I started building model airplanes when I was in the third grade. Those good old Comet brand kits–balsa, sticks, tissue–for ten cents, twenty-five cents, fifty cents, or (OMG!) a dollar as wingspans increased.
Despite messes around my bedroom worktable, cut fingers from my father’s old razor blades, and clothing ruined with glue drips, the final products—hanging from a ceiling string or trashed in a backyard crash—were all memorable parts of my growing up. Building things, reading plans–maybe that’s why I became an architect!
My favorite models were what I called “double wingers” and I still wax nostalgic when I see, on rare occasions, a biplane buzzing overhead.
Open cockpit, spinning propeller, one wing above and another below—those were REAL airplanes! Or, as they were called in the early days, “aeroplanes.”
So much for youthful reminiscences! Now, back down to the ground with our musical musing of the week!
Airplanes, aeroplanes, airships, aviation, and aviators—aviatrixes too—have featured in imagination even here in our Happy Valley of Western Massachusetts.
They have also appeared as well in popular music since the early 1900s and fanciful depictions of aircraft have appeared on sheet music covers since then.
Needless to say, the romance of flight captured the attention (if not the technical understanding) of Tin Pan Alley. The result was a great number of “aeroplane tunes,” using the spelling of the day. And, to a certain extent, some of the early aeroplanes on the sheet music covers were rendered fairly accurately.
Let’s get into the “aeroplane mood” by listening to a ragtime piano version of this tune from the early 1900s. Tap or click on the triangle in the next image or link to hear this one.
Here’s another oldie, this time with some lyrics.
Click or tap on the triangle in the next image for a listen to this scratchy tune from well over a hundred years ago.
Other aeroplane cover drawings were decidedly inaccurate! Imagination took flight, so to speak.
Some of these did have lyrics, of a sort.
Here’s a jazz band version of this blues tune with folks cavorting high in the air on a rather wobbly surface. Click or tap on the next image/link to dance along with this one–sans contorted wings, of course!
And, some aeroplane covers were imaginatively weird!
The adventure of flying and traveling by air–“fixed wing” or “lighter-than-air”–was a popular musical theme.
Here’s another hapa haoli take on air travel to that exotic destination–Hawaii! Click or tap on the next image or link to join the adventure!
How about the musical movies?
Click or tap on the triangle in the next image for a scholarly discussion of an aeroplane as a stage!
There was also a plethora of patriotic aviation-themed songs, particularly during the World War I era.
How about a ukulele version of this patriotic tune? Tap or click on the next image or link to hear and see some really nice fingerpicking of this oldie!
And, of course, there was romance high up in the sky! What, no autopilot?
I just couldn’t pass up one more ragtime piano take, and on an aeroplane tune too! Click or tap on the triangle in the next image or link to follow the music on this oldie.
Click or tap on the triangle in the next image/link for a listen to this one. This time with lyrics.
Now here’s a novelty song from the 1920s that warns a young lady that she might have difficulty thwarting the advances of an ardent suitor while in an aeroplane. Click or tap on the triangle in the next image or link to listen to the warning!
And, of course, this is probably the one aeroplane song that most of us have heard a few hundred times over the years.
Click or tap on the triangle in the next image or link to hear the original 1910 recording of this flying chestnut! The period graphics are a real treat.
Above all, aeroplane and aviation songs—like the automobile songs that soon outnumbered them—are part of our musical history. Enjoy looking back. But, don’t look down!
So, do you remember the good old pre-TSA days when flying was both easy and glamorous? Those were the good old days when we could easily hop into a waiting aeroplane (more likely a plain old airplane) and do our traveling and visiting in comfort and style!
Remember when flying was like this?
Ah, well. Plan an aeroplane trip anyway . . . and STAY TUNED!
By the way, how many of you remember this one? Click or tap on the triangle in the next image to reminisce. Don’t forget your goggles!
Do you still have your tin membership badge?
NOHOBANJO OF NORTHAMPTON, AND NOW EASTHAMPTON, "MUSICAL MUSINGS" 