#i keep adding specifically relevant country songs to my playlists for Reasons and i am out here hustling hard | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

letsdothistom · 5 years

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Air Guitar and 85 MPH!

I was going to spend my second “blog” discussing pretentiousness in Santa Fe or New Mexican food and green chile in general. But since I came up with something a little more fun, I guess I’ll save the talk about ordering water in a bowl and drinking it with a spoon for a different time. On my drive back to Oklahoma I thought of a topic that always shows its face when I’m on a road trip. I often forget about it until the next time I’m in the car or just don’t put much thought into it once I’ve opened the car doors and let the dog out to deal with his pent up energy as I unload the car. Not to mention the obligatory hour I have to spend re-aquainting myself to the cat, who is certain that I have disappeared forever this time.

The topic that came to me is road trip songs.

I love road trips. You may think I’m crazy but settling into the driver seat, snacks on the passenger seat, the basset hound panting in my face, his front feet on the console, anticipating our newest adventure, is the best. Within a pretty short time, he tends to realize that this is just another day-long roady and roughs up his blanket in the backseat and settles in for the ride. Giving me weird basset hound glances in the mirror. Not sure if it’s the music or he just wants some pork rinds.

Now these road trips of mine usually arent extravagant or exotic. Unless you consider driving state highways through Kansas, Oklahoma, Wyoming or any other of the fly-over states I tend to travel as being exotic. (Personally I’d choose these drives over just about any other you could propose to me). The great thing about these road trips, aside from seeing so many wonderful historically relevant places (as well as plenty of non-relevant places), and feeling a oneness with wide open spaces, is the time you get to yourself to hone your listening skills.

Those of you that know me, know that I have many preferences when it comes to music. As Cheech says in Up In Smoke, “we play everything from El Chicano to Santana”. I love it all. Some more than others, but I probably have a song or two from every type of playlist or genre that you can think of. Add to that the fact that if there is a specific location I’m aiming my car to (often there is not), I will jam songs from or about that location. For instance, while driving the empty roads of New Mexico it will be Ennio Morricone and The Good, The Bad and the Ugly soundtrack. Wyoming is of course Chris LeDoux country. On my way to Kansas City to eat BBQ, it’s Joe Williams singing “Kansas City” or Charlie Parker and K.C. Blues. Memphis is Sister Rosetta Tharpe (you can keep Elvis, I am not a fan. Yeah, I said it). West Texas? Marty Robbins Gunfighter Ballads, of course! Down south, it’s Big Maybelle, Lightnin’ Hopkins and Muddy Waters. You get the idea. It may seem strange but there is something that touches my soul in listening to those songs that are native to an area. Whether or not I actually do learn anything, it feels as though I have.

With that weird little eccentricity out of the way, let me add that of course there are some staples of any road trip, for me at least. These are songs, albums and artists that I listen to, to fill in all the empty spaces of those relatively uneventful miles, musically or otherwise. Maybe it’s Def Leppard or ACDC or Beyonce or Ariana Grande for you. For me these are easy. I can not even begin to guess how many miles have been eaten up by Merle Haggard, or The Count Basie Orchestra. I am not scared of extreme opposites. Hundreds upon thousands upon tens of thousands of miles have been chewed up by these two musical groups, and yes, I’m aware that I am probably the only person living who can claim that.

The millennials reading this will have no idea about this next category. There use to be these things called albums. Albums were a group of songs, recorded (usually around the same time), and released as a unit to the masses. These units were sold as vinyl records, cassette tapes, 8-tracks, or CDs. Those of us a little older can attest that 90 percent of these albums had 2-4 songs that we liked and a bunch of other average or barely tolerable songs that you listened to whether you liked them or not (if you didn’t have control of the radio in the car). Sometimes, you even grew to enjoy a few of those songs. On rare occasions though, you found an entire album, yes the whole thing! that you enjoyed. For all of us oldies, these albums are near and dear to our hearts. They vary from person to person, but these are a few I can put on and just let them play, enjoying almost every song: Van Halen-1984, Blood Sweat and Tears-Greatest hits, Nirvana-Nevermind, George Strait-Strait From The Heart, Muddy “Mississippi” Waters-Live, Art Blakey-Moanin’, U2-Joshua Tree, Miles Davis-Kind of Blue, Steve Miller Band-Greatest Hits 74-78, IceT-Greatest Hits to name a few of my favorites.

All of these categories are important to a good road trip. You must have a combination of all of them. Yeah, I know, all of you XM/Sirius users are claiming that you don’t need any of them. You got genres on every channel, and all you ever need with all those fancy channels. To those of you in that camp, I say “HOGWASH!” Why Hogwash? Well no matter how specific these channels are, or how much you enjoy the carefree toggling between your favorite genres, no road trip is complete without those irreplaceable, epic, nostalgic songs that nearly blow out your speakers and get your ears ringing whenever you choose to rock them. And how the hell are you supposed to play these favorites 2, 3, 10 times in a row with your XM radio?! You can’t. So without further palaver, I’m gonna lay my favorites out and would love to hear some of yours.

