Needless to say, I fell hard for Commander Cody and His Lost Planet Airmen’s “Hot Rod Lincoln” when it was released in 1971. There’s a slew of video mixes to that song, but the one above was the best of the ones I perused on Youtube, as it at least shows some creativity in its selection of old footage.
But I was frankly a bit confused by the title name and lyrics back in ’71. Who ever used a Lincoln V8 engine in a Model A hot rod? I had never heard of such a thing. A little digging brought some clarity. The song really was about a hot rod Lincoln, but it wasn’t a V8, as Commander Cody asserts.
The song was originally written and released way back in 1955 by singer-songwriter Charley Ryan. It was a response to Arkie Shibley’s 1951 hit, “Hot Rod Race”, which tells about an impromptu race between the singer’s Mercury and a Ford. Arkie went on to make four follow-up songs.
It ends with these lines:
When it flew by us, I turned the other way.
The guy in Mercury had nothing to say,
For it was a kid, in a hopped-up Model A.
The Hot Rod Lincoln song was originally written and released in 1955 by singer-songwriter Charley Ryan as a response Shibley’s Hot Rod Race, and tells the story from the vantage point of the Model A driver. And the lyrics are different in one key word:
It’s got a Lincoln motor and it’s really souped up.
That Model A Vitimix makes it look like a pup.
It’s got twelve cylinders; uses them all.
It’s got overdrive, just won’t stall.
Ryan based the car on his own hot rod, which really was a hot rod Lincoln, which he built it from a 1948 Lincoln chassis shortened two feet, and fitted with a Model A body. And it had the Lincoln’s flathead V12, with a four barrel carb. His song was inspired by an actual race against a friend’s Cadillac sedan near Lewiston, Idaho, up the Spiral Highway to the top of Lewiston Hill. In the song, the race takes place on the Grapevine, near Tejon Pass, in Southern California.
Update: CC Commenter Rocko left this image, of Charlie Ryan and his Hot Rod Lincoln. It turns out that his car still exists, restored and modified somewhat.
Here’s the Zephyr V12.
And the rest of the car. The Lincoln badge on the grille and a few other details are different, but it looks credible otherwise.
Here’s a picture of it in 1994, when the headlights were still in their original position.
Given that the Lincoln V12 had a quite poor reputation, especially for overheating and subsequent damage, the ending makes even more sense:
Now all of a sudden she started to knockin’,
And down in the dips she started to rockin’.
I looked in my mirror; a red light was blinkin’
The cops was after my Hot Rod Lincoln!
There is another version of Hot Rod Lincoln, this one by Johnny Bond from 1960. I was given the 45 rpm disc as a little kid and played the ever loving snot out of it, to the point where you could barely understand what he was saying.
That version of the song involved a Model A with a Lincoln motor. It is described as 8 cylinders with a 4 bbl carb and dual exhausts, “and an overdrive that just won’t stall.”
I could imagine that this version hit your mental sweet spot with a 337 flathead with some performance mods. After all, this was probably the last one that would be relatively easy to find with a 3 speed/OD transmission. And it surely would have given an older Cadillac a run for its money in a lightweight Model A.
Interesting that it went from a 12 to an 8 already in 1960.
I had wondered back in the day if the song was referring to a 337 flathead, but when I read the other day just how heavy it was, I realized that was notlikely the case. It very rarely found itself in T or A based rods, due its immense weight on the front end.
And nobody was using the Lincoln Y block ohv V8 for obvious reasons, as even a little Chevy 265 could probably make similar power with drastically less weight.
Are you the Paul Niedermeyet that played for the 502 softball team in the 80s?
No. Sorry. 🙂
Here is the 1960 Johnny Bond version
To my eyes whenever the front gets lengthened on a Model A that just destroys the proportions.
Brings back memories of the music of the era. Thanks for the memories.
Too bad you didn’t link all the songs on this story .
I’ve not heard the final two since about 1970 .
-Nate
If you watch Hot Rod Race, and click to watch it on Youtube, the others in the series are right there.
To fans of the song, I highly recommend finding the long, live version by the Lost Planet Airmen’s guitarist, Bill Kirchen, on YouTube. Some great guitar, as well as another automotive reference …
Yep, I saw him do it live, it’s legendary.
Hot Rod Race and Hot Rod Lincoln, I have ’em both on 45. Great songs, arent they? Another great one by Charlie Ryan is Hot Rod Hades, it’s his follow-up song to Hot Rod Lincoln, and chock-full of humorous references to a number of popular car tunes, such as Tell Laura I Love Her and Beep-Beep. Well worth a listen, a very fun song.
