2. Bruce Springsteen - State Trooper
The guitar chugs along dutifully at a medium pace, the lyrics echo and fade, and the Road comes into stark, nighttime relief. He's running from something, though he won't say what. "I've got a clear conscience / About the things that I've done." Already you know that whatever he's done can't be good. Judging fom the sound of the song, it's probably pretty grisly. The fact that he doesn't have a license or registration is the least of his problems. This is the ultimate example of the dark side of the Road, a place of temporary and uneasy refuge for people with something big to hide.
3. Neil Young and Crazy Horse - White Line
Ok, so we've covered the trucker and the outlaw, and now the spurned lover. Neil starts out talking about how "You took my love / And put it to the test," and then jumps without unnecessary explanation to the statement, "That ol' white line is a friend of mine / And it's good time we been makin'." He doesn't seem to be going anywhere special. He's not making good time to Chicago, or California. Making good time is a goal in itself, especially when you need to get away from the wrong woman. Meanwhile, the impossible volume of the band churns your ears to butter. A harsh, bitter, overlooked classic.
4. The Flying Burrito Brothers - Wheels
I remember a recent commercial for some car company (I can't remember which), and the tag line was, "It's not just a car, it's your freedom." There's something sad about that. The Flying Burrito Brothers say, "We've all got wheels to take ourselves away," and they don't even try to mask the sadness and duality behind that freedom. Together with telephones, which help us "say what we can't say," the modern devices we use to connect ourselves can also remove us from others. It's a double edged sword. Is this freedom or alienation? When you "feel your time is almost up" and "destiny is in [your] right hand," one of the greatest freedoms you can enjoy/regret is jumping in your car and driving away. It's all there in the song, from one of the first and best bands to consciously combine rock and country.
Article comments
1 - Uncle H
Great list of road songs! But I must add the best of the whole bad bunch: the Triffids "Wide Open Road" (from their 1986 album "Born Sandy Devotional"). Triffids were not an American band, but they do have roads in Australia too you know.
(Posted by someone who doesn't even have a drivers licence...)
2 - BJ
Great topic. God, I hope it's not a lost art just yet.
Don't forget:
I'm a Lonesome Fugitive (Merle Haggard)
Diamonds on my Windshield (Tom Waits)
Six Days on the Road (any version except Sawyer Brown's - personally, I'd take Gram & Emmylou)
Anything by Friends of Dean Martinez (more road songs without lyrics ... specifically, road songs for mojave desert)
BJ
3 - Elsa Grassy
Wow! I thought I was the only one on this earth to be obsessed with road songs! I'm actually writing a pre-doctorate thesis on them (any kind - truck songs, hobo songs, train songs...).
So if you happen to have anything to say about this subject, if you're willing to share information about the art of singing the road, or even if you just have a comment to make, please SEND ME A MESSAGE!!!
vivelsa@yahoo.fr
Thanks!
4 - Mike
link for downloads doesn't work. seems to have been hijacked by meds dealer.