Travel Music

Three songs and some et ceteras while I am on the road this week

I’m taking my annual blackberry pilgrimage to western Washington this week. As I prepared this post in advance, I noticed that some of my favorite travel songs and CD’s resonate with the aim of PeaceLinks. So I thought I’d change the format a little by sharing some of my travel soundscape. I’ve kept some other favorites in reserve for a future post. May these three take you somewhere pleasantly outside your regular groove. . . .

I. “Peace Train”

By Cat Stevens/ Yusuf

When I heard Cat Stevens/Yusuf on a friend’s turntable at a party several years ago, I hadn’t thought about the man in decades. The tunes and choruses came right back, though — “Wide World,” “Morning Has Broken,” “Peace Train,” and the rest.

Soon after, I got my own copy of the classic album Teaser and the Firecat and a greatest hits compilation. On long trips in the car, I turn up “Peace Train” and sing along. I check the kids’ bored expressions and wonder how many times I heard these songs before they got into my mitochondria, and how many times I might get away with playing them before we reach our destination.

Thanks to the preparation of this post, I learned that Cat/Yusuf just released a new album in June after fifty years of songwriting. It’s called “King of a Land.” If you’re a Cat Stevens fan and remember the unique animated cover art on the album Teaser and the Firecat, look for a Teaser cameo at 3:53:

And is anyone surprised that Cat/Jusuf has a foundation called Peace Train? Now that’s a PeaceLink!

II. “Watermark”

By Enya

There is a point in the drive when I like to pop Enya’s Watermark CD into the stereo. It comes soon after we put urban highway exits behind us, as the landscape opens up in all directions — arid hills to the north, a long plain and a small cluster of distant mountains to the south. I like to play the album while we cross the Snake River from Idaho into Oregon and as we climb through the winding route of the old Oregon Trail, up and up to Baker City and the high valleys of eastern Oregon. It is much drier here than in Ireland, but the hills and gulches rise away from my vehicle in quiet only disturbed by the paired grey ribbons of the interstate road.

III. “Thank You for the Music”

By Benny Andersson & Björn Ulvaeus, performed by ABBA

No question, the most important CD in my travel kit is Abba GOLD, a Greatest Hits album. It powers me through the late afternoon slump, about 2/3 of the way into a full day of driving. Songs like “Dancing Queen” and “Waterloo” keep the wheels rolling, but don’t you think “Thank You for the Music” makes a better PeaceLink?

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Your turn. If you’re not driving a car yourself, pop down to the comments and let me know:

1. Do you have a story about any of these songs or artists?

2. What are some of your favorite driving tunes? Does it matter how far you are going?

3. What format, platform, or tech do you rely on when driving or getting around by another conveyance? Is anyone else still playing CD’s in a 3-disc changer? “You were educated in the twentieth century!” cries my exasperated firstborn, as though that explains everything.

4. Is there a song from your youth that you really wish your kids or someone else’s kids could hear the way you heard it? And when you eye them sideways, they don’t appear to care a piffle? (Piffle: Is that a twentieth-century word? Nineteenth? Eighteenth?)

🌲 The monthly digest of enchanting reads on Substack will go out to subscribers of my other publication tomorrow. Head over there to subscribe before “The Enchanted Forest” for August hits inboxes. Thank you if you already read both publications! 🙏