My friend Susan recently asked me this question:
Is there a piece of music that captures what bodysurfing feels like?
Here’s how I answered, in pieces:
This is an intriguing question. I don’t really have an answer but I will pop the cap on my brain and share songs that recur when I’m in the water. When the current is strong I will keep time against it with Sam Cooke’s “Chain Gang.” And when the waves are closing out the refrain of “Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out” by Bruce Springsteen comes into my head. And this is even weirder: when it’s a good session some phrases from “Surrey with the Fringe on Top” will come into my head and I’ll even start sing-saying them to myself.
Speaking of which every year, I start a new playlist and as I encounter or think of songs I add them. This is 2023’s: 2023 fee fie phō fun… which has on it a cover of “A Day in the Life” — and I first heard it in a surf video and it seems like the closest maybe? But it’s also got a lot going on as one of the “opus” Beatle songs.
Follow up: Kelly and I watched “Nyad” on Netflix, famous long distance swimmer and it mentions how she kept 4/4 time songs in her mind to keep her strokes consistent. Also how do we get more movies with Annette Bening and Jodie Foster giving each other shit because that was good.
