*Photograph of this “classic” AMC Hornet, while not my dad’s car, is eerily similar…although dad never would have sprung for the “fancy” two-tone white/orange interior

While summer doesn’t officially start until June 21st, it’s in full swing here at B&V. I’ve already broken out the Summer Playlist while I struggle to baste my body in the sun. When summer hits I can’t help but get nostalgic about those old family summer vacations. Ah, memories. I even posted a Virtual Vacation Playlist during those dark summer days during COVID. Whenever I fly these days, and it’s rare, I see all these families traveling with so much luggage it looks like they’re using the airline to help them move instead of merely going on a beach vacation. When I was, as Tom Petty used to sing, “a boy in short pants,” my dad would load the family and all our luggage up in the car and off we’d go. With me and my brother in the backseat (Dad: “Don’t make me come back there…”), dad with his farmer’s tan in the front with mom, we were the Road Kings…although talk about close quarters…”he’s on my side again…” We’d usually drive to Silver Dollar City for summer “vacay,” but we were known to drive farther. We did Colorado once, which ended an historic bar fight in the back seat between my brother and I… no surprise, my fault. And in 1976 we actually drove from the middle of the country to Cape Cod so we could walk Boston’s Freedom Trail. Grandma and Grandpa went with us so we had two cars and I remember communicating via toy walkie-talkies… the struggle was real.

Of course the importance of the car, especially in America is so much larger than just vacations. My father was never what I would call a car aficionado. When I was a little kid he bought a used, dark green, nondescript Ford that would continuously and randomly breakdown. He went from that to a Chrysler K-Car. The K-Car had all the charisma of a Soviet-era, Eastern Bloc automobile. It was the most hideous car in a long line of hideous cars my father owned. Of course my mom had the nice car in the family, an Oldsmobile 88. It had crushed velvet, bench seats. When I started dating I learned to love that car…ahem. In my mind, my father’s worst car was an orange AMC Hornet (pictured above). It didn’t have power-steering and was a manual “three on the tree.” Try being a high school “dude” driving with your arm around your girl in that thing… actually I would work the clutch and she’d shift the gears. But at 120 lbs soaking wet, I more wrestled that power-steering-less car than drove it. It did have the advantage of being a little hatchback… the back seat folded down and it was basically a bed on wheels. In high school we’d drive up and down a street called Metcalf, from the McDonalds on the north end to the Hardees on the south end, “Drinking beer in the soft summer rain…”

I make fun of my dad but my car history is not much better. The Rock Chick is the “car guy” in my family. She says I treat my car like it’s a golf cart. My first car, which I didn’t own, I just had access to, was yes, the famous orange AMC Hornet. In case you’re wondering, the American Motor Company is now defunct. That car was a disaster but I didn’t care, that Hornet represnted FREEDOM… to go where I wanted, when I wanted. The first car I owned was a Camaro LT. It was about six years old when we bought it – my folks helped me. It was the color of wet mud. I called it the “Dirt Mobile,” because, gads my wife is right… I’ve always treated my cars like golf carts… and it was always dirty. I’ve always felt bad about the Dirt Mobile. The people we bought it from loved that car. They took photos of me driving away in it. I had wrecked it within 2 months. I tore up a lot of highway in that thing… My next car was purchased during my Arkansas exile. It was another Chevy, only less cool and I really did basically live in that car. I can remember so many late nights driving either to or from Arkansas, always headed away from something, chasing something in the night. Those were tough days.

If I’m being honest, all these thoughts about cars were really inspired, big surprise, by a car song. I heard the song “She Loves My Automobile,” a ZZ Top deep track I’ve always loved and it got me thinking about “Car Songs.” Not songs about the road (I did a road playlist which I think needs a new version), or driving per se (though its hard to separate the driver and the car), but songs about cars – whether it’s a specific Cadillac, Chevrolet or hell, a taxi, I wanted songs about cars. What I love about car songs it they really encapsulate everything the car symbolizes: freedom, escape, sex, even the journey through life. Or if you’re Paul Simon, I guess “cars are (just) cars.” Ike built the interstate highways and a generation of Kerouac inspired teens hit the road in kinds of different cars, buses and trucks. I left off motorcycles, they’re a vehicle all to themselves. I’ve always fell on that restless side of society. One eye on the road but one eye always on the horizon.

I have attempted to include all my favorite car songs below. I did include a few songs about trucks as I know there are a lot of pickup enthusiasts out there. I have a few songs about buses, because not everyone can afford a car. I also have songs about limos because some folks don’t have to ride the bus… And while most of these tracks are pretty upbeat, I did include a few ballads and sad songs… because not every car story is a happy one. I think I captured all aspects of what the car symbolizes from escape and or freedom on down… While I know a lot of people really like having an expensive “flashy” car, I tend to agree with George Harrison, “it depends on what you value.”

