I’m a romantic at heart; so pardon my sappy sentimentality while I describe the songs that inspire me to explore, live and love in my short time here on earth.

1. Gamble Everything For Love – Ben Lee

This song inspired me to leave my comfortable city life behind, and venture into the unpredictable Pacific Ocean on an old boat with a man I hadn’t even introduced to my parents. Love makes people do crazy things , but as Ben Lee says: if you gamble everything for love you’re gonna be all right. All right?

Make a list of things you need, leave it empty
Except for number one, write “love”, gamble everything
Keep it under lock and key
If you wanna, you can gamble everything for love

2. Unthought Known – Pearl Jam

This song brings me to wailing tears. It transports me into the wild and lays me beneath a blanket of gems and rhinestones! It prompts me to take off towards distant shores with a raging, passionate  demand: DO IT!

Feel the sky blanket you
With gems and rhinestones!
See the path cut by the moon
For you to walk on

3. Bridges And Balloons – Joanna Newsom

Apart from the beautiful first verse, I have no idea what these lyrics mean. When I close my eyes and visualize, I feel like I’m on an acid trip. But it reminds me—via feathery harp and peculiar lyrics—that there are no rules to rhythm; that you can create your own beat. Joanna Newsom makes me want to give up  routine, order and convention, and live an impulsive existence with childlike whimsy. She’s a damn talented human being.

We sailed away on a winter’s day
with fate as malleable as clay;
but ships are fallible, I say,
and the nautical, like all things, fades

4. Here’s To Now

What I really love about this song is how the ukulele strum comes microseconds off-beat, right after the word ‘Now.’ Listen closely and you’ll get sucked right into the here and now by this lagging ukulele.
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Here’s to now
Here’s to now

5. I Am Sailing – Rod Stewart

If you can get past the wind-blown mullet and the crisp-white sailor’s costume without  dying from laughter, and if you can get past the slow tempo without falling asleep (I know, it’s a lot to ask), the lyrics are enough to inspire crazy, love-fuelled adventure. But wow, that mullet, eh? He looks like a redneck dressed in a gay man’s Halloween costume. I’m not sure if he’s going to shoot me, or dance disco with me all night. Hey, I know it’s way uncool, but if the lyrics don’t tug your heartstrings just a teeny bit, check your pulse because you’re uncool. No you’re uncool. No you are.
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I am sailing, I am sailing.
home again, ‘cross the sea.
I am sailing stormy waters
To be near you, to be free

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19 Response Comments

  • Jaime  January 19, 2011 at 1:29 pm

    To be honset I had never heard of any of these songs. Very good song choices now that I have heard them. I really like “Here’s To Now”, I have heard it about 10 times already!

    I love music so much and all types of it. I love listening to a song the beat the melody and then dissect the lyrics until I know exactly what the song is about (or at least what I think it means). I’ve actually been thinking of doing a series of music post on my blog. I am going to go back to that idea and see what I come up with.

    Reply
    • Torre DeRoche  January 20, 2011 at 7:10 am

      Songs, like art, mean different things to different people and to find out the true meaning of a song would certainly rob some people of their own interpretation. Like what if ‘Gamble Everything For Love’ was really about gambling in Vegas? I’d be shattered—all those joyfully sad tears shed for nothing. Just as the guy who has sold his house to fund his gambling habit would be shattered to find out the song has nothing to do with actual gambling …

      Reply
  • The Rhythm Method  January 19, 2011 at 8:17 pm

    Do you mean a gay man wearing a Halloween costume? Or a Halloween costume where you dress as a gay man?
    I really like this list. It makes me want to walk the earth. And I had forgotten how much I like Pearl Jam. (And Rod Stewart, but don’t tell anyone).

    Reply
    • Torre DeRoche  January 20, 2011 at 7:04 am

      I mean a gay man wearing a Halloween costume. I spent Halloween in the Castro district of San Francisco once. Lots of sailors. My favorite, though, were the two men dressed in white bakers’ outfits carrying trays of brownies. They were the ‘fudge packers.’ Halloween in the Castro: is there anything more awesomely awesome? No, no there is not.

      Reply
      • Karen  January 20, 2011 at 9:34 am

        I will never look a brownie product in the same way again. Awesomely-awesome.

        Reply
  • The Rhythm Method  January 19, 2011 at 8:21 pm

    Sorry to double dip – Joanna Newsom’s lyrics and music are like fossicking through someone’s jewellery box. Beeee-autiful. x

    Reply
  • Smartree  April 7, 2011 at 3:57 pm

    Everybody have a song
    Inspire self

    Reply
  • Sorry, but no  July 18, 2012 at 3:32 am

    Stupid, popy, douchey, mainstream songs don’t inspire “adventure” they inspire yuppie, rich people vacations. Adventures have fucking dragons and swords and shit. For that you need some good ol’ Heavy Metal \m/ (>_<) \m/ See: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VBmVndzNIkI

    You normies need to stop appropriating nerd culture. Just let us have this one thing! The concept of the classic adventure is our last refuge! NERD RAAAAAGE!!!!! (seriously though knock this shit off)

    Reply
    • Torre DeRoche  July 19, 2012 at 8:46 am

      You can keep fantasy and sci-fi, I’ll keep adventure. I’ll keep my deserts, mountains and oceans, and you can keep your fucking dragons, swords, heavy metal and shit. Deal?

      Reply
  • Zephy  July 15, 2013 at 11:55 pm

    I love your blog. My blog is about adventure and I stumbled upon yours in my quest for more adventure. Thanks for writing and congrats on your book!!!
    Cheers

    Reply
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  • Emma  January 12, 2014 at 10:55 pm

    Okay these are good but Trip around the World by Alexz Johnson is the absolute perfect song to get you psyched about traveling! The title says it all 🙂

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lcy7Xff1nek

    Reply
  • Anna  August 26, 2014 at 12:35 pm

    They sound like soothing songs but I have never heard them.

    Reply
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