a ROCKIN' tour of the Golden Age of Trucking Museum (Middlebury, CT)

(above) Big fun at the Golden Age of Trucking Museum.

That's yer author, atop, with son Jordan and wife Jane below
(above) 1955 International Harvester model DFC 405,
known as "The Emeryville," also known as
the "wedding cake truck"( see below)
(above) Jordan, about to rock on down the highway

(above) the view from the cockpit (and we're talkin' HIGH UP THERE)

(above) the sleeper behind the drivers seat

(above) my wife Jane Eskilson, heading out for Chicago and points west

(above) now you can see why this model Emeryville is

known to be one of the tallest trucks ever built

(above) another size comparison, that with two classic Autocars.

(middle) 1974 Autocar model DC9364; (right) 1962 Autocar model DC75T

(above) Joe Beers' "Big Blue" Mack

(above) a classic ('30s?) Diamond T stakebed, kinda

reminiscent of the trucks in the George Raft, Humphrey Bogart movie

THEY DRIVE BY NIGHT

(above) 1940 Mack, a transitional model between the old and new styles

(above) the classic Mack model AC, which helped build the

great dams and the early major highways across the nation

(above) here's something very rare . . . a 1946 Hudson "Big Boy" pickup

(above) a 1954 Diamond T model 951S . . . lotta rollin' steel.

(above) one of the museum's great treasures,

a 1952 Diamond T model 950RS stakebed, the largest

Class 8 on-highway vehicle produced by Diamond T in Chicago

(some 80 may have been produced from 1951 to 1957).

(above) Museum Director Kathleen D. Jones, daughter of

the late Richard J. Guerrera, Sr., a major truck collector

and head of R.J. Guerrera Inc., a significant East Coast transportation company

in operation for thirty five years, headquartered in Naugatuck, CT

(above) This depicts all my childhood fantasies in one inspired picture.

(above) one example of the many stunning truck models on display

at the Museum, built by Ken Swingle of Huntington, CT.

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I'm proud to be a founding member of the American Truck Historical Society, of which there are now well over 25,000 members worldwide. I also support the work of the Hays Antique Truck Museum in Woodland, CA, about an hour from my home. So it's no surprise that on my recent East Coast tour of colleges and universities with my college-bound son Jordan (a high school senior this year at Salesian) and my wife Jane Eskilson, I finagled a visit to The Golden Age of Trucking Museum, located in Middlebury, CT (about an hour from New Haven).

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GATM was founded in 1998 by the late Richard (Dick) Guerrera of Middlebury (see picture to left). He passed away before the museum was fully built, but his widow Frances Guerrera and their children carried on with the plans, and the ribbon cutting was held in September, 2002.

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Many of Mr. Guerrera's prized trucks are on display. Both he and I loved (and love) Macks, Diamond T's, and Autocars especially, and there are some absolutely outstanding examples, beautifully restored. A portion of what's exhibited is on loan, so the museum changes every year to some degree.

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Kathi Jones, Mr. Guerrera's daughter, is the Museum Director. I asked her at one point in our tour if we could climb into one of the trucks and take pictures. She was so very kind to say yes, and without realizing that one of Dick Guerrera's favorites was the Emeryville shown here in many of the photos, I asked for access to that one. So we climbed up! And I mean climbed!

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The Emeryville DFC 405 cabover was built by International Harvester in its Emeryville, CA plant in the mid-1950s. It's a legend all itself because of its height (only the Mack H-series would rival it).

Imagine being atop one of these beasts--you're indeed the king of the highway and all that passeth below and beside.

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Some truckers call this model the "wedding cake truck" because to them it appears it was "built in layers." Few examples exist, although members of ATHS have brought them to their annual conventions, and jaws always drop. It's one of my absolute favorites too, so I must salute Dick Guerrera and Frances, their family, and especially Kathi, for founding the museum, hosting it so delightfully, and allowing Jane, Jordan, and me to poke around.

