Songs About Cars & Trucks

manchild · June 1999

There's an indie band named Blue By Nature that has a song at MP3.com called "Cadillac Blues." You can download it here:

http://www.mp3.com/artists/10/blue_by_nature.html

I once tried to write a song called "Acura Girl," but I gave up when I realized nobody knew what "Type-R lovin'" was...

Mr_Shiftright · June 1999

True...name's not quite sexy enough for a romantic ballad...but you could be the first...

interrupt · June 1999

Chuck Berry: The great twenty eight CD

You Can't Catch Me
No Paticular Place To Go

But the grand hot rod song IMO is......

Maybellene... play that song in a race
and you'll never lose

guitarzan · June 1999

Cool truck song: Convoy

Mr_Shiftright · June 1999

I wish we could hear some of these...any of these tunes on the net somewhere? There are some I have never heard, but would like to, or at least a sampling.

Did we mention Tom Waits' "Phantom 309"?

guitarzan · June 1999

Did you see a select few can be sampled at Amazon.com? And if you search just for the songs, there may be samples of a particular song on another compilation album.

solobare · June 1999

In the vein of "Beep Beep"... I suggest adding "There's a Diesel on my Tail". Cool song about a driver of a sub-compact who cuts off a tractor trailer rig on the highway.

One line:

There's a diesel on my tail making 90 miles an hour;

fezo · July 1999

"Diesel on My TAil" is a great tune -
"There's a diesel on my tail, making 90 miles an hour
My reflection in the mirrow's mighty pale
I can here St. Peter callin'; I can almost smell the flowers
Can this compact take the impact?
There's a diesel on my tail..."

And the verses are just as good!

In the alt.country vein, try Fred Eaglesmith - he does a lot of car tunes. Just has a new album "50 Odd Dollars" wit at least two great ones
- "Alternator":

Well I got a littlr pickup
used to be a Ford
she's quite a little sweetie
got a four on the floor
other fellas used to race me
but they don't anymore
cause lately at the red line she just stalls
nothing happens when I put it to the boards

Might be the alternator
could be the coil..."

and "Mighty Big Car" -

"Elvis had one and so did Hank
They don'y look like money
they look like the bank
make a scene every time you stop it
ride like a dream go like a rocket..."

Lots of other good stuff both on this and previous albums.

Also try the Austin Lounge Lizards "Hey Little Minivan."

And check out the car songs on www.cartalk.com

Steve

fezo · July 1999

Everyone run out of songs?

Hello???

stumack · November 1999

Gotta love "Beep Beep" by the Playmates...the ode to the Nash Rambler. Man, you NEVER hear Thunder Road by Bob Mitchum (not the Springsteen song)

There was thunder, thunder
Out on Thunder Road
His engine was the thunder
And white lightning was his load
There was moonshine, moonshine
To quench the devil's thirst
The lawmen said they'd get him
But the devil got him first.

Mr_Shiftright · November 1999

Great....NASCAR should make it their anthem don't you think?

edharri3 · February 2000

When I'm cruisin in th Ranger I love to pop in my Joe Diffie CD and crank it up to play 'Pick Up Man."

You could set my truck on fire
roll it down a hill
I still wouldn't trade it for a coupe deVIlle

How true, how true

Mr_Shiftright · February 2000

Me, neither!

sebringjxi · July 2000

Radar Love from Golden Earring for fast driving. What about the Beach Boys song from Still Cruising' "In My Car"

Here's just a few lyrics,

When I'm behind the wheel
Horses of gas and steel
The highway is my home
In fiberglass and chrome
Fantasy car shiny Corvette
Let's take a ride you can't forget
Come on pretty lady ride with me

In my car
I'm captain of my destiny
In my car
Pretty babe come cruise with me

Come for a drive
And we'll arrive
Feelin' alive

I'm master of my fate
When I accelerate
My new Vette is my throne
When on the road we roam

I especially like that line, master of my fate, when I accelerate! Begs for a big block V8 with a howling 4 barrel!

Enjoy,

Hal

Pulpfictionado · August 2000

jeff88 , that's a great song persid, ditto

rabidbowtie · December 2000

Ok, here's a few more recent songs for your list:

Foreigner: Rev on the Redline
Jet Boy: Heavy Chevy
Sammy Hagar: Trans Am
Sammy Hagar: I Can't Drive 55
Deep Purple: Highway Star (generic references to a car in 2 verses)
Bruce Springsteen: Born to run (some cryptic car references)
Bruce Springsteen: Racing in the Street
Warren Zevon: Don't know the name of the song - it was featured in the Short Story "King of the Road". The lyrics don't make any sense ... a 57 Chevy with a 429? What??? a Ford engine?

Mr_Shiftright · December 2000

Lots of car songs get the facts wrong...at least "Little GTO" got the right CID and 3X2 carbs!

speedshift · December 2000

it was written by Pontiac's ad agency and reviewed by Jim Wangers.

carphoto · February 2001

By George Harrison. Beginning of the song is the start of the British GP. Great cranked up with headphones. I have a CD done by Nick Mason, drummer for Pink Floyd and a major vintage car collector/racer. He did DAT recordings of race cars from the early 1900s up to a 90's F1 car. The V16 BRM on full song will vibrate the fillings out of your teeth!

