In my Fred Eaglesmith post on Saturday, two comments caught my attention. One was Keith telling me when he was a DJ they would play car songs at certain times. Then Obbverse mentioned… that would be a good post for someone…and indeed he was right.
When I was a teenager…a car wasn’t just a car…it was freedom. It was a key to an adult world we wanted eagerly to jump into. Ok…I’ll have songs with either the word “car” in them or with a model of a car in the title only. If not I would have 80 percent of Springsteen songs…not a bad thing at all but I will play by those rules.
Janis Joplin – Mercedes Benz
Let’s start with Janis Joplin. This is based on a song called C’mon, God, and buy me a Mercedes Benz by the Los Angeles beat poet Michael McClure. Joplin saw McClure perform it, and on August 8, 1970, she reworked it into her own song, which she performed about an hour later.
There are three credited songwriters on this track: Joplin, Michael McClure, and Bob Neuwirth. McClure says he never earned a cent from his poetry, but “Mercedes Benz” paid for his house in the Butters Canyon section of Oakland, California.
Janis Joplin never got a Mercedes Benz, but she did have a 1965 Porsche that was painted to become a piece of hippie art.
Wilco – Bull Black Nova
Many thanks to Obbverse for recommending this one. This song is a dark one…very dark. It’s somewhat cryptic and open to interpretation but one thing it does show… guilt, betrayal, and the consequences of one’s actions…and the narrator possibly killing his girlfriend. This song was released in 2009 on the album Wilco (The Album). The song was written by Wilco… Glenn Kotchie, Jeff Tweedy, John Stirratt, Mikael Jorgensen, Nels Cline, and Pat Sansone.
If I am the one, blood on the sofa
Blood in the sink, blood in the trunk
High at the wheel of a bull black Nova
And I’m sorry as a setting sun
This can’t be undone, can’t be outrun
Bruce Springsteen – Cadillac Ranch
I could probably do a post just on Cadillac songs.
This song is a great little rocker off of The River. This is one of many early Springsteen songs featuring cars. Some others were “Thunder Road,” “Backstreets,” and “Racing In The Street.” Bruce used the Cadillac image again in 1984 on “Pink Cadillac.”
Springsteen used Cadillac Ranch as a metaphor for the coming of death.
There is a real Cadillac Ranch.
In 1974 along Route 66 west of Amarillo, Texas, Cadillac Ranch was invented and built by a group of art-hippies from San Francisco. They called themselves The Ant Farm, and their silent partner was Amarillo billionaire Stanley Marsh 3. He wanted a piece of public art that would baffle the locals, and the hippies came up with a tribute to the evolution of the Cadillac tail fin. Ten Caddies were driven into one of Stanley Marsh 3’s fields, then half-buried, nose-down, in the dirt
T Rex – Jeepster
This song was on the 1972 album Electric Warrior. The music was supposedly based off of the Willie Dixon song You’ll Be Mine.
Jeepster was recorded live in the studio. The recording happened entirely organically and was not overdubbed. Marc Bolan, amid a performance, jumped up and down as he played his guitar, shaking the microphone stands. The sound of those stands was kept in the song. Producer Tony Visconti saw them as important features of the overall mood of the track and chose to include them.
K.C. Douglas-Mercury Blues
Mercury Blues was written by the Blues musicians K.C. Douglas and Robert Geddins in 1949. It was originally titled “Mercury Boogie.” The song was made famous 44 years later by Alan Jackson, whose 1993 cover peaked at #2 on the Billboard Country charts. The song has also been covered by Steve Miller, David Lindley, and Meat Loaf.
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great choice for this theme
What a fun series this is going to be! Right off the bat you go from one of my favorite car songs, Cadillac Ranch to giving me the great song by K.C. who I have not heard before. Truth is I didn’t know the Wilco or T-Rec tunes either!
Mecury Blues…I never heard of it either Randy. I only heard the Alan Jackson version in the 90s…but this one is so cool.
Great stuff Max!
I don’t know that there is a legal recording of it, but Ry Cooder kept Mercury Blues in his live set for years. It is, as you might imagine, incredible. And when he and David Lindley would get together, WOW.
I don’t know if it was Cooder or Lindley who did it first, but both of them (individually and together) would segue from Mercury Blues into “I Can Tell By The Way You Smell.” Walter Davis was a blues piano player who did this, it is on one of the Document reissues of his word. Davis’ take is totally different (just him and piano) and I dare say the piano riff is hypnotic.
Cooder did a version on his Get Rhythm lp. Another blogger wrote about the Get Rhythm record, and this song in particular, and his exuberance is https://whiskyprajer.blogspot.com/2004/11/chuckle-song-4-i-can-tell-by-way-you.html
Nice pick the Wilco song! It brings me back to The Album which is a great album (Bull Black Nova followed by the so sweet ballad “you and I”). 🙏
Thanks…obbverse reccomended that one and I spent a lot of time yesterday listening to that one…I’d never heard it before….what a great written song.
(If I can help spread the Wilco word just a little bit…)
That is exactly how I feel about Big Star….I knew more of Wilco with Yankee Foxtrot Hotel and their stuff with Billy Bragg.
