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

[roadman]

http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/interstate/roadsongs.htm

[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?

[Duke87]

"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.

[Hot Rod Hootenanny]

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

[Hot Rod Hootenanny]

"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.

[hbelkins]

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.

[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]

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.

[stormwatch7721]

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.

[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!

[PHLBOS]

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.

[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.