I believe Charlie Ryan’s original Hot Rod Lincoln still exists, I recall reading a feature on the car and an interview with Charlie Ryan about the song and the car in an issue of Rod & Custom magazine in the late 80s, early 90s. It was a Model A Coupe, with “Charlie Ryan’s Hot Rod Lincoln” lettered on the spare tire cover on the rear. As has been mentioned, the lengthened hood ruined the proportions. As I recall, he built it at his father’s junkyard, from a ’30 Model A and a wrecked ’47 Lincoln sedan.
Charlie Ryan and his Hot Rod Lincoln
Thanks for that. I should have looked harder.
Turns out the red car is his original car, restored and modified a bit. I’ve changed the text to reflect that. Thanks.
My pleasure. As a regular reader, I’ve spent countless hours over the years enjoying CC, I’m happy to be able to contribute a little something to this great site.
Some great research on the origin of an iconic car song. The esoteric nature of a heavy 12-cylinder Lincoln engine reconfigured in a Model A body reminds me a little of the also classic 409 by The Beach Boys in that the engine sounds used are not of a 409, but a tri-power 348.
Regardless, Hot Rod Lincoln is a classic (I prefer the original as opposed to the much more popular Commander Cody version), right there alongside Rocket 88. Sadly, any car songs today have been reduced to the level of Hey, Little Minivan by the Austin Lounge Lizards.
I am, at this very moment, building a Hot Rod Lincoln, as a favour to my business partner. It is a 1979 Mk V, with a 400. To this, I have added Australian heads and a Tim Meyer 434 stoker kit. The custom made pistons are at 10:1 compression and, this is the cool part, it will be running on LPG, so no worries about emissions or sitting for too long.
There is already a Gear Vendors splitter in the drive line, and with a 3.08 rear end, it should make a very nice rat rod.
The body is basically good, but I am not touching it. The interior, however, will be restored to pristine beauty. The whole idea is Rat Rod.
I have no idea how much torque it will make, since we won’t dyno it. I would safely say, “a complete crapload.”
That sounds like a pretty interesting build. I would love to see the details someday. Based on what Tim Meyer stroker 434’s pull on the Dyno, that engine should be a beast. He has a few 400’s his built lately with TFS heads and mild cams that pull over 500 ft-lbs of torque. TMeyer is the authority on the 400 Ford, but also is starting to market his “new” track boss Cleveland blocks.
I’m doing a 0.434 lift cam, with long duration. Tim Meyer is indeed the 400 expert. Just don’t expect him to ship quickly.
When it’s done, I’ll do a CC on it.
I look forward to that!
I’ve been a big fan of this song since I first heard it, though for me that was somewhere around 2000. I was rather surprised to later find it was from ’71, as it seems to belong more to the late 50’s, so the original dating from ’55 makes a lot more sense, as does the V12.
1984-92 Mark VII with a modded 302 would work, also.
Mark VIII’s are too heavy.
Nice to know the song is based on a real vehicle!
My guess is that while “twelve cylinders” is the original (and correct) line, that “eight” just flows better as a lyric.
I am another fan of the Bill Kitchen versions, especially the 10 min live one.
https://youtu.be/gsLdufJePz0
Talk about the CC effect. I was literally having this conversation with my dad and my son. I bought the family to my dads for the weekend, and one of dad’s hobbies is music (playing, listening and history). He was playing some old 50’s and 60’s car songs for my son when he played Hot Rod Lincoln. He thought the original was Commander Cody, and for one of the few times in my life I had to correct him on his music history. I told the same story that Paul did here and we listened to the original version. I pointed out the 12 cylinder reference as well.
My dad usually is pretty sharp on his music, so it was a rare opportunity for me to teach him something. That said, I don’t think Hot Rod Lincoln was ever one of his favorite songs. Nobody mentioned there was also Jim Varney (Ernest) version too?
As far as the V12 to V8 change, I figure that was done just to keep the song relevant. Few people probably knew much about the Lincoln V12’s, and even fewer would have used the V12’s after a plethora of V8’s hit the Hot Rod scene in the 1950’s. I too used to just assume it was a Flathead Lincoln V8, but never but much thought into it.
