MLT Club Member Jürgen
MLT Club MemberForum Replies Created
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Hi Jung,
another soulful song written by Mike Batt that gets under your skin:
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A never-ending highway that winds like a curving ribbon through endless steppe and prairie. The shimmering layers of air reflected above the road. I know all this only from movies, but I imagine it very meditative Jung (as long as the car doesn’t break down or run out of gas early). 🙂
My travels usually take me to the sea. I always find the endless blue stretching to the horizon very relaxing and somehow meditative. No buildings, no cars, no people and no civilization (at least as long as you don’t turn back to the beach). It has become difficult to find a spot where there are no noisy people around and any exhausting sounds of civilization. Perhaps the Desert is such a place. Or the mountains. I remember vacations with my parents. We often went to the Alps. Austria was very popular. By cable car to the “Alm” (that’s what we call the high pasture areas in the mountains). Grazing cows, now and then a cowbell sounds, the buzzing of insects and the wind blowing gently through the high grass and the wildflowers. Otherwise only silence, wonderful silence. For me, an absolutely fantastic experience, since I grew up in an area where blast furnaces towered like bizzare mushrooms. Chimneys as far as the eye can see and at night you could sometimes see how the sky glowed red when liquid steel was filled into the railway carriages. When this happened at Christmas, my mother always said: the Christ Child is baking cookies again (because the sky shimmered so beautifully red, like the embers of a huge oven). Or across Switzerland to Italy. Our VW Beetle named Max (year of manufacture 1962, unbelievable 34 horsepower), two adults, two kids, the trunk filled to the brim and up the mountain passes in second or third gear. Up to 2500 meters (8.202 feet), right up to the snow line. My father always had quite a bit of fun when the new, fast cars of that time, which were constantly overtaking us, had to stop along the way because the cooling water was overheated. Our Max didn’t have these problems: he breathed the cool, fresh alpine air. Like us. Further up the pass then the wonderful view over the snow-covered mountain peaks. Feeling the fresh air in your lung and the warm sun on your face. After that quickly getting back into the car and heading down towards the Mediterranean Sea, where the vast endless blue awaited us.
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And once again another nice song about the journey into the inner self. The theme of journeying as a metaphor for self-discovery and self-knowledge seems to be quite popular in music.
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Yes Jung, flying is synonymous with freedom, travel and wanderlust. In a few hours to get there, where people of earlier days have needed months. I also once had the idea to post “Music and Flying” as a separate topic here in the forum. Maybe soon. It is a pity that we humans will never be able to fly under our own power. The ratio of weight to muscle power does not fit. Tough luck, then we have to keep on walking. It’s also quite beautiful, but does not approach the elegance of bird flight.
PS: thanks for the song “Jet Airliner”. A groovy song that I did not know yet and beautiful pictures of now partly historic commercial aircraft.
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Hi Jung,
thank you for posting the Beach Boys song and I am pleased that you liked my little vacation memory. In this day and age, where you can fly (almost) everywhere quickly by plane, such trips by car have something very nostalgic. Right after graduating from high school, I toured France with three friends. There are many nice private accommodations, which usually always have rooms available. Sometimes simple rooms in an old farm or on a small vineyard or any cozy little houses on the countryside. Only my friend Claus-Peter knew a little school French and was allowed to interpret (he visibly suffered). The language skills of the other three of us were very limited: “Bonne journée”, “Bonne journée à tous”, “Au revoir”, “Oui”, “Non” and “Merci”, friendly nods and smiles. But it worked surprisingly well. This time we were traveling in a VW Rabbit (with an amazing 72 horsepower). Four adults and way too much luggage. Yes it was kind of cramped in the car. But that didn’t bother me much, since I was sitting behind the steering wheel most of the time. 🙂 And it was actually a very relaxed way to travel, as there is a speed limit on the highways in Belgium and France and some of the routes are also toll roads. Very few cars on the road, nice music on the radio, and beautiful scenery in front of you. What more could you want?
I have found someone else here who has thought about traveling and perhaps the meaning of life.
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Thanks for posting this song David. The lyrics bring me back to the the root, the idea of this topic: Originally I wanted to name it “I have never been to New York”, after a song by the Austrian singer and composer Udo Jürgens (“Ich war noch niemals in New York”). It’s about a man who dreams of exploring the wide world, of escaping the grey everyday life, of simply being spontaneous, but then he still does not manage to break out of his usual life:
And after dinner he said
Let me go and get some cigarettes.
She called after him Take the keys with you
I’m going to look after the girl.
He pulled the door shut and walked silently out
Into the neon-bright stairwell
It smelled of floor polish and stuffiness.
And on the stairs he thought, how if this were a departure now
I’d just have to go for ever
For all time…
I’ve never been to New York, I’ve never been to Hawaii
Never walked through San Francisco in torn jeans
I’ve never been to New York, I’ve never been truly free
To be crazy and escape from all constraints.
