UPTOURIST

3. Crash Test Dummies — Voyage

Travel songs don’t get much better than this classic from CTD! While the tune seems more geared toward young travelers in love, there’s no need to take it too literally if you’re older. This tune really takes me back to my first year of high school, when “The Ghosts That Haunt Me” album was first released. Much simpler times. Travel wasn’t really part of my life’s plans back then, but years later this song really started to resonate with me, especially on my first trip to Glasgow!

“We could go to the British Islands
And hike around the Scottish Highlands
The youth hostels they have there would be perfect for us
Cause we’re both youths, so they would really suit us…

We would live right out of our back packs
We’d send our parents lots of trinkets and knickknacks
Through the post and across the sea
Back to our own country

After that we could go to Yugoslavia
Oh how I’d love to travel with ya’
We don’t have to be wife and husband
To take a trip across the ocean”

2. Travelling — Paper Lions

I’ll admit that Paper Lions is a bit too folksy for me most of the time, but “Travelling” (spelled the British/Canadian way) really gets me jazzed up for a long bought of travel. In particular, some good ole hosteling or couchsurfing! So many places you’ll visit while traveling will make you innately aware that North America and at times certain parts of Europe, are the only places where a “stranger” is regarded with mistrust or contempt. So many places I’ve been have changed my perception of humanity in general. As a shy person by nature, the nurturing and welcoming nature of “strangers” I’ve met throughout South East Asia, Mongolia and any place inhabited by Scandinavians, have made me an open — and in turn — nurturing, worldly person. That’s what I think of when listening to this tune!

“Travelling the road, last known is where I want to be
My compass directing, electing, an open road with golden trees
But there’s an old man in need on the ground, I try not to make a sound
He holds out his hand as I walk away, I hear him say:

Please don’t be a stranger in my place…

Travelling come to a tavern for a momentary rest
I see the old man that I passed on the road in his distress
As I turned to go I can hear him say, “Son, stay. Have a drink, I’ll pay.”
Let bygones be gone, it’s all in the past, we raise a glass…

Please don’t be a stranger in my place.”

1. Simple Man — Shinedown

Argue if you must, but this tune is the most epic travel song, particularly if you’re a lone (male) traveler! However, the ladies can substitute “man” for “woman” when listening to a “Simple Man” and still feel inspired. This is a cover of Lynyrd Skynyrd’s hit from 1973, but Shinedown just sounds so much better to me. If you know the song, you might be thinking that the song doesn’t really say anything about traveling, but sometimes the best travel tunes are ones that inspire hope, nostalgia and memories of simpler times — all of these are emotions you’ll feel when embarking on a journey into the unfamiliar. Travel is just as much about learning to appreciate the simple things while surrounded by nature and good people, as it is about the exciting such as skydiving, swimming with sharks, and roaming around in lion, and bear country.

“Be a simple kind of man
Be a something you love and understand
Baby be a simple kind of man
Oh won’t you do this for me son if you can
if you can…

Forget your lust for the rich man’s gold
All that you need now is in your soul
And you can do this oh baby if you try
All that I want from you my son is to be satisfied”

Simple man is one of my new favorites, however, after watching this travel scene compilation with the song dubbed in the background:

And the original (cover that is!):

 

 

Main image by jscomputerdad