Diesel songs?

[Mike Ellis]

If you listen to the classic country stations you'll hear a bunch of truck driving songs. Commonly heard in Cleburne:



- Gimme 40 acres and I'll turn this rig around

- Lookin' at the World through a Windshield

- Roll On (one of my favorites)

- Six Days on the Road (like the newer version better)

- Eastbound and Down (another favorite)

- Convoy

- I've Been Everywhere (guy does a Texas version of this that is great)

- Drivin' My Life Away



Then there are the "storytelling" truck driving songs, never been a big fan of these so I switch it pretty quick. One is about a truck driving ghost, Phantom 309 or something like that. There are several "tear in your beer" types like "Teddy Bear" about the kid that wants to have a ride in a big rig. Another common one is the song talking about "the girl wearing nothing but a towel and a smile on the billboard near the big old highway" but never figured out the name.

 

[TxDieselKid]

Try to find some songs by a guy named Dale Watson. He is a great singer, and writes some of the best truckin songs out there. I don't know which is my favorite from him. He has a DVD that is on his web site, but it is a Euro DVD, so make sure your player can play it first.



What are you working on Matt?

 

[Mike Ellis]

Actually....

... when I think of "trucking sounds", my mind zips back to the late 70's when one of my Dad's truck driving buddies gave us some 8-track tapes of the filthiest, raunchiest comedian I had heard since Richard Pryor. I believe his name was Gene Tracy. Boy that stuff was crude but FUNNY - my friends and I laughed until we were sick.



Nowadays he would be strung up from the nearest lamp post, certainly not "politically correct". But hey, I guess the truckers had to have SOMETHING to keep 'em awake on the long hauls...

 

[bighammer]

Taj Mahal does his version of Six Days On The Road. I downloaded it from the net a while back.



For single song titles, internet would be a good way to collect them and then burn them on a disk

 

[bmoeller]

Re: Actually....

Originally posted by Mike Ellis

... 8-track tapes of the filthiest, raunchiest comedian I had heard since Richard Pryor. I believe his name was Gene Tracy. Boy that stuff was crude but FUNNY - my friends and I laughed until we were sick.

The dirtiest I've heard is from comedian Rodney Carrington. :--) HOLY COW! He's one sick puppy.

 

[krohn]

OMG none of you have heard Diesel Smoke by Dave Dudley?!?!?!? or any of C. W. McCalls other songs? He has alot of great ones, and there ones I can relate to because alot are about truckin the roads of Iowa. There is also Freightliner Fever by Dave Dudley, that is a good one too. If you want a whole list of trucking songs just PM me and I'll send you gobs of em'.



Happy Truckin'



Jim

 

[HoleshotHolset]

Drew: I'm not working on anything... I was just curious what trucker songs were available... . and I am surprised at the results!



Matt

 

[rich m]

I can't believe that someone mentioned Bob Seger and....

... . left out "Turn the Payyyyyyyyyyyyyyg-ahhhh"... .





On a long and lonesome Highway,

East of Omaha

You can listen to the ennnngine moanin' out its one-note song...



(the bus engine, you fool!)



or, while we're on the bus,



Lord, I was born a ramblin' mannnn... .



the Kinley's

"18 wheels and a dozen roses... "



from the Simpsons, Canyonero!! (surely if it were real, there'd be an oilburner option)



Garth Brooks... . Papa loved Mama... .

 

[wcaldwell]

Not necessarily for a truck, but a bus - Roy Clark - "Thank God and Greyhound You're Gone". I swear that one was written for my first wife. I sat there waaayyyy back in '74 watching "that black smoke just a rollin up around the tail lights" when she left and I did say "Thank God and Greyhound You're Gone. "

 

[Hummin Cummins]

George Thorogood..... "Gearjammer"



Was fueling up at a truckstop the other day and saw a CD called

"Truckin songs for cracker heads"

I'm gonna go back and get it. LOL

 

[rich m]

Originally posted by wcaldwell

Not necessarily for a truck, but a bus - Roy Clark - "Thank God and Greyhound You're Gone". I swear that one was written for my first wife. I sat there waaayyyy back in '74 watching "that black smoke just a rollin up around the tail lights" when she left and I did say "Thank God and Greyhound You're Gone. "

I braincramped that one while doing the post above... . matter of fact I came back to add it, but, here it was... .

 

[sonorakitch]

Neil Young, one of my all-time favorites, has a great song; "Southern Pacific". Of course, it is about trains, but to hear "the mighty diesel whine" over his guitar is inspiration for a smoke-out.



