Formentera Lady

Houses iced in whitewash guard a pale shore-lineCornered by the cactus and the pineHere I wander where sweet sage and strange herbs growDown a sun-baked crumpled stony road. These opening lyrics to the 1969 song “Formentera Lady” by British band, King Crimson helps to explain why many musicians have found inspiration on the tiny island …

Indiana Wants Me

“Indiana Wants Me” is a 1970 song written by Canadian singer R Dean Taylor. It is reputed that he wrote the song after seeing the film “Bonnie and Clyde”. Whilst Indiana might have wanted R Dean Tayor, we want to visit Indiana and in particular the state capital of Indianapolis. The most famous event in …

Let’s go to Costa Rica

With little on the UK Government’s Green List to choose from. The lyrics of the track “Costa Rica” by Canadian Singer-Songwriter had a bit more weight. A slight editing of the lyrics gives us “I wanna leave this place yeah to never be found” … “Let’s go to Costa Rica”. I guess some of us …

Solsbury Hill

Solsbury Hill was written and performed by former Genesis frontman Peter Gabriel. It was his debut single after his split from the band, and it is widely acknowledged that the song is about his thoughts around his decision to leave them. Solsbury Hill itself is a small flat-topped hill, that was once an iron age …

Porto

This official video for the track Porto by the French DJ and musician Kevin Rodrigues, who is better known as Worakls gives a really good flavour of the city of Porto.  There are no lyrics the images say it all. Porto is the second largest city in Portugal and lies along the Douro River estuary …

Journey to the Centre of the Earth.

Jules Verne’s 1864 novel “Journey to the Centre of the Earth” tells the story of a German scientist and his nephew who believe that they can journey to the centre of the earth by descending into Iceland’s inactive volcano “Snæfellsjökull”. Snæfellsjökull can sometimes be seen from the Icelandic capital of Reykjavík, a distance of 120 …

Tenerife Sea

Ed Sheeran’s 2014 song “Tenerife Sea”, is a reference to the island of Tenerife which according to Sheeran, the blue colour of the sea, matched the colour of the eyes of his girlfriend at that time. Tenerife is the largest and most heavily populated of the Canary Islands which are located off the north-west coast …

Viva Malta

The track below is entitled Viva Malta and is performed by the Maltese singer Freddie Portelli. As well as writing songs and performing in a number of bands, Freddie represented his country at Waterpolo.  The song is a patriotic one, written on his return to the island after a worldwide tour.  The lyrics sing of …

Les Maldvies ou les Seychelles?

Swift Guad is a French Hip-Hop artist, who like many artists sings about failed relationships.  In this track translated into English as “I turn around”.  He asks “Question existentielle : les Maldvies ou les Seychelles?”  This is a question that is asked by many travellers considering a trip to the Indian Ocean.  The chorus of …

Carved the walls of Grand Canyon

So goes the Grand Canyon song by Steve Goodman.  He sings of how the Colorado River has carved the canyon to expose the many colours of the layers of rock and sand.  Many of us will be looking to travel to destinations away from populated areas for a while and the Grand Canyon might be …