I haven’t heard John Denver’s song in multiple decades (until today) and yet… It comes to mind for whatever reasons such things come to mind when I started to think about my impending road trip beginning about midweek. It doesn’t even fit with the theme in which the song was thought to be written for, which is generally how these things work. I’m not going off war, nor standing outside the door of a young beau looking for a last kiss before I leave, and I plan to be back home by the end of next week (so I know when I’ll be back again).
Part of me wishes that Arlo Guthrie had written his song as “Coming into Anchorage” instead of “Los Angeles”, but I’m not sure a drug run would have been all that profitable back in the 60s anyway. Nor am I making a drug run. So, it doesn’t fit very well either — but at least I’d be able to segue into the tale of the pickle and my motorcycle (“I don’t want a pickle/I’d rather ride my motorsickle…”).
The late-80s hippie in me would get a chuckle out of it. Small chuckle, but a chuckle nonetheless. And I suppose I should get over my disdain for John Denver and be more 60s hippie — after all, he was a fantastic songwriter and my issue is more with the family members who crammed his music down my throat for most of my pre-teen life than it is with John. You know the type: the kind that don’t care if you’d really rather listen to something else on the three-hour weekly trip to the cabin for the weekend, and then another three-hour trip back home at the end of the weekend that was all John Denver, all the time. They were horrified when I slipped in REM’s “Fables” into the cassette player on a lark. I was forced to press eject and put John back in before “Driver 8” had even gotten to the second verse.
But, as I said, for whatever reason John Denver came to mind as I sat down to write about my coming trip from south of Anchorage to Iowa. Maybe it is the crossing of the Rockies (“Rocky Mountain Hiiiiiigh”… great, another drug reference. Really… I’m not all that into drugs. I mean it. Seriously. Really.), or maybe I’m regressing due to undiagnosed early Alzheimer’s. Before you know it I’ll be “sweet sixteen and never been kissed” (okay, it was more like fourteen that I saw my first kiss, but you get the idea).
So maybe I’m just mentally going back to that time period where long, continental drives were a regular thing in my life. We drove from Minnesota to Key West by way of Nashville and the Great Smoky Mountains, around the panhandle and skirted New Orleans (“We are NOT going into that cesspool Michael”), and drove up the Mississippi one year. In about two weeks, including a stop at Disney World. A few years later, we drove down to Arkansas and back before taking a week’s rest and then heading to Seattle and back, with stops in Montana. I am no stranger to long drives, is what I’m saying. For that, my mother insisted on Anne Murray the whole trip. Thank god for mono cassette players so I could listen to Joy Division and the Replacements, huddled in the back of a Chrysler Champ hatchback (without AC), the Panasonic deck held to my ear so my mother wouldn’t hear “Gary’s Got a Boner”, and a finger in my other ear to block out Anne Murray.
This upcoming is a long trip of about 3500 miles and, as I’ve said previously, there is a good chance this site might go quiet during that period, either because I am too busy doing the things that need to get done when I’m not driving, or I will not have the connectivity to post even if I wanted to (there is several long stretches of road that are likely internet and telecom dead zones).
I had considered scheduling some old material to fill in the spaces, but I don’t much care for repeat posts on other sites so I decided not to inflict it on readers of my own. Instead, I might just lean towards silence and catch up with y’all when I get home. Or keep it sparse like the roads I am about to travel.
At least I’ll have downloaded a variety of music to entertain me while I am driving. I might even toss in John Denver for the shits and giggles of it all.
32 responses to “Leaving on a jet plane”
Yesterday I, too, downloaded a bunch of music, and Denver wasn’t a single one. I plan on listening to The Silmarillion by Tolkien on a big portion of the trip (and special treat for myself) so I’m sorry, in advance, if conversations may… wax philosophical.
Isn’t it strange how music does that? Sneaks in at times it isn’t necessarily fitting (or welcome)… and yet there it is. Oh, and thanks, the rest of your readers, by the way, are ALSO humming Denver at this very moment. 😄
I still need to do the downloading part. But I’ll probably match your for philosophical. I’ve got about 30 hours of Alan Watts to get the thinking going. I’m considering listening to an audiobook as well, but I guess I’d better decide soon!
LOL. At least I didn’t foist Barry Manilow on everyone.
Oh. Oops.
Where’s the “unlike” button?! 😄🤣🤣
🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
I ought to be a great trip, given that you’re downloading a bunch of music entirely to your own taste, and I wish you a good time – looking forward to hearing about it when you get back again. All those road trips in your youth – sounds brilliant, apart from the music. My childhood was very quiet by comparison, no car meant no such trips and no music to torment me on the way. Holidays were once a year by train and that was that. My mother did manage to torment us at home, however, via our old black-box record player and her collection of Ol’ Blue Eyes. She loved Sinatra, over and over again she’d play those wretched single and EPs, and I’d go quietly crackers. I detested him for years thereafter, couldn’t bear to hear him. It was ony when I was in my thirties that I went to a restaurant and they were playing him in the background. Fortunately I was enjoying the company of my man so much that I didn’t have time to detest Sinatra too. I think that’s a psychological technique called flooding, exposure to the hated thing balanced out by something enjoyable. Whatever, it worked, and I can cope with him if I have to these days. Whatever. Have a great break, with maybe some sunshine on your shoulders, and see you on the other side when those country roads have taken you home. 🙂 🙂
Those road trips were epic, but it was the Seattle/Arkansas/Montana summer that wore me out of travel with family. It didn’t help that my sister was stuck on peach-scented gum (I don’t care for peaches) that she insisted on chewing all four thousand miles… But I was family’d out by the end, never to recover.
