The Uncle Devil Show - Leonardo's Bicycle

Artist: The Uncle Devil Show

Song: Leonardo’s Bicycle

Album: A Terrible Beauty (2004)

The Uncle Devil Show are a pop-rock guitar band formed as a side-project for three Scottish musicians, who use pseudonyms as their aliases.

The album

Leonardo's bicycle and me
Away from all the trains and cars, alone with gears and handlebars, I'm free
Leonardo's bicycle and me

Why bother paint a picture that isn't sunny?
Wine gums and Irn-Bru
With milk and honey

When I feel low I just get out my bike
Or rainbow-coloured trike
And ride away

Leonardo's bicycle and me
Away from all the trains and cars, alone with gears and handlebars, I'm free
Leonardo's bicycle and me

My map of many colours
A bird in every tree
I'm riding high on rubbers
The road belongs to me

When I feel sad I just get out my bike
Or rainbow-coloured trike
And ride away

Leonardo's bicycle and me
Away from all the trains and cars, alone with gears and handlebars, I'm free
Leonardo's bicycle and me

Leonardo's bicycle and me
Leonardo's bicycle and me
(He left it standing by the tree)
Leonardo's bicycle and me
(Now his two wheels belong to me)
Leonardo's bicycle and me
(His bell and chain have set me free)
Leonardo's bicycle and me
(He takes the bus and curses me)
Leonardo's bicycle and me

John McCutcheon - Riding My Bike

Artist: John McCutcheon

Song: Riding My Bike

Album: John McCutcheon Four Season’ Summer Songs (1995)

John McCutcheon (born August 14, 1952) is an American folk music singer and multi-instrumentalist who has produced 34 albums since the 1970s.

Summersongs is the first of John McCutcheon's Four Seasons series of family albums celebrating each season of the year. McCutcheon, whose previous family albums have received awards from the American Library Association and Parents' Choice Magazine, masterfully evokes children's sentiments of summer, from swimming holes, ice cream men and lawn mowers to backyard camping and meteor showers. Adults will be surprised at how easily their own summer memories return. Come spend the summer with John McCutcheon and this uplifting family recording.

**Winner of the 1995 NAPPA (National Association of Parenting Publications) Gold Award
**ALA (American Library Association) Notable Children's Recording
**Grammy nominee for Best Musical Album For Children for 1995

"A terrific collection . . . most of the dozen tunes are irresistibly cheerful."—Booklist

"The first of a planned 'four seasons' series, this John McCutcheon masterpiece just might have you barefoot and mixin' lemonade in the dead of winter. The subject matter of the songs will bring a smile to kids and a memory to adults. . . ." —San Diego Parent Magazine

This looks so easy
But this is so hard
I practiced all summer
Out in my back yard
Mom running before me
Dad right beside
Watching me close
With their arms open wide

Chorus

Mother, I'm flying
Come catch me, Dad
The most wonderful feeling
That I've ever had
I'm riding, I'm falling
I'm falling, I'm riding
I'm falling, I'm riding my bike

My friends all have fancy ones
Ten, fifteen gears
Mine is a Schwinn
That my Mom's had for years
With its big old fat tires
Its ragged old seat
I think it's the coolest bike
Out on our street

Chorus

Tricycles, training wheels
Tell them good-bye
We just don't need them,
My old bike and I
Three wheels are too many
One is too few
Now that I'm six
I'll just get by on two

Chorus

Livingston Taylor - Bicycle

Artist: Livingston Taylor

Song: Bicycle

Album: Bicycle (1996)

 

Livingston Taylor's musical career has been marked by numerous highs and lows. The younger brother of folk-pop superstar James Taylor, Taylor has had a more modest career. His best selling single, "I Will Be In Love With You," went no higher than the thirtieth position on the Billboard charts, while his last Top 40 single, "First Time Love," was released in 1980. Taylor's exuberant personality and warm charm as a performer has allowed him to maintain a busy concert schedule. read more…

 

This is one of Liv's best works! The songs sound clean and fresh. "I Believe" is an optimistic song which sounds great on cd. The tune "Boatman" done with brother JT is better than the one from Hourglass. A 'healing' album with jazz, blues and pop influences. I really enjoyed Bicycle. Liv Fans embrace this one it is something special.

