Musical Airs

Songs inspired by the early age of flight.

  • By Rebecca Maksel
  • AirSpaceMag.com, February 19, 2009
| 9 of 15 |

Smithsonian Institution Libraries


U.S. Navy officer Richard Byrd and his team circled the North Pole in their Fokker F.VII tri-motor Josephine Ford (named after the daughter of Edsel Ford, the expedition’s co-sponsor, along with John D. Rockefeller), on May 9, 1926 (although his accomplishment was later disputed). The Landauer collection boasts a number of songs celebrating individuals in addition to this 1926 march and two-step honoring Byrd; the 1927 transatlantic solo flight of Charles Lindbergh is immortalized in at least 60 songs. Others are dedicated to such famous fliers as Eckener, Coste, Chamberlin, Levine, Earhart, and Blériot. "Top of the World" (visit this page or link directly to the MIDI file to hear the song play)


| 9 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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