Songs of Travel

Image by WSDOT via Flickr

Labor Day is fast approaching and with it the end of the summer travel season.  As a child, most of my travel experiences involved cars.  AM radio was the rule of the day with stations often fading in and out.  Rather than constantly changing channels, my parents would lead family singalongs.  I learned many a sing-along classic from “We’re on the Homeward Trail” (which my parents would limit to the last couple miles as we drove into our town) to “Tell Me Why” (both the melody & descant lines).  As we got older, we children would contribute folks songs we were learning in school like “Senor Don Gato”.

We also would change words of songs to meet our needs to move in a limited space.  Mind you, I grew up before seat belts came installed in every car. We would change “shout for joy” (not a car friendly sound) to “jump for joy” attempting to touch our heads to the ceiling in the car if we were in the back seat.

Now when I travel with my family, we listen to play lists on our iPods.    When thinking of this topic for my recent newsletter, I thought of many car themed songs including:

• Route 66
• Baby, You can Drive My Car
• On the Road Again
• Ventura Highway
• Low Rider
• The Long & Winding Road
• Goodbye Yellowbrick Road
• Hot Rod Lincoln
• Convoy
• Little Red Corvette
• Little Duce Coop

What do you have on your travel play list?  Share your thoughts and I’ll share an actual play list in a few days, too!