Readers recommendMusicReaders recommend: songs about exile – results
This week you suggested songs that bring to life the longing and despair – and sometimes the hope – of displacementIf there is a geographical symbol for exile it is Babylon, where the Jewish people were deported after the conquest of Jerusalem by the Babylonians way, way back. The song Rivers of Babylon was, of course, created by Rastafarians, for whom Babylon is a synonym for oppressive systems. The Melodians wrote this song in the early days of reggae, and later it would become a disco hit thanks to Boney M.
The drama of deportation is captured beautifully – and painfully – by Dolly Parton on her cover of Woody Guthrie's Deportee (Plane Wreck at Los Gatos). Based on an accident involving a plane full of exiled illegal workers being deported back to Mexico, it's a tale of how cruel people can be to those they label as "other". The calm piano and Dolly's voice might make you emotional, as magicman testifies.
K'naan is not one for euphemisms. The songwriter, born and raised in Mogadishu and established in Canada since his family left Somalia in his early teenage years, grimly recalls the country of his childhood and its downward spiral on My Old Home. Brockdorff Klang Labor's 80s-style Festung Europa is an ironic welcome to refugees entering the continent. Could anything be better designed to infuriate those who want to pull up the drawbridge and turn away the hungry and oppressed, asks RR commenter Abahachi. The National, meanwhile, talk about an exile that "takes your mind" again and again on Exile Vilify, a suggestive piano-led account of trial, error and strength.
"Home folks think I'm big in Detroit City. From the letters that I write, they think I'm fine," sings Tom Jones, and his rendition of this song reflects perfectly the longing for home and the wish to just give up and go back. The Irish diaspora has a prominent place, with many nostalgic stories – but Kilkelly, Ireland made the cut as the definitive Irish emigrant song. It's composed of letters received by the narrator in the US from his father back in Kilkelly, and was suggested by attwilightlarks.
Manu Chao captures the desperation of the thousands of "ghosts" who live and work in European cities. They come from Peru, Africa, Algeria, Nigeria, Bolivia … It doesn't really matter, as they're all "just a line in the sea" and "alone" with their sorrow in the heart of the "big Babylon". Thankfully the exile of the townspeople of Stromness, Orkney, due to a proposed uranium mine, didn't end up happening – but that doesn't make Meter Maxwell Davies's piano piece, about the town's inhabitants leaving their beloved home, less heartbreaking.
Rufus Wainwright is voluntarily exiling himself on Going to a Town. Written in five minutes on the eve of departing from Berlin (disclaimer: he did go back), he states a total disconnect with what his country has become.
Joan Manuel Serrat's Cantares puts music to a famous poem by Spanish poet Antonio Machado, followed by lyrics by the Catalan songwriter himself. It's about political exile from Spain after the civil war and reminds us that "no one emigrates for pleasure", says Makinavaja. It includes a tremendous line that roughly translates as: "Walker, there is no path; you make the path by walking."
Fortunately, the Clash are there at the end of it all, to lead us straight to hell: "It could be anywhere, most likely could be any frontier, any hemisphere."
The playlist
1) Rivers of Babylon – The Melodians
2) Deportee (Plane Wreck at Los Gatos) – Dolly Parton
3) My Old Home – K'Naan
4) Festung Europa – Brockdorff Klang Labor
5) Exile Vilify – The National
6) Detroit City – Tom Jones
7) Kilkelly, Ireland – Robbie O'Connell
8) Clandestino – Manu Chao
9) Farewell to Stromness – Peter Maxwell Davies
10) Going to a Town – Rufus Wainwright
11) Cantares – Joan Manuel Serrat
12) Straight to Hell – The Clash
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