Happy is he who
Journeyed far and wide,
Who turns homeward,
Seasoned in the ways of men
To claim his own
And there, in peace abide
– Translation of “Happy the Man” by Joachim du Bellay
Home – leaving it or returning to it after a long absence has inspired some of the most heart-felt songs in modern times – from Dvorak’s Going Home melody from his 1893 New World Symphony to Michael Bublé’s 2006 hit, simply titled “Home”. Featured below are a selection of home-themed songs. To add a bit of nostalgia, most of the songs featured here were written before 1980. All have become modern classics.
TAKE MY HOME, COUNTRY ROADS (Bill Danoff)
Almost Heaven, West Virginia
Blue Ridge Mountains, Shenandoah River
Life is old there, older than the trees
Younger than the mountains, growing like a breeze
Country roads, take me home
To the place I belong
West Virginia, mountain mama
Take me home, country roads
The first line of John Denver’s song “Take Me Home, Country Roads” calls West Virginia “Almost Heaven,” and when you’re up in the mountains, that description can feel pretty accurate. But these winding country roads were immortalized by someone who had never been to West Virginia! Bill Danoff, who co-wrote the song in 1971 with Taffy Nivet (whom he married a year later), played a rough draft of “Country Roads” in a gig in Washington D.C. one night with his pal, John Denver, who jumped in and insisted that he must perform the song. “John’s biggest contribution to anything at that point was just his enthusiasm: ‘Well, let’s finish it!'” Danoff recalled heartily. “You know, at 1:00 in the morning, 1:30, you know? ‘Let’s get it!'” And they stayed up late, collaborating on the version that hit the airwaves 50 years ago, launching Denver’s career as one of the most popular folk-pop singers in the 1970s and 1980s.
“We can think about the song as being about any place – it names West Virginia, but it doesn’t have to,” said West Virginia University assistant professor Sarah Morris. She has been studying the global impact of “Take Me Home, Country Roads.”
BACK HOME AGAIN (John Denver)
He’s an hour away from ridin’
on your prayers up in the sky
Ten days on the road are barely gone.
There’s a fire softly burning,
supper’s on the stove
It’s the light in your eyes
that makes him warm
Hey, it’s good
to be back home again
Sometimes this old farm
feels like a long lost friend
Yes, and hey, it’s good
to be back home again
The second and third stanzas of this folky song by John Denver speaks of the simple joys of being home, around the company of friends and family. The song was released as a single from his album of the same name in 1974. It peaked at number five on the Billboard 100 Chart in November of that year and was Denver’s fifth Top ten hit on the pop chart. The song became the inspiration of a 2017 musical directed by Sheldon Epps with the same name that tells the story of a young soldier’s journey home to his family and first love. When the war-torn veteran finds himself face to face with his past, he must reconcile the life he left behind before his bright future can begin. The musical featured this and other John Denver classics including Annie’s Song and Leaving on a Jet Plane and was performed in the Lesher Center for the Arts in Walnut Creek, California.
HOME TO DONEGAL (Patsy Cavanagh)
The lights of London are far behind
The thoughts of homeland
are crowding my mind
Familiar places, come in to view
I see my home now, soon I’ll see you.
We’ll talk to the old folk,
they’re getting on
Treat them to late nights,
sing a few songs
We’ll talk of the neighbours
and life in the town
There’s so much to tell them,
the days fly around.
Patsy Cavanagh is a well-known Irish singer-songwriter hailing from Greencastle in county Donegal. Over the years, many of his songs have being covered by various stars of Irish Country Music. But undoubtedly his biggest hit is Home to Donegal for which he was awarded a special Irish Music Rights Organization award to “mark the long-standing contribution his song has made to Irish music circles.” Home to Donegal has been recorded in America. Australia, Denmark, Norway plus numerous versions in Ireland and Britain. Here is Nathan Carter singing Home to Donegal with his characteristic powerful vocals.
CALEDONIA (Dougie MacLean)
Oh Let me tell you that I love you
that I think about you all the time
Caledonia you’re calling me
now I’m going home
Caledonia is among the all-time classics of Irish music. Written by Dougie MacLean in 1977, the song became the most popular of all MacLean’s recordings and something of an anthem for Scotland (or Caledonia, the Latin name given by the Romans in times past). The song has been sung by a great number of artists. Here is a rendition by Nathan Carter.
GREEN, GREEN GRASS OF HOME (Claude Putman Jr.)
The old hometown looks the same,
As I step down from the train,
And there to meet me is my mama
and my papa. Down the road I look
and there runs Mary, hair of gold
and lips like cherries.
It’s good to touch the green,
green grass of home
Yes, they’ll all come to meet me,
Arms reaching, smiling sweetly
Oh It’s good to touch
the green, green grass of home.
A man returns to his childhood home for what seems to be his first visit there since leaving in his youth. When he steps down from the train, his parents are there to greet him, and his beloved, Mary, comes running to join them. They meet him with “arms reaching, smiling sweetly”. With Mary, the man strolls at ease among the monuments of his childhood, including “the old oak tree that I used to play on”, feeling that “it’s good to touch the green, green grass of home”. Abruptly, the man switches from song to speech, as he awakens and sees “four grey walls” surrounding him and realises that he is in prison. As he resumes singing, we learn that the man is waking on the day of his scheduled execution. He sees a guard and “a sad old padre” who will walk with him to his execution at daybreak, and then he will return home “in the shade of that old oak tree, as they lay me ‘neath the green, green grass of home”.
This 1965 song, written by Claude Putman Jr., was immortalized by the Welsh singer Tom Jones who recorded while performing in New York in 1966. It reached No. 1 on 1 December, staying there for a total of seven weeks. Countless singers have performed the song, including the legendary Elvis Presley which you can hear in this 1975 recording.