Travel Music 3 | 13 songs to accompany you and their stories

• We start our journey with Jaded, by the legendary band Aerosmith. What is the meaning of this song? The term ‘jaded’ refers to being fed up or disconcerted 😪
• Surely now that you know this, parts of the song like the following make sense:

You got your mama’s style
But you’re yesterday’s child to me
So jaded

• Who is the girl in the song? The song was written by vocalist Steven Tyler. He confessed he wrote the track with his daughter Liv Tyler in mind, whom he didn’t get to see grow up because of his constant touring and drug problems. Because of this, he feels that his daughter grew up sad and bewildered by his absence.
• Jaded is that it is part of the album ‘Just Push Play‘, the first produced by the band itself.
• Of course, Aerosmith sang this great song in their 2001 Super Bowl halftime performance 🏈

• We continue our list of driving music with Free Fallin by Tom Petty. A song that Petty himself wrote with Jeff Lynne, with whom he worked on his album Full Moon Fever. In fact, Lynne accompanies him on backing vocals and bass on the studio version of the song.
• It took them two days to write and record the song, a record-breaking time.
• Free Fallin was the third single from Petty’s debut solo album Full Moon Fever – what a start!
• The song was a huge success, being one of the most relevant songs in the artist’s career, however, over the years Petty confessed that this was something he didn’t like very much:

‘Free Fallin” is a very good song. Maybe it would be one of my favorites if it hadn’t become this huge anthem. But I’m grateful that people like it.

• Losing my Religion is probably the most recognisable song on this list of travel music, but do you know what this famous R.E.M. track is about?
• Behind the catchy, upbeat mandolin chords, the result of guitarist Peter Buck’s efforts to learn the instrument, lies a song about obsession and unrequited love.
• Loving without being loved is a feeling that no one likes to suffer and, during the song, the vocalist opens up, showing his hopelessness and how the denial is driving him mad.  

I love the idea of writing a song about unrequited love. About holding back, reaching forward, and then pulling back again. The thing for me that is most thrilling is you don’t know if the person I’m reaching out for is aware of me. If they even know I exist .

• It’s without a doubt R.E.M.’s most famous song. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve listened to it in the car, haven’t you? But there’s something about it that makes you can’t get enough of it.

• The pandemic stirred many people’s memories, not unlike Billy Idol. During the months of social isolation, the American pulled from his memory chest an incident he had been unable to write about for decades.
• What is it about? The story begins in 1990 when, in February of that year, Idol was involved in a serious traffic accident 🏍️
• After jumping a STOP sign, the singer crashed his Harley Davidson into a car, ending up with a metal bar forever in his right leg.
• This accident was like a wake-up call for Billy, a warning that luckily ended well and allowed him to go on with his life, taking care of his family and succeeding on stage.
• As you can see, the video of the song makes an explicit reference to the accident.

• We cross the pond and continue with our travel music. This time, the chosen song is Everybody ‘s Talkin, performed by Harry Nilsson.
• The song has a long history behind it. It was written by songwriter Fred Neil in 1966, who actually recorded and released it on an album of the same name in 1967.
• Months later, Nilsson discovered the song in his quest to find a real hit, and included it on his album Aerial Ballet, released in 1968.
• At first, Nilsson’s luck didn’t smile on him, as Everybody’s Talkin wasn’t much to talk about.
• However, things changed when the song was chosen as the main theme for the soundtrack of Midnight Cowboy… Then its popularity spread like wildfire 🤠
• Everybody ‘s Talkin not only earned the performer a big hit, but also a Grammy.
• Then, what happened to the original author Fred Neil? Well, thanks to the copyright of this song, he was able to retire. It was a win-win!

• Estopa are two Spanish brothers from Cataloni, famous for their rumba-rock.
• Their carefree style has accompanied them throughout their career, although on this occasion they surprised us with a somewhat calmer and more intimate rumba… at least until the chorus.
• The song talks about loneliness and how time flies.
• It is one of our favourite Estopa songs, and I confess that we like many of them, because the music is magnificent, the lyrics are beautiful and the rhythm is perfect for  a fun journey.

• Now we’ve come to the last stop in our selection of car music hits 🚘
• Daughter of the author of Achy Breaky Heart, it’s no secret to anyone, least of all Mark Ronson, that Miley Cyrus is good at country music. After other successful collaborations with female artists such as Amy Winehouse or Dua Lipa, it was Miley’s turn, who at the time was really getting into her musical roots with the Younger Now era.
• Nothing Breaks Like a Heart, we are immersed in a country-disco track with somewhat sad lyrics.
• In fact, the track seems like a premonition of the devastating fire that ravaged the home of Miley Cyrus and Liam Hemsworth, her now ex-partner, in November 2018, 6 months after the lyrics were written.

This burning house, there’s nothing left

• Undoubtedly, it is the best way to end this list of songs for travelling, as the car and the road are the main protagonists of the song’s video clip, recorded at the New Darnytskyi Bridge in Kiev (Ukraine).