Truck Driving Tunes

[mandocrucian]

"It's such a fine line between clever and stupid." - Spinal Tap

That really fits all those "big rig" truck driving numbers!

Going through the LP collection burning stuff to disc, I got sidetracked (thanks to Commander Cody) into making the ultimate trucking compilation...sort of the "Atomic Cafe" soundtrack, but for trucks instead of nukes. #All that <span style='color:blue'>Cody stuff</span> and standards ([orignal artist] when possible)

<span style='color:blue'>"Truck Driving Man"
"Looking At The World Through a Windshield" [Del Reeves]
"Mama Hated Diesels"
"Semi Truck"
"Truck Stop Rock"
"I'm Coming Home" [Johnny Horton]
"Truck Stop At The End Of The World"</span>

"6 Days On The Road" (Dave Dudley, and just about everybody else)
"Girl On The Billboard" [Del Reeves]
"Drug Store Truck Drivin' Man" (Byrds, Gram Parsons)
"Truck Stop Girl" (Little Feat, Byrds)
"White Frieghtliner" (Townes Van Zandt, NGR, Emmylou Harris)
"Widowmaker" (Jimmy Martin... but who did the original?)
"Mama's In The Graveyard, "Daddy's In The Pen" - Garth Brooks

and there's obscurer stuff:

"Knights Of The Road" (Fairport Convention - [b]Rosie)
"Road Kill" (Charlie Burton & The Hiccups)
"Pride Of Cucamonga" (Grateful Dead - Mars Hotel)
"Big Rig Rollin Man" (Johnny Dollar)

But there's got to more stuff out there..... maybe something by the Allman Bros, or the Band, or Nick Lowe. #Maybe something from the Bonzo/Rutles/Grimms/Scaffold Brit-satire crowd. There's gotta be some from the southern rock bands.

While there are lots of flashy car songs and countless train songs, I can't think of any truck driving songs by black performers (unless Charley Pride did something). I can't believe there is nothing that wouldn't fit the category from the blues guys.

One thing I have noticed...the more idiotic the song, the funkier and funkier the lead guitar and pedal steel solos become. (I coppped some of those guitar and steel licks from that stuff in years past.)

More listings please..... #(I still have 25 mins. left on the disc)

Niles Hokkanen

[mandofiddle]

Del McCoury Band - Asheville Turnaround
Grateful Dead - Truckin

[Mandomax]

"Diesel on My Tail" Jim & Jesse

[Tom C]

Willin' #-Little Feat

Or try here countrystandardtime.com/trucker1FEATURE.html (http://www.countrystandardtime.com/trucker1FEATURE.html)

[b.pat]

" Give me fourty acres and I'll turn this rig around."
http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/tounge.gif

[Dennis Schubert]

Lester Flatt's "Backing to Birmingham" is always good for a chuckle.

I just got Dale Watson's "Truckin' Sessions" which is a whole bunch of contemporary stuff, have only listened once, don't have a favorite cut yet.

I know you can find those $1.99 cassette anthologies at the truck stops, with Red Sovine's Phantom 309, etc., etc. that were recorded on Starday, Gusto, and other old labels.

[John Flynn]

Here's three, two great ones and one that is so bad, it has to get honorable mention:

Great: "Big Wheels Rollin'" by Merle Haggard

Great: "18 Wheels and a Dozen Roses," by Kathy Mettea

Bad: "Teddy Bear" by Red Sovine

[duuuude]

Bad: "Teddy Bear" by Red Sovine
Aw, c'mon, that one's a real tear-jerker.

[plunkett5]

Little known but great driving tune by Little Village (Ry Cooder, John Hiatt, Nick Lowe and Jim Keltner) "Don't Think About Her, When You're Trying to Drive." It's so corny it is sincere. Album has some great Ry electric mandolin solos.

[TeleMark]

I don't know if Commander Cody recorded this one, but "Big Mac's Off the Blocks," is a great one, done by Bill Kirchen.

TeleMark

[s1m0n]

Dip into western swing for one of the earliest in the genre, Truck Driver's Blues by Cliff Bruner & his boys, from 1939.

[delsbrother]

I'm fond of the Beat Farmers' "Big Ugly Wheels".

[GVD]

duuuude Posted on

Quote (jflynnstl @ Nov. 18 2004, 14:30)
Bad: "Teddy Bear" by Red Sovine

Aw, c'mon, that one's a real tear-jerker.

Yeah that's one of those songs that's so bad it's actually good in a weird sort of way. I still crack up every time little teddy bear gets on the CB and says "Hey trucka". #http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/laugh.gif

GVD

[Dave Hicks]

"I can't think of any truck driving songs by black performers"

Check out Taj Mahal's version of 6 Days - on Giant Step, I do believe. Jesse Ed Davis on Tele lead.

[mikeomando]

"Giddy up go daddy. Giddy up go."

Also (and I'm ashamed to say this) "Convoy".

"Driving my life away" Eddie Rabbit?

