Road and driving songs - the most comprehensive list I've seen

Started by roadman, February 25, 2012, 07:43:13 PM

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roadman

"And ninety-five is the route you were on.  It was not the speed limit sign."  - Jim Croce (from Speedball Tucker)

"My life has been a tapestry
Of years of roads and highway signs" (with apologies to Carole King and Tom Rush)


hbelkins

1.) Someone actually paid a federal government employee to compile and post a list like this? Next time anyone questions my politics, I may just point them to this link.

2.) The Kinks? "Red Barchetta?" WTF?
Government would be tolerable if not for politicians and bureaucrats.

Duke87

Quote from: hbelkins on February 25, 2012, 09:20:29 PM
"Red Barchetta?" WTF?

The song is about a car, although I suppose the mention of a "one lane bridge" qualifies as mentioning roads.

But, yeah, some of the associations are very loose. Talking Heads - "And She Was". Has a line "And she could hear the highway breathing", otherwise nothing to do with roads.

Meanwhile, They Might Be Giants gets no mention for "The End of the Tour", despite explicitly mentioning "Interstate 91" and "when we kissed at the overpass". Guess they fall under the radar.
If you always take the same road, you will never see anything new.

Hot Rod Hootenanny

Quote from: hbelkins on February 25, 2012, 09:20:29 PM
1.) Someone actually paid a federal government employee to compile and post a list like this? Next time anyone questions my politics, I may just point them to this link.

2.) The Kinks? "Red Barchetta?" WTF?

The rest of Mr Weingroff's cannon of work.
http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/infrastructure/history.cfm
Please, don't sue Alex & Andy over what I wrote above

Hot Rod Hootenanny

Quote from: Duke87 on February 25, 2012, 10:22:55 PM
Quote from: hbelkins on February 25, 2012, 09:20:29 PM
"Red Barchetta?" WTF?

The song is about a car, although I suppose the mention of a "one lane bridge" qualifies as mentioning roads.

But, yeah, some of the associations are very loose. Talking Heads - "And She Was". Has a line "And she could hear the highway breathing", otherwise nothing to do with roads.

Meanwhile, They Might Be Giants gets no mention for "The End of the Tour", despite explicitly mentioning "Interstate 91" and "when we kissed at the overpass". Guess they fall under the radar.

No, HB is complaining that a federal website mis-ID the performer of one of his favorite songs.
Red Barchetta was written and performed by Rush (Geddy Lee, Alex Lifeson, and Neil Peart), not The Kinks as the website listed it.
Please, don't sue Alex & Andy over what I wrote above

hbelkins

Quote from: Hot Rod Hootenanny on February 25, 2012, 10:31:42 PM

No, HB is complaining that a federal website mis-ID the performer of one of his favorite songs.
Red Barchetta was written and performed by Rush (Geddy Lee, Alex Lifeson, and Neil Peart), not The Kinks as the website listed it.

"Red Barchetta" is OK but I wouldn't put it on my list of Top 20 favorite Rush songs.
Government would be tolerable if not for politicians and bureaucrats.

D-Dey65

Nobody considered "Go Coastal," by Velocity Girl. I really shouldn't be surprised, but I am.


Oh, well. At least they got "Roadrunner" by The Modern Lovers.


hm insulators

Quote from: hbelkins on February 25, 2012, 11:23:08 PM
Quote from: Hot Rod Hootenanny on February 25, 2012, 10:31:42 PM

No, HB is complaining that a federal website mis-ID the performer of one of his favorite songs.
Red Barchetta was written and performed by Rush (Geddy Lee, Alex Lifeson, and Neil Peart), not The Kinks as the website listed it.

"Red Barchetta" is OK but I wouldn't put it on my list of Top 20 favorite Rush songs.

That's my favorite Rush song.

One I didn't see on the list: "Hard Road" by Triumph.
Remember: If the women don't find you handsome, they should at least find you handy.

I'd rather be a child of the road than a son of a ditch.


At what age do you tell a highway that it's been adopted?

stormwatch7721

#8
I only know one and that is the Diamond Rio song "Meet in the Middle". I onlly pefer songs that don't metion roads but are good road songs.

kphoger

Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers - 'Blue Sunday'

...is not mentioned, though the entire song is about hitchhiking.  Just goes to show how the government is trying to take away your right to ask for a ride.

He Is Already Here! Let's Go, Flamingo!
Dost thou understand the graveness of the circumstances?
Deut 23:13
Male pronouns, please.

Quote from: PKDIf you can control the meaning of words, you can control the people who must use them.

stormwatch7721

I didn't notice Bon Jovi's "Wanted Dead or Alive" on the list.

roadman65

I Can't Drive 55 mph by Sammy Hagar.   Some believe that got the feds to overturn the maximum 55 law.  Whatever, I think it fits when driving on urban freeways!
Every day is a winding road, you just got to get used to it.

Sheryl Crowe

PHLBOS

Quote from: roadman65 on March 11, 2012, 09:48:21 AM
I Can't Drive 55 mph by Sammy Hagar.   Some believe that got the feds to overturn the maximum 55 law.
Not really.  President Reagan and many mostly-GOP lawmakers wanted the National Speed Limit gone after the 1980 elections (years before the Sammy Hagar tune) BUT an outright repeal required an act of Congress.  Such an act, like any other bill, needed to be passed in BOTH the House & the Senate before the President could sign it into law.  Since the Dems still controlled the House throughout the entire Reagan Administration, getting a bill to either raise or outright repeal the National Speed Limit was actually a tall order.

A provison to raise the National Speed Limit on rural Interstates to 65 only came about in 1987 when Democrats in both the House & Senate (the Dems regained control of the Senate following the '86 elections) wanted the President to sign a rigorous highway bill (which included spending for Boston's Big Dig).  The speed limit provison was put in as a means to persuade the President to sign it.  Reagan vetoed the bill on the grounds of overall cost ($2-3 billion for ONE highway project in ONE city - Boston's Big Dig); in turn, the House & Senate successfully overrode the veto and the 65 mph signs went up (initially in states that supported higher speed limits, others would eventually follow years later) and Boston's Big Dig project was no longer a pipedream.

As we all know, the National Speed Limit wouldn't meet its final deathblow until 1995 when a then-newly-minted GOP controlled House & Senate placed the provision onto another highway spending bill that President Clinton (somewaht reluctantly) signed into law and the rest is history.
GPS does NOT equal GOD

hbelkins

Clinton strikes me as the kind of guy who would like higher speed limits. I'm sure when he was younger he fractured a few speed laws in that El Camino with the Astroturf in the back.
Government would be tolerable if not for politicians and bureaucrats.



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