Driving Music
There are certain songs that I love to drive to. My all time favorite is Boston. LOUD. Some others that make the short list: Bachman Turner Overdrive, Jane’s Addiction, U2, Blonde. I have very vivid memories of driving back from the waterslide park in Homestead in Debbie’s car. I had to be about 14 or 15. It was just me and Debbie. It was a rare occasion because she didn’t usually spend much time with me. The song by Blonde, Call Me came on and we drove fast and it played loud.
Weekends in the summer, if I had the car, was to go to Crandon Beach. The scenic drive up Old Cutler Road through Coconut Grove and over the Rickenbacker Causeway was the only way to go. The music blaring and the windows down. We would listen to Y-100 or Zeta-4. We would often get to the toll plaza for the causeway and many of the cars would be tuned to the same station. I suppose this was before the advent of personal car stereos and CD players. There was a universality in everyone hearing the same disk jockey. Now, everyone rides with their A/C on, their own private music playing and the shared experience is lost.
I like to drive with the music blaring even now. I think I have blown the high end stereo system in my minivan (LOL). Fortunately, my kids also like U2 but we have added the Gorillaz, Linkin Park and Pink. I love the remake of Rollercoaster that The Red Hot Chili Peppers did. Loud and rowdy.
What do you remember driving to??
Ok I’ll try to keep this short, a small list. Lynyrd Skynyrd “Free Bird”, Led Zeppelin “Stairway To Heaven”, Ted Nugent “Stranglehold”, Scorpions “Blackout” The Who “Who are You”, Steppenwolf “Born To Be Wild” and Rush “Working Man”. Those are classic jamming on the road tunes from the radio and many more. Then there are today’s groups which I like to listen too,Metallica, Nirvana, Pearl Jam,Garbage, Evanescence and Linkin Park. I still here a few people listening to the radio and jamming out, mostly at red lights.
My “driving songs” are in my blood. The best song in the world “LOUD” is Wont Get Fooled Again by the WHO. Next in line is La Grange by ZZ Top. Perhaps Black Dog by Led Zep. Then again, Layla by Clapton. These are the songs that should be played loudly at my memorial service! It am showing my age, but 70’s Rock is my generation. Thank goodness for Charlie McGraw of WIND-FM here in Gainesville. He grew up in Cutler Ridge/Killian area and everytime he’s on the air, he plays all my songs. My 13 year old son, knows all the words to most 70’s rock songs….I have polluted his brain LOL.
Ha! I remember driving with you Deb and Chris one day in Homestead when I was 8 or so (Around 1980). You guys were hooked on John Mellencamp – “Come on Baby make hurt so good” – Over and Over. Pretty funny. That’s all I remember about that whole visit, except playing Pac Man at some Pizza Joint down there.
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 (This is my 1st cousin Matt)
Ha, I can go back to the 50s….LOUD!!!- Rock Around the Clock, CarPerkins’- Blue Suede Shoes, Bill Justis – Raunchy – Duane Eddy’s – Rabble Rouser – Bill Doggett’s – Honky Tonk, Pt.1 & 2, Bobby Day – Rockin Robin – Anything by Chuck Berry, Gene Vincent – Bee-Bop-a-Loola –
On clear, crisp nights, we could tune in WLAC from Nashville, TN…they were playing the R&R and Black Rock Music we white southern kids weren’t suppose to listen to…..we loved it..and we always hated when the likes of Pat Boone and that milk-white ilk tried to “cover” the R&R songs from the black performers.. they covered Little Richard a lot..and it was awful.
Make-out music…anything by Johnny Mathis or the Platters – In the Still of the Night by the 5 Satins, Earth Angel by the Penquins, Since I Don’t Have You by the Skyliners….
Time-Life has a 2 disk set called Roots of Rock 1945-1956 and Roots of Rock II that I have that has all the stuff leading up the the Rock and Roll Explosion in my teen years…re: Sixty-Minute Man (learned to jitterbug to that dirty little song) and Sexy Ways, and I’m Your Hoochie Coochie Man…, Hound Dog my Big Momma Thornton (pre-Elvis) —
ok, enough ancient history…. loved my music —and I got to enjoy the 60s, 70s, 80s with my kids….don’t much care for what is out now….and with no “kids” in the house, don’t hear much of it.