Songs about planes and flying

Cafe Society
1

I hope this post isn’t considered in bad taste considering the timing; let me explain why I’m making it:

I’ve typically been kind of a nervous flyer. That didn’t stop me from flying quite a bit from my early adulthood to early middle age, both for business and pleasure. But due to various circumstances, I haven’t avoided flying, but just haven’t had need nor opportunity to fly anywhere in over 10 years. But tomorrow morning I’m getting on a plane, and, especially in light of the recent tragedy, flying has been top of mind, to say the least.

So this morning around 3am, I wake up and have a hard time falling back to sleep. My mind is racing, not just with the thought of flying, but with the million details of packing and such before we go. So, I play a little mind game with myself, thinking of songs about planes and flying.

And just like counting sheep, it worked-- I managed to fall back asleep. But even further than that, it made me think about how ingrained flying is in popular culture. For good reason-- any time you get on a plane, you’re going on some kind of adventure. Even if it’s just a business trip, it’s a break from the day-to-day. So, at least for me, the exercise was kind of therapeutic-- I’ve been reminding myself how amazing (as well as statistically very very safe) plane travel is.

So, I hope you can take the post in that spirit, or in just the general spirit of “Songs about (X)” that we often do. The rules are simple: post song title and artist, and a snippet of relevant lyric if the plane/flying aspect is not immediately apparent in the title. Here are the 3am ones I thought of before drifting back to sleep:

Jet Airliner
- Steve Miller Band

Jet*
- Paul McCartney and Wings

Back in the USSR
- The Beatles
Flew in from Miami Beach BOAC…

Leaving on a Jet Plane
- John Denver, various artists(?)

In the Aeroplane Over the Sea
- Neutral Milk Hotel

Like a G6
- Far East Movement

Daniel
- Elton John
Daniel is travelin’ tonight on a plane…

*When I looked up the lyrics this morning I saw that the ‘Jet’ in this song appears to be the name of a woman, not about a plane, but as one of my 3am picks, I’m leaving it in, since it’s my post, dammit!

2

Come Josephine in My Flying Machine

3

Going To California - Led Zeppelin

Took my chances on a big jet plane
Never let 'em tell you that they’re all the same

IIRC Robert Plant and/or other band members really didn’t like flying.

4

Really? Huh. I hadn’t heard that. Surprising, considering they had their own plane:

Maybe that’s why they had their own plane though- maybe the part about flying they didn’t like was being packed in with the general public.

5

Gordon Lightfoot’s song In the Early Morning Rain
Also sung by Peter, Paul and Mary

Talks about a 707 and watching it fly westward

6

D.O.A. - Bloodrock
“We were flying along, and hit something in the air…”
Maybe don’t think about that one.

7
8

“American Pie” is at its core about a famous plane flight.

“Nite Flights” by Scott Walker, but I know it from Bowie’s amazing cover.

9
10

Travelin’ Band by CCR.
737 comin’ out of the sky
Won’t you take me back to Memphis on a midnight ride

11

Does German count? There is Hans Albers’ Flieger, grüß mir die Sonne in the original 1932 version, and then there is the modern, '80s version.
And of course there is Domenico Modugno - Nel blu dipinto di blu (“Volare”)

12

Lot of good ones so far!

Yeah, it’s fine, I’ve been watching the wall-to-wall coverage of the crash, so I can take it. I did think of this one at 3am as well, but left it out because I was trying to stay positive:

Fire and Rain
- James Taylor
Sweet dreams and flying machines in pieces on the ground

Sure!

13

The Byrds - Eight Miles High

14

I always thought of that song as more of a drug-related metaphor than about literally flying in a plane, but what the hey, I’ll allow it.

15

Enola Gay - Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark
Up, Up and Away - The 5th Dimension
One Day I’ll Fly Away - Randy Crawford

16

La Orquestra Mondragón Bon Voyage is parodic, but the whole record was hilarious. Viaje con nosotros opens the playlist. Understanding Spanish helps.

17

Supertramp - Breakfast in America (“Take a jumbo across the water”)

18

It was both. They (the Byrds) were inspired by an actual plane flight.

My contribution: “Aeroplane,” by Jethro Toe.

(It was Tull’s first little single. The record company printed the label incorrectly.)

19

OK, I thought ‘Eight Miles High’ was much higher than a commercial flight would ever get to, but I did the math: eight miles is 42,240 feet, and according to the internets:

The approved maximum altitude for most commercial aircraft is 42,000 feet.

So, just a little too high (said some member of the Byrds at some point, I’m sure)

20

The original (pre-recording) lyric was “six miles high” (more correct), but they thought “eight” sounded cooler.