Billboard Magazine seems not to have taken note of it in 1955, but here’s their promising late-1959 review for the (DJ-jukebox-retail) trade:
I’m not much of a “resto-mod” or “tribute car” guy, but my “H-R-L” guilty pleasure would be owning a Panamerica replica:
Surprised to see “Win on Sunday, Sell on Monday” including Lincoln for ’54:
And, I see Charlie Ryan launched a follow-up song (who knew?): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ZN8weGSDK4
“Wolf Creek Pass” by C.W. McCall from 1975, and “The White Knight” by Cledus Maggard and The Citizen’s Band from 1976, definitely seemed inspired by the storytelling Commander Cody…
Don’t need a replica, find a 53 through 55 Lincoln and you can have the feeling of handling and power. I had every year Lincoln from 1946 through ’69 and separate years after that. The ’52 Lincoln is more labor intensive as I wasn’t as fast new. My favorite of those years is the ’55 it had the new 341 engine and handled great, I had Capri convertible, coupe and sedans. Of all the 50’s Lincolns the ’56 is gorgeous and timeless but the ’57 was faster and handling was just a bit better. The ’58-’59 Continentals had a vast amount of power to pull the weight. My ’58 Mark III convert could clock off 7.5 sec 0-60 if power braked at the start, and top 130 mph. My true hot rod Lincoln was a ‘black ’57 Premiere coupe with full ’58 running gear. It had red/white/black leather interior with full power and A/C with wide whites. My stock Taos turquoise coupe would turn 84 mph by reaching the bridge leaving my girlfriends house, the black ’57 pushed 130 mph in the same distance. It got lousy gas mileage, but that’s not what it was about.
I had two 41 Zephyrs with V-12’s and the record sounds acurate. It I ran over 85 mph for very long smoke did start coming from my Lincolns exhaust, They were dead smooth at lower speeds but not a great engine. My ’38 Buick Century convertible with dual sidemounts and that big strait eight would eat the Lincoln (and most other cars then) alive
I’ve noticed that all of the cars that you owned seemed to be magically faster than other examples of their kind. You’ve regaled us with fantastic stories of steep uphill mountain runs at well over 100 mph and other amazing feats. It seems like almost all your cars could hit 130.
Just one example: Your ’58 MkIII did 0-60 in 7.5, and topped 130. When Road and Track tested one, the best they could do was 9 seconds and 116 mph top speed. You apparently went through life with a very strong tail wind, no matter what direction you drove.
I enjoy reading some of your colorful comments (although paragraph breaks would make them much more readable), but I have no choice but to read them more as fiction or semi-fiction, as you long lost me in terms of believing them to be accurate renditions of history.
If I remember correctly Hot Rod Lincoln was featured on Commander Cody and the Lost Planet Airmen’s album, “Hot Licks, Cold Steel and Trucker’s Favorites.” With, indeed, other trucker songs, such as Looking At the World Thru a Windshield, Truck Driving Man, and one of the best cryin’ in your beer songs ever, Mama Hated Diesels. Worth a listen, good road music.
Hot Rod Lincoln is actually on their first LP, “Lost In The Ozone”. Both that and “Hot Licks…”, which is their second album, are outstanding examples of something, I’m just not sure what. The quality of their music started to go downhill after these two but, as always, YMMV.
Thanks a million for these two great songs!
Just one thing: in the line “That Model A Vitimix makes it look like a pup” — what’s “Vitimix” exactly? I hear “Model A body” personally…
This first came to mind, but surely this is NOT what he’s referring to… ?
+1… That’s where mind went. Maybe the old V-12 sounded like a blender when it started to fail… :o)
I’ve heard of Vegemite, But not Vitamix… So IDK!
Thanks for this, its a song I never heard enough of.
I prefer the Charlie Ryan version, with the electric guitar sounding like a car horn.
Which version says ‘vitimix’ in the lyrics? While I found the printed lyrics that say vitimix, after listening to the different versions, they say ‘that Model A body’… Cody’s version says ‘made it look tough’, the other versions ‘made it look like a pup’. Vitimix, in any usage, makes no sense. I think this is a case where the internet is mistaken, at least on one word.
http://www.plyrics.com/lyrics/all/hotrodlincoln.html
While I know that the innerwebs are never wrong, I have always heard: “That Model A body makes it look like a pup.” in the Commander Cody version. YMMV.
This version of Commander Cody’s version says ‘makes it look tough’, but there are other CC’s versions that say ‘look like a pup’, so who knows, lol
Of course, no discussion of “Hot Rod Lincoln” can be complete without a reference to the end of the race: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HbhvZ2y1V80
The overall concept can be traced even further back than the actual “Hot Rod Lincoln”, I connect “Hot Rod Lincoln” with Chuck Berry’s “Mabellene” (1955) AND with Billy Murray’s “The Little old Ford” (1915!).
Great mix of film clips. More than a few from Robert Mitchum’s “Thunder Road” and a few unexpected ones like Cliff Robertson (as a TWA captain) from “Sunday in New York.”
Anxious to hear what others our friends here see.
A ‘Hot Rod’ Lincoln I remember from my childhood was Canadian stunt driver Ken Carter’s attempted jump of the St. Lawrence River in a rocket powered car. With exterior panels giving it a resemblance to the Lincoln Mark IV. Obviously inspired by Evel Knievel’s Snake River attempt, it seemed more an effort at publicity and notoriety, than actually completing the jump.
What is a pup? I know there was a jeep type vehicle called that. Is that the reference? And how does a model A body make the hot rod lincoln look like whatever a pup is?