Malcolm GauldAs we gear up for the July 4th weekend, let us give praise to 25 great road songs (alphabetical by artist):
1. “Key to the Highway” by The Band – “I’m goin’ back down to the border where I’m much better known.”
2. “No Particular Place to Go” by Chuck Berry – “Ridin’ along in my automobile, I was anxious to tell here the way I feel.”
3. “Back of a Car” by Big Star – “Why don’t you take me home; it’s gone too far inside this car.”
4. “Highway Patrol” by Junior Brown – “I gotta a star on my car and one on my chest; a gun on my hip and the right to arrest.”
5. “Travelin’ South” by Albert Collins – “…tryin’ to work my way back home.”
6. “Road Runner” by Bo Diddley – “I’m a road runner baby, and you can’t keep up with me!”
7. “Highway 61 Revisited” by Bob Dylan – “He said, ‘I never engaged in this kinda thing before’”
8. “Life in the Fast Lane” by The Eagles – “Eager for action, hot for the game…”
9. “Truckin’” by The Grateful Dead – “the typical city involved in a typical day dream…”
10. “Tennessee Plates” by John Hiatt – “…across the Mississippi like an oil slick fire!”
11. “Drive South” by John Hiatt – “Just leave those pretty legs showin’, you know it gets hot down where we’re goin’!”
12. “Crossroads” by Robert Johnson – “I went down to the crossroads, tried to flag a ride…”
13. “The Road Goes on Forever” by Robert Earl Keen – “…and the party never ends.”
14. “The Road is a Lover” by Allison Kraus & Union Station – “You never recover, not now or anytime soon.”
15. “The Road to Ensenada” by Lyle Lovett – “You head south from Tijuana and I’ll see you there.”
16. “On The Road Again” by Willie Nelson – “The life I love is makin’ music with my friends”
17. “Rain at the Drive-In” by NRBQ – “If you want to hold your baby tonight, hope that the weatherman is right.”
18. “Drivin’ In My Car” by NRBQ – “Every time I think about what might’ve been, I jump in my car and start ridin’ again.”
19. “Route 66” by The Rolling Stones – “Well, it winds from Chicago to LA, more than 2000 miles all the way.”
20. “State Trooper” by Bruce Springsteen – “License, registration… I ain’t got none.”
21. “6 Days on the Road” by Taj Mahal – “Got my hometown comin’ in sight, and if you think I’m happy you’re right.”
22. “Wrong Side of the Road” by Tom Waits – “We’ll do 100 MPH spendin’ someone else’s dough, drivin’ all the way to Reno on the wrong side of the road.”
23. “L.A. Freeway” by Jerry Jeff Walker – “Throw out those LA papers; hold the box of Vanilla Wafers.”
24. “Highway 41” by Muddy Waters & Howlin’ Wolf – “It’ll be soon in the morning when I go rollin’ into Jackson-town.”
25. “Car Wheels on as Gravel Road” by Lucinda Williams – “Cotton fields stretching miles and miles; Hank’s voice on the radio…”
I showed you mine. Show me yours. Onward, Malcolm Gauld
