If you're going to be spending any period of time in car, particularly a long road trip, your experience can be massively enhanced by surrounding yourself with the right music. Conversely, selecting the wrong tunes can make the trip drag to the point where you never feel like you'll get off the road.

But how do you strike this difficult balance? Below are a few suggestions to help you craft your ideal road trip playlist.

 

1. John Denver - 'Leaving On A Jet Plane'

The perfect road trip song, as long as you don't mind substituting the titular jet plane for whatever mode of transport you've opted for. While this song has been covered by scores of artists over the years (notably Peter, Paul and Mary), it's still the original John Denver version from 1966 that we like best. The song tells the story of two travellers having to part and "not knowing when I'll be back again" and has developed an identity over the years of being a song used to remember people you've left behind. Quite melancholic we must admit, but a damn fine song.

 

2. Steppenwold - 'Born To Be Wild'

Perhaps the most famous road trip song ever written, Steppenwolf's 'Born To Be Wild' first became associated with the open road when it was used in Dennis Hopper's timeless road trip movie Easy Rider and with lyrics like "Get your motor running / head out on the highway / lookin' for adventure / and whatever comes our way" it's not difficult to understand why. A song so perfect for a road trip, you can practically smell the warm asphalt when listening to it.

 

3. Iggy Pop - 'The Passenger'

Iggy Pop's 'The Passenger' is as apt a song for a road trip playlist as you're likely to find. 'The Passenger' is written from the perspective of a wide-eyed traveller experiencing the world from behind his car windshield window, as he describes the various sights and towns he drives through before realising that "everything was made for you and me". Some damn fine philosophical punk musings from Mr. Pop, if we do say so ourselves.

 

4. Willie Nelson - 'On The Road Again'

Who better to pen a song about life spent on a tour bus than someone who's been touring almost consistently since 1956? Few performers have clocked up as many miles as Willie Nelson has throughout his career and there isn't a song in his catalogue which so aptly distils the feeling of seeing nothing but endless highways than Nelson's magnum opus, an absolutely iconic road trip song.

 

5. Talking Heads - 'Road To Nowhere'

In spite the GPS devices that we all carry around in our pockets nowadays, it's still possible to make a complete balls of your navigating and end up in the arse end of nowhere - and few songs capture that feeling in the pit of your stomach you get when you're absolutely and hopelessly lost more than Talking Heads' classic 'Road To Nowhere'. It can be easier than you think to get waylaid in this country if you travel to a place where your phone signal dies a death and you have to rely on directions from a bemused local but at least you'll have Talking Heads to keep you company.


Lost for ideas as to where to travel on your road trip? Failte Ireland has you covered!