Music Blogs

Summer's here. While fewer of us will be worrying about the logistics of passport renewal than usual due to the inclement fiscal forecast, we can at least evoke some of the spirit of exotic holidays past. Qualification: not travelling or holiday songs per se, but must include at least an allusion, or titular reference, to tourism.--Alex Ogg

1. The Damned--"Lovely Money": Inspired by the nationalism of the Falklands War, this diatribe against nostalgia for Olde England, including Beefeaters and pick-pockets, featured a searingly funny voiceover from Viv Stanshall.

Lyric: "So off you go, away you fly / We've had your money, now goodbye/ We fleeced you good, we bled you dry / Goodbye..."

2. Crosby, Stills Nash & Young--"Marrakesh Express": Inspired by a train ride undertaken by Graham Nash, which the Hollies declined to record, in Morocco in '66, in which the vibrancy of the landscape contrasted with the listlessness of his fellow travellers in first class.

Lyric: "Looking at the world through the sunset in your eyes/Travelling the train through clear Moroccan skies..."

3. Deana Carter--"We Danced Anyway": The thrill of frantic dancing to music you've never heard before in an exotic location you've just found, penned by Randy Scruggs and Matraca Berg and bolstered by an accompanying video shot in Puerto Rico.

Lyric: "There was music everywhere, I can see us there/In a happy little foreign town..."

4. Men At Work--"Down Under": This is not only Australia's unofficial national anthem but also a hymn to that nation's indefatigable wanderlust. And whisper it, co-written by a Scot.

Lyric: "I said do you speak-a-my-language? / He just smiled and gave me a vegemite sandwich..."

5. The Men They Couldn't Hang--"The Rabid Underdog": The ultimate pre-euro denomination budget travelogue. See also Chumbawamba's "Home With Me."

Lyric: "Squandered are my Gilders, in Deutschmarks I have none / In Zurich I was milked of all my Francs..."

6. Jimmy Buffett--"Changes In Latitudes, Changes In Attitudes": A somewhat forced couplet, perhaps, but a nice corollary to the standard "travel broadens the mind" homily.

Lyric: "Reading departure signs in some big airport/Reminds me of the places I've been/Visions of good times that brought so much pleasure/Makes me want to go back again..."

7. B-52s--"Roam": Rapturous expression of aforementioned nomadic sentiments.

Lyric: "Fly the great big sky / See the great big sea/Kick through continents / Bustin' boundaries..."

8. Johnny Cash--"I've Been Everywhere": Amid the long list of Stateside destinations, Cash slips in a few from Canada as well as cities in Mexico and South America. And Bangor. Though likely he means Bangor, Saskatchewan rather than Bangor, South Wales.

Lyric: "I've been everywhere, man / Crossed the deserts bare, man/I've breathed the mountain air, man / Of travel I've had my share, man..."

9. Red Hot Chili Peppers--"Around The World": The Peppers too start off parochial, listing romantic sojourns in Pennsylvania and California before making that rare American passport application and taking in Bombay, Switzerland and Russia. Alternatively there's Daft Punk's similarly titled anthem to global travel, though that's a tad more minimalist.

Lyric: "I saw God / And I saw the fountains/You and me girl / Sittin' in the Swiss mountains..."

10. Joe Jackson--"Big World": A kind of culinary tourism, as Joe contemplates the delights of shrimps in Hong Kong, baklava in Istanbul and mushrooms in Bali.

Lyric: "Sitting on the floor in Kyoto / Marvel at the latest catch/Eat it as soon as you are able / Quick before they cook it..."

11. All Saints--"Pure Shores": This Shaznay/William Orbit collaboration featured heavily in Thai tourist shakedown film The Beach, though more prosaically spawned a video filmed on the Norfolk coastline.

Lyric: "Take me somewhere I can breathe/I've got so much to see / This is where I wanna be..."

12. The Beach Boys--"Kokomo": Late-period sans Brian Wilson Beach Boys effort written to accompany the Tom Cruise vehicle Cocktail -sees them extend their love of surf, sea and sand to destinations beyond California. Its title inspired the opening of a real-life holiday resort off the Florida Keys.

Lyric: "Aruba, Jamaica, Ooh, I wanna take you/Bermuda, Bahama, come on pretty mama/Key Largo, Montego, Baby why don't we go..."

13. The Clash--"Safe European Home": Strummer and co, meanwhile, muse on the fact that if you venture away from the postcard beaches, Jamaica can be a trifle intimidating.

Lyric: "They got the sun and they got the palm tress / They got the weed, and they got the taxies / Whoa, the harder they come, n' the home of ol' Bluebeat/Yes I'd stay and be a tourist but can't take the gun play..."

14. 10cc--"Dreadlock Holiday": Messrs Gouldman and Stewart had similar reservations (actually, it's said to be based on an incident witnessed by Justin Hayward of the Moody Blues). From the album Bloody Tourists....

Lyric: "Well he looked down at my silver chain/He said I'll give you one dollar / I said, you've got to be joking, man / It was a present from me Mother..."

