| Cars and music go hand in hand. Many, many rock | | | | Kraftwerk - 'Autobahn' |
| and roll songs are about, or feature the automobile. A | | | | Iggy Pop - 'The Passenger' |
| large number of people spend more time listening to | | | | Ministry - 'Jesus Built My Hotrod' |
| music in their cars than they do anywhere else. It | | | | Jonathan Richman - 'Roadrunner' |
| could be said that there are two elements that place | | | | Golden Earring - 'Radar Love' |
| a person firmly in time: the music that provides the | | | | Deep Purple - 'Highway Star' |
| soundtrack to their life, and the cars they have | | | | Manic Street Preachers - 'Motorcycle Emptiness' |
| driven. Perhaps then, it should not surprise us to find | | | | There are many, many more, and each reader will |
| that the car has provided the inspiration for a very | | | | probably find one or two amongst his or her own list |
| significant proportion of 20th and 21st Century | | | | of favorites that we have missed. |
| popular music lyrics. | | | | In the songs of The Beach Boys and their |
| The automobile and rock and roll go so cosily | | | | contemporaries, the car is a vital part of teenage life. |
| hand-in-hand that a kind of sub-market has evolved | | | | It is a means of transport, a status symbol, an |
| for "driving" CDs. While it isn't really clear what | | | | environment for conducting courtship rituals... Whether |
| qualifies a song for inclusion in one of these | | | | the vehicle driven is owned or borrowed from |
| compilation projects (under which the shelves of | | | | parents, these songs reflect a time when driving was |
| motorway service stations positively groan) as the | | | | just becoming a part of the domain of youth, giving |
| lyrical subject matter does vary widely, it remains | | | | them a kind of freedom formerly enjoyed only by |
| clear that a huge number of songs have been | | | | the older generation. |
| written in which the car plays a major role. No | | | | In other cases, songs about the car seem almost |
| popular music genre has a monopoly, and none is | | | | designed to be played as an accompaniment to car |
| safe from the influence of cars, trucks, driving...Here | | | | journeys. The driving force of the bass and drum |
| are a few examples of the way that the internal | | | | rhythm section chugs along in time to the beat of a |
| combustion engine has colored the musical reflection | | | | revving engine. Golden Earring's classic 'Radar Love' is |
| of popular culture over the years. | | | | the obvious example. Meanwhile, few self-respecting |
| Chuck Berry - 'No Particular Place to Go' | | | | motorcyclists would listen to Steppenwolf's 'Born to |
| The Beatles - 'Drive My Car' | | | | be Wild' without feeling the urge to don leather and |
| The Beach Boys - 'Fun Fun Fun' | | | | tear up the street. |
| The Beach Boys - 'Little Deuce Coupe' | | | | Kraftwerk, in their electronic epic 'Autobahn' (over 20 |
| Rose Royce - 'Car Wash' | | | | minutes in length) endeavored to paint a sonic picture |
| Johnny Cash - 'One Piece At A Time' | | | | of the automobile and its natural environment, the |
| Roy Orbison - 'I Drove All Night' | | | | German autobahn highways. A little later, in America, |
| Gary Numan - 'Cars' | | | | Meatloaf's car provided an unusual ambiance in |
| Bruce Springsteen - 'Pink Cadillac' | | | | 'Paradise by the Dashboard Light'. An amusing blend |
| Queen - 'I'm In Love With My Car' | | | | of romance and youthful, hormonal desperation. |
| Meatloaf - 'Paradise By The Dashboard Light' | | | | However, your correspondent's own personal |
| Prince - 'Little Red Corvette' | | | | favorite motor vehicle reference occurs in the |
| Snow Patrol - 'Chasing Cars' | | | | incomparably crafted poetry of The Ramones. From |
| Rolling Stones - 'Route 66' | | | | the tragic-romance of '7-11' comes the heart-rending: |
| Tom Robinson - '2-4-6-8 Motorway' | | | | "Oncoming car ran out of control". It crushed my |
| The Cars - 'Drive' | | | | baby and it crushed my soul". |
| Madness - 'Driving In My Car' | | | | What more is there to say? |
| Jimi Hendrix - 'Crosstown Traffic' | | | | |