Listening to one of my new Beatles CDs in the car on the way home started me thinking about motoring lyrics and motoring song titles.
Taxman, by the Fab Four, still rings true today:
If you drive a car, I'll tax the street,
If you try to sit, I'll tax your seat,
If you get too cold, I'll tax the heat,
If you take a walk, I'll tax your feet.
Any other motoring lyrics/song titles spring to mind?
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..Avoiding ordinary boys,
Happy going nowhere,
Just around here,
In their rattling cars..
The Ordinary Boys - Morrissey
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Now the first of December was covered with snow
And so was the turnpike from Stockbridge to Boston
Lord, the Berkshires seemed dreamlike on account of that frosting
With ten miles behind me and ten thousand more to go
James Taylor - always gets me that one.
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Chris Rea - road to hell.
Written I believe in reference to the M25.
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Chris Rea - road to hell. Written I believe in reference to the M25.
Written, I believe, in reference to the River Tees in Middlesborough.
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Written, I believe, in reference to the River Tees in Middlesborough.
Not according to Chris Rea - definitely inspired by M25 journey
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Well according to Chris Rea it was inspired by the Tees in the 60's.
what does he know anyway.
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Pretty sure i read in telegraph or the mag that the road to hell was when he was stuck in traffic and it mentioned the road think it was either M40 or M4.
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www.guardian.co.uk/culture/2002/sep/13/artsfeature...1
M25 according to an interview with Chris Rea in the Gruniad.
I saw him race at Oulton Park in a Ferrari many years ago.
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... banging nails in your big black car!
(Ian Dury, Plaistow Patricia whose opening line would blow the swear filter to smithereens)
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The Doors - Moonlight Drive
The Clash - London's Burning (Hymn to The Westway)
Jonathan Richman - Roadrunner
Is my fiftysomethingness showing?
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Nice one Lud.
I think this is always a good play when you're got... well... a brand new car.
I got a brand new car
And I like to drive real hard
I got a brand new car
And I'm feeling good so far
Take her on the highway for a little spin
I want to see the kind of shape she's in
And I got a brand new star
Jack her up baby, go on, open the hood
I want to check if her oil smells good
Mmmm...smells like caviar
Give her some stick
Push her too far
Right to the brink
Jagger/Richards
Mind you some say it's not just about a car....
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"Car trouble oh yeah".
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Alexei Sayle - "Gotta new mota "
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Jonathan Richman and the Modern Lovers - Roadrunner.
Tom Robinson Band - 2-4-6-8 Motorway.
As another poster said, there's a bit of a late 40s, early 50s thing going on here.
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Had to look it up on YTube, it's actually "Ullo John, Gotta new motor...Mk 3 Cortina..."
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And you will find a few more on this thread:
www.honestjohn.co.uk/forum/post/index.htm?t=47182
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Tyro,
Was just going to mention Chuck Berry - had forgotten I'd started a motoring music thread!!
Mind you, it was 3 years ago ..........now, what was I going to say?................
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To take this back a bit, how about some Rodgers and Hammerstein?
The wheels are yeller, the upholstery's brown,
The dashboard's genuine leather.
More horse and carriageing than motoring: The Surrey With The Fringe On Top, from Oklahoma!
