Another selection of thematic tracks digged up from my music library. In this episode you will hear popular songs from the seventies to the nineties related to traveling, going places, work life balance and what keeps you busy.
| TITLE | ARTIST | COMMENTS |
|---|---|---|
| Jet Airliner | The Steve Miller Band | Steve Miller recorded this song in 1977. “Jet Airliner” was written by blind American bluesman Paul Pena who taught himself the vocal techniques of traditional Tuvan throat-singing. He became known as “Cher Shimjerg ” meaning “Earthquake” in the Tuvan language because of his amazingly deep voice. In 1999 Paul was named ‘San Francisco’s Tuvan Blues Ambassador’ and since then, July 11 is ‘Paul Pena Day’. The documentary Genghis Blues tells you all about it. |
| San Francisco (Be Sure To Wear Flowers In Your Hair) | Scott McKenzie | John Phillips from The Mamas And The Papas wrote this as the unofficial anthem for the Monterey Pop Festival, near San Francisco, which he helped organising. It became one of the big Hippie hits during the Summer Of Love in 1967. Many peace activists and folkies wore flowers in their hair. |
| On The Road Again | Canned Heat | This was Canned Heat, with guitar player Henry Vestine a.k.a. “The Sunflower” and Alan Wilson playing the tambura that gives this song the psychedelic touch. Their hit “On the Road Again” is based on earlier versions of Chicago blues musician Floyd Jones and Mississippi Delta bluesman Tommy Johnson’s song “Big Road Blues” from 1928. |
| A Horse With No Name | America | Three sons of US Air Force personnel stationed in the UK, met in high school in London in the late sixties. They started the band called “America”, because they did not want anyone to think they were British musicians trying to sound American. Being stuck in rainy England, this song goes back to their childhood when traveling through the Arizona and New Mexico desert. But it is also inspired by Salvador Dali’s painting and stands for a metaphor to get away from life’s confusion into a quiet, peaceful place”. |
| (I’m A) Roadrunner | Jr. Walker & The All Stars | “(I’m a) Road Runner” by Junior Walker & the Allstars is a one of the greatest R&B singles ever made. It first appeared on their debut album “Shotgun” in 1965 and because of its success was repeated on the following album. The record sleeve pictured a running bird similar to the Road Runner cartoon character, part of the successful Looney Tunes universe at that time. |
| Midnight Train To Georgia | Gladys Knight & The Pips | This song was originally recorded by Jim Weatherly as “Midnight Plane to Houston”. The song got written after a phone call with ‘Charlie’s Angels’ actress Farrah Fawcett telling she was gonna take the midnight plane to Houston to visit her folks. The song got renamed to “Midnight Train To Georgia” when Cissy Houston (Whitney Houston’s mother) recorded it. The rest is history. |
| Come Fly With Me | Frank Sinatra | Co-writer Jimmy Van Heusen had a passion for flying and wrote Frank Sinatra’s “Come Fly with Me” specifically for Ol’ Blue Eyes in 1958. |
| Airport | Motors | Airport by the Motors, was written by Scottish co-founder Andrew McMaster while living under the Heathrow flightpath. |
| We Can’t Fly | Aeroplane | Vito de Luca, a Belgian club DJ and producer, better known as Aeroplane, created together with Belgian fellow DJ Stephen Fasano (The Magician), and Nicole ‘Coco’ Morier the single and album ‘We Can’t Fly’ in 2010. |
Sources
The information sources of the song facts include, but are not limited to, Wikipedia, songfacts.com, discogs.com, secondhandsongs.com, YouTube and artists’ related websites.