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I commend this museum to you, and you can read more at www.goldenagetruckmuseum.com.

You must ask for permission before touching anything on exhibit--generally people are not allowed to climb into the trucks, as we did.

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Thanks Kathi, it was a blast. And, thanks much for acquiring copies of ROCKIN' for sale in the Museum gift shop. There's a good truckin' story in there too (pages 130-131), so it fits!!

a ROCKIN' reminiscence on events in '69

(above) Grateful Dead's Jerry Garcia (l), Phil Lesh (r)

(above) German single (1970); note photo was

taken by poster artist Stanley Mouse for the LP cover

(above) French single (1970)

(above) Dutch single (1970)

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1969 was my Summer of Love. I didn't make Woodstock, but I sure came close--about a hundred miles away. It was my senior year in high school; I'd just graduated, and was a counselor at Camp Regis (where Bonnie Raitt and her brothers went), near Saranac Lake (close to Lake Placid up in New York State) and of course I heard all about the outrageous goings-on. Just a few weeks before, I'd hitchhiked into town to see a movie--any movie. As fate would have it, what was playing was MONTEREY POP. I walked in to the theater one kind of person, and walked out having seen my people for the first time. And, I was headed to Stanford, on the West Coast.

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When I arrived, one of the first things I noticed was that the freshman football players were listening to a brand new LP--the Grateful Dead's LIVE DEAD. Within weeks, I'd see the Dead at Bill Graham's Fillmore West dance-concert hall on Market Street in San Francisco. In fact, I was there the night before Altamont, dancing to the Dead, on December 5, 1969.

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I didn't go to Altamont on December 6. I was an editor at the Stanford Daily, going to two, sometimes three concerts a week, and valiantly trying to keep my academic scene intact. While the spectacle-to-be sure was intriguing, I just didn't have the resources to make my way over to the East Bay, thru Livermore, and up into the hills where Altamont Speedway was. As things turned out, probably it was for the best.

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Altamont was not the Stones' first choice for their post-Woodstock free concert. They couldn't get the permits for a site in San Francisco's Golden Gate Park, and negotiations with Sears Point Raceway in Marin County broke down. So Altamont was a last- minute set-up and the lack of preparation was obvious, all the way to a rickety, too-close-to-the ground concert stage. And then there was the Stones' choice of security (allegedly at the recommendation of the Dead) to be handled by the pool cue-wielding Hells Angels, who were paid off in alcohol. Bad acid trips, bodily injuries and even death resulted.

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A lot of my buddies went and most everyone came back bummed. Sound was horrible, insufficient for what turned out to be 300,000 fans. The magic of Woodstock was just not there.The experience was well chronicled by the landmark film GIMME SHELTER, which focused on the Stones epic year of 1969, including their NYC Madison Square Garden concert where GET YER YA YA'S OUT was recorded (with the all-time inspired shout from the audience, "Paint it Black, you devils!!!").

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Maybe Altamont was a major turning point in rock & roll, and in pop culture in general. But I say maybe, even though I'm a rock historian and know the big picture involved. See, for me, my best years as a young rocker were still ahead, particularly as I grew with the Grateful Dead, absorbing some of their best work in the 1970s and '80s--ultimately leading to my co-authoring GRATEFUL DEAD BOOK OF THE DEAD HEADS, my first book, in 1983.

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For the Dead, Altamont was most definitely a major bummer--an in-yer-face scene of horrifying serendipity. They never played that day or night, although they were scheduled to follow the Stones. But they absorbed a lot of flack. In fact on Dec. 8, famed columnist Ralph J. Gleason, who had celebrated the rise of San Francisco-style psychedelic rock beginning in 1965 and was a huge champion of the Dead, the Airplane, Quicksilver, and Janis Joplin with Big Brother and the Holding Company, wrote scathing commentary about the planning of and the lingering effects of Altamont in the San Francisco Chronicle. Reading those alternately sad, bewildered, and angry musings, The Dead's lyricist, Robert Hunter, responded with "New Speedway Boogie" (excerpts below):

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"Spent a little time on the mountain

Spent a little time on the hill

Heard some say better run away

Others say you better stand still

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Now I don't know but I been told

It's hard to run with the weight of gold

Other hand, I heard it said

It's just as hard with the weight of lead

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You can't overlook the lack, Jack,

Of any other highway to ride

It's got no signs or dividing lines

And very few rules to guide

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Now I don't know but I been told

If the horse don't pull you got to carry the load

I don't know whose back's that strong

Maybe find out before too long

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One way or another . . ."

