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Songs About Cars & Trucks
Mr_Shiftright
Member Posts: 64,481
in General
The automobile is part of our culture, and it
creeps into just about everything we
do....including song writing.
I'm starting to collect what I hope will become a
sort of "Master List" of popular songs that are
either directly about a car, about driving, or
about a journey by car, truck, bus (four wheels or
more only, sorry you bike freaks) you name it. It
could be as specific as Tom Waits' "Ol' 55" (no,
trivia buffs, it wasn't a Chevy!) or as obvious as
"Little Deuce Coupe" or Janis Joplin's "Mercedes
Benz"...name all you can...I'm sure there are
hundreds I don't know, especially in the newer
head-banging music, so if you can be specific about
the title and singer(s), that would help. (Who
sang that line....oooooo...drivin' my life
away...etc?)
thanks for the help!
creeps into just about everything we
do....including song writing.
I'm starting to collect what I hope will become a
sort of "Master List" of popular songs that are
either directly about a car, about driving, or
about a journey by car, truck, bus (four wheels or
more only, sorry you bike freaks) you name it. It
could be as specific as Tom Waits' "Ol' 55" (no,
trivia buffs, it wasn't a Chevy!) or as obvious as
"Little Deuce Coupe" or Janis Joplin's "Mercedes
Benz"...name all you can...I'm sure there are
hundreds I don't know, especially in the newer
head-banging music, so if you can be specific about
the title and singer(s), that would help. (Who
sang that line....oooooo...drivin' my life
away...etc?)
thanks for the help!
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Comments
409
Beach Boys have a whole plethora...
I'll keep listening see if I can get a bunch for ya.
Lies a rusted old shell of an sutomobile,
And if engines could run on desire alone,
That old yellow car would be driving me
home"
Red something...
Help me guys...
"My uncle has a place, that no one knows about...
They say it used to be a ____, before a motor lodge....."
Tells a whole story about him racing this old car that his uncle kept under wraps.
Awesome song....damn...it's on the tip of my tongue....
Red Barchetta
My uncle has a country place
That no one knows about.
He says it used to be a farm
Before the Motor Law.
On Sundays I elude the Eyes,
And hop the Turbine Freight
To far outside the Wire
Where my white-haired uncle waits.
Jump to the ground
As the Turbo slows to cross the borderline.
Run like the wind
As excitement shivers up and down my spine.
Down in his barn
My uncle preserved for me an old machine
For fifty-odd years.
To keep it as new has been his dearest dream.
I strip away the old debris
That hides a shining car,
A brilliant red Barchetta
>From a better vanished time.
I fire up the willing engine
Responding with a roar.
Tires spitting gravel,
I commit my weekly crime.
Wind
In my hair
Shifting and drifting
Mechanical music
Adrenaline surge...
Well-weathered leather,
Hot metal and oil,
The scent of country air.
Sunlight on chrome,
The blur of the landscape,
Every nerve aware.
Suddenly ahead of me
Across the mountainside
A gleaming alloy air-car
Shoots towards me, two lanes wide.
I spin around with shrieking tires
To run the deadly race
Go screaming through the valley
As another joins the chase.
Drive like the wind
Straining the limits of machine and man.
Laughing out loud with fear and hope
about a desperate plan.
At the one-lane bridge
I leave the giants stranded at the riverside.
Race back to the farm
To dream with my uncle at the fireside.
Old Ferrari, sounds like...now be sure everyone to pronounce it correctly, ...it's bar-KETT-a, not CHET as is Chet Baker (and don't say "who's that?" or you lose 10 jazz points...)
"Hot Rod Lincoln" by Commander Cody and his Lost Planet Airmen.
"Son, you gonna drive me to drinkin',
if you don't stop drivin' that Hot Rod Lincoln"
Aretha Franklin, Freeway of Love
Prince's "Little Red Corvette"
Probably the only gloomy and paranoid song that'll make your list....
Song: "I'm in love with my car"
- ooooooooooooh The machine of a dream,such a clean machine.
With the pistons a' pumpin', and the hub caps all gleam.
I'm in love with my car, got a feel for my automobile.
.......Told my girl I'd have to forgert her, rather buy me a new carburettor. So she made tracks now saying this is the end now, cars don't talk back there just four wheeled friends now...
I've been runnin' down the road tryin to loosen my load, got seven women on my mind.........
... she was hotter than a $2.00 pistol
fastest thing around, long and lean
every young man's dream, turn every head in town!
... she was built and fun to handle son,
I'm glad that you dropped in, she reminds me of
the one I loved back then.
"...but when i'm in my car, don't give me no crap
cause the slightest thing and i just might snap
when i go driving i stay in my lane
but getting cut off makes me insane..."
You can thank me later.
