Some Road Songs

by
Richard F. Weingroff

Updated 01/19/06

While we were working on FHWA By Day, Deborah Vocke challenged me to come up with a list of highway songs. Her challenge was prompted by the video for the B-52's "Love Shack," which shows the quartet driving in their car singing, "I'm heading down the Atlanta highway." I looked through my LP and cassette collection and copied the highway songs onto cassettes. They turned out to be fun to listen to in the car or on my regular long walks around Washington.

Deborah and I talked about writing an article on highway songs when we were preparing material for the issue of Public Roads dedicated to the 40^th anniversary of the Interstate System (Summer 1996). Somehow, time ran out on that idea, but I kept collecting and taping.

When "Some Road Songs" appeared on the Highway History Web site, it included only the songs I had come across. Since then, readers have suggested many additional songs that I was happy to include. If you would like to suggest a song, send it to: Richard.weingroff@fhwa.dot.gov. But keep in mind that we have some informal standards:

• Songs about musicians being "on the road" don't qualify unless they actually mention roads.
• Songs about cars, rather than roads, also don't quality.
• A song can qualify if it mentions a highway even if the rest of the song is about something else.

The following list identifies the performers and songs; I have not attempted to identify the songwriter or the album/CD the song is on. If you are interested in that information, you might be able to find it by going to the All Music Guide Web site and searching for the performer or song at: http://www.allmusic.com/. The list is arranged alphabetically, with singers by their last name (Clapton for Eric Clapton), groups by the first significant word in their name (Rolling for The Rolling Stones). Recent additions are in bold.

There may be other highway song lists on the internet, including lists with more detail, more songs, and more performers. But here's the Highway History page list-for what it's worth:

# A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
(by artist)

Special Mention: The I-10 Chronicles, Vol. 1 (March 2000) and Vol. 2: One More for the Road (September 2001). Songs by a variety of performers explore music along I-10. Vol. 1 covers California to Texas (including "L. A. Freeway" and "Smack Dab in the Middle"), while Vol. 2 carries the journey forward (with songs such as "Me and This City" and "Motel for Misery"). The I-10 Chronicles booklet explains: "The I-10 is a big road with big dreams. The songs on this album are like that too—about going and not getting there. The road may be smooth but the people on it are full of bumps and holes, driving toward love and salvation, they hope. This is all that connects them." (Note that Pete Kennedy on "Highway 10" and Sonny Landreth on "South of I-10" took a similar approach.)

Honorable Mention: The rock group Head East for its 1980 album "U.S. 1," which has only one song that mentions highways. Roger Waters for "The Pros and Cons of Hitch Hiking," his 1984 concept album. All Music Guide describes it as consisting of "numerous dream sequences that both figuratively and symbolically unravel his struggle with marriage, fidelity, commitment, and age at the height of a midlife crisis." Gary McFarland for his orchestral jazz piece "80 Miles an Hour Through Beer-Can Country" from "America the Beautiful."

The following for great group names:

• 95 South (rap group known for its 1993 song "Whoot, There It Is")
• Highway 101 (1980s country group)
• 101 North (jazz fusion group)
• Drivin' n' Cryin' (southern roots rock)

More: I plan to update the list when I come across additional songs. If you'd like to add songs to the list, feel free to send me an email.