633 replies to this topic

[Ray Bell]

Originally posted by GMACKIE
Just for you, Ray:

You should know I only deal in factual stuff, Greg...

By the way, now the Sandman has rated a mention, what about Bobby Goldsboro's song?

www.youtube.com/watch?v=vzPaf7gDa2c

[fbarrett]

I'm a bit late to the Junior Brown party here, but he's done many great car songs. Here's a link to one of his best, "Highway Patrol": http://www.youtube.c...h?v=x_wLVCLPx0M

On the Colorado Grand one year, Colorado State Patrol Captain Larry Tolar "mimed" this song to the real recording and brought the house down!

Frank

Edited by fbarrett, 19 November 2014 - 21:26.

[Magoo]

Yes indeed, great stuff, but this is the first time I heard Junior Brown properly, on Jools Holland's wonderful late night show singing Highway Patrol



It's about cars, and it's still my favourite JB offering, so here's another one to make your Sunday morning go with a song.

You guys made me do it. Junior Brown with the 1966 Red Simpson classic, "Highway Patrol."


http://www.macsmotor...highway-patrol/

[RS2000]

That Chevy Top 100 has to be a fix. "Golden Tears" was probably in any Top Ten of Chevy-mentioning songs, especially in the Southern States. Heard Dave Rowland and Sugar sing it (as support act to Don Williams) at the Jai Alai Fronton in Daytona Beach in 1980 the night before the 500.

Oh...but then "Chevy" is used in the first line of that song as something the social climber wants to leave behind as soon as possible... and it's not a Caddy that's the car of aspiration, that's a...Lincoln! So not a favourite at GM?

Edited by RS2000, 22 June 2013 - 21:48.

[GMACKIE]

Leave me outa this!

G M

[Kingsleyrob]

Playing some summer tunes on "Rob's Retro Show" a couple of weeks ago, I thought Montego Bay by Bobby Bloom would suit our UK heatwave. I'd been listening to it and singing along too for years, since 1970 in fact, albeit mostly the "oh, oh, oh oh oh oh" bits.

Now then, I can hear you quite rightly saying that the Montego bit doesn't count as it's not referring to our favourite family saloon of the eighties, or indeed the MG Montego Turbo that I recall (perhaps incorrectly) being touted as the fastest production saloon available at the time.

So, putting the Montego bit aside, I nearly fell off me chair when I heard the second line loud and clear through my headphones:

Vernon'll meet me when the Boac lands
Keys to the MG will be in his hands
Adjust to the driving 'n' I'm on my way
It's all on the right side in Montego Bay
Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh
Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh
Come sing me La
Come sing me Montego Bay
Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh

I shall put it on specially whilst cruising in my MGB, oh, oh ohing at the top of my voice in the summer sunshine!

Rob
PS Bobby Bloom met an early end less than four years after his solitary hit, aged just 28. He shot himself whilst cleaning his gun. Careless.

[kayemod]

Keys to the MG will be in his hands

I remember singing along with that one at the time, but I sang ♫ Keys to the engine... ♫

[Kingsleyrob]

I remember singing along with that one at the time, but I sang ♫ Keys to the engine... ♫

Yes now you mention it Rob, that's what I used to sing too!

Rob

[RCH]

http://www.lyricsmod...ontego_bay.html

[Graham Clayton]

Vernon Green and the Medallions - Buick '59 (1954):

 

http://youtu.be/3LYa-93BYj0

Edited by Graham Clayton, 31 October 2013 - 10:38.

[Vitesse2]

Seeing as he's pinched my sig, here's Saudi comedian (surprisingly, that's not an oxymoron!) Hisham Fageeh's take on his country's driving ban on women: No Woman, No Drive

 

[Graham Clayton]

Paul Shanklin's "In a Yugo" - parodying Elvis Presley's "In The Ghetto":

 

[D28]

Perusing 11 pages or so. I didn't notice any reference to SW songstress   Lucinda Williams. She has penned some classic lyrics about cars and roadin, including the title song from her CD    Car Wheels On Gravel Road. That same collection includes   Lake Charles  and the great  line driving...

 

In a yellow El Camino

Listening to Howlin Wolf

 

From an earlier CD comes    Howlin At Midnight and the line...

 

Gonna get in my Mercury and drive around the world

 

Classic country song Detoit City by Bobby Bare (Mel Tillis) talks about making cars (and bars)

 

The last ride is covered by Merle Haggard and others in Long Black Limousine, while Canadian Bluegrassers
The Spinney Brothers,  explore the same theme in Sunday Drive.

