13 of the Best Songs About Travel
08 October 2019
The best music to soundtrack your next trip.
Sometimes, you just have to find solace in the refuge of the road.
Joni Mitchell knew that well. There's nothing quite like fleeing the familiar and plunging yourself into the great wide open, leaving everything you've known for the majestic possibility of a new place. Travel is an excuse to cast off the self you were, to open yourself to a self and a world that could be.
Naturally, music has always gone well with travel. Musicians are creatures of the road, constantly flying from place to place and writing songs on tour buses and in hotel rooms, and these scenes have inspired countless songs. Some are sad and full of longing, while others relish in the freedom of anonymity and the limitlessness of the open sky and the transformations it can catalyze. These songs traverse that spectrum, but all are sure to inspire you to take flight.
1. The Beatles — The Long And Winding Road
This song is cosmically beautiful in its composition and its lyrics, which perfectly describe the way that the thing you're running from while traveling is often the thing you'll seek out in the end.
"Across the Universe" is also the ideal soundtrack for any type of travel (be it mental or physical). Wherever you're going, The Beatles and their lush sonic gold will be there to light your way.
▲2. Bob Dylan — Mr. Tambourine Man
Bob Dylan won the Nobel Prize for poetry in 2016, and this song is a clear example of why. "Mr. Tambourine Man" is about the poetry of the open road, the allure of adventure and change. The lyrics themselves could be about a million different meanings, but the song could definitely be read as an ode to travel and all that comes with it.
Just read these lyrics and let them fill up your soul:
"Then take me disappearin' through the smoke rings of my mind
Down the foggy ruins of time, far past the frozen leaves
The haunted, frightened trees, out to the windy beach
Far from the twisted reach of crazy sorrow
Yes, to dance beneath the diamond sky with one hand waving free
Silhouetted by the sea, circled by the circus sands
With all memory and fate driven deep beneath the waves
Let me forget about today until tomorrow."
3. Bright Eyes — Another Travelin' Song
Bright Eyes' "I'm Wide Awake, It's Morning" opens with this song, Conor Oberst's gravelly ode to moving on and running away. Its cheerful acoustic guitar backdrop can't change the fact that it's deeply nihilistic, but unlike a lot of the other songs on this album, this one contains grains of hope and the belief that movement could be accompanied by a form of rebirth.
▲4. ACDC — Highway To Hell
A full tank of gas, a large cup of gas station coffee, sunglasses, an open road, and this song—That's all you really need to have a truly cinematic road trip experience. Like many rock and blues songs, ACDC's classic tune celebrates the feeling of going down into the pits of sin, and doing it with a devilish grin.
▲5. The Proclaimers — I'm Gonna Be (500 Miles)
Whether or not you're a fan of How I Met Your Mother, it's likely that this song will seriously annoy you while making you smile. If you find yourself on a monotonous highway or trapped in an awkward silence with a hitchhiker you just picked up, this song is perfect to start the singalong you never knew you wanted but truly always needed.
▲6. Step Out — José Gonzaléz
Many of José Gonzaléz's songs can feel like journeys in themselves. This song is a true anthem, and as most of the YouTube comments attest, it's perfect for when you "need to scream while running down the road."
▲9. Riders On the Storm — The Doors
The Doors' "American Prayer" taps into the eeriness at the heart of the American landscape and all its mythology, but few songs are better for soundtracking a misty night drive than "Riders On the Storm." With its eerie synth and ominous bass line, it'll certainly take you for a ride.
▲10. Fast Car — Tracy Chapman
This bittersweet song has one of the catchiest and most beloved refrains in pop music history. Warm and nostalgic, it may inspire you to change your life–or it may be precisely the familiar, soothing track you need to support and ground you on your journey.
▲9. Pulaski — Andrew Bird
Andrew Bird's electric "Pulaski" is a thrilling, fiddle-heavy ode to sending postcards and thinking about somebody who's far away. Equal parts nostalgic and hopeful, it ends with the refrain, "We're starting over"—a chorus for travel-lovers if there ever was one.
▲10. wanderlust — björk
Björk is a creative visionary, and this song is an ode to the restlessness that so often becomes the inspiration and energy we seek through travel. "Whenever the unknown surrounds me," she sings, "I receive its embrace." It's classic Björk, a ride that's abstract, electronic, and ultimately transformative.
▲11. Refuge of the Roads – Joni Mitchell
Joni Mitchell's song doesn't glamorize travel, but it does tap into why some people find solace in perpetual motion. It focuses on the places in between the places travelers tend to highlight—the bathrooms, the roadside bars, the places where we come closest to losing ourselves, or perhaps finding who we're supposed to be.
▲12. The Traveller — Baba Maal
This euphoric track perfectly captures the thrill of setting out on a new journey. Ethereal, and buoyant, it mixes pop chords and contemporary influences with traditional African motifs, and it would be the perfect song to play as the plane takes off, or when you catch the first glimpse of city lights far below.
▲13. Paul Simon — Me and Julio Down By the Schoolyard
The song is not about travel as much as it is about being on the run. But when Paul Simon sings, "Well, I'm on my way, I don't know where I'm going," what traveler or human can't relate? We're all on our way. We don't know where we're going. But, as Simon says, it's okay to take our time on this trip.
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