Follow Me To The Real Fun

Shake Dog Shake from The Cure is one of my all time favourite songs. The original version has a BPM of 82, but this recent live version from the album Bestival Live 2011 is just enough faster to give it a BPM 90 and so perfect for a 180SPM (stride per minute) run.  The original version of this song is from the album The Top and I remember reading that it was a time that Robert Smith was battling his addition to heroin.  The lyrics are dark, grotesque almost, but I've loved this song for so long, since I was a young teenager, that I can't hear the lyrics with my adult self, they just feel part of me. I listen, I run, I find the real fun and my heart howls.

So Very Good For Me

Prove My Love by the Violent Femmes was a hit in the 80s when I was a teenager, but I still think it has kept its charm.  The BPM is exactly 90, so if you want a running cadence of 180 SPM (strides per minute) this will keep you in time.  It sounds sort of frantic, with loads of energy, so great for speed intervals!

Lets move like cagey tigers

I love The Cure and have lots of Cure songs on my running playlist, so to mix things up a bit I am recommending this cover of the classic Cure song Love Cats by Tricky.  I think he just totally gets this song and takes it up a notch - its so sexy!  At 90 BPM its a perfect song for your 180 strides per minute run.

We slip through the streets 

While everyone sleeps 

Getting bigger and sleeker

And wider and brighter

We Are Strong

Pat Benatar's Love Is A Battlefield is one of my favourite songs to run too. Yes I was a teenager in the 80s, and I am in the veterans age category in France.  Hey I think that makes me sound tough, not old!   Anyway the song has got a BPM of 90, which works perfectly for a 180 strides per minute run cadence and I find the lyrics motivating...

We are strong,
No one can tell us we're wrong,
Searching out hearts for so long.

Oh and although at 121BPM it doesn't have a good BPM for running, I just love the recent cover of this song done my Thao and Mirah.

Doing some hill work?

Today I want to recommend Placebo's cover of that fantastic Kate Bush song Running Up That Hill.  It is exactly 90BPM, so perfect to rhythm a 180 strides per minute run.

"Be running up that road,
Be running up that hill"

Another cover of this song I love is by Kiki and Herb, who played it at a show I saw in Philidelphia on September 13th, 2001, just a few days after the Sept 11th attacks.  It was very moving, but in that version the BPM isn't right for running, so for my running playlist I stick to the Placebo version.  It has a very strong beat and I just can't help move my feet in sync to this song.