"Goin' Mobile" (The Who)
Songs specifically about driving/vehicles
1. Jackie Brenston (sp?): "Rocket 88" argued to be one of the first rock and roll songs from the late 40s
2-3. Brian Setzer Orchestra: "Ghost Radio" (from Guitar Slinger - about a trucker hearing an old song during a storm) and Switchblade 327 (from The Dirty Boogie - drag racing a 32 Deuce)
4. Chuck Berry: "No Particular Place To Go"
5. Steppenwolf: "Born To Be Wild"
Songs with a "good driving rhythm"
6. Isley Brothers: "Shout 1 & 2"
7. George Thorogood: "Treat Her Right"
8. almost anything by Van Halen up to the "1984" album
9. Kinks: "Destroyer" - still the best guitar riff on Earth
10. Kinks (or Van Halen): "You Really Got Me" - the second best guitar riff
11. Rolling Stones: "Jumping Jack Flash" - mostly from the scene with Michael Keaton in the movie "Night Shift"
12. Kingsmen: "louie Louie" - no explanation should be needed
Or "Dead Man's Curve", or "Beep Beep"...
You know, come to think of it, I have a three CD collection at home called "Legendary Hot Rod Hits". I'll post the song list when I get home (unless you think that takes the fun out of this).
"And if my heart was a car, you would have stripped it a long time ago.
And if my heart was a car, you would have stripped it down and sold it off to the greasy man in the salvage lot, but as it is it's just a heart, and no, no, it ain't worth nothin'."
"Going the distance" by Cake on the Fashion Nugget album.
"Take me for a ride in your truck, Mack
take me for a ride in your Mack truck
take me for a ride
take me for a ride
take me for a ride
in your truck, Mac"
Thunder Road -- I think...
As for songs to drive to, my all-time favorites are "TROUBLE" by Travis Tritt (maybe my Mustang and I identify with it), anything by Stevie Ray Vaughn, and "American Girl" by Tom Petty.
And who could forget "On the Road Again" by Willie Nelson?
ZZ Top's Greatest Hits CD gets me going every time. Listen to their version of Viva Las Vegas (with The King in the background) and I'm doing 90 mph!
Bhelper, where did you get that Hot Rod Hits CD? Please, put up the list of songs!
Hal
I saw a CD Saturday that was a Harley Davidson road song collection of country songs. That's where I got the oh-duh for "On the Road Again." I'd tried to block it out of my head too, Mr. Shiftright.
two othe tracks on ZZ's Greatest Hits (also a staple in my console):
- Under Pressure - if that doesn't conjure up "Sunday! SUNDAY! SUNDAY!" from any drag race commercial, nothing ever will
- Planet of Women (I know, I know) - but the bassline is very conducive to shifting... sorta like 2 lines per gear
My theme song since owning a truck has been a country oldie called "Give Me Forty Acres And I'll Turn This Rig Around" but I can't remember who sang it. Maybe someone else will know it -
"Give me forty acres and I'll turn this rig around
It's the easiest way that I've found.
Some guys can turn it on a dime or turn it right downtown,
But I need forty acres to turn this rig around."
And no one mentioned Willy Nelson's "On The Road Again?"
What was the song, who did it?
"Rusty Old American Dream" by David Wilcox?
"I'm a tail-finned road locomotive
From the days of cheap gasoline,
I'm for sale by the side of the road
Goin' nowhere...
Rusty Old American Dream"
(best line a little later in the song--)
"Don't let me die here all alone..."
" The door handles are off but, you know I'll never miss them, thy open when I want with a solenoid system"
The song was:
Cherry Cherry Coupe
The Beach Boys
Disc: 1
1. Beep Beep - The Playmates
2. Fun, Fun, Fun - The Beach Boys
3. Mr. Eliminator - Dick Dale & His Del-Tones
4. King Of The Wheels - The Bobby Fuller Four
5. Bucket T - Jan & Dean
6. Little Honda - The Hondells
7. 409 - The Beach Boys
8. Three Window Coupe - The Rip Chords
9. Beach Buggy - The Shutdowns
10. Dead Man's Curve - Jan & Dean
Disc: 2
1. Hot Rod Lincoln - Charlie Ryan
2. I Get Around - The Beach Boys
3. Scavenger, The - Dick Dale & His Del-Tones
4. She Rides With Me - Paul Petersen
5. Drag City - Jan & Dean
6. Little Deuce Coupe - The Beach Boys
7. Squad Car - Eddie & The Showmen
8. Hey Little Cobra - The Rip Chords
9. Schlock Rod (Part 1) - Jan & Dean
10. Wheels - The String A Longs
Disc: 3
1. Ballad Of Thunder Road, The - Robert Mitchum
2. Shut Down - The Beach Boys
3. In His Car - Robin Ward
4. 40 Miles Of Bad Road - Duane Eddy
5. I Gotta Drive - The Matadors
6. Little Old Lady From Pasadena - Jan & Dean
7. Custom Machine - Bruce & Terry
8. G.T.O. - Ronny & The Daytonas
9. Mag Wheels - Gary Usher
10. Dragster - Johnny Fortune