‘Mongolia Loves Puff Daddy’

Travel Blog  •  Michael Yessis  •  09.27.05 | 4:30 AM ET

Michael Wolgelenter has a terrific, laugh-out-loud essay about music as a travel touchstone in Sunday’s San Francisco Chronicle.

It starts off with this passage:

There is a place where the hits from the ‘70s and ‘80s just keep coming with relentless ferocity. It’s a place where the guitar solo still rules, where appreciation for sickly-sweet harmonies is unchecked, where you’ll never have to wait too long to hear something by Toto.

That place, unbelievably, is Peru.

Within 48 hours of landing in Lima, we had heard Peter Frampton’s “Baby, I Love Your Way,” “Don’t Go Breaking My Heart,” by Elton John and Kiki Dee, “The Piņa Colada Song,” by Rupert Holmes and much, much more. Sweet mother of an Incan god, was Casey Kasem elected president while I wasn’t looking?

The piece is more than a series of great riffs. It adds up to a nice payoff, and I recommend it whether or not you’re a music snob.



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