tinyurl.com/ydpvncd
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How about some Feeder. Cant remember the name of the song, but the lyrics go something like:
Gotta brand new car
Looks like a Jag-u-ar
Its got leather seats
And a CD player, player, player (repeat ad infinitum)
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Madness - I like driving in my car - always makes me smile
I've been driving in my car, it's not quite a jaguar
I bought it in primrose hill from a bloke from brazil
It was made in fifty-nine in a factory by the tyne
It says morris on the door, the g.p.o. owned it before
I drive in it for my job, the governor calls me a slob
But I don't really care, give me some gas and the open air
It's a bit old but it's mine, I mend it in my spare time
Just last week I changed the oil, the rocker valves and the coil
Just last week I changed the oil
Last week it went round the clock, I also had a little knock
I dented somebody's fender, he learnt not to park on a bender, ha ha ha
I've been driving in my car, it don't look much but I've been far
I drive up to muswell hill, I've even been to selsey bill
I drove along the a45, I had her up to 58
This copper stopped me the other day, you're mistaken what could I say
The tyres were a little worn, they were o.k., I could have sworn
I like driving in my car, I'm satisfied I've got this far
I like driving in my car, it don't look much but I've been far
I like driving in my car, even with a flat tyre
I like driving in my car, it's not quite a jaguar
I like driving in my car, I'm satisfied I've got this far
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How's about a Group called ... The Cars ~ www.youtube.com/watch?v=l6avuh3K_70
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Dig this 'Health & Safety' video ~ www.youtube.com/watch?v=778mkceE0UQ
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Take me out tonight
Because I want to see people
And I want to see life
Driving in your car
Oh please don't drop me home
Because it's not my home, it's their home
And I'm welcome no more
And if a double-decker bus
Crashes into us
To die by your side
Is such a heavenly way to die
And if a ten ton truck
Kills the both of us
To die by your side
Well the pleasure, the privilege is mine
"There is a light" The Smiths.
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And more from Morrisey...
Punctured bicycle
on a hillside desolate
will Nature make a man of me yet?
When in this charming car
this charming man
Why ponder life's complexities
when the leather runs smooth on the passenger seat?
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And whilst on the subject of Mancunian poets, how could I forget John Cooper Clarke?
double park - don't lock the door
push the pedals through the floor
give it loads and then some more
it's a hire car baby
grip the stick - grind the gears
watch that distance disappear
never yours in a thousand years
it's a hire car baby
hire-car, hire-car
why would anybody buy a car?
bang it, prang it, say ta ta
it's a hire car baby
bad behaviour on the street
save yourself a couple of sheets
collision rate keeps it sweet
it's a hire car baby
show this motor no respect
bump it, dump it, call collect
what else do the firm expect
it's a hire car baby
drive the pink fluffy dice anywhere
just like you don't care
put it down to wear and tear
it's a hire car baby
pray the person who hired it last
didn't drive it quite so fast
this dakarum dodgem doesn't last
it's a hire car baby
try not to kill yourself
or injure anybody else
don't forget to fasten your belts
rent it, dent it, bang it, prang it
bump it, dump it, scorch it, torch it
crash and burn it, don't return it
lost deposit, let 'em earn it
who cares, it's on the firm
it's a hire car baby
Edited by Webmaster on 16/01/2010 at 02:30
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Queens " im in love with my car"......highly appropriate for some posters on here! you know who you are
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Was going to post This Charming Man but its already being posted. One of my favourite is this one, also by the Smiths. I remember Morrissey played that at the end of the encore in Dublin circa 2004/05 and it just didn't end. There is a light and it never goes out must have gone on for 10 minutes and the music for 20. By the time people began to leave it seemed like all of Dublin was chanting those lyrics.
And if a double-decker bus
Crashes into us
To die by your side
Is such a heavenly way to die
And if a ten-ton truck
Kills the both of us
To die by your side
Well, the pleasure - the privilege is mine
Oh, There is a light and it never goes out
There is a light and it never goes out
There is a light and it never goes out
There is a light and it never goes out
There is a light and it never goes out
There is a light and it never goes out
There is a light and it never goes out
There is a light and it never goes out
There is a light and it never goes out
Also it may be obvious but what about Gary Numan's Cars?
If I listen to music when I am driving it always seems to the Cure for some reason. I find anything like the Sex Pistols, The Clash or Goldblade turns me into an aggressive Audi driver, but some how the Cure turns me into a Nissan Micra driver.
And somebody above also beat me to it! Didn't see Steve's post!
Edited by Rattle on 15/01/2010 at 21:48
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She'll have fun fun fun 'til her daddy takes the T'Bird away.
Drove my Chevy to the leveé, etc.
Ted
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Brian Wilson :). The problem now is that song has a completly different meanings, no chevy V8s, but 1.0 3 pots!
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Janis Joplin
Oh lord, wont you buy me a mercedes benz ?
My friends all drive Porsches, I must make amends.
Worked hard all my lifetime, no help from my friends,
So lord, wont you buy me a Mercedes Benz ?