Jeepster = my favourite T Rex track. (There are many, of course, but this one edges it. Takes me back to 13 years old at the school Christmas disco! 🙂
The only one I knew 20 years ago was Bang a Gong…now…what a catalog of cool songs they had.
T-Rex should be right up your alley Max. (Yes, pathetic pun, but puns do drive me- oh Gawd, sadly one follows the other😬) More Pop than power pop perhaps, but Bolan could find a simple chord and a boogie shuffle and make a hit out of it- at least for a few years. One of my bros faves was ‘Ride A White Swan.
Another one who didn’t make it big in the States. Odd, he had the music and the Rock Star looks.
He would take an older song and turn it inside out…in a good way. I haven’t heard everything by them but what I have…I like a lot.
Yea I don’t get how Bowie made it and not them.
I always loved themed weekends on the radio. Stuff like Wilco and T-Rex rarely saw the airwaves unless it was a theme weekend.
I’ve got No Particular Place To Go, so I will await Car Songs Part 2! Lol..
Oh yea…a lot of them coming up. I appreciate you bringing that up yesterday. I did limit my self….with either Car in the title or a model of vehicle in the title.
Wracking my brain. Did Chuck Berry, who wrote so much about cars, include “car” or a car name in a song title? Hmmm.
By the way, I have my list and I will be checking off the ones you pick….
Ah pressure! I love it!
(Any songs about Ferraris lurking on the list?)
The Key To Her Ferrari by Thomas Dolby….
There are a couple new artists with one too….off top of my head I think one is by Whiz Kalafa (of whatever the heck their name is) and Bebe Rexah had a song called Ferrari….never played it….or heard it
Fun topic. And, yes, there are so many car songs. For some reason, the first that popped up in my mind was this one! 🙂
She’s real fine my 409/She’s real fine my 409/My 409…
That one will be in there soon. It’s an endless amount of songs.
🙂
You beat me to it. My first thought when I saw the title. Next came “Terraplane Blues”, by Robert Johnson. “Little Red Corvette” by Prince. “GTO”, Ronny & the Daytonas. “Hey Little Cobra”, the Rip Chords. “Mustang Sally”, Wilson Pickett. Probably a lot more. That’s off the top of my head.
Driving in my car, smoking my cigar, the only time I’m happy when I play my guitar. Ahh, ahh…
A great one! Thanks I hope others suggest more.
I like this idea. We could do it for a year there are so many good ones. Love your picks. Lets get things rolling with ‘Rocket 88’.
Yes… that would be a great one…I should have had that first on here…but I will get it.
Trans Am by Sammy Hagar. Check out the album Live 1980 Max. It’s a scorcher.
Cool dude…thanks for the suggestion…I never realized how many there were.
Leave it to me to toss my 2 cents in with a hard rock track lol
That is what I want man…you know me…I like covering the from country to pop to hard rock…
a great idea for a topic. I quickly thought of three or four more, but I’ll wait to see if you get to them in Part2
Thanks Dave! It is a lot of fun doing this….more songs than I ever thought.
Well, there’s a -I was gonna say ‘truckload’ but I’ve dipped into the deep pun well too many times today, so ‘bucketloads’ of songs out there to do with cars. I think this series could run into double figures on the suggestions of just today. Anyway, another obscurish one is ‘Black Cadillac,’ Rosanne Cash, sorta about her dads last ride. Another well written song.
Hey if the pun fits…wear it….and it fits.
Oh…speaking of Black Cadillac I have another version coming on Dave’s site you might like. I’ll check out the Cash one.
I look forward to Daves post.
On a side note, I’ll say it again; social media can be such a sordid small minded place but these posts that keep people in far off random places in touch with other like-minded is the good side of it. Gawd knows there’s enough out there being complete total ass-posters.
Hope your next weeks work doesn’t burn you out too much!
Social Media can be toxic…X and Facebook I usually stay away. I did post on X just to get people here but it doesn’t work.
Yea here is really nice…no trolls for the most part.
Yea I do miss this through the week!
Saving this post 😍 I love oldies and I want to listen to all of them.
Thank You!
Janis’ Porsche was awesome. And the Mercedes song was too. Great post. I enjoy a good car song.
Thanks John!
I love Bull Black Nova.
I just found that one…I like it a lot.
Love David Lindley’s version
Great theme for a post series. I’ve always loved Joplin’s “Mercedes Benz”.
I’ll have another in a couple of weeks…thanks Jeff.
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Bob Dylan has a Theme Time radio hour themed with The Cadillac. Indeed, you could build a great post on that theme. Thanks for this post, got my kicks!
Thanks for checking it out. I need to check the Dylan show out.
Long White Cadillac, recorded by Dwight and of course, Dave Alvin with and without the Blasters. Dave wrote it.
More Beach Boys songs than you need listed.
One of my favorite Cadillac songs is one I heard from Dr. Demento’s radio show, Cadillac Heaven but I can’t find a link to it. I see it on Yahoo feed all the time, though…
Solid list of classics, but if you want something new, try this album: