I have driven across continental US twice – once without any sound system and once with only a working radio in the car. No one, perhaps, can understand the horror that is radio broadcasts in Kansas.
Here are some songs that I wish I was listening to…
- Magnetic Fields: Long Vermont Roads. Actually, one can pick any song of this brilliant album, The Charm of the Highway Strip, which is all about road songs, but I am partial to this one.
- Grant Lee-Phillips: See America. The guy is hit and miss but I like the idea of hopping into a cab and telling the driver to drive across America.
- Robert Johnson: Roadside Travellin’ Blues. The legend of meeting the Devil on the Crossroads begins.
- Holly Golightly: Walk a Mile. I love her unlovable voice. And she wants you to walk a mile in her platform, polka-dotted shoes. How can you not like that!?
- David Byrne: Don’t Fence Me In. Old Cole Porter that David Byrne turns into some rollickin’ country anthem. Great car singalong (with a chorus for the back-seat wallas).
- Talking Heads: Road to Nowhere. Iím feeliní okay this morniní / And you know / Weíre on the road to paradise / Here we go, here we go. Road to the White House!
- Lucinda Williams: Jackson. I like frequent stops.
- Proclaimers: I’m Gonna Be (500 Miles). A song that actually played a role in the courtship of Mrs. Sepoy. She made me walk 500 miles. Heartless wench.
- Air: Universal Traveler. Universal or Universoul? What the hell are these trip-hopping frenchmen saying? Nice blips nonetheless.
- Roger Miller: King of the Road. Will it surprise anyone if I say this song captures, absolutely brilliantly, how I wanted to live my life at the age of 16? Third boxcar, midnight train / Destination…Bangor, Maine / Old worn out clothes and shoes / I don’t pay no union dues / I smoke old stogies I have found / Short, but not too big around / I’m a man of means by no means King of the road . I had never heard this song, nor read Kerouac, but I used to sneak out of the house and board empty train compartments at night.
also see: sven, ultrablog, cheleblog, dune shack, reality remixed, bitchalicious, alien fur, brooks blog
{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
#1. ms. sepoy is not a heartless wench. it just shrunk so much hangin’ bout the likes of you that its barely visible.
#2. let the record show that sepoy wanted “california one” by the decemberists and “passenger side” by wilco on his list. but i posted first and he didnt want to be all original and shite.
You kids and your old people music! :-) Really, another cool list that is completely different than mine, in a good way. I need to start putting some older music on my lists.
King of the Road!! Love that song. 500 Miles is one of my faves, too. Great list!
Proclaimers.. Good one. I forgot about that one. And Talking Heads. I forgot about that too!