ONE HOOF OUT OF THE NEST

My first car was an eleven-year-old 1968 Ford Mustang that served not only as my back-and-forth to work but also as my boombox. Great FM stereo/cassette player. Great speakers. And the freedom to listen to my choices of music at the volumes I wanted. It was my private place to move, drum, sing, scream, cry, meditate, contemplate, get courageous, nurse wounds, fall asleep, wake up, and sometimes even drive, all while listening to music. So. Much. Music! These songs are more a statement about the culture I was navigating and less about what I was listening to.

1975 Convoy C.W. McCall

Convoy Lyrics

Ah, breaker one-nine, this here's the Rubber Duck. You gotta copy on me, Pig Pen C'mon? Ah, yeah, 10-4, Pig Pen Fer shure, fer shure. By golly It's clean clear to Flag Town C'mon. Yeah, that's a big 10-4 there Pig Pen, yeah, we definitely got the front door Good buddy. Mercy sakes alive, looks like we got us a convoy

Was the dark of the moon on the sixth of June In a Kenworth pullin' logs Cab-over Pete with a reefer on And a Jimmy haulin' hogs We is headin' for bear on I-one-oh 'Bout a mile outta Shaky Town I says, "Pig Pen, this here's the Rubber Duck. "And I'm about to put the hammer down."

Cause we got a little convoy Rockin' through the night. Yeah, we got a little convoy Ain't she a beautiful sight? Come on and join our convoy Ain't nothin' gonna get in our way. We gonna roll this truckin' convoy 'Cross the U-S-A. Convoy!

Ah, breaker, Pig Pen, this here's the Duck. And, you wanna back off them hogs? Yeah, 10-4, 'bout five mile or so. Ten, roger. Them hogs is gettin' in-tense up here.

By the time we got into Tulsa Town We had eighty-five trucks in all. But they's a roadblock up on the cloverleaf And them bears was wall-to-wall. Yeah, them smokies is thick as bugs on a bumper They even had a bear in the air! I says, "Callin' all trucks, this here's the Duck. "We about to go a-huntin' bear."

Ah, you wanna give me a 10-9 on that Pig Pen? Negatory, Pig Pen; you're still too close. Yeah, them hogs is startin' to close up my sinuses. Mercy sakes, you better back off another ten.

Well, we rolled up Interstate 44 Like a rocket sled on rails. We tore up all of our swindle sheets And left 'em settin' on the scales. By the time we hit that Chi-town Them bears was a-gettin' smart: They'd brought up some reinforcements From the Illinois National Guard. There's armored cars, and tanks, and jeeps And rigs of ev'ry size. Yeah, them chicken coops was full'a bears And choppers filled the skies. Well, we shot the line and we went for broke With a thousand screamin' trucks An' eleven long-haired Friends a' Jesus In a chartreuse micra-bus.

Ah, Rubber Duck to Sodbuster Come over. Yeah, 10-4, Sodbuster? Lissen, you wanna put that micra-bus in behind that Suicide jockey? Yeah, he's haulin' dynamite And he needs all the help he can get.

Well, we laid a strip for the Jersey shore And prepared to cross the line I could see the bridge was lined with bears But I didn't have a dog-goned dime. I says, "Pig Pen, this here's the Rubber Duck. "We just ain't a-gonna pay no toll." So we crashed the gate doing ninety-eight I says "Let them truckers roll, 10-4."

Convoy! Ah, 10-4, Pig Pen, what's your twenty? Convoy! OMAHA? Well, they oughta know what to do with Them hogs out there fer shure. Well, mercy Convoy! sakes, good buddy We gonna back on outta here So keep the bugs off your glass and the bears off your Convoy! Tail. We'll catch you on the flip-flop. This here's the Rubber Duck on the side. Convoy! We gone. 'Bye,'bye.

1978 Bye, Bye Love The Cars

Bye, Bye Love Lyrics

I can't feel this way much longer expecting to survive

With all these hidden innuendos just waiting to arrive

It's such a wavy midnight and you slip into insane

Electric angel rock and roller, I hear what you're playin'

It's an orangy sky

Always it's some other guy

It's just a broken lullaby

Bye bye love

Bye bye love

Bye bye love

Bye bye love

Substitution, mass confusion, clouds inside your head

Involving all my energies until you visited

With your eyes of porcelain and of blue

They shock me into sense

You think you're so illustrious, you call yourself intense

It's an orangy sky

Always it's some other guy

It's just a broken lullaby

Bye bye love

Bye bye love

Bye bye love

Bye bye love-ov-ov-ove

Substitution, mass confusion, clouds inside your head

Were fogging all my energies until you visited

Oh, with your eyes of porcelain and of blue

They shock me into sense

You think you're so illustrious, you call yourself intense

It's an orangy sky

Always it's some other guy

It's just a broken lullaby

Bye bye love

Bye bye love

Bye bye love

Bye bye love

1979 A Gallon of Gas The Kinks

A Galon of Gas Lyrics

I've been waiting for years to buy a brand new cadillac

But now that I've got one I want to send it right back

I can't afford the gas to fill my luxury limousine

But even if I had the dough no one's got no gasoline

I went to my local dealer to see if he could set me straight

He said there's a little gas going but I'd have to wait

But he offered some red hot speed and some really high grade hash

But a gallon of gas can't be purchased anywhere for any amount of cash

I can score you some coke and some grade one grass

But I can't get a gallon of gas

I've got some downers some speed all the drugs that you need

But I can't get a gallon of gas

There's no more left to buy or sell

There's no more oil left in the well

A gallon of gas can't be purchased anywhere

For any amount of cash

Two extra verses from long version:

I love your body-work, but you're really no use

How can I drive you when I got no juice?

Because it's stuck in neutral and my engine's got no speed

And the highways are deserted

And the air smells unnaturally clean.

It's got power-assisted overdrive and carpets on the floor,

But it's parked out front just like a dead dinosaur.

And I'll be paying off the bank for 45 years or more.

It should go 100 miles an hour,

But it's never moved away from my door.

Who needs a car and a seven-forty-seven

When you can't buy a gallon of gas

Who needs a highway, an airport or a jet

When you can't get a gallon of gas

There's no more left to buy or sell

There's no more oil left in the well

A gallon of gas can't be purchased anywhere

For any amount of cash

You can't buy a gallon of gas

Next >

Home