"Roadrunner" & Other Drivin' Tunes
-
Artist:The Modern Lovers
-
Album:The Modern Lovers
-
Track:Roadrunner
I'm in a mix club where twelve people mail CD mixes. One is assigned to each month. A lot of people have to drive somewhere for 4th of July weekend, so I thought I'd do this. What songs would you add?
The weekend I started working on my mix, the mother of a colleague at work passed away. A musician who played piano and organ at various south side Catholic churches, she was born to musicians who were accompanists at the Roseland movie theater. Oh, and she also had seventeen (17!) children. The Tribune obituary said,"Sometimes, the stress got to her, and Mrs. Ward would leave after her husband returned home from work." "She never told us where she went," said her son Tom. "She'd just drive."
No freakin' doubt! I could imagine her barrelling down the highway with the radio cranked up, road raging, flippin' the bird at slower drivers, just blowing off steam. As a good Catholic church singer and mother, perhaps not. Who knows, however, as she never let her family witness this personal time. As a music lover, there's little doubt that the radio would have been a part of her driving time. Music and driving are essentially linked in the American cultural fabric, much more so than places like Europe, where everything isn't so dang far away. I just hope she had some decent tunes to drive to.
Today's radio is a hit and miss affair, mostly miss, and stuffed up the wazoo with commercials, unless you have XM. My road trips are infrequent, rarely more than a couple a year. With gas prices the way they are, and environmental concerns, driving for fun is no longer an option for mere entertainment. However sometimes you have to get from here to there, and you need a soundtrack. For my last trip to a June wedding in Iowa, I put together a seven volume mix. It's hard to make just one perfect CD for a roadtrip, and with over ten hours round trip, you need more. I did remember a mix tape I made when I got my first car after college being nearly perfect. I actually found it! On listening to it again, it was far from perfect. I called it "Roadrunner & Other Drivin' Tunes," but forgot to include "Roadrunner"! It also had songs from bands like Bone Club that didn't age well, and Hendrix's overly long, sluggish blues jam, "Voodoo Chile." There's some classic rock songs by The Doors, Deep Purple and AC/DC, that are classic driving tunes, but you can hear those on the radio.
I tried to boil down 7 volumes to one, but I couldn't do it. So I ended up with a double CD mix. The first is songs about driving and travelling. Disc 2 is songs that simply sound good while driving. My preference is for sprawling epics with dramatic crescendoes, or sometimes just rhythmically hypnotic ones that chug along. Be careful with those selections if you are getting sleepy. Hopefully this arrives in time for one of your summer road trips. If not, they should work just as well for train rides or running. Please don't wear headphones if you bike. There's a few songs about death in the mix, but I don't want anyone dying while listening to it! This mix is made specifically for driving or crappy boombox speakers. Meaning, I matched the levels of the quiet songs to the most compressed, loud mixes such as The Who and The Stooges. So the dynamics should be pretty consistent, and work well in a car with road and wind noise. A good alternative for biking is a backpack with built in speakers. Here's an updated version of my Osiris G-Bag - http://www.danscomp.com/730017.php#
Possibilities for Vol. 3
Dick Dale & His Del-Tones - Hot Rod Racer 63
The Who - Leaving Here 65
The Rolling Stones - Route 66
Them - Mystic Eyes 65
Small Faces - Runaway 65
The Animals - See See Rider 66
Willie Mitchell - That Driving Beat 67
The Velvet Underground - All Tomorrows Parties 67
The Velvet Underground - Heroin 67
The Velvet Underground - European Son 67