[luckylarue]

Niles,

Don't forget "Tombstone Every Mile." I forgot who wrote it, a guy from Maine. I know Bill Kirchen does a version of it. I have it somewhere at home.
Also,
"Water in the Fuel"
"Cumberland County" - Both by the great Fred Eaglesmith. Actually, "Cumberland County" is about a snow plow driver - that could be a whole 'nuther thread!
Scott
Aha!! Dick Curless wrote "Tombstone"- Just remembered.

[G'DAE]

Wolf Creek Pass!

[luckylarue]

Which one G'DAE,

C.W. McCall(b-side to "Convoy" 45) or Chris Thile?

[mandocrucian]

"Henry" - New Riders Of The Purple Sage
"Diesel On My Tail" - Ian Matthews & Plainsong

[EasyEd]

Hey All and paivaa Niles,

My Dad was a truck driver for over 40 years so I should be able to come up with a few. In addition to the ones above here's few more - some are likely repeats.

Red Simpson- I Got A Beaver In My Lap And A Bear On My Tail
Red Simpson - I'm a Truck
CW McCall - Convoy
Gary P Nunn - Pickup Truck Texas
Cooder Graw - 18 Wheels Of Loving
Junior Brown - Semi Crazy
Weird Al - Truck Driving Song
Tim Wilson - Peterbilt Prison
Red Sovine - Truck Driver's Prayer
Red Sovine - 18 Wheels Hummin'
Red Sovine - Phantom 309
Red Sovine - Giddy Up Go
Kid Rock - Trucker Anthem
Jim Croce - Speedball Trucker
Billy Joe Shaver - Mother Trucker
Billy Joe Shaver - White Freightliner Blues
David Allen Coe - All American Trucker
Toby Keith - Big Ol' Truck
Alice Cooper - Blue Truck
Alkaline Trio - Trains and Trucks
Frank Zappa - Truck Driver Divorce
Frank Zappa - The Orange County Lumber Truck
Cledus T Judd - Granpa Got Ran Over by a Beer Truck
Dave Dudley - Truck Drivin' Son of a Gun
Dave Dudley - Six days on the Road
Richard Shindell - The Kenworth of My Dreams
Jim and Jesse - Truck Stops and Pretty Girls
Lester Flatt - Backin' To Birmingham
C W McCall - Old Home Filler Up and Keep On Truckin' Cafe
Linda Ronstadt - weed, whites and wine (song called willin)

An more that I can't recall.

Even Stompin Tom does a few - names I can't recall. You might want to look em up as Stompin Tom would likely be a good addition.

Take Care an "catch ya on the flip flop bye bye we gone"! -Ed-

[mandopete]

For some damn reason I can only think of the tune Keep On Truckin by Eddie Kendricks

[s1m0n]

Stompin Tom's Bud the Spud would be the one to have:


cho: Its Bud the Spud from the bright red mud
Rollin' down the highway smilin'
The spuds are big on the back of Bud's rig
They're from Prince Edward Island
They're from Prince Edward Island

[mando bandage]

Feats Don't Fail Me Now, by Little Feat.

Also, heard one once called "Jesus on the Grill", about a lit up cross on a semi grill looming in the fog as one trucker's road to Damascus (or was it Dallas?) experience. Can't say who did it though. Intriguing title, don't you think?

R

[G'DAE]

I was referring to C.W. McCall's version of Wolf Creek Pass.
I second "Henry" as a real fun one to play. http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/mandosmiley.gif

[Tim Conroy]

Another Little Feat number-

Six Feet of Snow, it was on Down on the Farm.

[Bret Roberts]

Can't forget " UFOs, Big Rigs & BBQ " by the one and only Mojo Nixon

[OdnamNool]

"White Line Fever." Merle Haggard. Flying Burrito Brothers did a fine version...

[rixter]

Wow, don't believe I saw any reference to Jethro Burns immortal "Mama Was A Truck Drivin' Man". http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/tounge.gif

[Mike Bunting]

Stompin' Tom's Margo's got the Cargo and Reggie's Got the Rig. It's about hauling a load of cow manure to Toronto

[David M.]

"Shakeytown" by Jackson Browne
"Brother Trucker" by James Taylor.

"Truck Driver's Blues" by Merle Haggard (that one may have been mentioned).

[mad dawg]

Anything by the Drive-by Truckers.

[kvk]

Remember the CB radio craze of the late 70s. G-- forgive me:

"Convoy"

[mad dawg]

Legendary Shack Shakers' C.B. Song

Southern Culture on the Skids' The Fly That Rode from Buffalo

Junior Brown's Highway Patrol, & of course, Semi-Crazy.

[mad dawg]

BTW, don't forget to tell 'em Large Marge sent ya...

[Martin Jonas]

Maybe something from the Bonzo/Rutles/Grimms/Scaffold Brit-satire crowd.
There certainly is: "I Like Trucking (And I Like To Truck)" from Not The Nine O'Clock News. A very poor quality MP3 of part of the song is here (http://www.mad-music.com/html/comady/comady.shtml). This was the video with the infamous squashed hedgehog. Rowan Atkinson had to get a truck driving license just to be allowed to shoot the video.

