Go Feet: Songs about Running (3): The Jogger by Bobby Bare

Tuesday, 27 October 2015

Songs about Running (3): The Jogger by Bobby Bare

'The Jogger' by Bobby Bare was a novelty country hit in the US top thirty in 1983. It's an odd song to say the least - starting off with a homophobic trucker bemoaning having to share the road with a guy:

'dressed like they do in baby blue,

With shortie shorts and a headband too,

I yelled Sweetie I bet that you are the hit of the men's room locker...

But I'm a runnin' late with an overload,

So get your Adidas off a this road'.

But as the trucker accelerates the jogger gets faster and faster and leaves him behind. Well maybe that's because the jogger is apparently Jesus Christ himself:

'Then I see him joggin' up into the sky

And he yells hey thanks for the exercise

I hope that losin' this race was not too shockin'

Ya see my dad says heaven's no place to run

and I try to be an obedient son

So I have to come down to earth to do my joggin'

(lyrics by S. Silverstein)

Bizarre, but then this is the man who also sang the born again football anthem 'Drop Kick Me Jesus (Through The Goalposts Of Life)"