Air Travel: Metaphor About Life, Love, Relationships

18.03.2014
As we think of the challenges faced and heartaches felt by the people involved in the missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 many of us are hoping that a positive outcome will result from the search...

Airplane themes have always been common among lyric writers and song composers.  Some of the songs selected below were from the 50s, 60s and 70s and do not necessarily discuss air travel, but are used as metaphors about life, love and relationship.

 John Denver's, Leaving On A Jet Plane:
is one of the most poignant songs in pop music. It's about the simple act of leaving on a plane and how it will affect you and the loved ones you leave behind. Should we embark on a journey for granted or shouldn't we the song asks? So kiss me and smile for me/Tell me that you'll wait for me/Hold me like you'll never let me go/Cause I'm leavin' on a jet plane/Don't know when I'll be back again/Oh baby, I hate to go... But the flip-side has, Back Home Again. Hope reigns.

Jet Airliner a song by The Steve Miller Band:
has a piece of advice: As I get on the 707'/Ridin' high I got tears in my eyes,/You know you got to go through hell,/Before you get to heaven... The lyrics are straight and to the point.   This big hit was written by Paul Pena, a San Francisco blues guitarist.  It was number 8 hit on the Billboard pop singles chart in 1977. He lived off the royalties from that song.  Pena was almost completely blind since birth and plagued by illnesses most of his life. Perhaps he knew what hell meant. He passed away in 2005.

Frank Sinatra's big hit:
highlights the airspace above us as a love nest, Fly me to the moon/And let me play among the stars/Let me see what spring is like/On Jupiter and Mars/In other words, hold my  hand/In other words, baby, kiss me.  One of the most popular jazz standards the song sets off a romantic mood whenever it's sung.

Fred Astaire is in holiday mood:
when he goes to, My Rio, Rio by the Sea-o,/Flying down to Rio where there's rhythm and rhyme./Say feller, twirl that old propeller,/We've got to get to Rio and we've got to make time./You'll love it, soaring high above it,/Looking down on Rio from a heaven of blue. It's an old song and was popular in the 1940s.

Sinatra's: Come Fly With We:

let's fly, let's fly away/If you can use some exotic booze /There's a bar in far Bombay/Come on and fly with me,/let's float down to Peru /In Lama land there's a one-man band/Come on fly with me, let's take off in the blue... typifies the traveler who wants to experience exotic lands with a light and carefree heart.

              You Tube: Ebony Eyes by The Everly Brothers. Video from rambling cowboy.

One of the saddest songs:
The Everly Brothers', Ebony Eyes was initially banned by the BBC in the early 60s as its lyrics were considered too upsetting to play on the radio.  My ebony eyes was coming to me/From out of the skies on Flight 1203... And then came the announcement over the loudspeaker-/"Would those having relatives or friends on flight number 1203 please report to the chapel across the street..."/Then I felt a burning break deep inside/And I knew the heavenly ebony skies/Had taken my life's most wonderful prize...

But again like John Denver's record, the flip-side of this song is, Walk Right Back. I guess lyricists and record producers put together songs in pairs sometimes to emphasize that where there's despair, there's hope.

The very popular Dionne Warwick:
uses a similar theme but with a different perspective. It tells of distance travel using different modes of transport. Trains and boats and planes took you a way,/But ev'ry time I see them I pray,/And if my prayers can cross the sea,/The trains and the boats and planes,/Will bring you back, back home to me. This is a prayer and the hope we all provide when our loved ones go for a long journey.

"Fear thou not; for I [am] with thee: be not dismayed; for I [am] thy God: I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness (Isaiah: 41.10)."

Songs With Air Travel and Airplane Themes:

1. Airplane - Beach Boys
2. Airplane Song (My Airplane) – Royal Guardsmen
3. Benny And The Jets – Elton John
4. Burning Airlines Give You So Much More – Brian Eno
5. Counting Airplanes – Train
6. Crazy In The Night (Barking At Airplanes) – Kim Carnes
7. Great Airplane Strike – Paul Revere And The Raiders
8. Jet Airliner – Steve Miller Band
9. Leaving On A Jet Plane – John Denver
10. Leaving On A Jet Plane – Peter, Paul And Mary
11. Paper Airplanes – Seals n Crofts
12. Planes – Jefferson Starship
13. Trains and Boats and Planes – Billy J Kramer n The Dakotas
14. Wooden Planes – Art Garfunkel
15. Aces High – Iron Maiden
16. Back In The USSR – The Beatles
17. Danger Zone – Kenny Loggins
18. Daniel – Elton John
19. Ebony Eyes – Everly Brothers
20. Eight Miles High – The Byrds
21. Flight of Icarus – Iron Maiden
22. It Never Rains In Southern California – Albert Hammond
23. Just A Song Before I Go – Crosby Stills n Nash
24. Love Light In Flight – Stevie Wonder
25. Magic Carpet Ride – Steppenwolf
26. Return of The Red Baron – Royal Guardsmen
27. Rocket Man – Elton John
28. Sky Pilot – The Animals
29. Snoopy vs The Red Baron – Royal Guardsmen
30. Snowbird – Anne Murray
31. Space Oddity – David Bowie
32. Spread Your Wings – Queen
33. Take Me To The Pilot – Elton John
34. The Epic Flight of John Glenn – Walter Brennan
35. The Letter – Box Tops
36. The Letter – Joe Cocker
37. The Spirit of St. Louis – British Sea Power
38. This Flight Tonight – Joni Mitchell
39. Twenty Flight Rock – Eddie Cochran
40. Up Up And Away – 5th Dimension
41. Up Where We Belong – Joe Cocker n Jennifer Warnes
42. Angels Flying Too Close To The Ground – Willie Nelson
43. Come Fly With Me – Frank Sinatra
44. Fly Away – John Denver
45. Fly Away – Lenny Kravitz
46. Fly Away (Little Paraquayo) – George Baker Selection
47. Fly By Night – Rush
48. Fly Like An Eagle – Steve Miller Band
49. Fly Like An Eagle – Seal
50. Fly Me To The Moon – Frank Sinatra
51. Fly, Robin, Fly – Silver Convention
52. Flying – The Beatles
53. Flying Down To Rio – Fred Astaire
54. Flying Down To Rio – Rudy Vallee
55. Flying High – The Commodores
56. Flying In A Blue Dream – Joe Satriani
57. Gonna Fly Now (Theme From Rocky) – Bill Conti/Maynard Ferguson
58. I Believe I Can Fly – R. Kelly
59. If I Could Fly – Joe Satriani
60. I’ll Fly Away – Statler Brothers
61. I’m Gonna Fly – Amy Grant
62. Let’s Go Fly A Kite – From Mary Poppins soundtrack
63. Midnight Flyer – The Eagles
64. Straighten Up n Fly Right – Nat King Cole
65. Time For Me To Fly – REO Speedwagon
66. Wish I Could Fly Like Superman – The Kinks
67. You Can Fly, You Can Fly, You Can Fly – from Peter Pan soundtrack. 

Edited List from: www.coolrain44.wordpress.com/2009/07/31/songs-about-airplanes-flying/

Images: Record Covers Google.

SLIP NOTE:

Two more plane tragedies occurred  in 2014:

17th July, 2014:
An MAS Boeing 777 plane, MH0017 was shot down on its way to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia at the Ukraine - Russia border in the Donesk region. There were no survivors.

28th December, 2014:
AirAsia Indonesia Flight QZ8501 from Surabaya to Singapore lost contact with air traffic control. It was later reported that the plane had crashed into the Java Sea without any survivor.