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This was the beginning of the Dead's semi-acoustic period, when they released WORKINGMAN'S DEAD and AMERICAN BEAUTY in June and November, 1970. "New Speedway Boogie" was a B-side single off WORKINGMANS. In the recent auction conducted by www.ItsOnlyRocknRoll.com, I snagged three rare European singles of "Uncle John's Band" (the signature piece for the band in that era) backed by "New Speedway Boogie", all shown above. These are what brought back my memories.

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The Dead played "NSB" 4 times in late 1969, 21 times in 1970, and then did not play the song again until 1991. Looking at DEADBASE, I also note that the Dead played these venues:

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04-67: Speedway Meadows, Golden Gate Park (SF)
(actually numerous free gigs there, that spring and summer)

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12-28-69: International Speedway, Hollywood, FL

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7-28-73: Grand Prix Racecourse, Watkins Glen, NY

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9-3-77: Raceway Park, Englishtown, NJ

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WORKINGMANS DEAD was the fourth studio album by the Dead. In 1970, the readers of Rolling Stone magazine voted it the best album of 1970, in front of Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young's DEJA VU, and Van Morrison's MOONDANCE. In 2003, the album was ranked number 262 on Rolling Stone's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time.

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"New Speedway Boogie" excerpted lyrics reprinted with the permission of Ice Nine Publishing, all rights reserved. Thanks much to Alan Trist.
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some useful sources:

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www.elivermore.com/photos/Hist_lvr_altamont3.htm

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http://blogcritics.org/archives/2006/08/27/171008.php

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http://www.dvdmg.com/gimmeshelter.shtml

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http://archive.salon.com/ent/col/srag/2000/08/10/gimme_shelter/

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http://www.dvdmoviecentral.com/ReviewsText/gimme_shelter.htm

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http://arts.ucsc.edu/GDead/aGDL/spee.html

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a ROCKIN' Super Bee Six-Pack poster, in honor of Detroit's garage-band rockers The Von Bondies

Being the rock poster guy that I am, I was cruisin' thru one of my favorite sites, http://www.gigposters.com/ and came across this poster, by the otherwise unknown (to me, that is) designer Joe Camacho, for The Von Bondies' gig at The Casbah (a San Diego club). I went a step further and looked at the comments and found this inspired dialogue that includes artists Greg Reinel ("Stainboy" and Mike Fisher ("MaximumFluoride")--two of my most rockin' buds--and artist Mike Saputo.

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"Stainboy: The only six pack in the world that I need.

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MaxFlo: This is the exact car I want. It is the exact car I have wanted since I was 9 years old. One day I will have it.

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MSaputo: This is the (new) 440 Magnum V8-powered Dodge Super Bee Six Pack. With? Three Holley two-barrels on an Edelbrock aluminum manifold. Your choice of a 4-speed manual with Hurst shifter or 3-speed automatic. A 4:10 ratio, 9 3/4" Dana axle with Sure Grip differential. G70x15 Polyglas tires on 6" wheels. A fiberglass scoop so mean-looking it'll scare you. And a hood you take off, held down by four NASCAR hood pins. 'Nuff said? Well, how 'bout this? 390 bhp @ 4700 rpm, 490 lbs-ft. of torque @3600 rpm. Now get with it. At your nearby Dodge dealers. Ask for the Super Bee Six Pack. That'll do it.