I did it myyyyyy waaaaayy!
Not a huge fan of Sinatra, but his music was background noise throughout much of my life because my grandparents loved his songs. They listened to radio stations where he was on high rotation.
It should be fun with Tara in the evenings when we can chat and nice to have the option to turn off everything and just drive. I have options, but I may just drive in silence much of the time. It drives the kiddos crazy when I do it with them, but I used to drive fora living and got used to silence when the news radio and music wasn’t appealing.
Hope it’s that much fun and more – and keep on doing it your way! And peach-scented gum – go figure! 🙂
My road trips to Toronto are much shorter that yours, but I enjoy the solitude and my selection of music immensely. When not playing my own stuff, I listen to Sirius–I’ve been a subscriber for nearly 20 years. I channel surf between several presets, but I usually find music worth listening to. My next road trip to Toronto is in September, and I can’t wait! Have a safe and musically enriched trip!
Sounds like fun. I have the same attitude about my streaming options. Hoping you have a great trip in September!
I’m a fan of the Road Trip Mix Tape. (Which became CD…now are playlists…ahh, the evolution.) I hope you have a wonderful trip! I shuddered thinking about Anne Murray. Haha
I like the idea of downloading a bunch of music and hitting random to see what comes out of it.
Still need to do that. Sigh. We’ll see if the world that is determined to keep me busy until the bitter end lets me. Otherwise… Eventually I have connectivity… Eventually…
I’ve tried to avoid a reference to you ‘Filling up your senses’ but have failed. Weird how some pieces of music seep in unwanted and hang around like bad smells! Looking on the positives of your childhood at least you had music – holiday drives when I was young were four kids shoe-horned into the back of a Ford Anglia (Google it) driving in near silence.
Happy days.
Not.
Enjoy your trip!
Well, I can relate to your Ford. The Colt/Champ hatchback was… tight.
If my father was driving, it was all Pat Boone and the like. Wholesome, easy-listening stuff. Mom was all Anne Murray. I was considered being allowed to be adventuresome by playing ELO.
Thanks, I’m looking forward to it.
Ever the rebel!
https://youtu.be/VdphvuyaV_I?si=WkRU3yTYCJpuPaNX
🤣…I must say I always thought he was playing the part rather than living it. Mind you John Lydon went from punk to advertising butter so what does that tell you?
Idol? Of course he was. Even with Generation X, they were less punk than some folks would pretend. But they did it well and packaged it up nicely for pop culture.
While I have respect for what John did, I never thought him to be very punk, even with the Pistols. And I love the Pistols. And PIL was about as pop as you could get, honestly. It’s like calling Blondie “punk” (which folks did). As I get older, I see John as more of a mere disruptive force than a punk. And kind of a big baby most of the time.
And all of it driven, of course, by money.
Are you suggesting that Blondie WEREN’T punk?!🤣
I never was a big Jam fan, but Weller did write a line which I think sums things up: ‘The public wants what the public gets’.
Blondie? Me? Suggest they weren’t punk?
No. Nonononono… yes.
I liked a few Jam tunes. Not enough to call myself a fan by any stretch of the imagination. Pretty much “That’s Entertainment” was it.
That’s a good line, though.
Oh! And in case you haven’t heard. The Eden House remastered “Smoke and Mirrors” with bonus tracks added. I thought you might enjoy to hear more of their stuff.
I hadn’t, so thanks. I’m assuming the extra tracks are from the same era? I’ll check it out. Cheers.
I believe so, I didn’t dig too deep. I assumed they were b-sides and outtakes.
🙂
Have fun on your trip. Should you decide to “go quiet” enjoy your break. I have to listen to this song now. 🎶
I probably will and ruin my posting streak 🤣
Thanks. You won’t be the only one giving John a listen in the coming days.
Breaks are good! 😌 Whatever feels right, right?
Yes, thank you for sending me down a JD path. 😂 Music from my childhood.
Love Leaving on a jet plane… Now not another word.. silence my friend.. we’ll be here when you return!
💕
Thanks. I’m afraid everyone will have to endure my writing until at least sometime tomorrow. Airports drive me to write if I have a keyboard and, well…. I will assuredly have one of those. 🙂
Hahahahaha, understood! Me too., I’ll be looking i on you later then. 💗
🙂
I love John Denver. But like you I couldn’t stand him as a kid, just because he was what my parents listened to. I hope you enjoyed your trip.
Still experiencing it. It has had both ups and downs. Some of the roads were in rough repair, slowing us down. But mostly, it has been enjoyable