Funny Travel Songs – My Top 5 Silly Tunes For Travelling On The Road

These days, most of us seem to take some form of musical device to listen to our favourite (usually pirated) music when travelling. This sometimes fills in the long hours on the bus, train, or dodgy minibus taxi. I personally love listening to Midnight Oil’s great album Diesel and Dust when going through the wide open spaces, especially the desert.

Or sometimes, it’s a convenient escape from some of the Travel Personalities we come across on the road from time to time. We all have our favourite ‘on the road’ tunes that remind us of a certain place or event overseas.

Then again, there are other Funny Travel Songs which seem to pop into my head when something goes wrong on the road, or whenever my brain goes into some chaotic fit.

Here is a list of my Top 5 Funny Travel Songs, in no particular weird order.

Funny Travel Songs – My Top 5 Ultimate List

1. Moscow – by Genghis Khan

No, he wasn’t cloned from a few hundred years ago and asked to perform this one hit wonder during the Cold War.  This song was the official anthem of the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow, in the then Soviet Union. 

These were the games where many nations, including the United States, boycotted and prevented their athletes from competing (see more at Olympic Sports and Propaganda Games: Moscow 1980). 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HP5tMM9V1S8

In 1980 I was 7 years old, and I thought the song was cool and catchy.  Now it seems just so daggy and dated.  The film clip involves lots of Russian clichés, including extremely flexible Russian dancers. But no Russian Swear Words and Russian Planes.

Favourite line: Moscow, Moscow, drinking vodka all night long, Keeps you happy, makes you strong, Hoh-hoh-hoh-hoh-hoh, Hey! Moscow, Moscow, come and have a drink and then, You will never leave again, Hah-hah-hah-hah-hah.

That’s probably because the vodka will knock you out forever.

2. Africa – by Toto

Yes, it’s a cliché, but it’s hard to keep this song out of your head when cruising along the Serengeti Plains.  This 1980’s classic seems to pop up as the soundtrack for any African Adventure slide night. 

The funny aspect of this song is the film clip, which is completely bizarre and seems totally unrelated to the subject matter at hand.  For example, the whole band playing on an enormous book? And other segments filmed in a library with some stuffed African animals? WTF?

Favourite line: I know that I must do what’s right, sure as Kilimanjaro rises like Olympus above the Serengeti.

3. Back In The USSR – by The Beatles

This is another height of the Cold War song.  The song itself isn’t that funny (except for the reference in the opening line about using a spew bag on the plane) – but its timing was. 

Imagine singing about hot Soviet women when the United States and the Soviet Union had their nukes pointing at each other – and the Beatles where located smack bang in the middle of these two superpowers in Great Britain.

This song is from very popular The White Album.

Favourite line: The opening verse: Flew in from Miami Beach BOAC, Didn’t get to bed last night, Oh, the way the paper bag was on my knee, Man, I had a dreadful flight.

4. I Was a Kamikaze Pilot – by the Hoodoo Gurus

This is my favourite Australian Funny Travel Song, from the great album, Stoneage Romeos.  Sure, I’m not certain how someone can use ‘I Was a Kamikaze Pilot’ in the past tense, but I had this song on repeat in my head when I was travelling in a suicidal Mini-bus taxi from Bulawayo in Zimbabwe, to Johannesburg in South Africa. 

That’s because most minibus taxi drivers do indeed have some form of perverse death wish that seem to resemble kamikaze values.

Favourite line: I was a kamikaze pilot, they gave me a plane, I couldn’t fly it. Taught how to take off, I don’t know how to land, they say it doesn’t matter but I just cannot understand.

5. Eat It – Weird Al Yankovic

Eat It is a parody of the Michael Jackson song, Beat It.  This song circled around my head for days when I visited my relatives in northern Italy, Sicily, and Switzerland.  Just imagine – a seven course meal twice a day for a week, simply because your grandparents were one of many children, meaning that you had to have lunch or dinner with at least everyone down to fourth cousin. 

This song was on constant repeat after devouring the antipasto, the pasta dish, the meat dish, the dessert, chocolates, coffee and sorbet.  Ridiculous.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZcJjMnHoIBI

Favourite line: I don’t care if you’re full, Just eat it, eat it, eat it, eat it, Open up your mouth and feed it, Have some more yoghurt, have some more spam, It doesn’t matter if it’s fresh or canned.

I remember first seeing this clip in the early 1980’s!

Your Funny Travel Songs?

There you go! What are your favourite Funny Travel songs?  Add your two bob worth by leaving a comment!

Other things to do when listening to your Top 5 Funny Travel Songs – read your Top 5 Funny Travel Books.