| Cars and music go hand in hand. Many, many | | | | |
| rock and roll songs are about, or feature the | | | | Jimi Hendrix - 'Crosstown Traffic' |
| automobile. A large number of people spend | | | | |
| more time listening to music in their cars | | | | Kraftwerk - 'Autobahn' |
| than they do anywhere else. | | | | |
| It could be said that there are two | | | | Iggy Pop - 'The Passenger' |
| elements that place a person firmly in time: | | | | |
| the music that provides the soundtrack to | | | | Ministry - 'Jesus Built My Hotrod' |
| their life, and the cars they have driven. | | | | |
| Perhaps then, it should not surprise us to | | | | Jonathan Richman - 'Roadrunner' |
| find that the car has provided the | | | | |
| inspiration for a very significant proportion | | | | Golden Earring - 'Radar Love' |
| of 20th and 21st Century popular music | | | | |
| lyrics. | | | | Deep Purple - 'Highway Star' |
| | | | |
| The automobile and rock and roll go so cosily | | | | Manic Street Preachers - 'Motorcycle |
| hand-in-hand that a kind of sub-market has | | | | Emptiness' |
| evolved for "driving" CDs. While it isn't | | | | |
| really clear what qualifies a song for | | | | There are many, many more, and each reader |
| inclusion in one of these compilation | | | | will probably find one or two amongst his or |
| projects (under which the shelves of motorway | | | | her own list of favorites that we have |
| service stations positively groan) as the | | | | missed. |
| lyrical subject matter does vary widely, it | | | | |
| remains clear that a huge number of songs | | | | In the songs of The Beach Boys and their |
| have been written in which the car plays a | | | | contemporaries, the car is a vital part of |
| major role. No popular music genre has a | | | | teenage life. It is a means of transport, a |
| monopoly, and none is safe from the influence | | | | status symbol, an environment for conducting |
| of cars, trucks, driving...Here are a few | | | | courtship rituals... Whether the vehicle |
| examples of the way that the internal | | | | driven is owned or borrowed from parents, |
| combustion engine has colored the musical | | | | these songs reflect a time when driving was |
| reflection of popular culture over the years. | | | | just becoming a part of the domain of youth, |
| | | | giving them a kind of freedom formerly |
| Chuck Berry - 'No Particular Place to Go' | | | | enjoyed only by the older generation. |
| | | | |
| The Beatles - 'Drive My Car' | | | | In other cases, songs about the car seem |
| | | | almost designed to be played as an |
| The Beach Boys - 'Fun Fun Fun' | | | | accompaniment to car journeys. The driving |
| | | | force of the bass and drum rhythm section |
| The Beach Boys - 'Little Deuce Coupe' | | | | chugs along in time to the beat of a revving |
| | | | engine. Golden Earring's classic 'Radar Love' |
| Rose Royce - 'Car Wash' | | | | is the obvious example. Meanwhile, few |
| | | | self-respecting motorcyclists would listen to |
| Johnny Cash - 'One Piece At A Time' | | | | Steppenwolf's 'Born to be Wild' without |
| | | | feeling the urge to don leather and tear up |
| Roy Orbison - 'I Drove All Night' | | | | the street. |
| | | | |
| Gary Numan - 'Cars' | | | | Kraftwerk, in their electronic epic |
| | | | 'Autobahn' (over 20 minutes in length) |
| Bruce Springsteen - 'Pink Cadillac' | | | | endeavored to paint a sonic picture of the |
| | | | automobile and its natural environment, the |
| Queen - 'I'm In Love With My Car' | | | | German autobahn highways. A little later, in |
| | | | America, Meatloaf's car provided an unusual |
| Meatloaf - 'Paradise By The Dashboard Light' | | | | ambiance in 'Paradise by the Dashboard |
| | | | Light'. An amusing blend of romance and |
| Prince - 'Little Red Corvette' | | | | youthful, hormonal desperation. However, your |
| | | | correspondent's own personal favorite motor |
| Snow Patrol - 'Chasing Cars' | | | | vehicle reference occurs in the incomparably |
| | | | crafted poetry of The Ramones. From the |
| Rolling Stones - 'Route 66' | | | | tragic-romance of '7-11' comes the |
| | | | heart-rending: "Oncoming car ran out of |
| Tom Robinson - '2-4-6-8 Motorway' | | | | control". It crushed my baby and it crushed |
| | | | my soul". |
| The Cars - 'Drive' | | | | |
| | | | What more is there to say? |
| Madness - 'Driving In My Car' | | | | |