Ted
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A snippet of Elastica's "Car song"
Sometimes I just can't function, my heart's spaghetti junction
Every shining bonnet, makes me think of my back on it
I just can't escape the feeling, that I'd rather be free-wheeling
In every little Honda. there may lurk a Peter Fonda
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(Nsar)Why ponder life's complexities when the leather runs smooth on the passenger seat?
You fixed Morrissey's lyrics for him - I reckon he meant to say ponder but he actually scribed and sung "pamper" - hence what should have been a brilliant line actually read " Why pamper life's complexities when the leather runs smooth on the passenger seat?"
Which is meaningless - even geniuses make mistakes! :-)
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I'm surprised nobody's so far mentioned "Autobahn" by Kraftwerk
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None of us were brave enough to appear that sad and geeky
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Studying Morrissey's lyrics are stuff that Manchester;s degrees are made off! I think it was Simon Armatage that studies his lyrics in depth. Why pamper to mean to look after in excess so in a strange way it does make sense.
However nothing that exciting ever comes up in English exams.
The odd thing about a lot of Morrissey's earlier references is to cars is that he didn't actually start driving until his later phase of life and he isn't exactly a known car lover.
To me though the best ever line will be a punctuered bycicle on a hillside... I can just imagine it happenining and then a man in a Austin Alegro Vandan Plas with leather seats stopping to him help!
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Studying Morrissey's lyrics are stuff that Manchester;s degrees are made off!
Yeah, we studied them here down south and came to the conclusion he is a miserable git, and make you want to slit your throat with his cheerful outlook on life.
He makes a lowrie painting look like a sunny day in the south of france.
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"He makes a lowrie painting look like a sunny day in the south of france."
Play a Smiths tune at a quarter speed and you've basically got Joy Division.
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erm I have She's Lost Control on my turntable right now, if I speed it up to 45 I wonder if I get the Smiths?
The thing is in Manchester miserable songs seem to pull in the crowds more anything else. We all love to dance to Joy Division or the Smiths and now it seems even the Scousers are dancing to Joy Division.
I love all that stuff, and harder stuff like Clash and Sex Pistols I am not a misserable git though.
I remember the old days when my mate first started driving and we would stick on a bit of the Smiths or Joy Division onto the way camping to Wales because it would drown out the sound of a 1.1 engine screaming.
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"erm I have She's Lost Control on my turntable right now, if I speed it up to 45 I wonder if I get the Smiths?"
No, you'd have to speed it up to about 130
"I remember the old days when..."
Rattle, you're about 19, you have no old days. We were all bored with the Smiths before you were on solids!
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Step aside BBD, I saw Joy Division support the Buzzcocks.
Beat that.
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Well I saw New Order at the Hacienda and all the way through I was standing next to Paul Cook (Sex Pistols)
Would have loved to have seen JD but probably 5 years younger than you Nsar! I have met the late and very great Anthony H Wilson though...
Edited by Big Bad Dave on 15/01/2010 at 22:52
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My best man was Al O'Pecia in the Macc Lads. Sadly now dead.
The only lyric of theirs I can think of related to motoring is
"Your Vauxhall Viva's covered in rust
But you can't...oh hang on it gets a bit salty here but the line involves the words 'bird' and 'Number 9 bus.'
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Ok I saw Gary Newman in Brighton performing Cars!
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27 actually :). I did write a long reply but it was getting far too off topic!
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To me though the best ever line will be a punctuered bycicle on a hillside... I can just imagine it happenining and then a man in a Austin Alegro Vandan Plas with leather seats stopping to him help!
There's too many good Mozza lyrics to pick a favourite, however these come close...
nothing's changed
I still love you, oh I still love you
...only slightly, only slightly less than I used to, my love
I was delayed, I was way-laid
an emergency stop
I smelled the last ten seconds of life
I crashed down on the crossbar
and the pain was enough to make
a shy, bald Buddhist reflect
and plan a mass-murder
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Try Rapture by Blondie, possibly the only track ever to mention Subaru!
Also 2 by Pink, Get the Party Started and 18 wheeler.
By the way speed humps work, drivers just have to be aware,
as for pensioners tripping over them, words fail me
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Bikerkid - you've got to be kidding about Rapture.
