Musical Airs

Songs inspired by the early age of flight.

  • By Rebecca Maksel
  • AirSpaceMag.com, February 19, 2009
| 4 of 15 |

Smithsonian Institution Libraries


The era of the giant airships lasted from 1900 to 1940, when the last Zeppelin was dismantled. The behemoths were the first commercial aircraft, ferrying customers across the German countryside long before airplanes. In 1900, a 62-year-old inventor, Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin, arrived on the scene. At the time of his maiden flight, Zeppelin had no practical knowledge of powered flight beyond a few balloon ascents, and many viewed his invention skeptically. “I am not a circus rider who performs for the public,” Zeppelin remarked testily. “I am doing serious work for my country.” Dirigibles would eventually become synonymous with his name.


| 4 of 15 |



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Comments (2)

I believe that, from the final sentence of this snippet from the song, you can interpret that the song's lyricist intended the title to be a shortening of something like, "My bomber and I fly high in the sky." Other than that, I'm a long time fan of this site. Keep up the great work!

Posted by Mike Burkholder on February 25,2009 | 01:27 AM

I'm not sure how my submitted comment of 2/25/09 lost its first lines but, in them, I disagreed with the author of this article. "My bomber and me" would be the grammatically incorrect form. If one were to use a pronoun rather than "My bomber and I" that pronoun would be "we" as in "We fly high in the sky." In the same vein, "My bomber and me" would need to be replaced with "us" which would result in the grammatically incorrect "Us fly high in the sky." Although it is the more colloquially popular, "X and me" followed by a verb is still grammatically incorrect. I stand with Jay Garside and his lyrics. I hope that this comment does not make me appear to be a grammar goon because I don't normally point out bad grammar but, when I see correct grammar being identified as being wrong, I feel compelled to respond. Thanks for your great website!

Posted by Mike Burkholder on February 28,2009 | 01:11 PM

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