I ride my bicycle to work each day
It's not so far
It's better for me than my car.
I wear a helmet that is made of
Rigid Styrofoam
Inspected by a French guy named Guillaume.
I downshift my Shimanno gears
I pedal hard and I'm out of here
Glad I am that the coast is clear
Glad I am to be
My bicycle and me.

Some Saturdays at six a.m. I get up
With Bill and Flo
In the parking lot of Ho Jo's west of town
We ride light bikes that cost big bucks
We curse at smelly trucks
Mile after mile 'til the sun is almost down.
What a ride, what a life
Maybe I'm crazy, don't ask my wife
I've been in love with these spinning wheels
Since I was maybe three
My bicycle and me.

Pedal that bike, pedal that bike
Don't open that door 'til I go by.

Pedal that bike, pedal that bike
That little old lady in the Dodge Diplomat
I don't think she sees me
I hope she don't teach me how to fly.

I wear Lycra, it fits really closely to my skin
White to purple is the place where it begins
I pad my butt and I'm careful
To stay out of ruts
Wrap around sunglasses, I'm an alien
Feel my heart go pit-a-pat
Hello big hill good-bye fat
Life goes by just like that
A forty something spree is
My bicycle and me. 

Marco Ferradini - Bicicletta

Artist: Marco Ferradini

Song: Bicicletta

Album: Una Catastrofe Bionda  (1983)

 

Ferradini racconta:

“Week End”, “Schiavo senza catene”, “Teorema” e “Bicicletta” sono nate a Macugnaga, in montagna, durante un fine settimana di settembre del 1980. Io tra una passeggiata e l'altra raccontavo la mia storia e di sera intorno al camino con Herbert Pagani creavamo con la chitarra quelle bellissime canzoni.

 

musica

Come un fiume scorre lentamente questa mia città
E nel traffico intasato volo io
Tra lumache di lamiera elegante come un Dio
Vado via sulla mia nuova bicicletta

Ho davanti la campagna e dietro la periferia
E pedalo piano piano verso nord
Girasoli, granoturco, che mi frega del Concorde
Vado via sulla mia nuova bicicletta

Mille raggi fra le gambe come un doppio sole
E c’ho quattro cambi di velocità
È leggera non inquina, non consuma e poi
Non fa rumore, questa sì che è civiltà

Fazzoletti di lattuga i parchi, oasi senza gas…
Vado anch’io sulla mia nuova bicicletta

Mille raggi fra le gambe come un doppio sole
E c’ho quattro cambi di velocità
È leggera non inquina, non consuma e poi
Non fa rumore questa sì che è civiltà…

È un piroscafo di luce nella sera la città
E un po’ stanco ma contento torno io
Il comune di Milano dice “su due ruote vai”
Vado anch’io, “ma che roba ‘sta bicicletta”

Cream - Disraeli Gears

Artist: Cream

Album: Disraeli Gears, 1967

The first "superband" in rock music (born from Graham Bond Organization and Bluesbreakers) and first-classic trio "guitar, bass, drums” was born in the summer of 1966 and includes Eric Clapton, Ginger Baker and Jack Bruce; great passion for the blues and considerable technical instrumental characterize the lives of Cream: they have left us great songs like White Room, Sunshine Of Your Love, Politician, Tales Of Brave Ulysses and exceptional interpretations of blues classics like Spoonful and Crossroads.

Their second album, Disraeli Gears, released in 1967, takes its title from a curiously particular technology applied to bicycles: the "derailleur gears."

The title of the album, Disraeli Gears, was actually a bit of an inside joke. Eric Clapton had been thinking of getting a racing bicycle, and was discussing it with Ginger Baker, when Mick Turner, one of the roadies, commented on the performance of “those Disraeli Gears” meaning to say “derailleur gears”. The band thought this was hilarious—Benjamin Disraeli was a prominent 19th Century British politician—and decided that it should be the title of their next album. Had it not been for Mick, the album would simply have been entitled Cream.

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