Transportation often symbolises escape, planning, routine and adventure, amongst many more metaphorical correspondences.
From songs about public transport, to bikes, walking, flights, trucks and getaway cars, we’ve collected some unique songs about transportation from a number of genres and eras, covering it all no matter where your destination may be!
Songs About Transportation
1. The Jam – Down In The Tube Station At Midnight
The Jam’s 1978 rock single, Down In The Tube Station At Midnight, illustrates the chilling, downcast nature of the London Underground in its many forms
From the unkempt, dirty passageways, to violent, late night altercations, The Jam capture the bleakest aspects of public transport with a striking flair of realism;
“The distant echo of faraway voices boarding faraway trains… The glazed, dirty steps, repeat my own and reflect my thoughts, cold and uninviting, partially naked except for toffee wrappers and this morning’s papers.”
2. Queen – Bicycle Race
This iconic Queen track turns its hyper-focus on bicycles into a metaphor for escaping society in all its forms.
Detailed with bicycle bell samples, this quirky, operatic rock-pop song intersperses its chorus’s childlike simplicity with clashing opinions styled to reflect the feeling of social separation fuelling the narrator’s need to rebel;
“You say ‘smile’, I say ‘cheese,’ ‘Cartier,’ I say, ‘Please,’ ‘Income tax,’ I say ‘Jesus!’ I don’t wanna be a candidate for Vietnam or Watergate, ’cause all I want to do is … I want to ride my bicycle, I want to ride my bike, I want to ride my bicycle, I want to ride it where I like.”
3. Styx – Boat On The River
Naming after the River Styx, the mythological river separating the living from the dead, it’s no wonder this boat song is an eerie classic.
This folksy pop track from 1979 floods its lyrics with the ancient emotional symbolism of water, painting a serene scene of a man fleeing his troubles on a river journey, backlit by a natural aura of darkness lurking closely in the recent past;
“The river it touches my life like the waves on the sand, and all roads lead to Tranquillity Base, where the frown on my face disappears. Take me down to my boat on the river and I won’t cry out anymore.”
4. Dierks Bentley – Drunk On A Plane
Dierks Bentley’s contemporary country hit, Drunk On A Plane, is grounded in a loose story of being stood up on your wedding day. Instead of resigning in pitiful misery to a long and lonely flight back home, the narrator lives out his fantasy wedding after-party with strangers on a plane;
“Buying drinks for everybody but the pilot, it’s a party… I’m up so high, I may never come down, I’ll try anything to drown out the pain, they all know why I’m getting drunk on a plane.”
5. Taylor Swift – Getaway Car
Soaked in an array of swelling synths, Taylor Swift’s 2017 album track, Getaway Car is a metaphor for evading reality by submersing yourself in the initial bliss of a relationship.
But this is also a song about realising you can’t escape the truth forever, with Swift’s narrator reflecting upon the blinding love she felt which has since dissolved, revealing every mistake she has made;
“X marks the spot where we fell apart, he poisoned the well, I was lying to myself, we never had a shotgun shot in the dark… No, nothing good starts in a getaway car.”
6. The Snowman – Walking In The Air
From the classic Christmas animation, ‘The Snowman,’ Walking In The Air is a vintage, hymn-like pop track summoning a retro winter wonderland scene through its lyrics. This song captures a magical moment of flight and adventure into the impossible against a hauntingly serene soundscape;
“We’re walking in the air, we’re floating in the moonlit sky… I’m holding very tight, I’m riding in the midnight blue… Far across the world, the villages go by like dreams, the rivers and the hills, the forests and the streams.”
7. Colton Dixon – Build A Boat
Colton Dixon’s 2022 pop track, Build A Boat, is anchored in the Biblical story of Noah’s Ark, telling the first-hand tale of Noah constructing a boat from faith;
“I will build a boat in the sand where they say it never rains, and I will stand up in faith, I’ll do anything it takes, with Your wind in my sails, Your love never fails or fades.”
Dixon’s transportation theme is carried by a plethora of allusions to exploration and guidance, each woven into a tapestry inspired by Christian belief; “You’re the map, You’re my compass, You help me navigate the currents underneath, take the lead, I surrender.”
8. Tim McGraw – Truck Yeah
Tim McGraw’s country rock anthem, Truck Yeah, synonymises trucks with the South, devising a song about taking pride in your country roots.
In the classic style of his genre, McGraw lists an array of Southern stereotypes from cold beer drinking to hill-billy family get-togethers, shamelessly adopting them in celebration of his roots;
“Friday night football, Saturday Last Call, Sunday Hallelujah, if you like it up loud and you’re hillbilly proud, then you know what I’m talking about … And if you think this life I love is a little too country, truck yeah.”
9. Rascall Flats – Life Is A Highway
Taken from Disney Pixar’s ‘Cars’ soundtrack, Life Is A Highway captures the pop-rock feeling of freedom found while driving on the open roads. Embellished with wild-hearted elements of country music, this track empowers the audience on their own adventure through life;
“There’s a world outside every darkened door, where blues won’t haunt you anymore, where brave are free and lovers soar, come ride with me to the distant shore … Life is a highway, I wanna ride it all night long.”
10. C.W. McCall – Convoy
Saving the weirdest song for last, C.W. McCall’s 1978 release, Convoy, is centred in an almost Wild Western atmosphere, mirroring its corresponding themes of old-school war and Southern exploration.
Centred in a story of convoy truckers alerting each other to police patrols and upcoming toll-gates, McCall threads his country soundscape with CB radio transmissions and spoken word verses, conjuring an artful sense of realism within his track