Homeplay

Is there a spot more perfect for thinking philosophically about life that looking out the window of an airplane? Over the years I've made many realizations and decisions peering out over the clouds. There's something about that perspective...the ultimate big picture view...that helps me reprioritize and rearrange the furniture in my brain. (After I finish reading my stack of magazines, that is.)

On the plane early Monday morning, I was so excited to get home that I started unconsciously looping home-related songs through my mind (my ipod had long run out of power). Here's my own little playlist dedicated to home....what am I forgetting? I'd love to collect more....

• Home (the Wiz soundtrack) "when I think of home, I think of a place where there's love overflowing..."
  
• Listening to Otis Redding at Home During Christmas (Okkervil River) "home is where beds are made and butter is added to toast"
• Lights will guide you home (Coldplay) "when you do your best but you can't succeed, when you get what you want but not what you need..."
• Home (Depeche Mode) I don't know this one well but given my DM obsession as a 13-15 year old, I had to include it
• Homeward bound (Simon + Garfunkel) "Every stranger's face reminds me that I long to be...homeward bound"
• Long ride home (Patty Griffin) "I've had some time to think about you on the long ride home"
• Take it with me (Tom Waits) Not technically a "home" song but the final stanzas of this song make me think of home...especially my mom: "Children are playing at the end of the day, Strangers are singing on our lawn It's got to be more than flesh and bone All that you've loved is all you own. In a land there's a town, and in that town there's a house. And in that house there's a woman. And in that woman there's a heart I love. I'm gonna take it with me when I go."

Comments

[Stie: My Favorite Things]

It's an old song Josh's grandpa used to sing and we've since taught it to our kids. I have no idea who originally sang it.

Show me the way to go home
I'm tired and I wanna go to bed
For I had a little drink about an hour ago
And it went right to my head
Wherever I may roam
O'er land or sea or foram
You can always hear me singing a song...
Show me the way to go home

(Not the most inspiring lyrics for children, but it always makes me think of his grandpa).

The only other one that comes to mind is by John Denver -

Country Roads
Take me home
To the place
I beeelong!
West Virginia
Mountain Mama
Take me home
Country roads

Great list, BTW. I love pondering live when I stare out at the billowy clouds of an airplane window. Welcome home.

[Stie: My Favorite Things]

Oops, I meant life. Pondering life.

[Annie]

Ooo! Good ones! How could I forget John Denver?! In my late teens, I remember singing that song with friends on a darkened bus one night. Thanks, Stie!

[Therese]

i'm a "country roads"-lover, as well. when i returned to australia from a visit to logan a few years ago, and found myself homesick, that song was in my mind on repeat for about two weeks.

[Anonymous]

Great thoughts on Home songs. It is fun to try to remember those.
When Johnny Comes Marching Home (think Iraq)
One that meant a lot to your Grandmother Bentley: "I'll Take You Home Again, Kathleen"
My Mountain Home So Dear
The other Homeward Bound by Marta Keen - so beautiful:
In the quiet, misty morning
when the moon has gone to bed,
when the sparrows stop their singing
and the sky is clear and red....
Bind me not to the pasture;
Chain me not to the plow.
Set me free to find my calling
and I'll return to you somehow..
Then the wind will set me racing
as my journey nears its end__
and the path I'll be retracing when I'm homeward bound again.

There is an Irving Berlin song that ends "Gee but I wanna go home"

The Tom Waits song is one of my very faves. Always makes me misty.

We will have fun with this for days!

Love, Ma