Ten For Today: Tourists
Les & Mary, Los Pepes, Lou Ragland, Mighty Creoles, Lord Kitchener, Steve Martin, Murray Head, King Sunny Ade, Ray Davies, Parquet Courts
September 27 is World Tourism Day, which is a day designated by the United Nations World Tourism Organization to raise awareness of the role of tourism in the world. It started in 1980, and seems to have been designed to underscore the economic impact of traveling to places where you don’t live, as well as the role that tourism plays in forging a deeper understanding across cultural differences. There are a number of problems/concern/paradoxes inherent in all of this of course, because, as we have discussed before, NOTHING IS EASY.
Last summer, residents of a small town in Austria set up a blockade to protest “overtourism” (a new buzzword). Last fall, a couple of Vermont towns closed some roads leading to the most Instagrammable foliage spots in the state, and they will do it again this year. And in Barcelona this summer, the locals were squirting tourists with squirt guns to protest their presence. This last one does not surprise me, because I have been to Spain several times, and I have never been in a Spanish city where some member of our touring party wasn’t mugged or the vehicles with all the musical equipment weren’t broken into. The locals might want to interview me for their anti-tourism ads. I would say, “Come to Barcelona for a once-in-a -lifetime mugging! Come for the Gaudi, stay for the Shakedown! Come and stimulate our economy by handing over your money and phone!” Back in my touring days, Vancouver had similar vibes, which was really hard to square, because Canadians are so NICE.
Venice is at the epicenter of fighting overtourism, recently instituting fees and limits, which don’t seem to be having much impact. I haven’t been to Venice, but I have been to many other Italian cities, not as a tourist, but as a worker on tours of formerly-soon-to-be-famous musicians. If you read the obituary I wrote for myself last year, you know that I am not the most patient person. So Italy was a schiaffo in faccia. You’d show up for the gig at the appointed time, and there would be no p.a., and you’d ask about it, and the guy would say, “Yes, yes, it is coming. Have some wine!” I would say, “No, thank you, I don’t drink.” He would say, “It’s only wine! Have some! Sofia! Bring us some prosciutto! Rest! Let me regale you with tales of how hard I partied with your peers and contemporaries!” (I paraphrased that last sentence.) The p.a. would show up an hour before the arranged show time, and then the soundman would sit and have some wine. And then the 9 p.m. show would start at quarter past midnight.
Boston is of course a big tourist destination. Everyone wants to come and see the bank robbers, heavy drinkers, pasty white backwards ballcap-wearing bros, and long-suffering wives and girlfriends depicted in The Departed and The Town. I am of course kidding. Of course I am. Boston is a great place to visit. Just not on St. Patrick’s Day. Or in February. And you REALLY want to avoid Cambridge during the Harvard/Yale game in case entitlement is contagious. But otherwise, it’s great, and tourism generates $1.9 billion in tax revenue in Massachusetts, and creates a lot of jobs.
The notion of “tourist” is a pretty common songwriting device to evoke a feeling of being a stranger in a strange land, and TBH, I wish more actual tourists behaved that way.
Anyway, I’ve strayed (but never too far). Here are Ten For Today: Tourists.
I need to listen to this one the next time I am on a train. It’s from 1955.
I am not 100% sure what “gachi” means in this context. It could mean prostitute. It could mean skirt. It could mean a prostitute in a skirt. Maybe it’s better we don’t know, so we can simply concentrate on the fact that it’s Spanish ye-ye, it swings, and it’s from 1967.
Girl! It’s not like he didn’t tell you up front in 1967 that he travels alone.
I have to wonder if this was commissioned by the Jamaican Tourism Bureau in 1977.
I KNOW this 1977 release was NOT commissioned by the tourism bureau.
I had to. You understand. I mean he gave his life for tourism. This actually happened on live television in 1978.
I do hope you never run into this guy. You should be fine as long as you don’t travel in 1984.
This came out in 1988, and I can’t tell you anything about the lyrics – I assume this is in Yoruba, but African Music Forum seems to make the case that we are all tourists and the trip is life. This makes sense to me. Also, there’s a word in there that sounds a LOT like Italy, so maybe KSA also has complaints about Italian promoters.
I am not sure old Ray holds the tourists in the highest esteem. Here he is on Austin City Limits in 2008 performing a song released in 2006.
Finally, I am not sure if tourism is a sin, and if it is, I am not sure if it’s a venial or mortal sin, but this 2018 song is pretty fatalistic. And it has a good beat!
As we have discussed before, my traveling days beyond where I can drive are more or less over, though I do want to get back to Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island which will probably require a flight, because the drive is too long, and I will never, ever get on the ferry again. But that’s a totally different post. If YOU go anywhere, please note that I DO love postcards from exotic places. Have a great day. Be kind to the tourists.
Joyce
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