Highways mentioned in songs

[golden eagle]

Yesterday, I was listening to the 90s hit "Connected" from Stereo MCs and Interstate 5 is mentioned ("Interstate 5, stayin' alive"). That was the inspiration for this thread. Vanilla Ice makes a reference to A1A on "Ice Ice Baby".

I'm sure there are a lot more songs that mention highways but I'm drawing a blank now. Maybe some sleep will refresh my memory.

[agentsteel53]

The Allman Brothers mention Highway 41 (US-41 in Georgia) in Ramblin' Man.

[kurumi]

Skee-Lo, "I Wish": "You know I take the 110 to the 105 / Get off on Crenshaw tell my homies look alive"

Ice Cube, "Down for Whatever": "Sounds bumpin / Ain't that sumthin? / Jumped on the 110"  (Don't know if he ran into Skee-Lo)

More:

• http://ericssonglists.blogspot.com/2006/09/erics-list-of-geography-songsstreets.html
• http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/infrastructure/roadsong.cfm

[national highway 1]

This isn't a song, but a movie which I decided to put here:
Wasn't 'Speed' filmed on the under construction I-105 in LA?

[Duke87]

They Might Be Giants - The End of the Tour

never to part since the day we met
out on Interstate 91
I was bent metal, you were a flaming wreck
when we kissed at the overpass...

[mightyace]

"Ventura Highway" - America
"On Broadway" - The Drifters among others
"Route 66" - various


In the close but no cigar category, there is the song "The Legend" by Jerry Reed which opens up "Smokey and the Bandit" with the following lyrics:
He left Atlanta back in '63
Haulin' him a load up to Tennessee
He hit Monteagle in the driving rain
So hard he couldn't even see the passing lane

Well he started downgrade when he lost a gear
He hit them brakes; found he had no air
The Monteagle grade is steep and long
And everybody that seen it thought the Bandit was gone

[PAHighways]

Pennsylvania Turnpike, I Love You by Dick Todd and the Appalachian Wildcats

[Brandon]

The classic one here would be Lake Shore Drive in Chicago by Aliotta, Haynes & Jeremiah.

There's a road I'd like to tell you 'bout,
Lives in my hometown.
Lake Shore Drive the road is called,
And it'll take you up or down.

It starts up north from Hollywood,
Water on the drivin' side.
Concrete mountains rearin' up,
Throwin' shadows just about five.

http://www.mp3lyrics.org/a/aliotta-haynes-jeremiah/lake/

[Stephane Dumas]

The classic one here would be Lake Shore Drive in Chicago by Aliotta, Haynes & Jeremiah.

There's a road I'd like to tell you 'bout,
Lives in my hometown.
Lake Shore Drive the road is called,
And it'll take you up or down.

It starts up north from Hollywood,
Water on the drivin' side.
Concrete mountains rearin' up,
Throwin' shadows just about five.

http://www.mp3lyrics.org/a/aliotta-haynes-jeremiah/lake/

I mentionned it in another thread elsewhere, here a video on Youtube who use the song

[TheStranger]

You're My Home by Billy Joel:

Home could be the Pennsylvania Turnpike
Indiana's early morning dew
high up in the hills of California
home is just another word for you.

A Sorta Fairytale by Tori Amos, to start off the first and second stanzas respectively:

on my way up north
up on the Ventura
I pulled back the hood
and I was talking to you

things you said that day
up on the 101
the girl had come undone
I tried to downplay it


Running on Empty by Jackson Browne:

In '65 I was seventeen, running up 101
I don't know where I'm running now, I'm just running on

The opening line for John Henry Split My Heart by Songs: Ohia is as follows:

I stood on the 66 highway...

America by Simon and Garfunkel:

Counting the cars on the New Jersey Turnpike
We've all come to look for America...

Why, Georgia by John Mayer:

I am driving up 85 in the
kind of morning that lasts all afternoon


American Girl by Tom Petty:

She could hear the cars roll by
Out on 441...like waves, crashing on the beach...

[bugo]

The Okie alt-country band Cross Canadian Ragweed has an album and song called Highway 377 which is about a wreck on the illegitimate US 377 near Seminole.

[golden eagle]

"Why Georgia" by John Mayer:

"I am driving up 85 in the kind of morning that lasts all afternoon"

[Hot Rod Hootenanny]

Hole's new single is called Pacific Coast Highway
(I have no idea what they lyrics are because I change the station when the song comes on)

[bugo]

Afterglow 61 by Son Volt is actually about US 61 ("US highway from north to south...")

[agentsteel53]

speaking of 61, have we mentioned the Bob Dylan song?

[Hot Rod Hootenanny]

speaking of 61, have we mentioned the Bob Dylan song?

And I don't believe Howlin' Wolf's Highway 49 or Robert Johnson's Crossroads has been mentioned.

[golden eagle]

If I'm not mistaken, the Chingy/Snoop Dogg song "Holidae In" mentions a "highway 270". Since Chingy is from St. Louis, I'm assuming he's talking about I-270.

[Bryant5493]

The Highway to Hell :-) :-)


Be well,

Bryant

[english si]

Some British ones: http://www.sabre-roads.org.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=9166

The Road to Hell is all about the M25 but is never named as anything but "the road to hell".

[njroadhorse]

Xzibit - Hey Now (Mean Muggin')

"On the 4-oh-5 in the car pool lane
Got to hit some corners, I'm ridin the cane"

I assume he means the 405 freeway.

[Bryant5493]

U.S. 66 was mentioned in the song "Worthless," from the Brave Little Toaster.

I come from KC Missouri
And I got my kicks out of Route 66
Every truck stop from Butte to MO
Motown to Old Alabama
From Texarkana and east of Savanna from Tampa to Old Kokomo


Be well,

Bryant

[bugo]

Speaking of Son Volt, their album Trace is full of road references.  "Route" references the decommissioning of US 66 ("Mother road remains, it provides no more, it can only take us away.")  "Ten Second News" mentions "sunny 44 highway" (I-44).  Their album Straightaways has a song called "Way Down Watson" which is about the Coral Court Motel on an old 66 alignment.

Their music is chock full of geographical references.

[joseph1723]

The New Jersey Turnpike was mentioned in the song "America" by Simon and Garfunkel:

"Kathy, I'm lost," I said, though I knew she was sleeping
I'm empty and aching and I don't know why
Counting the cars on the New Jersey Turnpike
They've all gone to look for America
All gone to look for America
All gone to look for America

I'll post more when I think of some more songs.

[huskeroadgeek]

U.S. 66 was mentioned in the song "Worthless," from the Brave Little Toaster.

I come from KC Missouri
And I got my kicks out of Route 66
Every truck stop from Butte to MO
Motown to Old Alabama
From Texarkana and east of Savanna from Tampa to Old Kokomo


Be well,

Bryant

US 66 is a whole song itself-"Route 66". It's an old jazz standard written in 1946 and recorded by many different artists. For those who have never heard it, here are the words:

If you ever plan to motor west
Travel my way, take the highway that's the best
Get your kicks on Route 66

It winds from Chicago to L.A.
More than two thousand miles all the way
Get your kicks on Route 66

You go through St. Louie
Joplin, Missouri
And Oklahoma City looks mighty pretty
You'll see Amarillo
Gallup, New Mexico
Flagstaff, Arizona
Don't forget Winona
Kingman
Barstow
San Bernardino-won't you get hip to this timely tip
When you make that California trip
Get your kicks on Route 66

[agentsteel53]

I like how all the towns mentioned in the song are in order from east to west ... except Winona, which is just east of Flagstaff!