Wagner tops list of music not to play while driving(Ride of the Valkyries)

KFOR OK City ^ | 04/14/04

[socal_parrot]

London-AP -- Head-banging heavy metal music may be o-k to listen to while driving -- but stay away from some of the older classical stuff.

Britain's R-A-C Foundation has named Richard Wagner's (VAHG'-nurz) fast-paced "Ride of the Valkyries" (VAL'-keer-eez) as the top tune not to listen to while behind the wheel -- because it says research shows loud music can cause accidents.

Three modern songs also made the top five, including "Firestarter" by the Prodigy.

The foundation also provided a top-five list of songs that can be played safely while driving -- though it cautions the volume should be kept down.

That list includes the Norah Jones hit "Come Away with Me."

[Desdemona]

Holy cats! You've got a heck of a range!

Keeping it that wide and limber ain't easy, either. I've been known to scare the dog. The highest note I've ever gotten is the B-flat above high C, but that only works in a total non-allergy situation.

This weekend I get to sing lots of high As and B-flats. Those notes I can sing while driving a car.

[Revolting cat!]

[Luis Gonzalez]

Jim Dandy - Black Oak Arkansas
Shook Me All Night Long - AC/DC
I'm Coming Home - Ten Years After (live at Woodstock)
Rock 'n Roll - Led Zeppelin
Immigrant Song - Led Zeppelin
Joy Ride - Rick Derringer
I Want To Take You Higher - Sly and the Family Stone
Radar Love - Golden Earring
I Can't Drive 55 - Sammy Hagar
Highway Star - Deep Purple

[FreedomPoster]

Good call. Just added it to my list.

[ovrtaxt]

Speaking of film scores, how about the music in the beginning of "Conan" when James Earl Jones' army is riding through the woods to attack Conan's clan? Good, violent driving music!

In fact, that whole score was pretty neat.

[ovrtaxt]

As they square dance into the hay baler:

Whirl, whirl, twist and twirl
Jumpin around like a flyin squirrel
Now don't you cuss and don't you swear
Just come on out and form a square!

[ovrtaxt]

there's a commercial for Grand Theft Auto 3 and in the background is a familiar ( and beautiful ) opera song.

Is that the same opera with the fat, depressed clown that Al Capone was watching in The Untouchables?

[Heatseeker]

"The Trooper" I think it's called; about the Charge of the Light Brigade. If I played that, my ticket wouldn't be for driving too fast, it'd be for flying too low. ;)

[TexasRepublic]

I'm sorry to hear about Johnny. I once saw Phil Cunningham perform live - the fastest hands on a piano-keyboard accordian I ever heard - I saw his hands fly and still can't believe it.

[Colonel_Flagg]

"Entry of the Guests". From Tannhauser. Easily the best Wagner in my collection.

[Colonel_Flagg]

"Whop him low and whop him high,
Stick your finger in his eye,
Kick him in the shin, hit him in the head,
Hit him again, that critter ain't dead!
"

[TMSuchman]

For me it has to be my beloved "Hymn". If your not a Marine, you would not understand!

[Petronski]

Bugs is dressed as a female hillbilly and asks the guys for
jukebox money...

(Bugs is handed a nickel and he puts it into the jukebox.)

BUGS: (Girl voice.) Thanks just all to pieces. Sow Belly Trio comin' right
up...

(A trio appears in the jukebox -- a fiddle player, an accordionist and a
guitar player. The guitarist calls the square dance:)

CALLER: (Spoken.) Let's all square dance. Places all. (The scene cuts
to the boys and Bugs forming to start dancing. They follow the instructions
of the caller.)

CALLER: Bow to your corner, bow to your own.
(Singing.) Three hands up and 'round you go,
Break it up with a dosey-do.
Chicken in the bread pan kickin' out dough,
Skip to ma Lou my darling.
The old lady out you pretty little thing,
Promenade around the ring,
Big foot up and little foot down,
Make that big foot jar the ground.
Lady step back and two gents in,
Back you go and forward again.
Step right up with an elbow swing,
Skip to ma Lou my darling.

(Bugs nonchalantly dances away from the brothers towards the jukebox.)

CALLER: Allemande left with the old left hand
Follow through the right an' left grand.

(Bugs removes his disguise while still dancing, dons a floppy hat and grabs
a fiddle.)

CALLER: Meet your honey with a great big smile
Promenade Indian style.

(Bugs unplugs the jukebox with his foot and takes over as the fiddler and
caller, all without missing a beat. The brothers continue to do as the caller
says:)

BUGS: (Singing.) Promenade across the floor,
Sashay right on outa the door.
Out the door and in to the glade,
And everybody promenade.

