And The Road Becomes My Bride...

Well today I learned something new. The word lyric comes from the Middle French word “lyrique” which means “a short poem representing emotion”.

One of the things I enjoy about music is how the words come together to create a poem or even better yet a story. I’ll be honest though, I’ve always been bad at picking up lyrics in songs. For the longest time, I had no idea what Ed Sheeran was saying in his song “Don’t”. My friend once told me that if you don’t know the lyrics to a song but you wanna pretend like you do, just mouth the word “watermelon” and it’ll look like you know what you’re saying.

With that being said, here are 5 songs that lyrically speak to me. Being someone who has a passion to travel and see the whole world before 2030, (It’s an expensive hobby, I’ll tell you that), any song that relates to travel is immediately put at the top of my playlist.

1. Metallica - Wherever I May Roam - I was only 1 when this song was released. It would take another 18 years for me to learn of its existence though. The lyrics are literally the story of my life though!

“And the road becomes my bride
I have stripped of all but pride, so in her I do confide
And she keeps me satisfied, gives me all I need

And with dust in throat I crave
Only knowledge will I save, to the game you stay a slave
Rover, wanderer, nomad, vagabond
Call me what you will”

As a former tour guide, I have racked up well over 100,000 kilometres on a bus over 3 years of traveling. I learned to embrace the road as my office. It didn’t matter if I was on the autobahn coming into Munich or on some pothole-ridden, compressed sand road in he middle of Laos. For me, the road represented freedom. The bus was my home and I was married to the road. She took care of me and provided me with some sort of eerie comfort especially on those long, seemingly-never ending journeys.

2. Tom Cochrane - Life is a Highway - This song also came out when I was 1. And again, I only discovered it in my later teens - from listening to radio, not watching Cars. (I wasn't really allowed to listen to much music as a kid). Fun Fact: This is the only song by Tom Cochrane to hit the top 40 charts in the USA. I listen to the lyrics of this song and take it at face value. My life IS a highway; and at the moment, it feels like I'm on a single lane highway marked by a double yellow line so I can't overtake the semi in front of me who is going 10 kilometres below the speed limit! My favourite lyrics in this song are:

"This is the road and these are the hands
From Mozambique to those Memphis nights
The Khybers Pass to Vancouver's lights"

Literally! For someone who has traveled to all 6 continents, I have only seen 1 of those things he mentions in those lyrics. Now that's bush league if you ask me!

3. Lenny Kravitz - Fly Away - This song came out when I was 8. The first time I heard it was in Cuba when some live cover band played it. The lyrics spoke to me, it was about just getting away, taking a risk and jumping into something new. Let's put it this way, I had a good on-air job in radio and was about to move to a new city with a good salary when I gave that all up to go traveling. What initially was supposed to be a 6 month travel stint, turned into a 3 year long travel bonanza of which I have 0 regrets. I'm sure Lenny Kravitz would have approved of the alternative life decision.

"Let's go and see the stars
The Milky Way or even Mars
Where it could just be ours"

See, why limit yourself to just Earth? You can explore Earth but there's a whole universe out there waiting to be discovered. Get out of your comfort zone, and do something different!

4. Iggy Pop - The Passenger - When this song came out, my dad was only 15 years old. It would take another 13 years for me to make my existence onto this planet. The simplicity of this song is beautiful.

"I am the passenger
I stay under glass
I look through my window so bright
I see the stars come out tonight"

Sometimes even when I think I've got a grip on where life is going, another curve ball gets thrown in the loop and that's the where the real test comes in to see how I'm going to make it out of this kerfluffle. Sometimes, you just gotta sit back, take the passenger role and let life be the driver.

and finally...

5. The Raconteurs - Steady, As She Goes - I was 16 when this song came out and heard it for the first time when I was 19 in a shopping mall. Admittedly, this song doesn't necessarily talk much about travel, in my opinion, in fact it's more about settling down and finding some meaning in life. This is why it comes in as the final song because all roads eventually lead to somewhere, and the ultimate goal is, as Jack White says;

"Find yourself a girl and settle down
live a simple life in a quiet town"

Now granted, I am definitely a big-city boy; but the tune is still very relatable. Having a wonderful life with all sorts of cool experiences is amazing. In the past 10 years, I have worked as a radio show host, a tour guide, traveled to 6 continents and competed on one of my favourite TV game shows. What I think would be even better, is finding someone to share those amazing life experiences with.....or so I've been told, I wouldn't know first-hand.

The point is, when songs have an intricate composition of lyrics, the song becomes more of a story (an audiobook with a nice instrumental track underneath if you wanna get technical).

Now excuse me while I jam out to Daft Punk - Around The World.



Best,
Mark D
IG: themarkdshow