Surely you've The Fountains of Wayne and their seminal track '92 Subaru on shuffle?
I bought a car of couple of ladies way off state
Took of the greenpeace sticker in the middle Hempshire plates
My friends are saying that I may have made a mistake but I
I tell'em to have a little faith now fellas just you wait
Put in the new shocks and the anti-light brakes
One touch ignition for a convenience sake
And when I'm through it's gonna look and run better than new
So baby don't make a move
Because I'm coming for you
I'm coming for you
You better make way 'cos I'm coming through
In my late 92 baby-blue subaru
(and so it continues)
Alright, I Googled it...........
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One Piece at a Time - Johnny Cash.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=t1-zzJnKtDg
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'Little Deuce Coupe' by the incomparable Beach Boys.
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Just remembered a brilliant couple of lines from Little Deuce Coupe:
' it's got a competition clutch with four on the floor
and she purrs like a kitten till the lake pipes roar'
They don't write them like that any more.
Another Beach Boys one was 'Don't Worry Baby' - 'I guess I should have kept my mouth shut when I started to brag about my car, but I can't back now 'cause I pushed the other guys too far'
Don't get me going!
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Thanks Nsar, that's two Subarus then.
Anyone know a third.. Make mine a triple.
Ciao
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Seems that some of my replies have been deleted, thought I was going mad :(.
Edited by Pugugly on 15/01/2010 at 23:16
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You were wandering off topic.....you were asked - nicely.
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hello john gotta new mota
www.youtube.com/watch?v=v694rpQ1QWQ
i always see HJ when i see this song
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OK, here's a car with a musical connection in it's name...........any ideas ?
tinyurl.com/yfm36ta
Ted
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That btm pic looks someat like lady penelopes from thunderbirds
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OK here's a car with a musical connection in it's name...........any ideas ?
Made in Wisconsin......it's a Mohs Opera Sedan
the Mohs Ostentatienne Opera sedan, a car who wore its luxurious absurdity on its sleeve. Powered by a truck engine, the car could only be entered from a large, rear hatch as the long, steel bars that ran the length of the car prevented the use of side doors, and the tires were filled with nitrogen. The name of the car refers to the extras one could request for the interior, including gold inlaid instrument panels, Ming style oriental rugs, and refrigerators.
Ted
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There are some car-related singers too - the underpowered Alana Morriseight and the 4WD Suzi Quattro.
For some reason a very silly song by Val Doonican sticks in the mind:
Denny O'Rafferty's motor-car is the finest ever seen.
It used to be black as me father's hat, now it's forty shades of green....
I like the image of the upright, God-fearing Irishman with his black hat.
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' it's got a competition clutch with four on the floor
and she purrs like a kitten till the lake pipes roar'
They don't write them like that any more.
Doesn't mean they can't try. I'd been wondering just what inspired the Austin Lounge Lizards' Beach Boys-esque Hey, Little Minivan (1997):
'She's got an automatic trannie with overdrive
And the radio's tuned to Majik 95.
She gets thirty miles on a gallon of gas
And I can schlep all the girls to gymnastics class.
...
Hey, little minivan,
We're going to the grocery store.'
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Route 66 was recorded by Van Morrison, the Rolling Stones, and quite a few others.
Didn't the cheerless leftie songwriter/comedian Billy Bragg do a version based on the A13?
Or was it somebody else?
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Didn't the cheerless leftie songwriter/comedian Billy Bragg
Sorry, can't let that one pass! Leftie - yes. Cheerless - perhaps when he's talking politics, but he's quite a funny guy. Have you heard him in non-political mode? The A13 song always makes me smile.
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I like this Billy Bragg one too:
"With the money from her accident
She bought herself a mobile home,
So at least she could get some enjoyment
Out of being alone"
From - Levi Stubbs' Tears
Classic stuff.. ;o)
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Not the weather for it at the moment, but I quite like Motorbikin' by Chris Spedding.
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funky moped jasper carrot
dont listen to the b side though
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Wasn't it another motoring link - Magic Roundabout?
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Car 67, by Driver 67
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Car 67 by Driver 67
...which IIRC was the Queen Mother's favourite song that year.
