Today’s BangShift Daily Tune Up is Willie Nelson singing “On The Road Again”, which always makes me think of the family trip around the country we made in 1982 in a motorhome. Other songs make me think of Power Tour trips, or Drag Week, or random road trips across the country with family and friends. For some reason, whatever was the popular hit song at the time seems to stick in your head, and sometimes became the anthem for your trip.
So what song brings back your favorite road trip memories?
OK … full disclosure …. I’m an esoteric music snob ( as well as composer/performer ) who loves Hot Rods and all things Gearhead .
So here’s my choice ; Bill Frisell’s ” Good Dog ..Happy Man ” ,,,, the entire CD . The wife and I no matter what else may be in the player never leave home ( for a road trip ) without it
Give it a spin 8)
“Rock and Roll all Night and Party Every Day.”
As a true metal head, I despise KISS. But in high school, my buddy’s dad got a brand new (at the time) F150 pickup with a 5 speed and a 302… Great little truck. And one lunch hour he piled about ten of us in the back of the thing and went flying around town, driving far too fast, half of us damn-near falling out. But that song was cranked, and he put it on repeat, and we all sang along to it at the top of our lungs. Not really a road trip so much as a lunch-hour hooning. Hate the song, love the memory.
Roadtripping with the family was a normal thing when I was a kid, whether it was the three hour jajnt from Omaha to KC to see family or towing a traiker to Rocky Mountain National Park. Dad was a fan of John Denver, Johnny Cash, and Olivia Newton John when she sang country. So, Denver’s Take Me Home Country Roads was a staple. Still love that song.
Driving through the mountains on a 1000 mile trip. Driving an old t/a wide open. Bumping the shifter to neutral on the big downhills, slamming back into drive on the uphill, unroll I got mixed up and bumped reverse…. The massive bag of mushrooms might have had something to do with that. Old Pontiac never missed a beat.
Anyways, we listened to “Jesus built my hotrod” many many times on the drive. I think I only had like 4 cassettes at that time..
BTO, Roll on down the highway. We started a family tradition about 7 years ago with a 12 day road trip from Calgary to San Diego and back. Every morning when we cleared a city and hit the highway we would play and sing it loud.
4 wheel drive , played over and over only tape in the truck on a 4 wheel trip in the coastal mountains behind whistler. last 15 miles the transfer case was cracked used jb weld and silicone on it to get home.
Ratt’s “Round and Round” , it was played in my late brothers 1975 Duster while we were traveling to the Springfield,Ill Car Craft Street Machine Nationals in 1983, now whenever I hear it I remember our first road trip, and I crank it up.
When I was a little kid we used to make monthly trips down to the beach in our ’66 Mercury wagon. The two songs that instantly send me back every time I hear them are Beginnings by Chicago and Close to You by the Carpenters.
I remember driving from SE Pennsylvania to Indy in ’81 for the last Car Craft national in that town and hearing The Pretenders “Brass In Pocket”. Never really a fan of that particular song, but I always associate it with that event and my ’69 L-78 el Camino.