15. Wreckless Eric--"Whole Wide World": A lovelorn wanderer's endless quest for Mrs Right. With the caveat that, as mater rather damningly implies, with an approximate worldwide population of three and a half billion females, it might be a needle in a haystack.

Lyric: "When I was a young boy / My mama said to me / There's only one girl in the world for you / And she probably lives in Tahiti..."

16. Frank Sinatra--"Come Fly With Me": Written by Jimmy Van Heusen and Sammy Cahn, the former a keen pilot, it set the tone for ol' Blue Eyes album of the same title, conceived as 'a musical trip around the world'.

Lyric: "Come fly with me, let's float down to Peru / In lama land there's a one man band/And he'll toot his flute for you..."

17. Counting Crows--"Holiday In Spain": Well, we could have gone for "Y Viva Espana" ("he rattled his maracas close to me" is, after all, a killer line), but this is less Sangria-specific.

Lyric: "I may take a holiday in Spain / Leave my wings behind me / Drink my worries down the drain / And fly away to somewhere new..."

18. Rufus Wainwright--"Leaving For Paris": The city Morrissey would rather throw his arms around rather than multi-culti Britannia. Rufus sounds like he's ready to join the Foreign Legion to oublier. See also Wasted Youth's "Paris France" ("Stupid French boys think they're gigolos . . . Maurice Chevalier and all that jazz")

Lyric: "So I'm leaving for Paris, don't you try to find out where I am..."

19. Gogol Bordello--"Wonderlust King": Darling, until you've seen the Taj Mahal, you simply haven't lived...

Lyric: "Back in the day, yo, as we learned/A man was not considered to be fully grown / Had he not gone beyond the hills/Had he not crossed the seven seas..."

20. Dead Kennedys--"Holiday In Cambodia": It is arguably the greatest punk song ever written; it's certainly the most sarcastic. Asked to design a tourism advert in secondary school, I came up with this as a slogan. A long and steep academic decline ensued.

Lyric: "Well you'll work harder with a gun in your back/For a bowl of rice a day / Slave for soldiers till you starve / Then your head is skewered on a stake..."

21. John Denver--"Leaving On A Jet Plane": Though his destination is obscured, the taxi's waiting to take him to the airport but really he doesn't want to go and he'll be back with a wedding ring. Presumably he can pick up a suitable rock at a discount price from the bazaar.

Lyric: "But I'm leavin' on a jet plane / Don't know when Ill be back again / Oh babe, I hate to go..."

22. The Motors--"Airport": Speaking of airports, this is the compulsory incidental music to accompany any consumer TV item featuring footage of planes.

Lyric: "So many destination faces going to so many places / Where the weather is much better / And the food is so much cheaper..."

23. The Beatles--"Back In The USSR": Kudos here for little details: mentioning the omnipresent and ominous paper bag, the BOAC--British Overseas Airways Corporation - and featuring the then novel stereo effect of a plane crossing between your speakers. And Macca on drums, too.

Lyric: "Flew in from Miami Beach BOAC / Didn't get to bed last night/On the way the paper bag was on my knee/Man, I had a dreadful flight..."

24. Pink Floyd--"Wish You Were Here": More about dislocation and disaffection than anything touristy, but by employing the slogan most associated with tacky postcards from foreign climes, it sneaks in.

Lyric: "How I wish, how I wish you were here/We're just two lost souls swimming in a fish bowl, year after year..."

25. The Four Tops--"Goin' Loco Down in Acapulco": Written by Messrs Dozier and Collins to soundtrack Buster, the tale of Ronnie Biggs' fellow away on his toes train-robber.

Lyric: "You can hear voices pleading through those warm Latin nights / Memories are lost and found, leaving broken hearts all over town..."

26. Bright Eyes--"Tourist Trap": Along the lines of Gang Of Four's "At Home He's A Tourist," but more specifically addressing the rover's return.

Lyric: "And the road finally gave me back / But I don't think I'll unpack / Because I'm not sure if I live here any more..."

27. Rachel Sweet--"Tourist Boys": A funky Latino deliberation on holiday romances and the limitations thereof. Lyric: "Tourist boys, away from their mothers / Very expensive part-time lovers..."

28. Simple Minds--"Travel": In which JK sets out all the attractions of yer modern culture binge. Lyric: "I travel round / Decadence and pleasure towns / Tragedies, luxuries, statues, parks and galleries..."

29. Typically Tropical--"Barbados": Horrific surprise '75 chart hit. Notable for the voiceover by pretend airline pilot, Tobias Wilcock. The PC shelf-life of the fake Caribbean accent expiring literally the next week. One of them bought an airline or something.

Lyric: "I don't want to be a bus driver all my life / I've seen too much of Brixton town in the night / Fly away on Coconut Airways..."

30. Sex Pistols--"Holidays In The Sun": A coruscating filleting of the package holiday concept. While "God Save The Queen" might have equated tourists with money in remarkably succinct terms, this features the boy Jonesy's greatest riff and a fantastically OTT Wemarchtian intro.

Lyric: "A cheap holiday in other people's misery..."

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