And as he stood outside in the street
He remembered he had almost everything with him
His passport, his Eurocheques and some money.
Maybe there was a flight tonight.
He could take a taxi at the corner or just stop and go.
The longing in him was awakened again
To be full of dreams once more, to free himself from the confines of this place.
He thought about his departure, his departure to…
I’ve never been to New York, I’ve never been to Hawaii
Never walked through San Francisco in torn jeans
I’ve never been to New York, I’ve never been truly free
To be crazy and escape from all constraints.
Then he put away his cigarettes
And went home as a matter of course
Through the stairwell with floor polish and bourgeoisie
The wife called out “Man,
What’s keeping you? It’s time to go.”
She said, “What’s the matter?” – “No, what’s the matter?”
I’ve never been to New York, I’ve never been to Hawaii
Never walked through San Francisco in ripped jeans
I’ve never been to New York, I’ve never been really free
To be crazy and escape from all constraints.
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Thanks for the very nice song Tom. Im not familiar with Gordon Lightfood, but I really like the music. A nice melody and thought provoking lyrics. I wonder what it would be like to turn back time one more time. Back to situations and people in life that probably changed the future forever. If you had made a different decision in the past, how would your entire life have turned out?
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Hi David,
yes I was also very surprised when the scene with John Lennon was shown. The illusion of seeing the aged John Lennon was almost perfect. I saw the movie in the German syncronized version and I seem to remember the German voice fit very well to John Lennon’s voice in terms of sound. But John Lennon in German, well. I agree with you, much more could have been made out of the idea of the movie. Also the conversation with John Lennon would have had so much potential. Unfortunately it was just superficial smalltalk. But that somehow fit the intention of the movie: it should entertain, nothing more. And the movie achieved that aim: Very nice popcorn cinema, with beautiful, rousing music. I watched the film in the movie theater because the sound was mixed in Dolby Atmos. I just wanted to hear what it sounds like. The result could not really convince me. Although a full and beautiful sound experience, but nothing more.
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Diana you once wrote that you like ABBA and the musical “Mama Mia”, if I remember correctly (or the other way around 🙂 ). The theme of the musical fits very well with this topic and here is a song that reflects a happy, exuberant vacation feeling.
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Yes it is sometimes difficult to find the right sort of tea here in the forum. I like the flavour of this one variety very much. Very aromatic with a certain spiciness. I heard „American Boy“ many times ago without ever knowing exactly who composed that song. Thank you for posting.
Here is a song with its own special motivation to cover many miles.
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After all these years, it’s still a cool and rousing song that somehow doesn’t want to age. Maybe because the attitude to life behind it is still current and lives on in the hearts of many people. The longing for freedom and the need to be free (at least for a short moment):
“Racing with the wind
And the feeling that I’m under”
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Thanks for this beautiful song about shattered dreams and lost hopes Tom. I haven’t heard anything from Tracy Chapman for a long time. Is she still musically active?
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Hi Diana. I’m glad you stopped by. You have chosen a great song and an even better idea: if you’re going to travel, then really far away and something really special. When the time has come, don’t forget to send us postcards. 🙂
While we’re on the subject of film quotes, there’s a scene from the film „Spacecowboys“ that is touchingly beautiful and sad at the same time. Maybe we can enjoy such a view one day. Only this time with a happy ending.
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I saw the movie in the cinema and can still remember very well the moving part when the protagonist meets John Lennon. I only now understand the reference to John Lennon’s quote. Thank you for pointing it out Jung. Yes, you are right, one should live each day as consciously as if it were the last. I catch myself again and again how many days and time I sometimes let pass in my life without being happy about the fact that every day is actually something special. When you are young, you have the feeling that life lasts forever. As you get older, you realise that you can’t hold on to time. It is like sand that slowly slips through your fingers. And you should pause more often and admire the individual grains of sand, consciously feel them, hold on to particularly beautiful grains of sand for a longer period of time.
There is one passage in the movie that I particularly like best. It exudes so much joie de vivre and fun in life. It captures the idea and soul of the Beatles’ songs very well.
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I have forwarded your wishes immediately, Jung. Maybe it will work out, but I can’t promise. I share the first three wishes with you. The fourth one is really a matter of taste…
Thank you for the very nice song. I have seen Quadrophenia a long, long time ago. The movie was a topic in my English class. I can only roughly remember the movie, but not the song. My English teacher was very enthusiastic about the movie. The English class rather less. We must have been 17 or 18 years old at the time and the subject matter of the film was light years away for us. At that age, you have all kinds of problems and worries. Fortunately, being chased by a bunch of motorcyclists was not one of them. The English youth scene at that time was rather dominated by punk and new wave.
It’s only a small step from The Who to The Kinks and their holiday experiences:
