More and more people, it seems to me, are getting comfortable with travelling again, and I hope this trend continues. Not because I want good things for the chintzy souvenir industry, but because travel encourages understanding. This thought came to mind because as we were getting ready to go on our first family trip since the pandemic began, there was yet another episode of hate-fuelled violence in the United States.
I know that every instance of violence in that country and elsewhere is the result of a variety of variables, and tourism isn’t about to solve the world’s problems. But getting out of all the places the pandemic has trapped us – our own bubbles, our own echo chambers, our own basements – getting out of these places can only do us good. Travel encourages understanding, which in turn discourages hatred.
It was a strange thought to have in my head as we prepared to go to the airport for the first time in years; the mood was somewhere between nostalgia, hope, despair, apprehension, excitement and sadness.
Each of these feelings is tapped into on Blue State’s excellent 2001 album Nothing Changes Under the Sun. But none of the tracks on that record do it better than “Walkabout” – a bonus track that conveys all the emotions of a nervous return to travel in 2022.
What makes this a beautiful song:
1. The opening sample is a conversation between Lee Hazelwood and Nancy Sinatra from their 1972 record Nancy & Lee Again. The last track on the record, “Got It Together,” ends with the two expressing their wishes for the future. Nancy wishes for people to be quiet and nice. Lee wishes for people to stop throwing rocks and shooting guns. 50 years later, we’re still wishing for those things.
2. The track itself has a motivated, almost train-like percussion that propels it forward into the unknown horizon.
3. The album cover shows a man – older, dressed very much like a tourist – taking a photo of a monument. If the monument looks ominous, that’s because it is: it’s the marker that stands at ground zero of the first atomic bomb test, 77 years ago this week. It would be hard to find an image that does a better job of conveying nostalgia, hope, despair, apprehension, excitement and sadness.
Recommended listening activity:
Debating whether you should renew your passport.