Under my skin: Travel music

CAUTION:  CONTAINS TRACES OF 80’S ROCK.  VIEWER DISCRETION IS ADVISED.

Right, now that we’ve got the obligatory government health warning out of the way.

There’s no doubting the influence that music has had on me.  From the early mullet wearing days of my teenage years playing in a school rock band to tens of adoring fans, through my less hirsute but more musically diverse twenties and on to the present day, music has always been a vital part of my life.  It has underpinned everything that matters, both the good times and the bad.  During both the exuberant highs when my body ached with pure joy, and the coldest, darkest moments of the soul, music has been there to both heighten the experience and to remind me of it in the weeks, months and years that follow.

Given how many of the great times have been travel related, it’s no surprise at all that certain songs take me straight back to a time, place or feeling that I experienced somewhere out there on the road.  These songs have accompanied some of the best moments of my life, getting under my skin at the time and conjuring up wonderful memories ever since. Here are just a few of them.

Mr Brightside (The Killers)

Like several of the songs on this list, the lyrics have pretty much nothing to do with travel, or even happiness.  It’s just one hell of a rocking track.  I was assigned the key role of ‘musical director’ when a group of us decided to charter a yacht in the Greek Islands a couple of years ago.  Along with all of the other responsibilities that such an important role entails (ahem), it fell to me to come up with a song to be played first every morning.  When the fenders were in, the lines were stowed and we were safely on our way out of the harbour with the sun on our backs and the wind in our hair, one song had to sum up that indescribable feeling.  Mr Brightside was it.  Given that nobody who was on that yacht trip (or a subsequent one a year later) can hear this song without instantly starting to dream of sailing on clear blue oceans, I think it achieved its goal.

Best listened to: at maximum volume on a stinking hot summers day, with an ice cold beer in hand and salt spray in the air.

If You’re Going To San Francisco (Scott McKenzie)

My mate Deano and I have been known on more than one occasion to plan a trip purely for the cliché value.  The “best” example of this was hiring a convertible Mustang – red, of course -  and driving the coastal highways from Seattle to San Diego a few years back.  As if that wasn’t clichéd enough, I’d created half a dozen compilation CDs to accompany some vital parts of the trip.  ‘Born in the USA’ was the first song that we played.  There was some classic LA hair metal to accompany the drive down the Ventura highway.  And, in the biggest cliche of all, as we approached the Golden Gate bridge with the top down on a typically foggy summer’s day, the unmistakable tones of ‘If You’re Going to San Francisco’ came flooding out of all six speakers.  I suspect that the rest of the drivers who were being subjected to our musical selection thought we were a couple of complete idiots.  They were right.

Best listened to: in a convertible Mustang while driving over the Golden Gate bridge, of course!

Forever Young (Youth Group)  /  Don’t Stop Believing (Journey)

Neither of these songs relate to a specific place or time – they just sum up the pure, unadulterated joy of being young, carefree and with the entire world at your disposal.  I never feel like that more than when I’m travelling, so these songs make regular appearances on my playlist both when planning a trip and when I’m actually doing it.  Not to mention that they are both perfect singalong numbers after a few too many drinks.  Ignoring Steve Perry’s offensively skintight pants and leopard skin shirt, the guitarist’s ridiculous white man ‘fro and the fact that the song has been now taken over by the cast of ‘Glee’, if you can’t get everyone else in the hostel common room to sing along to the chorus of “Don’t Stop Believing”, you’re really not trying hard enough.

Best listened to: pretty much anywhere, anytime, with a group of travellers and a cask of cheap wine.

Brimful of Asha (Cornershop / Fatboy Slim)

To be honest, I’ll admit that I don’t even particularly like this song.  It’s ok, sure, but I’m not going to rush out and buy the album or anything.  Despite that, however, I can’t hear more than the first few seconds without having an incredibly powerful ‘London moment’.  This track was getting some serious radio time during the first couple of months that I lived in the UK, and it seemed like every morning when the alarm went off I would wake up to Chris Evans talking a load of crap on Capital Radio and ‘Brimful of Asha’ being belted out.  In the bars and cafes, shopping malls and out of car windows, for a few weeks I just couldn’t get away from it.  Sick to death of it?  You bet, but it continues to evoke very strong memories to this day.

Best listed to: Once, via this blog post, and then not again for a very long time.

On The Road Again (Willie Nelson)

Pretty self-explanatory, this one.  I often find myself singing it in the shower as an impending trip draws near, and try to make sure I listen to it the night before I head to the airport.  As old Willie says in between harmonica solos, I just can’t wait to get on the road again.

Best listened to: while waiting in the check-in line for the start of a round the world trip.

Afternoons and Coffeespoons (Crash Test Dummies)

Now quite why a song about getting old and having nothing better to do than wander round all day in your pyjamas has become a classic sunny day road trip number for me, I have absolutely no idea.  So I’m not even going to try to explain it, but there you go.  I think that this is actually the one song in my life that has rules associated with it.  Well, one rule at least.  If the sun isn’t shining when this track starts playing, it must be immediately fast forwarded.  No exceptions.  Now given that it probably hasn’t had any radio airplay in at least the last decade that rule isn’t as much of a hindrance as you might imagine, but still, the restriction applies.

Best listened to: on a road trip with the windows down, sun shining brightly and a group of mates along for the ride.

Normansland [David’s Song] – DJ Sakin & Friends

I chose this one as a representative sample of the Ministry of Sound ‘Clubbers Guide to … Trance’ discs from 1999.  While there’s a lot of great tracks on that double album, it’s the second disc in it’s entirety that speaks to me.  I came late to the trance music scene, so despite the fact that the songs on this album would have been massively popular in the clubs in Europe and London when I was living there, that’s not what it reminds me of.  In fact, I’m not sure exactly where or what it does remind me of – it’s just been the soundtrack to so many fun times around the world that I couldn’t leave it out from this collection.  Yachts, road trips, weekends away with the gang, preparing for a big night, even just sitting in the sun in someone’s back yard and getting drunk.  Whatever and wherever it’s been, every time I hear this album I get a smile on my face and a flood of wonderful memories.

And that, at the end of the day, is what music is all about for me.

Best listened to: whenever you want to know you’re alive.

There’s so many other great songs that I could have included here that it almost seems like a crime to leave them out.  In the interests of keeping this a blog post and not a novel, however, I’ll leave the rest of them up to you.

What are your favourite travel songs?  Let me know in the comments!

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