Friday 2 May 2008

Top Three

I'm working on a Top Five of songs that have to do with our move here. But so far I only have three:

Dar Williams - O Canada Girls

(listening to this song on the bus back from a conference in Palmerston North, looking out the window at the rolling hills along the Kapiti coast)

"I guess it's got to feel like some exodus
And if I succeed, well there will be more of us
And if I don't well I don't really know

Girls
Who have found our unsung nation
Where we left so much land to itself
That everyone had her own mountain"

John Denver - Rocky Mountain High

(This song came into my head as I hiked into Karori Sanctuary one morning. When I got home and looked up the lyrics that I realised he says "twenty-seventh year" which is my age)

"He was born in the summer of his 27th year
Comin home to a place he'd never been before
He left yesterday behind him, you might say he was born again
You might say he found a key for every door"

Jimmy Buffett - Banana Republics

(A more cynical take on migration, kept thinking of this song as we were packing up to move here. )

"Down to the Banana Republics
Down to the tropical sun
Go the expatriated American
Hopin' to find some fun

Some of them go for the sailing
Brought by the lure of the sea
Tryin' to find what is ailing
Living in the land of the free
Some of them are running to lovers
Leaving no forward address
Some of them are running tons of ganja
Some are running from the IRS"

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