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MaxFlo: This is the car I still want. Although I want the one with the steel hood. And no vinyl top. I'd prefer the two door post over the hardtop but I'm willing to be flexible on that."

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Anyone who's thumbed through ROCKIN' knows the work of Stainboy--just check out his Mustang Sally full-page illustration on page 179 and his picture with his Mustang on page 155. MaxFlo, who comes out of the hard core school of rock, is an inspired artist who's brought boucoup imagination to the video games world, and is a stone-cold gearhead himself. I almost shoe-horned some of his Roth-like car-monster designs into ROCKIN' but we plumb ran out of space--to my everlasting regret.

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FYI, The Von Bondies are a Detroit-based indie/garage rock band formed in 2000 by leader Jason Stollsteimer. Jack White of the White Stripes, along with The Dirtbombs' Jim Diamond, produced the Bondies' debut album, Lack of Communication, in late 2001. It was recorded in only three days. Pawn Shoppe Heart came out in February, 2004 on the Sire label, co-produced by Jerry Harrison of the Talking Heads.

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The Von Bondies' single "C'Mon, C'mon" is featured in the TV series Rescue Me. You can read more about the band at www.vonbondies.com/.

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ROCKIN' nicely reviewed in ROD & CUSTOM Mag.

A very nice review of ROCKIN' appears in this month's ROD & CUSTOM magazine. And on the cover . . . "Exciting New Books You Need to Check Out!"

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This mag is one I grew up reading, beginning many decades ago. It's an honor to be in there for sure. My one regret is that Gray Baskerville, long associated with R&C and many companion hot rod mags, passed away before ROCKIN' was published.

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Special thanks to Brian Brennan, head of Primedia's rod & restoration group and R&C's editorial director, whom I first met at SEMA through Darrell Mayabb.

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a ROCKIN' tip o' the hat to GARAGE Magazine

Garage Magazine, issue #14. On the newsstands now. Publisher: Jesse James. Editor-in-Chief: Dan Stoner. Art Director: Brian Bounds.

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THE hippest review yet of ROCKIN'. (click photo to enlarge). Thanks, guys. I'm still wearing a smile, having read it.

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But as an aside, I have to tell ya that the Doobies around 1971 - 72 were THE rad and bad biker band in the San Jose, CA territory. They played many of their early gigs at the Chateau Liberte on the top of the Santa Cruz mountains, midway between San Jose and Santa Cruz. The Chateau originally was one of the key Wells Fargo stage stops in the Bay Area, dating back to the 1800's. Even if some of their (later) music today strikes you as M-O-R, I seriously don't think even Jesse would make that comment in front of the Chateau bar or out in the parking lot, and certainly not to Pat Simmons, guitarist, biker, and gearhead, who is a particular hero of mine and who definitely could (and did) rock on down the highway. Other than that small point . . . carry on, it's a great mag.

a ROCKIN' day (and a Cobra adventure) down at Autobooks-Aerobooks in Burbank, CA

(above) Doug Stokes, your host at Autobooks-Aerobooks,

with the day's 'pick to click"

(above) the legendary Ed Iskenderian ("Isky Cams")
(above) eye-in-the-sky traffic reporter Jeff Baugh KFWB 980

(mornings and evenings for 15 years = 26,000 hours)
(above) Steve Moriarty, certified race car driver and warbird pilot
with his '65 replica Cobra (with its 289 yielding 415 hp)

(above) Steve's Cobra's dash.
Click on the picture to enlarge, Look closely,
and you'll see (among others) autographs by Dan Gurney;
Indy racers Parnelli Jones and Jim Rathmann;
7-time SCCA champ Dick Smith
(who set the fastest time for a Cobra at 198.60 MPH);
and gearhead and TV personality Jay Leno
(above) rockin' down the highway . . . very fast
(above) the Cobra rocked me back in my seat . . . hard . . . as we hit 95
in three shifts on one of the on-ramps

(above) my host, upon exiting "Kermit"

(above) note the camera mounts. This is film studio territory.
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Doug Stokes, who's the resident guru at Autobooks-Aerobooks in Burbank, CA, invited me down for a booksigning. I'd not been there before, so it was like a pig-wallow for me. Felt like I just stepped into an acre-wide world of books and diecast models. And it was also where I saw the latest review of ROCKIN', in the current issue of Garage Magazine (see next blog).

