by Hawaii, March 1993. A red Magnum shirt, a newly bought portable CD player, and two very different musical companions: Elvis Presley’s Blue Hawaii and Dean Evenson’s Ocean Dreams.
The shirt was only part of the story
If you have read the story of my first American adventure in Hawaii, you already know about the red shirt from the Tom Selleck Collection. Seventy-five dollars towards becoming Magnum P.I. Unfortunately, the Ferrari was not included.
But there was another purchase on that trip that deserves a place in the story. Right next door to my hotel in Waikiki, I bought a portable CD player.
A small detail, perhaps. Yet walking around Waikiki and elsewhere in Hawaii with my own music made the trip even more enjoyable. The shirt belonged in the photographs. The music belongs in the memory.
Elvis, Ocean Dreams and Waikiki
Two names come back to me when I think of that player: Elvis Presley’s Blue Hawaii and Dean Evenson’s Ocean Dreams.
That was my Hawaii soundtrack. Not a playlist assembled afterwards to fit the photographs, but music I actually listened to while I was there, exploring on my own in March 1993.
There is something rather wonderful about travelling alone with music. You are discovering a place for yourself, yet you have a familiar companion along for the walk. In my case, those companions were Elvis and Dean Evenson. Quite a different travelling party from the one waiting back in Munich.
Before the whole world fitted in a phone
Today, carrying music on a journey seems almost too ordinary to mention. In this memory, though, the player itself matters: a portable CD player, newly bought in a shop right next door to a Waikiki hotel.
No carefully researched shopping expedition required. I had travelled all the way from Germany to Hawaii, and this little part of the adventure was waiting next door.
The red shirt may have been my more visible attempt to enter the Hawaiian dream. The CD player gave that dream a soundtrack.
The photographs show one part. The music brings back another.
My longer Hawaii story follows the journey through Oahu, Maui and Big Island. This is a smaller memory tucked inside it: walking, listening, and enjoying being there.
That is what I want to keep here in Music Along the Way. Not simply a list of records I like, but the connection between music and the places where it became part of my life.
Every trip has its own soundtrack. For Hawaii in 1993, these are two of the names on mine.
Listen along
Listen to the whole Blue Hawaii album by Elvis Presley: open the album on Spotify, or choose YouTube Music, Apple Music or another service.
Explore Ocean Dreams by Dean Evenson on Soundings of the Planet’s official Bandcamp page.
Follow the Hawaii story
For the red shirt, the islands and my first encounter with America, read Trying to Look Like Magnum P.I. in Hawaii? For a later chapter of the Pacific journey, continue with Return to Hawaii: Passport Control, Polynesia, and the End of a Dream.
The Ferrari never arrived. At least the music did.
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