Ever since I left home for college in my dad’s old diaper brown Chevy Caprice, I realized that music was an essential requirement for any kind of road trip. I had used some of my summer job money on an aftermarket 8-track player and had enough left over to buy exactly three tapes: Axis Bold as Love, Stooges’ Fun House, and David Bowie Live (and about 3/4 ounce of decent weed). I played those tapes until they wore out. The weed didn’t last quite as long.
As the decades have passed, I have tried to perfect the art of the driving playlist to suit my particular needs and um, predilections. First, there needs to be that special song for takeoff. Something that changes your frame of reference from stationary to motion.
Now that you’re rolling, you need a little something to inspire pedal meeting metal and make you forget that you’re hurtling through space at 85 mph in a questionably maintained sheet metal missile with bald tires and a busted tail light.
Now you’re in gear and it’s time to shake the dust off. Have a little of that coffee. For this part of the trip, I like to put on my meshback cap and giant wallet with the chain attached to my belt and imagine I’m behind the wheel of one a them big Peterbilt 389s hauling logs.
For really long trips, I have scientifically determined that the finest driving music is krautrock. Something that really eats up the miles. Get that white-line trance going and become one with the road and the universe.
Finally, you’ve reached your destination. Now it’s time to downshift, stop grinding your teeth and calm yourself for whatever adventure awaits. Open the window for a while so the smell of that skunk weed wears off before you have to meet people.
So, what is your traveling music? I don’t care if you’re behind the wheel, on a train, plane or riding the ‘Hound. I know you got something. Spill.
DISCLAIMER: Always wear your seatbelt, remember buzzed driving is drunk driving, and in the immortal words of Warren Oates from the classic driving film TWO-LANE BLACKTOP, “Thank you for your support of Deadsplinter and DUAN.”
Wow, well done. I can’t take the time to hit all those stations right now, but they are dead on. And I’ll contribute to the krautrock miles:
Can – Mother Sky
When I go on long drives or road trips I don’t have a playlist. I just shuffle all the music on my iPod (yes I still use an iPod) and skip whatever doesn’t fit my mood at the time.
I will say though that this is one of the songs I have to listen to.
Smokey’s Cruisin’ is essential.
I like to start off slow…Black Box Recorder – The Art of Driving
I try to Drive Friendly
I try to tell my friend not to drink & drive but He Drives a Volvo
but when I need to get somewhere fast, I Can’t Slow Down
and my German driving music, is more on the techno side, I love to drive at night to this album…
…I think one of the reasons I never really got techno was a friend who used to call it “motorway music” because the beat was like the white lines on the road…it whipped past faster or slower but it was hard to tell one from another & was a little monotonous if you focused on it
…maybe a bit harsh, really…but I still remember & it’s been a long time?
I’m not a big techno fan but some I enjoy. This album is jazz techno that is really well done w/ real instruments. Great mood music.
You get this comment of utmost approval for the Bullitt pic.
I am one of the oddies that actually enjoy that film, apart from the epic car chase. It’s an absolute time-capsule of automotive nostalgia and old-school police procedures.
As far and tunes go, I’ll recommend something a bit left field.
…seconded on the bullitt thing..it’s a great film
tbh…. music affects how i drive…ive found the fix tho
play whatever the fuck i want
buy a slow assed car
(course i havent had a car for a couple years now)
(and im the angriest cyclist in the world *bangs window* oi! dickhead….get out of my fucking aura)
One of THE best one hit wonders:
From the same time as “Driver’s Seat”:
That’s funny. That second video was supposed to be Gary Numan’s “Cars.”
fixed
A little of this
A little of that
Jan and Dean’s Dead Man’s Curve:
One of the worst road trip jams is The Doors self-titled album. Only because it was stuck in my friend’s cassette player for months. We kept on forgetting to bring a butter knife to pry it out. He was the first to get a car and four guys in a Dodge Colt doesn’t seem as cool today as it felt back then. This is the stuff of my nightmares.
I had a similar situation when I inherited my sister’s Audi 5000 & she had the Best of Steve Miller on 8-track stuck. It’s a great album the first few times but took me years to not want to kill myself to Fly Like an Eagle! God, that car was awful!
Much like last night’s anthems I need road music I can sing along with. I like to start with something upbeat and fun.
Hitting my stride I like a steady beat, a little more urgency.
Deeper into the trip something quiet, to hum along with.
…as a kid road trips were accompanied by a lot of this sort of thing
…with a little of this
…& if I was lucky something like this
…& things didn’t exactly improve when certain siblings got to pick the tapes (which tells you how long ago that was) either…but it didn’t last forever even if I still don’t have a mercedes benz
…but this one I can’t hear without remembering being on a greyhound pulling into vegas in the small hours of the morning
My favorite song about a road trip. I’ve been on a couple just like it.
David Bromberg – The New Lee Highway Blues
I’ve had my fair share of road trips, driving across the country–and even to AK–multiple times. Some of the songs from those trips that come to mind:
Get out the way!
Good ones, Lemmy.
This was always a favourite for car mix tapes:
And the title of this album, especially the first track:
This is how I feel when I start a road trip.
Once traffic starts up and stuck behind someone who hits the brakes every 10 secs for non existent reasons.
Once past traffic, I usually throw the throttle open.
Guided to my destination…. by radar love?
…highway to hell reminds me of something…in the UK there’s a freeway…well, a motorway in that part of the world…or what some might call an orbital…it’s called the M25 & it goes around london…in the book good omens there’s a suggestion a demon was involved in its construction…anyway, I believe that was the road this guy was thinking of when he wrote this tune
…some folks prefer the longer version but for some reason the “official” account doesn’t even offer to give up a “share” link to that so here it is from someone that does
I insisted on playing this when we drove east, then south, down to southern Utah at the beginning of November.
Stone Roses – Driving South
Great driving song. Period.