Pack Your Bags: A Playlist

When you need to pack your bags, this is a big bag to pack, but when your bags are unpacked, you can pack this up (or, maybe better, pack this down) into a little pack of a bag.

Hey, Meh contributor @JasonToon here. If you’re having trouble unpacking that sentence, what I mean is, this is a roller bag that folds up when not in use. See the pictures and features for more details. The important thing to me, for weekend playlist purposes, is that this product reminds me of all the songs that use the phrase “pack your bags” - "or “pack my bags” or “bags are packed” or some other variation. Here are a dozen (also compiled in a YouTube playlist) of the choicest bag-packing beats:

Johnny Cash - “Wide Open Road” (1957)
Johnny calls her bluff: “Shove off honey, baby, I ain’t grievin’ - Pack your bags and pull out this evenin’.”

Rihanna ft. Akon - “Emergency Room” (2009)
Rihanna’s gonna break your heart so bad you’ll need medical attention, but at least she had the courtesy to get “your bags packed sitting by the door.”

The Head and the Heart - “10,000 Weight in Gold” (2013)
Of course these wandering beardos follow up the line “I packed my bag for the road” with the line “I grabbed my hat.”

The Bodies - “Pack Your Bags” (1999)
America’s answer to Shane MacGowan starts this Oi!-pop stomper snarling “pack your bags, baby don’t you know / I don’t give a damn where you go,” but he’s all talk: literally one minute later he’s begging her to “please, please come back.”

Bessie Smith - “St. Louis Blues” (1925)
Back in Bessie’s day, you didn’t pack your bags. She’s “gonna pack my grip and make my getaway.”

Bob Seger - “Sunspot Baby” (1976)
“She packed up her bags” but left all her debts behind for ol’ Bob to deal with. Cold, man.

Electronic - “All That I Need” (1996)
The pairing of the Smiths’ Johnny Marr and New Order’s Bernard Sumner was never quite as good as it should have been. Maybe that’s why Bernard wants to “pack our bags and both head south.”

Rufus feat. Chaka Khan - “Pack’d My Bags” (1974)
If you start dozing off during that long piano-lullaby intro, that wailing funk chorus will wake you right up.

Trey Songz - “Pack Ya Bagz” (2010)
“You can pack ya bagz girl if ya want, but I’d rather you don’t,” Trey implores in this smooth slow-to-midtempo-jam. Maybe he can win her back by learning the difference between s and z. OOH ZICK BURN

Led Zeppelin - “Misty Mountain Hop” (1971)
“So I’m packing my bags for the Misty Mountain,” Robert Plant wails, but I’m pretty sure he’s talking about dime bags and packing bowls and other manifestations of illicit drug usage.

Sonia Dada - “You Don’t Treat Me No Good” (1992)
“I’m gonna pack up my bags and I’m gonna go away” - to the country charts, apparently, where Jerrod Niemann had a hit with a cover of this song titled “Lover, Lover”.

Spike Jones - “Pack Up Your Troubles in Your Old Kit-Bag” (1942)
To revive the spirits of a nation during World War II, Spike Jones wackied-up a big hit from World War I. Hitler didn’t stand a chance against a mean set of musical spoons.

There are thousands of others, so by all means, pack the forum with the packed-bag anthems you won’t leave home without. Like the Biaggi Zipsak, our forum will expand to hold it.