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A-A is the place for erudite L.A. gearheads. I missed Jay Leno (a regular at the store) that morning by only a couple of minutes (I'd just flown down from Oakland, and rolled in at 11:00). Then, as I was busy signing, I was introduced to Ed Iskenderian, the man behind "Isky Cams." That was an honor.

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The highlight of the day was meeting Steve Moriarty, known to all as a certified race car driver, a warbird pilot with roots in 'Nam, and an engineer/multimedia specialist. Also, owner of "Kermit," the replica '65 Cobra pictured above. After a good hang at the store, I politely asked Steve for a ride. Kinda reminded me of the ride I took with Bigg Slice in Snoop Dogg's "Lakersmobile," only this time it was a rip-roarin' adventure out on the freeway so I could taste some Cobra wind-in-the face. For more than a long moment, when Steve floored it on an on-ramp and I was knocked back in my seat, I got the idea pretty good of what people have to say about Cobra's. It felt totally solid, unlike a few experiences I've had with classic Corvettes that were, uh, way too loose.

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The entire day was simply joyful. I got to open books, page thru magazines, eyeball diecast, and ultimately I took home Rin Tanaka's latest extraordinary artbook, "My Freedamn! #6," which has page after page of racing, bowling, and rock & roll fashion. And we sold many copies of ROCKIN' and as usual I made a bunch of new friends.

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I thoroughly commend to all of you Autobooks-Aerobooks, which is on Magnolia Blvd. in Burbank, barely ten minutes from the Burbank airport. It's been a destination point since 1958, but changes to the store may be in the wind, so don't delay your visit. I might even go down again on August 11, for "Be-Boppin' in the Park," just so I can do it all over again.

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Thanks again, Doug! The pleasure, as we say, was all mine.

a candidate for the most ROCKIN' automotive-concept album cover of all time

While on the subject of truck-related album covers, I couldn't resist pulling this one out.
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Head East was a hard rock quintet originally from south central Illinois. They played their first gig on August 6, 1969 at Southern Illinois University in Carbondale. The lineup that would take them through their first six albums began to take shape in Champaign/Urbana, the home of the University of Illinois.
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Get Yourself Up, the band's second album, was released by A&M Records in 1976. It topped out at #161 on the Billboard album charts.
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The cover photo is credited to Rudi Herzog. No more information exists, other than the cover concept is by Jeff Ayeroff (was he a friend of the band?). The art director was A & M's esteemed Roland Young.
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To say the very least . . . inspired choice of a photo.

a ROCKIN' look at the classic (and the cheesiest) truck drivin' albums

I belong to the American Truck Historical Society--in fact, I consider myself one of the founding members (there are about 25,000 members today). You haven't lived till you've been at an annual ATHS convention, where 400 - 500 restored big rigs from the '20s to the '60s gather.

For a guy like me who's into trucks, it's pure heaven.

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I'm pulling together material on truck driving albums for the ATHS bi-monthly magazine "Wheels of Time," and I thought I'd share with you some of what's turned up, visually speaking.

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The '60s-'70s trucker LP is a genre unto itself. Cheesy, of course. Heartfelt, yes that too. Yet a fantasy to some degree, especially the hitchhiker and truck stop waitress motif. Note that a number of the LPs actually share the same photo session. And it's curious to me that the trucks themselves are not very flashy, and even the choice of the trucks is open to question, visually speaking. I mean, there were better trucks (and better painted trucks) to choose from. I do like the GMC "howler" on the Willis Bros. LPs very much, as well as the B-model Macks ("That's Truckdrivin'"). Cabovers--at least those which ended up on the LPs--meh. But that's one sturdy lass on "Road Music."

