History Main / HomesicknessHymn

* "Blue Bayou" by Music/RoyOrbison is about a man who's moved off for working reasons, and all he can think about is saving up money so he can return to this friends and family on Blue Bayou.
* "Homeward Bound" by Music/SimonAndGarfunkel is another entry in the "musician on tour misses their home and their lover" format, as it comments on how empty the road starts to feel after a while.

* In the CampingEpisode of the children's cartoon ''3rd & Bird'', [[MoodSwinger Muffin]] sings a song about how she wants to go back home. Every verse ends on the phrase "[[HulkSpeak Muffin want to go home!]]"

** While the song doesn't offer any specifics on where he is, "Take Me Home, Country Roads" is about a man who misses his home and family in West Virginia, in the Blue Ridge Mountains by the Shenandoah River [[note]] which, for geography buffs, is specifically in Jefferson County, WV [[/note]], and is driving to get there as fast as he can.

[[folder: Bluegrass]]

* ''Series/SesameStreet'': Invoked in the song "I Don't Want to Live on the Moon", where Ernie sings about all the cool places he'd like to visit...but only if it means he'll return home to his friends.
-->''Though I'd like to look down at the Earth up above''
-->''I would miss all the places and people I love''
-->''So although I may go, I'll be coming home soon''

It's become something of a cliche to say "the world is getting smaller." While the world isn't physically shrinking, improving technologies of communication and travel make planet Earth seem like it's not such a big place after all. That feeling fades away rather quickly, however, when you've been away from home for awhile and, for whatever reason, cannot get back there at will. When you become homesick, even a relatively small distance can seem endless.

* "Homeward Bound" by Music/SimonAndGarfunkel is another entry in the "musician on tour misses their home and their lover" format, as it comments on how empty the road starts to feel after awhile.

* "Turn the Page" by [[Music/BobSeger Bob Seger and the Silver Bullet Band]] (and later famously covered by Music/{{Metallica}}) is one of rock's most vivid examples of road fatigue, as it's told from the perspective of a world-weary, burned-out musician who's grown sick of being on the road and just wants to get home and be away from that life for awhile.

* "Two More Weeks To Go" by The W's is about the band's experience touring, and all the little things that grate on you after awhile -- namely, playing the same songs ''ad nauseam'' and being crowded into a tiny tour van. "Two more weeks to go / then we can go home!"

[[folder:Live-Action TV]]

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Madeline}} and the Gypsies'' has "Home, Home, I Want to Go Home," sung by Madeline and Pepito while in a lion costume for the circus they are traveling with. Near the end, as they are heading back to Paris by train, it gets a TriumphantReprise as "Home, Home, We're Going Home."

* Discussed, but ultimately averted in ''Theatre/ThoroughlyModernMillie''. Millie mentions that folks back home in Kansas thought she would sing one of these when she moves to [[BigApplesauce New York]]. She considers it after she is mugged, but quickly comes to the conclusion that she is still way better offf than she would've been if she had remained in Kansas.

--> ''Desperado, you ain't getting no younger''
--> ''Your pain and your hunger, they're driving you home''
--> ''And freedom, oh freedom, that's just some people talking''
--> ''Your prison is walking through this world all alone''

* The song ''How to Make Gravy'' by Paul Kelly is sung from the perspective of a man who's in jail over Christmas and wishes he could be back at home with his family.

* In ''Theatre/WonderfulTown'', Ruth and Ilene sing "Ohio" as they struggle with adjusting to life in New York City. In the bridge, Ruth points out that they ''hated'' living in Ohio, but then they go back to reminiscing after being disrupted by the roar of the subway below their apartment.

* The musical version of ''James and the Giant Peach'' has "On Your Way Home." James, who has only just come to the Painswick Orphanage after the death of his parents, meets a ladybug and grasshopper and tells them they're lucky they can leave when he can't. The song that follows is James wondering how nice it must be to be able to fly away from such a miserable place and ask the two insects if they have families waiting for them when they get home. What makes this utterly heartbreaking is, as James watches the two insects depart, he asks, "May I hold onto your wings and come too?" as he is desperate to find a loving family again. Thankfully, by the end of the play, he does.

* "Home" by Music/FooFighters is about longing to be home, but the song refers not only to literally being away from home, but the feelings of loss and heartache that come with moving on to new stages in life.

* ''Literature/TheBible'' records songs the Jews sang after being taken into captivity in Babylon, making this trope OlderThanFeudalism. Psalm 137 is one such song, containing the following excerpt:: "By the waters of Babylon, there we sat down and wept, when we remembered Zion. On the willows there we hung up our lyres. For there our captors required of us songs, and our tormentors, mirth, saying, 'Sing us one of the songs of Zion!' How shall we sing the LORD's song in a foreign land?"

* Music/{{Journey}} has a handful of examples:

* Music/{{Enya}}'s B-side "I May Not Awaken" takes this UpToEleven. "So far from home" is a recurring line, and the narrator's crushing homesickness and frustration at having gotten lost prove to be the main reasons why she [[spoiler:falls over the DespairEventHorizon and [[DrivenToSuicide possibly kills herself]].]]

* ''The musical version of "James and the Giant Peach" has "On Your Way Home." James, who has only just come to the Painswick Orphanage after the death of his parents, meets a ladybug and grasshopper and tells them they're lucky they can leave when he can't. The song that follows is James wondering how nice it must be to be able to fly away from such a miserable place and ask the two insects if they have families waiting for them when they get home. What makes this utterly heartbreaking is, as James watches the two insects depart, he asks, "May I hold onto your wings and come too?" as he is desperate to find a loving family again. Thankfully, by the end of the play, he does.

* The musical version of "James and the Giant Peach" has "On Your Way Home." James, who has only just come to the Painswick Orphanage after the death of his parents, meets a ladybug and grasshopper and tells them they're lucky they can leave when he can't. The song that follows is James wondering how nice it must be to be able to fly away from such a miserable place and ask the two insects if they have families waiting for them when they get home. What makes this utterly heartbreaking is, as James watches the two insects depart, he asks, "May I hold onto your wings and come too?" as he is desperate to find a loving family again. Thankfully, by the end of the play, he does.

* "Don't Cry" by Elvira T is about her missing her hometown of Saratov despite its flaws.

* "I Want To Go Home" from the ''WesternAnimation/ThomasTheTankEngine'' special, ''WesternAnimation/JourneyBeyondSodor'', has Thomas singing about how he misses his fiends and home while being held captive in a Steelworks factory.