Edited by D28, 23 September 2014 - 20:45.

[Slurp1955]

An excuse to bump Roger's great thread back to Page 1, Bruce Frederick Joseph Springsteen is 65 today. Quite a sobering thought. He was 28 and I was 23 when I ran into The E Street Band at Madison Square Gardens in August 1978, or rather they ran into me, and changed my ideas about what a live rock show should be. So, here's to Bruce, and all the backstreets and turnpikes and burned out Chevys on the way to Cadillac Ranch. Maybe we ain't that young anymore, and some things hurt more than cars or girls, but not much. JohnP

[Dick Dastardly]

apologies if these have been mentioned earlier, I've just seen this thread and haven't time to read all the posts...

 

"Lola" by Ray Davies / The Kinks....

 

and there's the Live Aid documentary theme tune "Driving" by The Cars.... 

[FredF1]

I've been on a Bowie binge lately so here's two more additions.

 

"Five Years"

 

A soldier with a broken arm, fixed his stare to the wheel of a Cadillac.

 

"Lady Grinning Soul"

 

She drives a beetle car

[Snakedriver]

Junior Brown did a really good cover of 409 with the Beach Boys singing back up.

 

Leo

[Pat Clarke]

'55 Ford by the Refreshments, a retro group from Sweden.  Who said RnR is dead? It just moved to Scandinavia

 

 

Pat

Edited by Pat Clarke, 09 December 2016 - 07:09.

[Kenzclass]

Probably mentioned way earlier - Harry Chapin's "Taxi":

"It was somewhere in a fairytale, I used to take her home in my car,

We learned about love in the back of a Dodge; the lesson hadn't gone too far".

 

Or the Eric Clapton number from "Money & Cigarettes" - "Rock and Roll Heart":

"I get off on '57 Chevy's / I get off on screaming guitar. / Like the way it gets me every time it hits me. / I've got a rock and roll, I've got a rock and roll heart".

 

Oh, and for Ray Bell's (way back) question re Neil Sedaka's "Wheelin' West Virginia" - he raced his MG both "down to" and "back from" MGM, seemingly on the same day.

Must have fitted a substitute for that old SU pump, or carried a decent lump of wood on board for "reliability". 

Edited by Kenzclass, 09 December 2016 - 15:50.

[Vitesse2]

Just released - 'Big Black Mercedes 600' by Marc Almond and Jools Holland:

 

[nexfast]

How about this Brazilian Portuguese version of "Road Hog" called "O Calhambeque" by Roberto Carlos;

 

 

And I think no one mentioned Cat Stevens song "I never wanted to be a star" where there is the line:
 

I never wanted to be a star

Buy my mum a Ferrari car

[Tim Murray]

Jack Hopkinson - ‘Austin Healey’

https://youtu.be/BuNzDQo2R88

(he apparently owns the only eighty-year-old Austin Healey known to mankind)

[Sterzo]

It’s impossible to remember all the songs in this wonderfully bonkers thread, and the following don’t name specific cars but they do include cars and driving for atmosphere. Tori Amos sets a road-trip story on Route 101 in ‘A Sorta Fairytale,’ while Snow Patrol have notional cars in their heads in ‘Chasing Cars.’

 

Kate Bush is skidding about in ‘Don’t Push Your Foot on the Heartbrake,’ watching the windscreen wipers in ‘Full House,’ driving with you on the seat beside her in ‘Hello Earth’, passengering in ‘Never Be Mine,’ and watching the government drive her Daddy away in a big black car in ‘Cloudbusting.’

[Vitesse2]

Listing a songbook on eBay, I've just spotted I Wanna Put a Tiger in Your Tank, written by Willie Dixon. Lyrics here as performed by Muddy Waters at Newport in 1960:

 

https://genius.com/M...our-tank-lyrics

 

There are other versions around too.

 

Not sure that's quite what Esso had in mind when they used 'Put a Tiger in Your Tank' as an advertising slogan!

[red stick]

American alternative country has given us alternative uses for the Ford Mustang. In the Old 97's song Won't be Home, a guy in the process of dumping his girlfriend out of his car (Their problems are too large for his "compact car") notes in the chorus that:

 

I was born in the backseat of a Mustang
On a cold night in a hard rain
And the very first song that the radio sang
Was "I won't be home no more"

 

 

In the Drive-By Truckers song Outfit, a father giving advice to his grown son admits that: 

 

Well, I used to go out in a Mustang, a 302 Mach One in green
Me and your Mama made you in the back and I sold it to buy her a ring.