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The Starday and King labels are the classics. And the trucker-hero-musicians are Red Simpson, the Willis Brothers, Red Sovine, Dave Dudley, and Jimmy Martin, although very few (if any) actually sat in a cab, much less drove a truck. Note that I've left out "Convoy" and latter-day crappy compilations.

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My all-time favorite is "Widowmaker" because of that bumper. Any of you blog-readers remember others I should include?

ROCKIN' in the back seat (yeah baby!)

(above) poster by Alan Hynes and Christian Hall
(above) "Get Outta My Dreams, Get Into My Car" reached #1
on both the Billboard Hot 100 and Billboard R&B charts in the U.S. in 1988

(above) poster by Daniel Danger

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I just saw Daniel Danger's new concert poster (above) and I'd earlier clipped Alan Hynes and Christian Hall's piece done for a Dwarves event. It got me thinking about action in the back seat. What musicians and lyricists have been singing and writing about doing in the backseats of cars, or alluding to doing in cars likely in the backseat, has been the source of great controversy--and great interest--while earning expressions of ire from morality groups since the 1930s.

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Robert Johnson TERRAPLANE BLUES (1936):

"When I feel so lonesome, you hear me when I moan

Who been drivin' my Terraplane for you, since I been gone"

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Sonny Boy Williamson PONTIAC BLUES

"I'm going out with my baby tonight

Whole lotta loving, in that straight-8 Pontiac

We're gonna get on the highway

Cut the bright lights on

Turn the radio on"

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But the number one backseat love song has to be Billy Ocean's Get Outta My Dreams, Get Into My Car, simply because it rose to #1 on two of Billboard's singles charts in 1988, but also because it was the basic recipe with all the ingredients:

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"Get outta my dreams

Get into my car

Get outta my dreams

Get in the back seat baby

Get into my car

Beep beep, yeah

Get outta my mind

Get into my life

Oooooooooooooh

Oh, I said hey (hey) you (You)

Get into my car"

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Here are some others I looked up, while thinking about all the ways the back seat figures largely in car songs.

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Eric Carmen DRIVIN' AROUND

"With my girl by my side

We can go for a ride

To find a place we can dance

And when it gets real dark

We can stop in the park

And have a backseat romance."

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Roxette SLEEPING IN MY CAR

"So come out tonight

I'll take you for a ride

This steamy ol' wagon

The radio is getting wild

Sleeping in my car, I will undress you

Sleeping in my car, I will caress you

Staying in the backseat of my car

Making love, oh yeah"

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Akcent KYLIE

"Kylie, give me just a chance

Let's go out and dance

We can get into the groove

I can watch you move

Later you can sing to me

Like a shining star

But I'd rather do you on the

Backseat of my car."

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Now, to be sure, rappers have been covering this subject in their own inimitable style, sometimes referencing the backseat directly, others implying where the deed was done. FYI, for those who care, each of these songs is a gem, lyrically, although some may be offended by the overall content. Nevertheless, you can Google 'em up and take yer chances.

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2Pac WHAT'Z YA PHONE #

"Never had sex with a rich rap star

Till I got her in the backseat of my homeboy's car."

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Snoop Dogg BEAUTIFUL

"In a '64, me and baby boo cruisin' (oh-hoooo!)

Body rag interior blue and

Have them hydraulics squeakin'

When we screwin'"

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Mc Nas-D and DJ Freaky Fred IT'S MY CADILLAC

"My Caddy is so loud

Some neighborhoods ban me

But it just makes it easier

For me to get in panties."

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LL Cool J BACK SEAT

"You're the type of girl that got class and style

Still all you need

Is the backseat of my Jeep once in awhile."

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Fabolous CALL ME

"I remember every gesture made (ooh)

During the escapade (ooh)

In the back of the Escalade (whoa)"

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Still, the all-time leader in explicit allusion (if that's the right term) is:

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Clarence Carter STROKIN'

"Well, let me ask you this

Have you ever made love

On the back seat of a car?

