Nineties Revisited: The Journey

Original video located here. Accessed 10th July 2016

Song title: The Journey

Artist: Tommy Emmanuel and the Australian Philharmonic Orchestra

Year: 1995

Why I like this song:

For this month, I want to write about music through the eyes of the motorist. I really enjoy driving so combining two things I like may make for interesting ramble.

The car, I have found, is actually quite an effective tool to bring people aware of music. It isn’t just a case of rocking up to the lights at an intersection with something booming on the stereo. Oh no: Traveling in car with a group of people means being in confined space whilst looking to someone in particular, the driver, to whom you are dependent upon and whose life may lie in their hands. This places the driver in a position of power (in addition to being, you know, the owner of the vehicle).

This sense of power stretches all the way to every aspect of the car including the stereo. This is indeed important on two fronts: Being a key source of entertainment whilst driving along seemingly endless stretches of road and being a source of communication. And in the sense of communication, this presents a golden opportunity to educate any passengers on new music. And this may be the most effective way yet with the listeners a) having nowhere to run or hide and b) in a position where they can’t complain. Thus, the driver chooses what music they like and if the passengers don’t like it, well, it sucks to be them.

Thus control over the car stereo is a highly desirable position: It relies on the dictations of whoever is in charge and anyone who complains has to sit through it no matter how painfully. But as this position is highly sought after, it’s not one given away freely. It all relies on who’s holding the steering wheel and, if there’s more than one driver in the car, there is the knowledge that the person who isn’t driving has to endure the right over the stereo being taken away from them.

Really the control over the car stereo is so important that, in all honesty, anyone who tries to accommodate the tastes of the passenger is being too soft. We as humans must all have that secret desire of being in a position where everyone else has to do exactly what they say and, for some, the car stereo presents the perfect opportunity for that desire to be satisfied.

So what do I listen to my car? Mostly compilation discs built up from past Triple J Hottest 100s. True most of them date back to the nineties but it’s great to hear music I hadn’t heard in a while and escape to an age where music was great and the tag of ‘alternative rock’ actually meant something. Still, the 2000 discs also have a degree of charm to them, even to the point of making me aware of stuff I may have missed the first time around (as is often the case in my life).

However I do have a favourite list of driving songs. As with many lists of this calibre, these songs have been assembled with much trial and error and provide a sense of ‘feel’ to them. You know what I mean: Songs that evoke senses of traveling, journeys and stepping into the unknown. Sure there’s no denying the appeal of playing loud metal music or hip-hop beats on a sound system but I favour music that sets moods for particular tasks – such moods tend to last longer.

So what songs make up this playlist? Well, to start there's this….

The title says it all: A great piece of music that should be playing for anyone going somewhere (funny that…). I particularly like the live version with a complete orchestral backing that can make any car journey seem epic. Listening to this in the car and suddenly driving down to the shops to buy milk comes across as being absolutely monumental.