Five for Friday, Leaving Home edition
I'm just a couple days away from loading up the car and embarking on a road trip that will provide a hearty spin to the odometer. My entry in the other space alludes to the destination, but I think we'll stick with the journey here.
As always, please play along...
Five Songs About Travel
1. Billy Joel, "Travelin' Prayer." The piano man relies more on an a banjo and a mouth harp to drive this track that leads off the album that gave him his nickname and signature song.
2. Michelle Shocked, "Come a Long Way." One of those songs that perfectly conveys the exhilaration of bounding around seeing the world, even if the world is no bigger than the expanse of Los Angeles.
3. The Sonics, "Have Love Will Travel." Beauteous garage rock from one of the expert purveyors of that sound. The Black Keys did a scorching cover of this song on thickfreakness.
4. Dick Curless, "Hard Hard Traveling Man." There's nothing quite like a old-time country singer who sports a kind of scary eyepatch and specializing in truck driving songs. This song includes some focus on road food: "Hamburger joints and chicken all around/Chinese food ain't fillin'/But at least it's warm inside/And it keeps my feet from the snow that's on the ground."
5. Yo La Tengo, "From A Motel 6." You could easily fill a list of five with songs written by bands and performers lamenting the misery of being on the road. You could just write "Pick a side of Running on Empty" and complete the assignment. This song isn't explicitly about being on tour, but it sure feels like it was written somewhere between gigs with its grim litany of details of the motel room: the woolen blanket, CNN droning on the television.
Bonus track: Mountain Goats, "See America Right." That opening--"I was driving up from Tampa/When the radiator burst"--is one of my favorites. It sets exactly the right town for the edgy intensity of the song. "Your love is like a cyclone in a swamp/And the weather's getting warmer." John Darnielle comes up with some truly amazing lyrics.
As always, please play along...
Five Songs About Travel
1. Billy Joel, "Travelin' Prayer." The piano man relies more on an a banjo and a mouth harp to drive this track that leads off the album that gave him his nickname and signature song.
2. Michelle Shocked, "Come a Long Way." One of those songs that perfectly conveys the exhilaration of bounding around seeing the world, even if the world is no bigger than the expanse of Los Angeles.
3. The Sonics, "Have Love Will Travel." Beauteous garage rock from one of the expert purveyors of that sound. The Black Keys did a scorching cover of this song on thickfreakness.
4. Dick Curless, "Hard Hard Traveling Man." There's nothing quite like a old-time country singer who sports a kind of scary eyepatch and specializing in truck driving songs. This song includes some focus on road food: "Hamburger joints and chicken all around/Chinese food ain't fillin'/But at least it's warm inside/And it keeps my feet from the snow that's on the ground."
5. Yo La Tengo, "From A Motel 6." You could easily fill a list of five with songs written by bands and performers lamenting the misery of being on the road. You could just write "Pick a side of Running on Empty" and complete the assignment. This song isn't explicitly about being on tour, but it sure feels like it was written somewhere between gigs with its grim litany of details of the motel room: the woolen blanket, CNN droning on the television.
Bonus track: Mountain Goats, "See America Right." That opening--"I was driving up from Tampa/When the radiator burst"--is one of my favorites. It sets exactly the right town for the edgy intensity of the song. "Your love is like a cyclone in a swamp/And the weather's getting warmer." John Darnielle comes up with some truly amazing lyrics.