As mentioned CW McCall is the best. One song, "Super Slab Showdown", is about two trucks racing across Nebraska. CW wins though, "because the fellow behind him got a terminal dose of that good ole' Huford gas... . "



~Chris

 

[BIGDIG]

Matts trying to secretly make some CDs to hand out for the Thunder in Muncie Convoy from the northeast... Oo. Yep,gotta stock up on some chew,dust off my hat and find my boots... ... . It's gonna be a LONNNNGGGG ride.

 

[Mike Ellis]

Might be time to head over to the movie store and rent a couple of the 70's trucking movies. I remember seeing "White Line Fever" (Jan Michael Vincent ?) in the big movie theater in downtown Abilene TX in that magical time of 8-track tapes, bell bottom jeans, and free-floatin' halter-topped homewreckers. Later on, Smokey and the Bandit... good date movies with plenty of low humor. I know Smokey had a great soundtrack but I can't remember much about "White Line Fever" music.

 

[Clinton]

This is among the best threads the Other forum has ever seen. In addtion to the above, check out some of the new school country artists who you may find in the category of 'alt country'. BR549 is one of my favorites for hard lyrics like their (soon to be classic) 18 Wheels and a Crowbar: "Twenty one days and not a wink of sleep, got a belly full of pills and a bottle of heat, sleep makes you old on the road, you know truckin is a young man's trade. " May be too graphic for some. As mentioned Junior Brown has several good ones and he's a king in the alt country category. Others of note include the Bottle Rockets, Son Volt and the Yayhoos. A guy at work has an awesome CD called 'Rig Rock Deluxe' that features several new alt country artists doing new trucker songs and classics alike. For a more traditional flavor Merle Haggard (my favorite) has several road inspired tunes. Also of note: Buck Owens (Will There be Big Rigs in Heaven), Townes Van Zandt and/or Steve Earle (White Freightliner Blues), and Marty Stuart has couple that I can't think of. Enjoy.

 

[TxDieselKid]

Originally posted by Clinton

This is among the best threads the Other forum has ever seen. In addtion to the above, check out some of the new school country artists who you may find in the category of 'alt country'. BR549 is one of my favorites for hard lyrics like their (soon to be classic) 18 Wheels and a Crowbar: "Twenty one days and not a wink of sleep, got a belly full of pills and a bottle of heat, sleep makes you old on the road, you know truckin is a young man's trade. " May be too graphic for some. As mentioned Junior Brown has several good ones and he's a king in the alt country category. Others of note include the Bottle Rockets, Son Volt and the Yayhoos. A guy at work has an awesome CD called 'Rig Rock Deluxe' that features several new alt country artists doing new trucker songs and classics alike. For a more traditional flavor Merle Haggard (my favorite) has several road inspired tunes. Also of note: Buck Owens (Will There be Big Rigs in Heaven), Townes Van Zandt and/or Steve Earle (White Freightliner Blues), and Marty Stuart has couple that I can't think of. Enjoy.

BR549 is a GREAT band, nice to see another supporter of the band.

 

[Clinton]

I tracked down the Rig Rock Deluxe CD. It's on a label called "Diesel Only Records" out of Brooklyn, NY. They give an email of -- email address removed --, but that was in 1996. I'll search around on the 'net and see what I come up with.



Yes, BR549 rocks. If they are ever in any of you guys' area make every effort to see them live. You won't be disappointed. On a trivial note, their name is the telephone exchange for Corncob County on the hit TV show Hee-Haw.

 

[Clinton]

JACKPOT!

I found them. Check out Diesel Only Records. Man, oh man, the ways I find to spend money.

 

[PLaFrombois]

I was on I-90/94 last night and going west was a group of six rigs in a row. The last one in line was a beef hauler, and all I could think of was the movie with Kris Kristopherson and Ernest Borgine, I think it was called "Convoy". I was tempted to get on the CB and "Break for the Rubber Duck". I thought it was pretty funny especially after reading about all the diesel songs.

Paul

 

[Wheaties]

Here's a few more:



Jim Croce had a song called 'Speedball Tucker'



..... terror of the highway, and all them other truckers

will tell you that the boy is mad,

to be drivin' in a rig like that!



Bruce Cockburn did 'Dust and Diesel'

(... also 'If I Had a Rocket Launcher' could that be about road rage?)



Tom Waits did 'Big Joe and Phantom 309' I won't argue if you tell me it's a Red Sovine tune... still a great song.



He also did 'Diamonds on my Windshield' Simply awesome!



"I got these Diamonds on my Windshield

and these tears from heaven.

I got me a steel train in the rain

and the wind bites my cheek through the wing

and it's these late nights and this freeway flyin'

that always makes me sing..... "



Ya gotta hear it... !



Matt