 

Say what you want about American muscle cars, but if there are similar songs about Camaros, I haven't heard them.    

[Henri Greuter]

I don't know if this one has been mentioned?

 

In a thread at the `other forum` next door over here there was talk about the town Sausalito.

 

I mentioned over there that I knew the name of that town because there had been a record in the Ducth Charts by the group  "Diesel" (no joke)  with the title `Sausalito summernights.

 

The song is about a road trip to San Francisco in an old Rambler  `with a wormhole in the tank" (wormhole or  whirlpool)

 

 

 

 

With a buddy of mine who was also in music I had the running joke.

Before `Diesel` made a name there also had been a `Dutch group named "Turbo" but they split up in 1980. On their first album the members pose, standing around a, I think 2nd generation Porsche Turbo    (the Turbo variant of the 911 that is, there was of course by that time also the 924 Turbo by then....).

My buddy and I were joking that should the band "Diesel" be strengthened by some previous members of what once was "Turbo" it would warrant an upgrade of the band name that would be very appropriate too....

Edited by Henri Greuter, 22 March 2022 - 08:38.

[malomay]

now that this old thread has been revived.......

 

There have been a couple of Mark Knopfler songs already mentioned, those being Speedway at Nazereth & Red Staggerwing (which includes a Maserati 300s, a car of course that Mark owned & raced for many years!)

 

but there a couple of others of his....not surprising given how big a car lover he is. (I won't include all the lyrics)

 

 

"5.15 am" - from "Shangri-La", which mentions both a Mark 10 Jaguar & an E-Type Jag

 

"The Car was the One" - from the album "Get Lucky", mentions a Corvette & a Cobra,

 

Oh, and does a car sound count ?

 

On Marks soundtrack to Local Hero, the instrumental "Freeway Flyer" kicks off with the sound of a car starting up & then revving. In the movie this piece accompanied the film of a Porsche 911 Turbo....but I'm not entirely sure that it was the actual sound of a 911 on the soundtrack. I stand corrected of course if somebody knows !

 

cheers

Edited by malomay, 23 March 2022 - 03:21.

[kevins]

Just seen this so apologies if I'm repeating anything, but two that spring to mind

 

T-Rex Children Of The Revolution

 

I drive a Rolls Royce 'cause it's good for my voice

 

 

Led Zeppelin Trampled Under Foot / Brandy & Coke - no specific car mentioned but lots of car related innuendo..

 

Greasy slicked-down
Groovy leather trim
I like the way ya hold the road
Mama, it ain't no sin
Talking 'bout love
I'm talking 'bout love
I'm talking 'bout

Ooh, trouble-free transmission
Helps your oil's flow
Mama, let me pump your gas
Mama, let me do it all
Talking 'bout love, ah
Talking 'bout love, oh
Talking 'bout

Check that heavy metal
Underneath your hood
Baby, I can work all night
Believe I got the perfect tools
Talking 'bout love
Talking 'bout love
Talking 'bout

Automobile with comfort
Really built with style
Specialist tradition
Mama, let me feast my eyes
Talking 'bout love
Talking 'bout love
Talking 'bout

Factory air-conditioned
Heat begins to rise
Guaranteed to run for hours
Mama, you're the perfect size
Talking 'bout love
Talking 'bout love
Talking 'bout

Grooving on the freeway
Gauges all are red
Gun down on my gasoline
Believe I'm gonna crack your head
Talking 'bout love
Talking 'bout love
I'm talking 'bout

I can't stop talking about
I can't stop talking about

Ooh yeah, yes-ah
Drive on!

Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yes, I'm coming through

Come to me for service
Every hundred miles
Baby, let me check your points
Fix your overdrive
Talking 'bout love
I'm talking 'bout love
I'm talking 'bout

Oh yes, fully automatic
Comes in any size
Makes me wonder what I did
Before we synchronized
Talking 'bout love
I'm talking 'bout love
I'm talking 'bout

Oh-oh, feather-light suspension
Corners couldn't hold
I'm so glad I took a look
Inside your showroom doors
Talking 'bout love
Talking 'bout love
Talking 'bout
I can't, I can't

Oh, I can't stop talking about love
I can't stop talking about love

Oh, let me go on down, go on down
Go on down, go on down, go on down, yes

I can't stop talking 'bout
I can't stop talking 'bout love, hey
I can't stop talking 'bout love or my baby
I can't stop talking 'bout love, my baby
My baby, my baby, yeah!