Martin

[mad dawg]

The Gourds' (I'm going to) El Paso

[mandopoet]

One of my personal favorites: Townes Van Zandt's "White Freightliner Blues." Billy Joe Shaver also covered it on a compilation album called Poet: A Tribute to Townes Van Zandt.

[fatt-dad]

I think that Steve Goodman's, "You Never Even Called Me By My Name" (or something like that), which was written to be the consumate Country Song, tributes trucking along with drinking, prison, woman, mother, etc.

[AlanN]

Not sure of the tune, but it was bluegrass and had the refrain

Big rig rollin down that Mason-Dixon line
This old rig will make a trucker lose his mind
Big rig rollin, got to stop and take a rest
Need some black coffee and I gotta get some rest.

Anybody know who/what?

[hellindc]

"Home to Houston" on Steve Earle's latest, "Revolution". Starts out: "When I pulled out of Basra they all wished me luck..." Interlude:

Early in the mornin' I'm rollin' fast
Haulin' nine thousand gallons of high test gas
Sergeant on the radio hollerin' at me
Look out up ahead here come a R.P.G.
If I ever get back to Houston alive
Then I won't drive a truck anymore

Also, John Denver, "Home Again," -- "There's a truck out on four lane, a mile or more away, the whinin' of his wheels just makes you colder." More about a spouse waitin on her driver.

[mandroid]

the Tom Waits version of #"Red Slovine's (sp?) 'ballad of big joe & Phantom 309." ' # its on 'Nighhawks at the diner'.

[madog99]

Highway Driving by Alabama ?(hi hi hi way driving , it'll get you down but it'll get you home)

80 Odd Hours- Skydiggers

[John Rosett]

"CB savage"
i have this on a truck driving song compilation, and i don't know who wrote it. it's about truck drivers that are so freaked out by a flamingly gay voice coming through their CB radios that they don't notice that they're being set up for a speed trap. it gets my vote for the funniest truck driving song of all time.
a couple of years ago, i started writing a song about a trucker who gets abducted by a ufo, but i've never finished it.
john

[EasyEd]

Hey All,

I forgot "Semi Crazy" by one of my favorites Junior Brown

I'm semi crazy
about half nuts
driving up and down the road
in these semi trucks

Take care! -Ed-

[Dan Cole]

What about the "Ballad of Thunder Road" by Jim & Jesse?

[madog99]

Stumbled across one today , "Lincoln town " by John Hiatt, he's carring a load of new cars , but he might be driving a train "rubber or steel I don't mind " ? Great mando on that disc , "Crossing Muddy Waters" David Immergluck is the mando guy and it's mixed way up front.

[mando bandage]

"Lincoln town " by John Hiatt

I figured this song a bit different. #Sounds to me like he hopped a train loaded with shiny new cars, and is riding in someone else's new Cadillac, "smokin' on a big cigar."

What a way to travel though, eh?

R

[madog99]

"Lincoln town " by John Hiatt

I figured this song a bit different. #Sounds to me like he hopped a train loaded with shiny new cars, and is riding in someone else's new Cadillac, "smokin' on a big cigar."

What a way to travel though, eh?

R
ahh , maybe that's it ? I've played that CD about 5 times today , don't know how I could have forgot about ?

[good_ol_al_61]

How about "Ridin' the Red Line" on Rhonda Vincent's CD, "One Step Ahead"?

Not sure who wrote it, but it is a spin on the normal truck driving song with the driver being a lady!

What would you expect from the best Female Bluegrass Mandolinist of my generation?

[homermando]

How about the 2 versions of "The Cattletruck Drivin' Boogie",by Tommy Hancock and The Phantom Dance Band, one of which (the 1996 version) features one Eric Hokkanen on fiddle. Any relation? Tommy told me that the 1976 version was a regional hit in California. He is now based in Austin, Tx.

[Joe F]

"Hard Luck Woman" by Mason Profitt, from their "Come and Gone" album. #It has all the proper elements: truck-drivin' man, waitress in a truck stop cafe, pedal steel guitar, etc.

[Steve Baker]

"Car Carrier Blues", of course! (Leo Kottke and Mike Gordon)

Steve Baker

[aimee]

How 'bout Hal Ketchum's "Mama Knows the Highway", another woman trucker song.

Or who did that one that goes "OOOOhhh I'm drivin my life away" and says something about the truck stop cutie?

[AlanN]

or Jethro doing the parody "Mama Was a Truck Drivin' Man"

[Kjetil]

Jerry Reed - Redneck in a rock and roll bar
Jerry Reed - Eastbound and down
? - Girlie shows
C.W Mccall - Old home filler-up an'keep on a-truckin'Cafe
C.W Mccall - Rubber duck
C.W Mccall - Four wheel drive (no truck-theme, but very cool song with lots of banjoplaying)
? - Phantom 309