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Fifteen Songs about Airplanes and Flight

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Readers, Friday was my final Water Cooler, and this is my last post at Naked Capitalism. Friday, I put up a couple of railroad songs, and you had a great time sharing more and more tunes on the same theme. So I thought it would be fun to do the same thing again, with a different mode of transport. Also, a post like this may serve as an amuse-bouche before the ginormous tasting menu of the coming week’s events.

For me, songs that features airplanes were pretty hard to find — perhaps the inherent reciprocation of trains makes them more suitable for popular rhythms — but I am sure you can do better in comments. At first I tried to be clever with the sequencing — Paper Planes should really be juxtaposed with Deportee — but then I just gave up and went with chronological. That reveals a strong bias toward the 60s and 70s, but I can’t help it if my generation had the best music!

* * *

Flying Home (Ella Fitzgerald, 1947). Lyrics.

Come Fly with Me (Frank Sinatra, 1958). Lyrics.

Night Flying (James Brown, 1961). Instrumental.

Flight 505 (Rolling Stones, 1966). Lyrics.

The Letter (The Box Tops, 1967). Lyrics.

Back in the USSR (The Beatles, 1968). Lyrics.

Coming Into Los Angeles (Arlo Guthrie, 1969). Lyrics.

This Flight Tonight (Joni Mitchell, 1971). Lyrics.

Promised Land (Elvis Presley, 1975). Lyrics.

Mothership Connection (Parliament Funkadelic, 1976). Lyrics.

Jet Plane (Sonya Spence, 1978). Lyrics.

Deportee (Plane Wreck At Los Gatos) (The Highwaymen, 1985). Lyrics.

Airportman (R.E.M., 1988). Lyrics.

Paper Planes (M.I.A., 2007). Lyrics.

Dallas (The Flatlanders, 2012). Lyrics.

* * *

I feel that I have said farewell once, and I don’t care for performers who return to the stage again and again to milk the applause and collect more bouquets. With great appreciation for your careful reading and commentary over the many years, au revoir. Now let’s hear more airplane songs!

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About Lambert Strether

Readers, I have had a correspondent characterize my views as realistic cynical. Let me briefly explain them. I believe in universal programs that provide concrete material benefits, especially to the working class. Medicare for All is the prime example, but tuition-free college and a Post Office Bank also fall under this heading. So do a Jobs Guarantee and a Debt Jubilee. Clearly, neither liberal Democrats nor conservative Republicans can deliver on such programs, because the two are different flavors of neoliberalism (“Because markets”). I don’t much care about the “ism” that delivers the benefits, although whichever one does have to put common humanity first, as opposed to markets. Could be a second FDR saving capitalism, democratic socialism leashing and collaring it, or communism razing it. I don’t much care, as long as the benefits are delivered. To me, the key issue — and this is why Medicare for All is always first with me — is the tens of thousands of excess “deaths from despair,” as described by the Case-Deaton study, and other recent studies. That enormous body count makes Medicare for All, at the very least, a moral and strategic imperative. And that level of suffering and organic damage makes the concerns of identity politics — even the worthy fight to help the refugees Bush, Obama, and Clinton’s wars created — bright shiny objects by comparison. Hence my frustration with the news flow — currently in my view the swirling intersection of two, separate Shock Doctrine campaigns, one by the Administration, and the other by out-of-power liberals and their allies in the State and in the press — a news flow that constantly forces me to focus on matters that I regard as of secondary importance to the excess deaths. What kind of political economy is it that halts or even reverses the increases in life expectancy that civilized societies have achieved? I am also very hopeful that the continuing destruction of both party establishments will open the space for voices supporting programs similar to those I have listed; let’s call such voices “the left.” Volatility creates opportunity, especially if the Democrat establishment, which puts markets first and opposes all such programs, isn’t allowed to get back into the saddle. Eyes on the prize! I love the tactical level, and secretly love even the horse race, since I’ve been blogging about it daily for fourteen years, but everything I write has this perspective at the back of it.

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79 comments

  1. none

    “Leaving on a Jet Plane” immediately came to mind too, especially since we just lost Roberta Flack. Thanks for everything you’ve done here, Lambert.

    Reply ↓
    2. Keith Newman

      I loved the haunting rendition of Jet Plane by Sonya Spence – the best version I’ve ever heard.
      Godspeed Lambert.

      Reply ↓
  5. Sub-Boreal

    “Early Morning Rain” by Gordon Lightfoot: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B34qwRrkSvQ&t=12s

    From https://www.cbc.ca/music/gordon-lightfoot-s-life-in-10-songs-1.6809171:

    This folk song was written by Lightfoot in 1964, but the seeds of inspiration for it were germinating years prior, according to an interview with American Songwriter. While watching airplanes on a rainy day, Lightfoot recalled the imagery of “an airplane climbing off into overcast,” and five years later while watching his first-born child, the song finally took shape.

