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Travel songs that really grabbed when you were young


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As a young person, were there "travel songs" that captured your imagination and made you long to see ....those far away places with strange sounding names?

 

On another thread we are discussing "On the Road to Mandalay" - Burma along with Far Away Places with Strange Sounding Names - China and Siam.

 

They sound pretty hokey today but when I was young, they would send me off to dream land, along with old copies of National Geographics inherited from an uncle and I knew I just had to see the world.

 

Add "The Happy Wanderer" too Val de ri, val de ra, ha, ha, ha .. with a knap sack on my back. Which is today 2x 23 kilos of checked baggage. Ha, ha, ha.

Edited by OlsSalt
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Was on a small opera group tour in Europe once and we always played this modern classic when we left for our next destination: On the Road Again - Willy Nelson:

 

And I think I played the Route 66 theme until the grooves wore out on the vinyl.

 

Each Crystal Symphony port departure would always include playing on deck "What a Wonderful World. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oGmRKWJdwBc

Edited by OlsSalt
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What A Wonderful World is special to me but very difficult to hear if I'm on a non-Crystal ship. I may even need to get up and leave if it comes up in the piano bar. One of my coping mechanisms if the ship is a really good one is to rewrite the song to reflect the wonderful things in the world I'm currently experiencing. It's a real challenge to come up with things that both rhyme and fit the flow of the song. Here's one that I think went pretty well from my 2013 Amazon Explorer:

 

<SNAP>

 

Today's parting shot will be somewhat related to Crystal. There is a song they play at sailaway and I've several times rewritten part or all of the song as related to the cruise I've enjoyed. The Elegant Explorer is worth the full version of the song, and the tradition actually started on the Elegant Explorer. Getting everything to fit exactly right is a challenge that I may not be up to but I came up with this:

 

“I see dolphins pink, and grey ones too

They swim and they play, for me and for you

And I think to myself What a wonderful world

 

I see waters brown, some black and some blue,

side by side down the stream, multicolored hues

And I think to myself What a wonderful world

 

The rainbow over old St. Barts, the moonlit starry sky

A wave of bright blue wristbands on people going by

Footsteps on the promenade, one very special day. United, with one purpose, we'll chase cancer away.

 

A child with a pet, on a strange tropical isle

The love of a family and a great big warm smile

And I think to myself What a wonderful world

Yes, I think to myself What a wonderful world Oh yeah”

 

Roy

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refined, I always wondered if all Crystal ships sailed away with What a Wonderful World. Thanks for your post and your wonderful rendition of this classic. Only two Crystal cruises for us, but I know the feeling when you hear this song somewhere else. Our first Crystal did take us to exotica about 10 years ago - Singapore - India - Oman - Dubai.

 

I wish HAL did something similar that grabbed the heart strings like What a Wonderful World. Maybe as others share their favorite travel songs we can find one to "suggest" to HAL corporate Seattle.

 

I wish Far Away Places was a bit more up beat - that could work. Particularly when the godowns in Rotterdam, where Holland-Amerkica would depart from, did have .... far away places and strange sound names emblazoned over their entry doors. Sumatra, Borneo, Celebes, Java .....

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Actually, since you mention a HAL sailaway song I have a strange idea. I don't think it was ever a big commercial hit but enjoyed it for years on HAL. It's been sadly discontinued (along with the in-person disembarkation talk). I haven't missed the talk but have missed the song.

 

How about "Love in any Language"?

 

 

Roy

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What A Wonderful World is special to me but very difficult to hear if I'm on a non-Crystal ship. I may even need to get up and leave if it comes up in the piano bar. One of my coping mechanisms if the ship is a really good one is to rewrite the song to reflect the wonderful things in the world I'm currently experiencing. It's a real challenge to come up with things that both rhyme and fit the flow of the song. Here's one that I think went pretty well from my 2013 Amazon Explorer:

 

Good work. I can almost hear Louis Armstrong singing the lyrics!

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A favorite song of mine sung around the campfire with my fellow Girl Scouts some 50 years ago was called "A Hobo's Lullaby," a sad, sweet song about traveling the rails, written by Goebel Reeves and sung here by Woodie Guthrie https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NN_xvE79iXE. As long as I can remember I have had an aching need to travel, by any means possible -- train, ship, plane, auto. I have always related deeply to that nomadic lifestyle.

 

At Girl Scout summer camp we used to have "sing-offs:" competitions among units (groups of girls assigned to specific camping areas) to see which group could quickly think of and sing a line or two of the largest number of songs in a given category. One year, the category was "songs about water." Well, it just so happened that I was in a special interest unit that year -- the "waterfront" unit, which was made up of girls who had a particular interest in swimming, boating, snorkeling, and other water sports and activities. Our unit, which had naturally been singing sea chanteys, boating songs, and other water-related melodies together since we arrived at camp, blew away the competition with our repertoire!

 

One song I can still sing at least one verse of was entitled "Rolling Home," based on a traditional sea chantey https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YJRxNhq0zVE, but with a set of lyrics written specifically for Girl Scouts. It described a nostalgic sailing voyage "across the sea to dear New England." Though I would have to dig up my 50 year-old memorabilia, including our camp songbook, from among my old papers to remember other specific songs, I still have fond memories of that "waterfront summer," and that Girl Scout sing-off!

 

(It was at that same Girl Scout camp at the age of 15 or 16 that I first snorkeled, in a murky pond in the deep woods of western Massachusetts, igniting a lifelong, burning love of the activity. That flame smoldered for a mere 40 years waiting for the opportunity to snorkel again -- this time in the warm, crystal blue Caribbean waters of my dreams-- and have snorkeled on every cruise since then.)

 

So yes, our childhood experiences -- musical and otherwise -- do, indeed, influence our futures!

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Was on a small opera group tour in Europe once and we always played this modern classic when we left for our next destination: On the Road Again - Willy Nelson:

 

And I think I played the Route 66 theme until the grooves wore out on the vinyl.

 

Each Crystal Symphony port departure would always include playing on deck "What a Wonderful World. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oGmRKWJdwBc

 

I wonder if that was started on Crystal by David DeHavilland. I remember back in the early 80's he played Rod Stewart's We Are Sailing at HAL sailaways. Passengers stood on the promenade and sang along.

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