The BourbonAndVinyl.net favorite songs about Cars…with my pithy comments below. It can be found on Spotify. Play these songs in order or random. Or create your own…(Any song with an (*) is not on the Spotify list, ie Neil Young). Hopefully we’ve found a new song you haven’t heard or put an old track you haven’t heard in a while back in your head. I dedicate it to all of you folks out there, driving up and down dark, two-lane highways in the wee small hours…

1. ZZ Top, “She Loves My Automobile” – I love this song. “She don’t care if I’m stoned or sloppy drunk, she’s got the keys and there’s a spare wheel in the trunk…” The Rock Chick’s theme?
2. Wilson Pickett, “Mustang Sally” – I indulged myself on the first track, so I had to hit you with the greatest car song ever recorded for the second…
3. The Rolling Stones, “Brand New Car” – Who doesn’t love that new car smell?
4. Steve Miller Band, “Mercury Blues” – My junior high football coach drove a Mercury. I was in it when I heard the news Elvis Presley died…
5. The Doors, “Cars Hiss By My Window” – The Doors were one of the greatest blues bands ever… cars rushing by do sound a little like the waves on a beach…
6. U2, “Fast Cars” – One of my favorite tracks from the How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb sessions that inexplicably was left as bonus track.
7. War, “Low Rider” – I used to hang in this park where on late Saturday afternoons a low rider car club would pull up to have a cookout. Amazing rides…
8. Foreigner, “Rev On The Red Line” – Ah, the timeless old attraction of drag racing…
9. ZZ Top, “I’m Bad, I’m Nationwide” – Our hero describes three different rides (cold blue steel, Cadillac, V-8 Ford). Whether he’s got a “blues man in the back and a beautician at the wheel,” or “a fine fox in front with three more in the back,” I wanna get in this man’s car.
10. Neil Young & Crazy Horse, “Chevrolet”* – An epic Crazy Horse jam about a Chevy from their latest New World Record.
11. Rush, “Red Barchetta” -My hand to God, I always thought a Barchetta was an actual car.
12. Van Halen, “Panama” – It took years before I realized Roth was talking about a car.
13. Bob Dylan, “From A Buick 6” – Our narrator has a “junk yard angel” whose always bound to “put a blanket on (his) bed…”
14. The Beatles, “Drive My Car” – Where our narrator is recruited to be a driver by a young lady, who is going to be a star, just ask her… but alas she doesn’t have a car.
15. Tom Waits, “Ol’ 55” – Waits captures that early morning feeling when you have to crawl out of bed and drive home… the longing of missing your baby after having to hit the road.
16. Tracy Chapman, “Fast Car” – This great song is the ultimate example of the car as a symbol of escape… in this case, an escape from an extraordinarly difficult life.
17. David Bowie, “She’ll Drive The Big Car” – Escape again as the theme in this great Bowie deep track… I prefer when the Rock Chick drives… I get to work the radio.
18. Elvis Presley, “Long Black Limousine” – The King describing a local hero returning in a long black limo, which sadly is a hearse. He could have been describing his own end…chilling if you think about it.
19. Chuck Berry, “No Particular Place To Go” – Chuck takes his baby out for a drive…with no destination in mind…if you believe him… ah, parking!
20. The Beach Boys, “Little Deuce Coupe” – I despise the Beach Boys, but this song had to be here.
21. Neil Young & The Bluenotes, “Coupe De Ville”* – Great bluesy track about a luxury vehicle. Sometimes all we’ve got left is our car.
22. Paul Simon, “Cars Are Cars” – While there is a ton of symbolism in the songs on this list, not so much with Paul.
23. The Rolling Stone, “Black Limousine” – Great Stones deep track.
24. The White Stripes, “The Big Three Killed My Baby” – Somehow GM, Ford and Chrysler conspired to kill this poor guy’s squeeze.
25. Jim Croce, “Rapid Roy (That Stock Car Boy)” – I’m more of an F1 man myself. This one is for my folks. They drove us all over hell and back, it’s the least I can do to include Croce.
26. Bob Seger, “Makin’ Thunderbirds” – We used to be the car makers for the world.
27. The Who, “Magic Bus” – Our hero dreams of buying the bus he takes everyday to see his baby. Clearly an entreprenuer in the making.
28. David Crosby, “Drive My Car” – One of my favorite solo tracks from Croz, who we sadly lost this year.
29. Janis Joplin, “Mercedes Benz” – Janis asking her deity for a little help with the wheels.
30. Jeff Beck, “Hot Rod Honeymoon” – From Beck’s later solo stuff. RIP Jeff.