    The famous tune would go on to be covered by artists including Ian & Sylvia, Bob Dylan, Judy Collins and even rock star Elvis Presley.

    Reply ↓
  9. ChrisPacific

    For a more tongue in cheek option, there’s ‘Snakes on a Plane’ by Cobra Starship, which is actually somewhat on topic for NC (‘Tonight the sky’s alive with lizards serpentine lounging in their suits and ties’).

    ‘Five Miles Out’ by Mike Oldfield, about a plane flying through a storm, is one of the only songs I know that’s specifically about the air travel experience. Early 80s prog rock, more than a little ridiculous in places, but a definite ear-worm. It was the first Mike Oldfield piece I ever heard and kicked off my interest in his music. You may need a lyrics page, since neither the early-80s vocoder or Maggie Reilly’s ethereal crooning are at all easy to parse.

    Most airplane songs seem to use air travel as a symbol, metaphor or emotional marker. Frequently this is for loss or parting (‘Jet Plane’, ‘Daniel’) but it can also be about reunions (‘The Letter’*) or freedom (‘Come Fly With Me’, ‘Fly Away’). There’s also a significant sub-genre involving planes as high tech aerial combat (‘Aces High’, ‘Danger Zone’, ‘Snoopy vs. the Red Baron’)

    *Eva Cassidy did a fantastic cover of this one.

    Reply ↓
    1. flora

      Reminds me of the very, very old Freight Train Freight song from the US jim crow days. Substituting “air plane” for “freight train” in the lyrics.

      Air plane, air plane goin’ so fast
      Air plane, air plane goin’ so fast
      Please don’t tell what plane I’m on
      So they won’t know where I’ve gone

      [Verse 1]
      Air plane, air plane , comin’ round the bend
      Air plane , air plain , gone again
      One of these days turn that plane around
      Go back to my hometown

      {chorus}

      [Verse 2]
      One more place I’d like to be
      One more place I’d love to see
      To watch those old Blue Ridge Mountains climb
      When I ride plane Number Nine

      [Chorus again]

      Air plane, Air plane goin’ so fast
      Air plane, air plane goin’ so fast
      Please don’t tell what plane I’m on
      So they won’t know where I’ve gone

      When I die please bury me deep
      Down at the end of Bleecker Street
      So I can hear plane Number Nine
      As she goes flyin’ by

      Reply ↓
  13. Maxwell Johnston

    The Soviet Tu-104 was the USSR’s first passenger jet and (like its engine-inside-the-wing lookalike the De Havilland Comet) badly flawed. After numerous crashes, it was given an early retirement. A popular (though most unofficial!) song went: “Ту-104 – самый быстрый самолёт, за две минуты до могилы довезёт” = “The Tu-104 is the fastest airplane, it will take you to your grave in two minutes.”

    Here is a more upbeat Soviet video about the glories of the Tupolev 104:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6YAtdVtR1-M

    Thank you for your contributions to NC, and I wish you the best of luck in your future endeavors.

    Reply ↓
  14. Bsn

    What fun, Lambert and all. I knew no one would think of this, it’s a bit obscure. But, it’s hard hittin’ blues with quite an expression of environmentalism.
    Glider by Captain Beefheart.
    And then for you Jazzoids, Solo Flight by Charlie Christian

    Keep ’em coming friends!

    Reply ↓
  15. mrsyk

    This ones appropriate for our timeline, From the Air, Laurie Anderson

    Good evening.
    This is your Captain.
    We are about to attempt a crash landing.
    Please extinuish all cigarettes.
    Place your tray tables in their upright, locked position.
    Your Captain says: Put your head on your knees. Your Captain says: Put your head on your hands. Captain says: Put your hands on your head.
    Put your hands on your hips.
    Heh heh.
    This is your Captain-and we are going down.
    We are all going down, together.
    And I said: Uh oh.
    This is gonna be some day.
    Standby.
    This is the time.
    And this is the record of the time.
    This is the time.
    And this is the record of the time.
    Uh-this is your Captain again.
    You know, I’ve got a funny feeling
    I’ve seen this all before.
    Why?
    Cause I’m a caveman.
    Why?
    Cause I’ve got eyes in the back of my head.
    Why?
    It’s the heat.
    Standby.
    This is the time.
    And this is the record of the time.
    This is the time.
    And this is the record of the time.
    Put your hands over your eyes.
    Jump out of the plane.
    There is no pilot.
    You are not alone.
    Standby.
    This is the time.
    And this is the
    record of the time.
    This is the time.
    And this is the record of the time.