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"Red Barchetta" by Rush
My uncle has a country place,
that no one knows about.
He says it used to be a farm
before the Motor Law.
And 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 50 odd years.
To keep it as new has been his dearest dream.
I strip away the old debris
that hides the shining car.
A brilliant red Barchetta from a
better vanished time.
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,
-- adrenalin surge.....
Well weathered leather, hot metal and oil, the scented country air.
Sunlight on chrome, the blur of the landscape, every nerve aware!
Suddenly ahead of me,
across the mountain side,
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, I've got 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.
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Raputure by Blondie also mentions Lincoln's & cadillacs.
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Wolf Creek Pass by Curtis McPeake and the Nashville Pickers, which I copied from a 1976 cassette onto CD ..........................
Me an' Earl was haulin' chickens on a flatbed out of Wiggins, and we'd spent all night on the uphill side of thirty-seven miles of hell called Wolf Creek Pass. Which is up on the Great Divide?
We was settin' there suckin' toothpicks, drinkin' Nehi and onion soup mix, and I said, "Earl, let's mail a card to Mother then send them chickens on down the other side. Yeah, let's give 'em a ride."
[Chorus]
Wolf Creek Pass, way up on the Great Divide
Truckin' on down the other side
Well, Earl put down his bottle, mashed his foot down on the throttle, and then a couple'a boobs with a thousand cubes in a nineteen-forty-eight Peterbilt screamed to life. We woke up the chickens.
Well, we roared up offa that shoulder sprayin' pine cones, rocks, and boulders, and put four hundred head of them Rhode Island reds and a couple a' burnt-out roosters on the line. Look out below; 'cause here we go!
Well, we commenced to truckin' and them hens commenced to cluckin' and then Earl took out a match and scratched his pants and lit up the unused half of a dollar cigar and took a puff. Says "My, ain't this purdy up here."
I says, "Earl, this hill can spill us. You better slow down or you gonna kill us. Just make one mistake and it's the Pearly Gates for them eight-five crates a' USDA-approved cluckers. You wanna hit second?"
[Chorus]
Wolf Creek Pass, way up on the Great Divide
Truckin' on down the other side
Well, Earl grabbed on the shifter and he stabbed her into fifth gear and then the chromium-plated, fully-illuminated genuine accessory shift knob come right off in his hand. I says, "You wanna screw that thing back on, Earl?"
He was tryin' to thread it on there when the fire fell off a' his cigar and dropped on down, sorta rolled around, and then lit in the cuff of Earl's pants and burned a hole in his sock. Yeah, sorta set him right on fire.
I looked on outta the window and I started countin' phone poles, goin' by at the rate of four to the seventh power. Well I put two and two together, and added twelve and carried five; come up with twenty-two thousand telephone poles an hour.
I looked at Earl and his eyes was wide, his lip was curled, and his leg was fried. And his hand was froze to the wheel like a tongue to a sled in the middle of a blizzard. I says, "Earl, I'm not the type to complain; but the time has come for me to explain that if you don't apply some brake real soon, they're gonna have to pick us up with a stick and a spoon."
Well, Earl rared back, and cocked his leg, stepped as down as hard as he could on the brake, and the pedal went clear to the floor and stayed there, right there on the floor. He said it was sorta like steppin' on a plum.
Well, from there on down it just wasn't real purdy: it was hairpin county and switchback city. One of 'em looked like a can full'a worms; another one looked like malaria germs. Right in the middle of the whole damn show was a real nice tunnel, now wouldn't you know?
Sign says clearance to the twelve-foot line, but the chickens was stacked to thirteen-nine. Well we shot that tunnel at a hundred-and-ten, like gas through a funnel and eggs through a hen, and we took that top row of chickens off slicker than scum off a Lousiana swamp. Went down and around and around and down 'til we run outta ground at the edge of town. Bashed into the side of the feed store... in downtown Pagosa Springs.
[Chorus]
Wolf Creek Pass, way up on the Great Divide
Truckin' on down the other side
Wolf Creek Pass, way up on the Great Divide
Truckin' on down the other side
Edited by L'escargot on 20/01/2010 at 07:09
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