"Desert sky, dream beneath a desert sky ..."

Ah, well, I have taken a rather long hiatus from the blog, and I've been happy to see a couple others holding down the fort for a spell. I actually just returned from five days in Palm Springs, where I took my mid-semester, weary, half-sick self for some restorative high desert air, hiking in Joshua Tree National Park, Mexican dinners at Las Casuelas, and the aroma therapy of blooming citrus trees. Then again, how much restoration one can expect when your luggage includes a one year-old and a three year-old is another matter!.

Such an excursion suggests its own soundtrack, right? Certainly (and obviously) there would be U2's "The Joshua Tree." I think I read somewhere that the tree featured in that album's insert burned some years ago in a wildfire (lightning strike?), so I was spared the quixotic journey of trying to seek it out. Incidentally, since we were recently discussing lyrics as poetry, that album makes me think of the poetic, intensely moving elegy, "One Tree Hill." Written as a tribute to the band's friend, Greg Carroll, the song is memorable for its lyrics (another one of those songs using the "river to the sea" metaphor), for its slow burning emotional intensity, and for the way the Edge's guitar revs up to mimic a motorcycle late in the song (Carroll died in a motorcycle accident), which then yields to a plaintive prayer from Bono as the song concludes. Always a favorite of mine, lyrically and musically ...

Back to the High Desert soundtrack. We didn't have a convertible in which to listen to it properly, but you can be sure I brought along my copy of "Sinatra at the Sands," which was recorded in 1966 with Count Basie's band and certainly evokes a bygone world (fortunately, a world that can still (even if just barely) be summoned via current-day Palm Springs, which seems to be getting some of its hipness back). And, wow, talk about some tight, sincere musicianship, and such old chestnuts as "Come Fly With Me," "I've Got You Under My Skin," "Fly Me to the Moon," "Angel Eyes," etc. I've always loved Dean Martin's line: "It's Frank's world; we just live in it."

I didn't bring it with me this time, but every time I drive to Joshua Tree I think of Robert Plant's "29 Palms," a song I've always found to be irresistible. In terms of memory and music, too, driving on Interstate 10 reminds me of the first time I ever heard David Gray's terrific cd, "White Ladder," which probably has to rank up there as one of the best driving cds. Music and the open road, music and the inside of a car. Now there's a topic for a lexia in your multi-genre essay! In his book, Traveling Music, Neil Peart writes that "in the unique zen-state of driving for hour after after, music didn't just pass the time, it filled the time, with pleasure, stimulation, discovery, and memories."

So I guess your prompt in this case -- and here we may be back to one of Hornby's "Top Five" lists -- is what ranks high on your list of best driving cds, or best "traveling music" memories??