Rich’s top 20 Road Trip Jams (if you have any sense, you will build this playlist!-yeah I know it’s not gonna float everyone’s boat but if nothing else, listen to it, you might find some music that you don’t normally dig.) And for the record, none of these songs ever get bumped off the list, new ones just get added to it occasionally. As weird as it may be, here is my list:

Honorable Mentions. These songs get me thinking about all the great road trip songs and my musical wheels start turning. It’s on when I hear any of these songs.

Runnin on Empty-Jackson Browne, Hello Walls-Faron Young, Blues in Hoss Flat-Count Basie, Night In Tunisia-Ella Fitzgerald, Gimme All Your Love-Alabama Shakes, Miles and Miles of Texas-Asleep at the Wheel, China Grove-Doobie Brothers, Come Down-Anderson Paak, Crosstown Traffic-Jimi Hendrix, El Paso-Marty Robbins, Ida Red-Bob Wills and Sunshine of Your Love-Cream. Those get me started but here is when it gets real.

20-16 These are like the kindling for me. Getting the fire lit, and starting my descent into the next hour of driving, without really remembering the road I’ve just driven or the scenes outside the window.

20) Suavecito-Malo Ok, Ok, it wouldn’t seem like a fire starter, but...

19) Magic Man-Heart This one should get your blood flowing

18) Keep on Rockin’ Me-Steve Miller The best roady to choose from SMB

17) Watermelon Man-Herbie Hancock You might not have soul if you don’t love this

16) When My Train Pulls In- Gary Clark JR Great Long Jam. incredible guitar riffs

11-15 These are a small step up, adding logs to my fire

15) Me and Mrs. Jones-Billy Paul So there’s always a song that you love to sing while you are alone in your car, and you think you sing it just as well as the artist

14) Stairway to Heaven-Led Zeppelin Ok so of course I have it, but this is a really, really great song no matter how many times it is played.

13) Ev’ryday I have the Blues-Count Basie and Joe Williams The definition of a foot stomper.

12) Luckenbach, TX-Waylon and Willie One of the best country songs translates to a great road song.

11) The Story- Brandi Carlisle Not a song liable to be on many lists, road trip or not. My sister introduced me to this years and years ago and it barely misses the top 10

6-10 Ok, we are really cookin with gas now. These are legendary roadies in my book. The dog gives me a look, here we go again.

10) Rooster-Alice In Chains Gets my grunge on. I love everything about this song. Probably one of the biggest contributors to hearing loss in my right ear.

9) Six Days on the Road-Dave Duncan All those over-the-road truckers can’t be wrong, this is the best of all truckin’ songs.

8) Tonight The Bottle Let Me Down-Merle Haggard My favorite country singer and a whole lot of my favorite country music instrument, the steel guitar. Damn I love this song

7) Ticket To Ride-Beatles There are tons of Beatles songs to choose from and this isn’t my favorite, but it is my favorite on the road

6) 867-5309-Tommy Tutone This is my favorite 80s song. And when I hear that guitar riff at the beginning...Jenny, Jenny who can I turn to?

2-5 These are huge, the fire is roaring and I have no concerns as to what is going on at this point. I’ll be singing, playing drums, air guitar. The dog has now tried to cover his ears due to the volume.

5) Jamie’s Cryin-Van Halen Im not sure why, because there are tons of Van Halen songs to choose from, but for whatever reason, this one is my favorite while on the road

4) North To Alaska-Johnny Horton Ok, another one you may not expect at all but damn this is a fun song. I physically can’t help whaling “big nuggets they’re finding” every time!

3) Pink Houses-John Cougar Mellencamp Im not a globalist. ‘Murica!!

2) Sweet Child of Mine-Guns and Roses This should be on everyones list. Road songs or any other. Simply one of the best songs ever.

Number 1!!!

So all the previous songs are great. I love them all, and many, many more. This is an elaborate list for me. If you know me, you know I love lists, and don’t make them without deep thought. But Ironically, the battle for the top spot isn’t even close. I LOVE Sweet Child of Mine, and Pink Houses. I might play them 2 or 3 times in a row, but the battle for number one isn’t much of a battle. Not because these others arent great but because number one is so unbelievably spectacular in the car. I can’t help singing to it, playing air guitar, drum solo in my car, volume literally turned up 3 or 4 times during the song, ears ringing and can’t even hear myself singing, and just when you don’t think it could be any better, it gets better!!! There are times I may play this song 5, 6 times in a row if things are cookin. I can barely keep the needle under 85 mph! The number one song for the road is:

1) More Than A Feeling- Boston I really built it up, and with good reason. Rock ballad, guitar anthem, unbelievable vocals, harmony soft, loud, louder, high, higher, drums...what else can I say? This is simply the best road trip song ever!!

Ok, that’s it. Maybe it was anti-climatic for you, but I got jazzed just listing the songs. I may go take a drive just to hear the playlist! I’d love to hear everyone else’s playlist that they take on every trip. Maybe I’m missing some good road trip songs!

I hope the dog never figures out how to jump out of the car while it’s moving.

#roadtrip music playlist

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