still stand firm, you get what you put in and people get what they deserve. Still I ain't seen mine, no I ain't seen mine, I've been giving just ain't been getting, I've been walking that there line, so I think I'll keep walking with my head held high, I keep moving on and only God knows why."
Ozzy Osborne - Mama, I'm Coming Home.
At 75 minutes in, recreation is over and I'm done. And I'm thinking, it may be next month or next year, but don't doubt it - I'll be coming home!
So there you have it. Add some razor wire and a motley collection of sun-starved, shell-shocked inmates; stir in circles for 75 minutes, and you've had a wonderful prison run. Sure beats the alternative of my bedridden fellow prisoners, and those who Covid has taken. Keep a rollin'!