    No shit.

    Reply ↓
  16. mrsyk

    Mothership Connection Yo! Make my funk the P-Funk! Fire!

    I got this cranking on the stereo right now, thanks!

    Reply ↓
  22. earthmagic

    Did someone already mention Learning to Fly by Pink Floyd?

    Here’s another airport song – Apple by Charli XCX

    I guess the apple don’t fall far from the tree
    ‘Cause I’ve been looking at you so long
    Now I only see me
    I wanna throw the apple into the sky
    Feels like you never understand me
    So I just wanna drive
    To the airport, the airport
    The airport, the airport
    I guess the apple could turn yellow or green
    I know there’s lots of different nuances
    To you and to me
    I wanna grow the apple, keep all the seeds
    But I can’t help but get so angry
    You don’t listen to me
    To the airport, the airport
    The airport, the airport
    The airport, the airport
    The airport, the airport
    I’m gonna drive, gonna drive all night
    I’m gonna drive, gonna drive all night
    I think the apple’s rotten right to the core
    From all the things passed down
    From all the apples coming before
    I split the apple down symmetrical lines
    And what I find is kinda scary
    Makes me just wanna drive
    (Drive, drive, drive, dr-dr-dr-drive, drive, drive)
    (I’m gonna drive, gonna drive all night)
    (I’m gonna drive, gonna drive all night)
    (Drive, drive, drive, dr-dr-dr-drive, drive, drive)
    I wanna know where you go
    When you’re feeling alone
    When you’re feeling alone, do you
    I wanna know where you go
    When you’re feeling alone
    When you’re feeling alone, do you
    (Do you, do you, do you, do you)

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CPWxExGk7PM

    Farewell Lambert and thanks!

    Reply ↓
  24. Antagonist

    As the resident Jimi Hendrix fanboy, let me offer the chorus from “Angel.”

    And I said “fly on my sweet angel,
    fly on through the sky,
    fly on my sweet angel,
    forever I will be by your side”

    I’ll miss Lambert but not as much as I miss Jimi. (This is more a statement about my fanboyism for Jimi than anything about Lambert.) Of all the musicians and artists that died young, the one I lament the most is Jimi. Stevie Ray Vaughan, Charlie Parker, John Coltrane, Bob Marley, and even Mozart died tragically young. But I don’t really want to listen to any of that stuff. I want more Hendrix.

    Reply ↓
  28. Culp Creek Curmudgeon

    Here’s a particular favorite of mine Liz Phair’s Stratford-On-Guy

    https://youtu.be/56vkjzu6nEw?si=ZtuKfia3lQOh7xn5

    I was flying into Chicago at night
    Watching the lake turn the sky into blue-green smoke
    The sun was setting to the left of the plane
    And the cabin was filled with an unearthly glow
    In 27-D I was behind the wing
    Watching landscape roll out
    Like credits on a screen
    The earth looked like it was lit from within
    Like a poorly assembled electrical ball as we moved
    Out of the farmlands into the grid
    The plan of the city was all that you saw
    And all of these people sitting totally still
    As the ground raced beneath them thirty thousand feet down

    It took an hour, maybe a day
    But once I really listened, the noise
    Just went away

    And I was pretending that I was in a Galaxie 500 video
    The stewardess came back and checked on my drink
    In the last strings of sunlight, a Bridgette Bardot
    There’s a hat on my headphones
    Along with those eyes that you get
    When your circumstance is movie size

    It took an hour, maybe a day
    But once I really listened, the noise
    Just went away

    It took an hour, maybe a day
    But once I really listened, the noise
    Just went away

    Reply ↓
  31. herman_sampson

    Jet Plane in a Rocking Chair by Richard and Linda Thompson; and then Snoopy and the Red Baron by The Royal Canadians (if I remember correctly).

    Reply ↓
    1. debug

      Thanks Wukchumni,

      Amelia is a masterpiece. I once learned to play it on guitar.

      Joni’s open tunings and fantastic lyrics…

      Reply ↓
  37. ambrit

    Anything by “The Jefferson Airplane” count?
    Farewell to the Ambassador. Hope that nearly gold watch keeps good time.

    Reply ↓
  39. Wukchumni

    That reveals a strong bias toward the 60s and 70s, but I can’t help it if my generation had the best music!
    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

    Yes, it corresponds perfectly with the French Impressionist era exactly a century before, a couple of artistic bookends~

    Reply ↓
  42. Angie Neer

    EIGHT MILES HIGH. Widely assumed to be about a drug trip, but the lyrics work perfectly well as a description of the surreality of modern air travel.

