Top 10 Driving Tunes
A long open road and Jan Hammer on the radio. Perfection.
Author: Robin Brown
Published: 02 March 2007
What´s a car without a CD player? A joyless, pointless lump of moving metal, that´s what. You might as well drive around in a JCB without music in your vehicle.
Below are the ten finest driving tunes, chosen by music journo Jamie Bowman. Via the medium of song, Jamie creates a musical soundscape that takes in blue collar America, the open expanses of deep south highways and a rain-soaked Merseyside, bringing together those elusive notions of escape, freedom, yearning and sweaty, greasy lovin´.
Click here to download these songs from iTunes* and burn them to disc. Your car will love you.
• Bruce Springsteen - Born To Run
If anyone epitomises the idea of a car as an escape route out of a dead end town it´s the Boss. This song also features one of the best ever uses of the 'driving as sex' metaphor with the line 'Just wrap your legs ´round these velvet rims and strap your hands across my engines'.
• Jonathan Richman - Roadrunner
Of course one of the joys of driving is listening to music loud, so here´s a song about the joys of driving while listening to loud music.
• It´s Immaterial - Driving Away From Home
There´s not many songs that relate to driving in the UK but here´s one that´s better than Chris Rea´s ´Road To Hell´. Singer John Campbell puts his foot down on the pedal - ever so gently - to cruise out along the M62. A mini-Midwestern road movie transposed to Merseyside.
Watch Driving Away From Home here
• Prince - Little Red Corvette
Naturally the purple midget would have to seriously alter the seat and probably have to have one of those special steering wheels, but this is a true classic and a great example of how parallel parking skills can impress the opposite sex.
• America - Ventura Highway
Imagine one of those long roads in the US with desert on each side and some mountains in the distance. Now imagine this song playing in the background. It works doesn´t it?
• Don Henley - Boys Of Summer
Don´s previous band, The Eagles wrote many a great driving song but this ´80s classic is a beauty where Don sees a Cadillac on the open highway and it sparks off all kinds of youthful memories. It´s doubtful that Volvos provoke similar feelings.
• The Doors - La Woman
Actually starts with the sound of an engine revving which gives it a head start. It then gets quicker so by the end you´ll be swerving all over the place blinded by the lights of the Sunset Strip. Or something.
• Steppenwolf - Born To Be Wild
A big, hairy cliche, but who cares. The sound of this song should always be in your head whenever you start your engine. Even if you´re 'just popping up to Tesco'.
• Fleetwood Mac - The Chain
As far as I can make out this isn´t really about driving but when it gets to that bassline just try and stop the sound of Murray Walker screaming in your ear. You won´t be able to.
• Golden Earring - Radar Love
Top Gear voted this the best driving song ever and it´s easy to see why. Golden Earring were Dutch so they probably had lots of nice, flat roads to drive which perhaps inspired this manly ode to driving really quickly to get to see your ´baby´. 'I´ve been driving all night / my hands wet on the wheel' is perhaps the best first line of a song ever.
Editor´s choice: Jan Hammer - Crockett´s Theme
Achingly cool, Crockett´s Theme is the undisputed king of tunes to listen to while you´re driving.
If you´re planning a relaxing drive burn this song to a CD now. Your car and ears will love you for transporting the two of you into a world of bikinis, baggy suits, open-tops, speedboats bouncing along on waves and stuff blowing up, but in a strictly tasteful way.
Crockett´s Theme aurally represents the perfect synchronicity twixt car and human ear. This is how it´s meant to be. Trust me on this.
* Available for iTunes only
Download the mix now (but try and find the original Don Henley).
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I nominate Everything I do is Driven by You by Brian May and Drive by the Cars. Wonderful songs that I listen to every day.
I also like No Way No Way by Vanilla.
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10 songs with driving connotations (some loose): East Bound and Down - Jerry Reed;
Where The Streets Have No Name - U2,
Roam - The B52s,
Slow Ride - Foghat,
City of New Orleans - Johnny Cash,
Another Travellin´ Song - Bright Eyes,
Six Days on the Road - Dave Dudley,
All Right Now - Free,
America - Simon and Garfunkel,
Motorcycle Emptiness - Manic Street Preachers.