Jimi Hendrix - Crosstown Traffic 68
Van Morrison - Madam George 68
The Velvet Underground - Sister Ray 68
Rolling Stones - Midnight Rambler 69
Rolling Stones - Gimme Shelter 69
Can - Mother Sky 69
Alice Cooper - Black Juju 70
Alice Cooper - Under My Wheels 70
Velvet Underground - Rock 'n' Roll 70
The Stooges - Dirt 70
The Doors - L.A. Woman 71
The Doors - Riders On The Storm 71
Deep Purple - Speed King 71
The Temptations - Papa Was A Rolling Stone 72
Modern Lovers - Old World 72
Neu! - Hallogallo 72
Can - Spoon 72
Patti Smith - Gloria 75
Patti Smith - Land 75
Bruce Springsteen - Backstreets 75
Bruce Springsteen - Born To Run 75
Curtis Mayfield - Junkie Chase 72
Kraftwerk - Autobahn 74
Queen - It's Late 77
The Buzzcocks - Moving Away From The Pulsebeat 77
Christopher Cross - Ride Like The Wind 79
Stiff Little Fingers - Johnny Was 79
AC/DC - Highway To Hell 79
X - The World's A Mess It's In My Kiss 80
The Feelies - The Boy With Perpetual Nervousness 80
The Feelies - Moscow Nights 80
The Feelies - Loveless Love 80
Talking Heads - Listening Wind 80
X - The Hungry Wolf 82
The Bongos - In The Congo 82
Stan Ridgeway - Drive, She Said 85
The Ramones - Chasing The Night 84
The Woodentops - Get It On 86
The Jesus & Mary Chain - Who Do You Love 86
Eleventh Dream Day - Tenth Leaving Train 88
L7 - Til The Wheels Fall Off 90
Swervedriver - Son Of Mustang Ford 91
Swervedriver - Last Train To Satansville 93
The Breeders - Drivin' On 93
Spoon - 30 Gallon Tank 98
Queens Of The Stone Age - Regular John 98
Eels - Woman Driving, Man Sleeping 01
Eleni Mandell - Don't Lose My Trail 02
Black Heart Procession - A Sign On The Road 02
Queens Of The Stone Age - You Thin I Aint Worth A Dollar 02
Queens Of The Stone Age - God Is In The Radio 02
Sonic Youth - Rain On Tin 02
Sleater-Kinney - Let's Call It Love 05
Comments (18)
Good list...some other songs that fit the "songs about cars/driving" theme...
Convoy, CW McCall
Detroit Rock City, Kiss
Shakin', Eddie Money
Let's Go, The Cars
Drive, REM
No Cars Go, Arcade Fire
Jesus Built My Hotrod, Ministry
"L.A. Woman" on repeat would get me through a good 60 miles of jammin' down the highway.
You have that intro effect that sounds just like a car accelerating, leading right into a rhythm that is the perfect aural equivalent to watching other cars, painted lines, street signs pass endlessly through your field of vision.
Why isn't that cassette playing for me? I want to hear it!
...Oh..wait, it's not a Muxtape?...You mean. It's the real deal!? My how I've forgotten. Doesn't get more authentic than that!
Great mix no doubt. And the church lady, mother of 17 story had me crackin' up.
(I really, really need to do that post about Big Daddy...)
Others that come to mind:
Joan Jett did two excellent covers of Roadrunner - one is on The Hit List, her album of covers of songs that influenced her.
The Kinks - Life on the Road, Motorway
Bill Kirchen - Big Mac's Off the Blocks, Hot Rod Loncoln
Commander Cody - Lookin' at the World Through a Windshield, Hot Rod Race (duh), The Truck Stop at the end of the World, Semi-truck
The Ramones - Rockaway Beach
Dickey Betts - Waitin' for a Train
Jason & the Scorchers - Pray for me Mama (I'm a Gypsy Now), Lost Highway
Click here to go to my website.
No one's recognized the front cover photo yet? First person who tells me what it's from gets a PM on how to access some of the mix on my ftp server!
Some great suggestions. I'll be adding a few songs that I had no business forgetting, like "Jesus Built My Hotrod" and Joan Jett's cover, which I have on CD. Groon had a similar post that's prompting me to relisten to Can's "Oh Yeah" - http://mog.com/Groon/blog_post/169050
Repo Man
Yep! Surprising how few of my friends recognize it. I mean, that cop has "about to be vaporized by the aliens in the trunk" written all over him! Two other images I would have liked to use were the smoking boots, and the car flying off into the night, but I didn't have time to rent the movie to get stills.
I think Heroin and driving don't mix. Although there is a Roky Erickson live version that is really accelerated and I wish to hell I still had.
Other drivin tunes that come quickly to mind:
Hendrix - Highway Child
Cramps - Get Off The Road
Violent Femmes - Gimme The Car
Springsteen - Further On Up The Road (although, of course, you could do a whole car mix with just Bruce and Chuck Berry)
The Pretty Things - Roadrunner
Dead Moon - Down The Road
Joe Ely - The Road Goes On Forever
Steve Earle - Roadmaster
Radio Birdman - New Race
The Dictators - Cars and Girls
Roy Loney - Down The Road Apiece
And you went with a Beefheart song that refers to another planet instead of one that mentions a Merc Montclair. But I can understand - them big eyed beans can get ya down the road quick.
17 kids? I can barely handle three!
That's a pretty serious list you got goin' on there. I've lately been a big fan of the Germans when it comes to this (as my own post on the subject probably made clear). You have a lot of other great choices. Autobahn was one I considered, and Can's "Spoon" is another great choice. I like the Talking Heads tunes you mentioned, but I would also recommend "The Great Curve" from the same album. Heavy, driving rhythms really make the miles go by when this one is blaring out on the radio.
If you're into electronic music, Underworld is great for driving as well. I put them on my mixwit, too. One act I didn't include is the Chemical Brothers. Their music was made for the road, IMO (well, the clubs, really, but the road is a great surrogate for their sound). Their album Dig Your Own Hole is basically one great driving CD.
I have in fact commuted to "Spoon" by Can, on repeat, many a time.
Surprisingly, I appear to be the first to suggest "I'm Waiting for the Man." That'd be my go-to Velvets number.
How can I get my very own set of Driving CDs? Should I stand by for a toll-free number and order before midnight tonight?
Years ago, we had to go through our vinyl and do ALL the work...pick out the tracks..go buy some quality cassettes...SIT THROUGH EVERY TRACK...label the tape box...track by track.
With the advent of the iPod and Zune (any mp3 player), there's no need for mixtapes. They ARE mix tapes. All you gotta do is put it on shuffle and technology does it for you.
It's a new world. There's even websites where you can make playlists available to the entire world!!...and beyond? So, it's ALL taken care of now.
SOME sites even have a desktop app that makes a list of what you listened to FOR YOU.
I won't miss the mixtape. it hasn't gone anywhere. it's just evolved.
Gosh really? What are these MP3s you speak of?
The person who is not me, who started this mix CD club, had a good point -- mp3s have destroyed the art of making mixes. Just like email has undone the art of letter writing. The new world is what it is, but it isn't always better. Because mp3 mixes are easier also often mean that they're half-assed. Meaning, much less thought and planning go into them.
The mix tape (we used CDs mainly because a lot of people no longer have working tape decks) is an object that immediately has memory attached to it. It's often of a well thought-out theme, be it wooing a girl or giving a personal, annotated narrative to a friend with elaborate cover art.
As nice as it is to have a hard drive stuffed full of a half million MP3s, I've missed real mixes with stories to go with them. So far I've gotten 8 of them from the club and they're all awesome. You should try it and be reminded of what you're missing.
I guess you aren't old enough to remember tape hiss...or, like me...you chose to forget it.
I'm plenty old, enough that I'm lucky to remember anything. Like Dolby Noise reduction. Not that it was really necessary. Tapes were perfect for cars, because there was too much road/engine/wind/traffic noise to notice any hiss.
Either way, you're still missing the point.
Don't forget:
"One of These Days" by Pink Floyd
The whole album "King of The Road" by Fu Manchu
"Saving Grace" Tom Petty
"Running Down a Dream" Tom Petty
"New Moon" MC 900 ft Jesus
"Passenger" Iggy Pop
"Jerry Was A RAce Car Driver" Primus
wow that mix club sounds like a fab idea.
i am writing down all these requests right now!
great list!
Why don't we do it in the road? - The Beatles / White Album