I remember one time making love

On the back seat of a car

And the Police came and shined his light on me

And I said

I'm strokin' . . . That's what I'm doing,

I be strokin'

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Was that what Kid Rock was thinking (?) when he penned:

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Kid Rock CADILLAC PUSSY

"She had some Cadillac pussy

Some Cadillac pussy

Man, it would drive you wild."

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Or, Eddie Money?

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Eddie Money SHAKIN'

"Rosanna's Daddy had a car she loved to drive

Stole the keys one night and took me for a ride

Turned up the music just as loud as it could go

Blew out the speakers in her daddy's radio.

Got so high we had to pull over to the side

We did some shakin' till the middle of the night."

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And who doesn't remember the line "being seventeen and being barely dressed," although in fairness the front seat might have been the operating theater in this song:

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Meatloaf PARADISE BY THE DASHBOARD LIGHT

"I remember every little thing

As if it happened only yesterday

Parking by the lake

And there was not another car in sight

And I never had a girl

Looking any better than you did

And all the kids at school

They were wishing they were me that night."

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The Barenaked Ladies also expressed concern that sometimes lust got crossed up in the heat of the moment:

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Barenaked Ladies IN THE CAR

"We were looking for ourselves

And found each other

In the car

It was rare to do much more

Than simply mess around

In the car

It was mostly mutual masturbation

And though we spoke of penetration

We'd have to wait for someone else

To try it out."

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Billy F. Gibbons and company were just a little more confident:

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ZZ Top SHE LOVES MY AUTOMOBILE

"She don't love me,

She love my automobile

Well she would do anything

Just to slide behind the wheel

She said, "What's it gonna take for you

To lay your top on down?"

I said, "Honey, why don't you ask me

When we get to the outskirts of town"

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And the Boss most certainly had it down:

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Bruce Springsteen FIRE

"Im driving in my car

Turn on the radio

I'm pulling you close

You just say no

You say you don't like it

But girl I know you're a liar

'Cause when we kiss

Fire."

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Now, they're other songs of perhaps lesser stature that also cover the subject well, including the Violent Femmes' Gimme The Car, the Rolling Stones' Brand New Car, the Scorpions' Lovedrive, Paul McCartney and Wings' Back Seat of My Car, Die Vision's separately written Back Seat of My Car, the Ass Ponys' Dirty Backseat Car Thing, I Monster's The Backseat of My Car and Big Star's Back of a Car.

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Nevertheless, the great ones really do get it:

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Alice Cooper SLICK BLACK LIMOUSINE

"Hundred miles an hour

My hand's on the radio

Baby's in the back seat

Bompin' all over the road."

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Unfortunately, bad--very bad--things can happen in the backseat too, through force and violence:

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Tori Amos ME AND A GUN

"It was me and a gun

And a man on my back

But I haven't seen Barbados

So I must get out of this

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Yes, I wore a slinky red thing

Does that mean I should spread

For you, your friends, your father, Mr. Ed

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"Tell me what's right

Is it my right to be on my stomach

In Fred's Seville?"

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So I close this meditation on back seats with two more memorable references:

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Bruce Springsteen SHERRY DARLING

"Your mama's yapping in the backseat

Tell her to push over and move them big feet

Every Monday morning I gotta drive her

Down to the unemployment agency

Well this morning I ain't fighting, tell her I give up

Tell her she wins if she'll just shut up

But it's the last time that she's gonna be ridin' with me."

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Arcade Fire IN THE BACKSEAT

"I like the peace

In the backseat

I don't have to drive

I don't have to speak

I can watch the countryside

And I can fall asleep

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Thanks everyone who contributed to my thinking. If anyone knows of other backseat songs, please contribute to this blog by responding. Thanks to to all the lyricists, songwriters, and musicians whose songs these are, and from which which I borrowed portions for the sake of this blog only. There is no permission granted or implied to otherwise reference or reproduce these lyrics. This is a documentary exercise. Peace out.

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