Cheers

tombayer · February 2001

Well it happened on the strip
where the road is wide
two cool sharks sitting side by side
yea my fuel injected sting ray and a 413
we're revving up our engines
and it sounds real mean
declining numbers at an even rate
at the count of one we both accelerate
yea my sting ray is light the slicks are staring to spin but the 413's really digging in
gotta be cool now power shift here we go
pedal's to the floor hear his dual quads ring
but now the 413's lead is starting to shrink
he's out with ram induction but it's understood
I got a fuel injected engine sitting under my hood
shut it off shut it off
buddy now I shut you down
shut it off shut it off
buddy now I shut you down

well that's sorta how it goes, there may be some mistakes, I'm typing this from memory

carnut4 · February 2001

to "Shut down" sitting in high school physics class back in 1963. There was a guy who had what he thought was a hot 59 Ford with a 292 engine and a 3-speed stick-burned oil, etc. Another guy had a hot 265 in a 56 Chevy. The lyrics we made up were a riot-sung to the tune of "Shut Down". We laughed and laughed-we were supposed to be working on a lab experiment. Needless to say, we didn't get good grades in Physics-but we sure wrote some good lyrics to "Shut Down" about a few of the local clowns. Those lyrics, and some drawings to go with them, are tucked away in an old notebook somewhere...

isellhondas · February 2001

Well..you were close.

It's "two cool shorts", not sharks.

And the 413's really digging in.

Great song, though.

I think my favorite was "Three window Coupe" by the Ripchords.

" My little three window don't look like much, till I get on the gas and I pop the clutch"

jeffer2 · April 2001

"Hot Rod Lincoln" by Commander Cody and his Lost Planet Airmen
"409" - Beach Boys
"Under My Wheels" Alice Cooper (more about him running over his nagging girlfriend but ..) It really gets your adrenline going.
"Fun, Fun, Fun" Beach Boys
"Mercury Blues" - can't remember who did this one.

bhill2 · April 2001

Several people have mentioned Hot Rod Lincoln, but this was actually a follow-up to another song. Remember the opening lines (more or less) "You've heard the story of a hot-rod race / where a Ford and a Mercury were setting the pace". That refers to an earlier song named (I think) Hot Rod Race. It began

Me and my wife and my brother Joe
Took off in my Ford for San Pedro
We hadn't much gas and the tires were low
But that doggone Ford could really go.

The story goes on to tell of him racing a Mercury that he came up to, until suddenly he saw something coming up on both of them "humming along at a terrible pace / and I knew right then it was the end of the race". Anyway, the song ends with "When it flew by us I turned the other way / It was a kid in a hopped-up model A". That was the hot-rod Lincoln.

gitarzan · April 2001

Todd Rundgren's Something/Anything? album has a tune called LITTLE RED LIGHTS. Great song. Lotsa guitar growling like an engine revving.

"You got to ease into line boy
But once I hit the open road
I'll be sailing off and on my own

You and me in my GT
With those little red lights in front of me
When I go to heaven you know that's where I want to be

Would you please fill it up boy
I'd like to stop and catch myself a bite
but I sure hate to leave the road tonight"

Instrumental in 3 movements: 1st, 2nd, and 3rd gear.

"And when I'm racing the clock
You know that I would die or kill somebody
just to move this hunk of steel one more block"

Spoken (with mild disdain as one gropes for the
stick):

"I think I see a little red light in my rear view mirror"

A terrific case ensues, resulting in many highway
statistics and ultimately, the realization of the
desire expressed in the chorus. RIP

rabbitrun3 · April 2001

Anybody mention the Dean Milkmen's "Bitchin' Camaro"?

Also...
Mr. Shiftright: You mentioned a David Wilcox song... you probably know this one, too. It's about a motorcycle, but it is still fantstic: harrowing, haunting, and yet respectful of the thrill of speed.

Eye of the Hurricane

Tank is full, switch is on
Night is warm, cops are gone
Rocket bike is all her own
It's called a hurricane

She told me once it's quite a ride
It's shaped so there's this place inside
Where if you're moving you can hide
Safe within the rain

She wants to run away
But there's nowhere that she can go
Nowhere the pain won't come again
But she can hide
Hide in the pouring rain
She rides the eye of the hurricane

Tell the truth, explain to me
How you got this need for speed
She laughed and said "it might just be
The next best thing to love."

Hope is gone and she confessed
When you lay your dream to rest
You can get what's second best
But it's hard to get enough

We saw her ride so fast last night
Racing by a flash of light
Riding quick, the street was dark
A shining truck she thought was parked
It blocked her path, stopped her heart
But not the hurricane

She saw her chance to slip the trap
There was just the room to pass in back
But then it moved, closed the gap
She never felt the pain

rabbitrun3 · April 2001

Mr_Shiftright · April 2001

Yes, I do know that David Wilcox song. He does a great job singing it, too.

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