Uh
Push
Push
Push it
Push
Push

Edited by kevins, 23 March 2022 - 15:02.

[LittleChris]

 

 

T-Rex Children Of The Revolution

 

I drive a Rolls Royce 'cause it's good for my voice

 

 

First single I bought all those years ago 

[Ray Bell]

I must admit to having bought The Newcastle Song...
 
It featured an FJ Holden with chrome plated grease nipples and twin overhead fox tails.
 
Written by some wit named Bob Hudson, it has some funny lines, though finding it on You Tube will readily reveal that the manner of expression adds greatly to the experience:
 
 
 

Dont' you ever let a chance go by, O Lord,
Don't you ever let a chance go by.

 

Yes, up in Newcastle they have very strange mating habits.
All the young women of Newcastle
walk down the main street
which is called Hunter Street
for reasons that will become obvious
later on in the song.
All the young men of Newcastle
drive down Hunter Street
in their hot FJ Holdens
with chrome plated grease nipples
and double reverse
overhead twin cam door handles,
sitting eight abreast in the front seat,
and they lean out of the window
and say real cool things to the sheilas
on the footpath, like 'Aah g'day'.
And every now and then, of course,
one of the young ladies thinks to herself
"Ummmm," she thinks
"Ummmmm."

Don't you ever let a chance go by, oh Lord
Don't you ever let a chance go by

Anyway there was this mob of blokes
driving down Hunter Street
in the front seat of the hot FJ
with chrome plated grease nipples
and twin overhead foxtails,
and the coolest of them all,
who got to sit near the window,
was young Norm.
And they pulled up outside
the Parthenon milk bar
and standing outside
the Parthenon was this beautiful looking sheila.

"Oooh! Oooh!" said young Normie
who'd come top of his class in English,
"Ooooh!" he said.
So he leaned out of the window,
and he said real, real suave like,
he said, "G'day."
This nine foot tall Hell's Angel
came out of the Parthenon milk bar,
looked at Norm and said,
"Arr, what are ya?"
Norm said. "What are you?"
Bloke on the footpath said
"D'ya want a go, do ya mate, eh?"
Norm said, "Yeah, d'you want a go, mate?"
Bloke on the footpath said
"Yeah I'll have a go!"
Norm said
"D'you know who you're picking?"
The bloke on the footpath said
"Nah, who am I picking?"
Norm said
"You find out!"
And all of a sudden there was a break in the traffic,
and as any young Newcastle lad knows-
when you're getting monstered
by a nine foot tall Hells Angel
and there's a break in the traffic....

Don't you ever let a chance go by, oh Lord
Don't you ever let a chance go by!

[wheadon1985]

now that this old thread has been revived.......

There have been a couple of Mark Knopfler songs already mentioned, those being Speedway at Nazereth & Red Staggerwing (which includes a Maserati 300s, a car of course that Mark owned & raced for many years!)

but there a couple of others of his....not surprising given how big a car lover he is. (I won't include all the lyrics)


"5.15 am" - from "Shangri-La", which mentions both a Mark 10 Jaguar & an E-Type Jag

"The Car was the One" - from the album "Get Lucky", mentions a Corvette & a Cobra,

Oh, and does a car sound count ?

On Marks soundtrack to Local Hero, the instrumental "Freeway Flyer" kicks off with the sound of a car starting up & then revving. In the movie this piece accompanied the film of a Porsche 911 Turbo....but I'm not entirely sure that it was the actual sound of a 911 on the soundtrack. I stand corrected of course if somebody knows !

cheers

The Car was the One is based on a story from Mark Donohue’s “The Unfair Advantage”.

[Pat Clarke]

To bring this thread back from the dead, here is Si Cranstoun singing Coupe de Ville.

 

 

Pat

[10kDA]

Thanks for bumping this thread, Pat.

 

I searched the thread and was kind of surprised that I did not find the Yardbirds' "I Ain't Got You" with its opening lines of "I got a Maserati GT... With the snakeskin upholstery..."

 

https://youtu.be/-_MgnyQXwoI

 

Then there is Billy Boy Arnold's version with entirely different taste in cars: "I Got an Eldorado Cadillac... With the spare tire on the back..."

 

https://youtu.be/84VaBBGHpK8

 

... and though I don't have a recording, I used to work with a female vocalist who mashed it up into "I got a Cadillac El D...With the snakeskin upholstery..."

 

I liked hers best.

[Pat Clarke]

Hardly the epitome of great music, but here is the Continentals with Thunderbird...

 

 

Pat