    Thanks for everything, Lambert, and happy travels!

    Reply ↓
  45. Revenant

    Hullo and goodbye for now, Lambert.

    I’ve left a message on your official last post but these are all too good suggestions to resist joining in. Unfortunately I could find a suitable Kneecap link, despite their song Harrow Road sampling the British Airways cabin announcements (I don’t think “bucket hat, furry coat, full of coke, I’m losin’ hope” becomes your leaving of us!).

    Instead, here’s a song from only slightly less recent times, sung about space travel rather than atmospheric flight and filmed in performance on a supertanker (lol, autocorrect wanted superyankee, how appropriate!). It’s more driving stadium rock opera and less wistfully acoustic singer-songwriter but its still elegaic on loss and departure.

    “Starlight”, by Muse
    https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Pgum6OT_VH8

    (Odd synchronicity, Muse and Coldplay are both platinum-selling bands from nowhere, i.e. my bucolic, pastoral Hicksville of Devon, and direct contemporaries of mine – and friends of friends etc. – and Skindred are following in their footsteps).

    Reply ↓
  46. Martin Oline

    This a song from the Byrds album Farther Along called Bagful of Money, a song about a man who didn’t complete his airplane trip. It was a plan he had, you see.

    If you can’t get a job and they think you’re insane
    If the years of your youth have been washed down the drain
    And you wake up some mornin’ with nothin’ but pain
    It was then I decided to grab me a plane

    Bagful of Money

    Reply ↓
  47. ChrisRUEcon

    Thanks for all the musical interludes, including this final one!

    As a Rush-head, I must add! Great lyrics from Neil!

    Fly By Night (via YouTube)

    (original lyrics)
    airport scurry – flurry faces
    parade of passers-by
    people going many places
    with a smile or just a sigh
    waiting, waiting, pass the time
    another cigarette
    get in line – gate thirty-nine
    the time is not here yet…..

    Verse 1
    Why try, I know why
    The feeling inside me says it’s time I was gone
    Clear head, new life ahead
    I want to be king now not just one more pawn

    Chorus
    Fly by night away from here
    Change my life again
    Fly by night goodbye my dear
    My ship isn’t coming and I just can’t pretend

    Verse 2
    Moon rise, thoughtful eyes
    Staring back at me from the window beside
    No fright, or hindsight
    Leaving behind that empty feeling inside

    (Chorus)

    Guitar Solo

    (Chorus)

    (Prog Rock Beat Switch LOL)

    Start a new chapter
    I find what I’m after
    Is changing every day
    The change of a season
    Is enough of a reason
    To want to get away

    Quiet and pensive
    My thoughts apprehensive
    The hours drift away
    Leaving my homeland
    Playing a lone hand
    My life begins today

    (Chorus)

    Reply ↓
  50. rowlf

    Beat up Old Jetliner – Bob Rivers

    Goodbye to all my friends I’ve known
    And the travel agent I trusted
    I’m riding along on this beat-up old plane;
    Look out the window. All the rivets are rusted

    As that ground crew pushes us backwards
    On that rickety L-1011
    I’m feeling around for that flotation device
    And when the safety film is shown
    I’m payin’ close attention

    Beat-up old jetliner
    Hope you got a tune-up today
    Ohhhh, beat-up old jetliner
    Did they sneak you past the FAA?

    Bouncin’ ’round in a thunder cloud
    Landing gear won’t come down
    My seatback is up and my belt is on
    I see the fire crews sprayin’ foam on the ground

    And if I get to my final destination
    I know the next flight will surely be free
    But I don’t think I’ll go back up
    Into that piece of shit just to save a few pennies

    Beat-up old jetliner
    Won’t carry me too far today
    Ohhhh, give me a fresh airliner;
    I don’t care what I’ve got to pay

    Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah

    Beat-up old jetliner
    Don’t carry me too far today
    Ohhhh, beat-up old jetliner
    ‘Cause it’s home that I’d rather stay

    Ladies and gentlemen, this is your captain speaking
    I’ve just turned off the no-smokin’ sign
    I figure, hell, if the plane’s smokin’ why shouldn’t you?

    Reply ↓
  54. WG

    20,000 Feet and 747 by Saxon, better known for songs about motorcycles.

    Leaving On A Jet Plane
    Daniel
    Jet Airliner

    Reply ↓
  55. mrsyk

    Lou Reed deserves a listen. Dirty Blvd
    This dude was the east village version of Bowie.
    “This room cost $2, 000 a month
    You can believe it, man, it′s true
    Somewhere there’s a landlord′s laughing till he wets his pants”

    Reply ↓

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