31. Tom Petty, “Turn This Car Around” – Many a night I felt this way…many times in my life I felt this way too.
32. Dishwalla, “Counting Blue Cars” – Weird song maybe only I like. I do like blue but I’ve never counted cars.
33. INXS, “On A Bus” – Early INXS that sounds almost Prince like.
34. Paul McCartney, “The Back Seat Of My Car” – Typical of McCartney, taking a simple song about parking with his girl and blowing it up like it’s Wagner.
35. Grateful Dead, “Truckin'” – For you trucking enthusiasts out there. I love the line, “I’d like to get some sleep before I travel, but if you’ve got a warrant I guess you’re gonna come in…”
36. Foghat, “Terraplane Blues” – Foghat covering the great Robert Johnson.
37. Led Zeppelin, “Trampled Under Foot” – You don’t often hear the lyric, “Trouble free transmission…”
38. U2, “Daddy’s Gonna Pay For Your Crashed Car” – Having wrecked my car in college, I can testify that “daddy” did not pay for it.
39. Mike Ness, “I’m In Love With My Car” – Social D’s front man stepping out for a little solo “joyride.”
40. The Firm, “Cadillac” – Big ponderous music about a luxury car from Jimmy Page and Paul Rodgers’ 80s supergroup, The Firm.
41. Pearl Jam, “Gone” – Pearl Jam are starting to amass quite a few car songs…This one alwyas hits me. “When gas in the tank feels like money in the bank…” This takes me back to my early days.
42. T. Rex, “Jeepster” – I had a buddy who had a jeep. We’d ride around in it and drink beer and listen to Pink Floyd’s Animals.
43. Queen, “I’m In Love With My Car” – Can’t say I ever loooved a car I’ve had…but then I’ve never had a Maserati.
44. Gary Numan, “Cars” – My brother had this album…
45. Bruce Springsteen, “Pink Cadillac” – Springsteen singing about a car painted my least favorite color, but at least he brought the Big Man, Clarence Clemons along for a massive sax solo.
46. Prince, “Little Red Corvette” – His greatest song? From the amazing 1999.
47. Big Star, “Back Of My Car” – What is going on in the back of all these cars? I was late to the Big Star band wagon…
48. David Bowie, “Always Crashing In The Same Car” – A song about Bowie’s career that could be coincidentally about my career.
49. Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers, “Mary’s New Car” – Great Petty deep track. “And we wanna go where she goes…”
50. Bruce Springsteen, “Racing In The Streets” – On the surface a very sad ballad, but if you listen, you can hear the redemption.
51. Johnny Cash, “One Piece At A Time” – I know, I know, it’s a novelty song, but it’s the Man In Black.
52. Commander Cody & His Lost Planet Airmen, “Hot Rod Lincoln” – Plenty of Cadillacs, finally a Lincoln. Grandpa had a Lincoln Town Car.
53. The Clash, “Brand New Cadillac” – I love how unhinged the Clash sound on this song.
54. Neil Young, “Sedan Delivery”* – Sounds like a good job…
55. Rod Stewart (With Elton John), “Let Me Be Your Car” – Rod with Elton on piano doing an Elton/Bernie Taupin original.
56. John Fogerty, “Hot Rod Heart” – One of all the supermarket race car drivers out there.
57. Chuck Berry, “Maybellene” – Chuck drag racing with is girlfriend…
58. ZZ Top, “Chevrolet” – Chevy’s are so popular with these musicians.
59. The Kinks, “Gallon Of Gas” – Great blues rock tune about having a great car but not being able to fill the gas tank…
60. Gene Clark, “Roadmaster” – Who amongst us can remember the mighty Buick Roadmaster?
61. The Donnas, “Take Me To The Backseat” – I love these rockin’ chicks!
62. Bruce Springsteen, “Cadillac Ranch” – Another Bruce tune, another Cadillac. This is a real place in like, Texas?
63. The Who, “Going Mobile” – One for my buddy Doug who now owns an RV…which was not on my bingo card.
64. Wings, “Helen Wheels” – McCartney getting nostalgic for those early Wings days in the tour van.
65. Stephen Stills, “Black Queen” – “This is a song about a car.”
66. John Hiatt, “Tennessee Plates” – I had a manager at a restaurant I worked at who was arrested on the day shift for driving with stolen plates…Ah, summer jobs.
67. Stills-Young Band, “Long May You Run”* – Neil’s great ode to his favorite car.
68. George Harrison, “It’s What You Value” – George had a drummer who passed up salary on a tour in exchange for Harrison’s Rolls.

That’s our list of favorites but if you have a good song about a car – not the road, a car – drop it in the comments and I’ll add it in if it’s a fit! Hopefully this playlist will get you a little farther on down the road wherever you’ve pointed your car to go.

Cheers and remember folks, “Don’t drive angry.”