(Bugs prances outside, fiddling for all he's worth.)

BUGS: (Singing.) Step right up, you're doin' fine,
I'll pull your beard, you pull mine.
Yank it again, like you did before,
Break it up with a tug o' war.

(The beard tug of war gets the brothers onto a wooden bridge. Bugs snips
their beards with scissors so they lose their grip and fall off of the bridge
into a stream.)

BUGS: (Singing.) Now into the brook and fish for the trout,
Dive right in and splash about.
Trout, trout, pretty little trout,
One more splash and come right out.

(The brothers promenade out of the stream onto dry land, dripping.)

BUGS: (Singing.) Shake like a hound dog, shake again,
Wallow 'round in the ol' pig pen.

(The brothers jump into a nearby hog waller.)

BUGS: (Singing.) Wallow some more, you all know how,
Roll around like an old fat sow.

(The boys stand up in the mud. They both have a pig dance partner now.)

BUGS: (Singing.) Allemande left with your left hand,
Follow through with a right-left grand.
Now lead your partner, the dirty ol' thing,
Follow through with an elbow swing.

(The brothers lose their new partners and return to dry land.)

BUGS: (Singing.) Grab a fence post, hold it tight,
Womp your partner with all your might.
Hit him in the shin, hit him in the head,
Hit him again, the critter ain't dead.
Wop him low and wop him high,
Stick your finger in his eye.
Pretty little rhythm, pretty little sound,
Bang your heads against the ground.

(Bugs continues to fiddle away.)

BUGS: (Singing.) Promenade all around the room,
Promenade like a bride and groom.

(Bugs leads the boys to a hay baler machine. He opens a door in the machine
for them to enter.)

BUGS: (Singing.) Open up the door and step right in,
Close the door and into a spin.
Whirl, whirl, twist and twirl,

(Bugs throws a switch, turning on the baler.)

BUGS: (Singing.) Jump all around like a flyin' squirrel.
Now don't you cuss and don't you swear,
Just come right out and form a square.

(The "output" of the baler is a large toaster. It "pops", and the boys are
ejected as part of two bales of straw. The scene cuts to a meadow. Bugs is
again leading the brothers (who are no longer "baled") with his calling.)

BUGS: (Singing.) Now right hand over and left hand under,
Both join hands and run like thunder.
Over the hill and over the dale,
Duck your head and lift your tail.

(The call, "duck your head" comes in time for the running brothers to avoid a
low-hanging tree branch. "Lift your tail" gets them safely over a rail
fence.)

BUGS: (Singing.) Don't you stray and don't you roam,
Turn it around and promenade home.

("Turn it around" prevents the boys from running off the edge of a cliff.
They both wipe their brows in relief.

BUGS: (Singing.) Corn in the crib pen, wheat in the sack,
Turn your partner, promenade back.

(Unfortunately for the brothers, "promenade back" takes them back over the
edge of the cliff. They "walk on air" for a bit before gravity takes over.
Bugs looks over the edge of the cliff at the brothers below. They've landed at
either side of a small stream. He talks to them almost gently:)

BUGS: And now you're home.
Bow to your partner
Bow to the gent across the hall.

(At the end of their bow, the brothers collapse back into the stream.)

BUGS: And 'dat is all.

(Bugs ends it with a final fiddle flourish. Iris to black...)

[RightWingAtheist]

For some reason, "Last Kiss" is the song most likely to be playing on the radio when I'm in the car.

[mylife]

you betcha! I have a copy of it here. LOL

[NYC GOP Chick]

Why?

[cyborg]

First it's one of my favorite pieces, and then it inspires me to keep up with the traffic going at 80 mph :)

[E Rocc]

I've listened to Wagner's Ring of the Nibelung and Hall Of The Mountain King (Edvard Grieg) from the Peer Gynt Suite when driving, as well.

A now defunct 80s hair band, but Savatage has some good renditions of that kind of stuff.

Especially the "Gutter Ballet" album.

Anything by Iron Maiden will send my speedometer moving in a positive direction, especially "Aces High". After seeing the Blue Angels video for it so will Van Halen's "Dreams". The Grouchymedia.com video has the same effect on the unofficial song of the Iraq war, Outkast's "Bombs Over Baghdad".

-Eric

[E Rocc]

IF IT'S TOO LOUD, YOU'RE TOO OLD

And if you remember that being Z-Rock's theme.....hehehehe.

-Eric

[E Rocc]

Surrrender - Cheap Trick

If you play this on a bus full of Frenchmen, will they stand for the National Anthem?

-Eric