Listening to good music while driving is one of the greatest pleasures in life. And finding new music has never been easier, thanks to Spotify and YouTube. I’ve got some songs on my brain that you might like.
There are many artists who died before they could grow old. Cass Elliot was one such person. Fortunately, she left behind a great legacy. Aside from her work in The Mamas and the Papas, Cass Elliot released several solo albums before her death in 1974. “Make Your Own Kind of Music” is probably the best song in her catalog. It’s a fantastic song to listen to in the morning. Aside from its uplifting tempo, it also acknowledges the risks inherent in forging your own path:
“You’re gonna be knowing
The loneliest kind of lonely,
It may be rough goin’,
Just to do your thing’s the hardest thing to do.”
Honorable mentions from the 60’s: “You’re Dead” by Norma Tanega, “Fortunate Son” by Creedence Clearwater Revival, “People Are Strange” by The Doors.
I never really delved into disco or funk when I was younger. I wish I had gotten into it sooner, because hot damn the genre is fantastic. So many good songs. KC and the Sunshine Band may be better known for “Get Down Tonight” and “That’s the Way” but I’m partial to “I’m Your Boogie Man.” Perhaps because it’s a bit more subtle than the others? That’s not saying much. I really don’t know.
Honorable mentions from the 70’s: “I’d Rather Be With You” by Bootsy Collins, “Your Song” by Elton John, “Dancing Queen” by ABBA.
Is there any other song that covers the nuclear apocalypse in such an upbeat fashion? I can’t think of any right now. But what I do know is that Nena created an insanely catchy song. Perhaps the Cold War was worth it after all.
Honorable mentions from the 80’s: “Don’t You (Forget About Me)” by Simple Minds, “The Winner Takes It All” by ABBA, “You Can Call Me Al” by Paul Simon.
Over the past year or so I’ve come to the realization that I do not identify with portion of the internet that is perpetually cynical and dismissive of anything new. I’m genuinely excited for the live action adaptation of Aladdin. Like most Disney animated movies, it’s got some infectious songs that are ruthlessly efficient. “One Jump Ahead” is among the best. Brad Kane really nailed the whole young, cheery, thief vibe with his singing.
Honorable mentions from the 90’s: “A Whole New World” by Brad Kane and Lea Salonga, “Can You Feel The Love Tonight” by Elton John, and “Circle of Life” by Elton John.
I have no idea how I completely missed The New Pornographers. I inhaled The Shins, The Decemberists, and Death Cab For Cutie in high school, so you’d think I’d have eventually discovered the band at some point. Oh well. At least The New Pornographers have made a lot of albums over the years. And they really haven’t lost their step.
Honorable mentions from the 00’s: “The Hardest Button to Button” by The White Stripes, “Hard To Explain” by The Strokes, and “Vindicated” by Dashboard Confessional.
Are you in the mood for some Jackson Five style funk? I’ve got good news: Vulfpeck is oozing with it. This newer group has released a new album pretty much every year for the last several years. Pretty impressive.
Honorable mentions from the 10’s: “Digital Witness” by St. Vincent, “Everything Now” by Arcade Fire, and “Applause” by Lady Gaga.
Ok, that’s it for me. What have you been listening to? Podcasts are also welcome.
This is my favorite John Mellencamp song.
Tree of Forgiveness—John Prine p
radioparadise.com Let the DJ surprise me with something new.
Honestly, my car’s radio is pretty much permanently tuned to NPR, so I don’t have much of a “while driving” soundtrack. I imagine to some I must seem like the character in Marvelous Mrs. Maisel who insists on listening to “boring” news radio on the drive back from the Catskills.
However, since you mentioned disco… I know this is kind of silly, but there is one song that I absolutely have to play whenever I go through a car wash. You probably know the one I’m talking about…
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U3Qr6omvRVI?controls=0&w=560&h=315%5D
Edit: Why isn’t the embed code working for me? Obviously others are able to embed videos in comments.
WildaBeast,
“Permanently tuned to NPR…” – Me too.
But, speaking of Rose Royce:
but sometimes, you can get some interesting music from NPR, specifically from “On Being” with Krista Tippet:
You have a point. I have been known to purchase albums on a few occasions after hearing the band interviewed on All Things Considered.
The Gun Club, The Meteors, The Black Keys, The Devil And The Almighty Blues, Kyuss, Johnny Winter, Canned Heat, R.L. Burnside, Fred McDowell, Claw Boys Claw, De Staat.
Among many, many other bands/artists from now and then.
Suffering from dentophobia? Better not watch this:
I love the swampy rock of the Black Keys. My 14 year old son and I still have them on in the car. I need to check out the rest as I always love discovering new (old) music
I like that one. Thanks for sharing it.
At the moment:
Good crunchy guitar on that one.
I usually listen to my CDs in my car, if not the Red Sox or the classical music station. This past week, I was listening to a couple of Gene Pitney best ofs, the Shangri-La’s, & Sagittarius. Last week it was the Bob Dylan Bootleg Series dealing w/his gospel period, which was appropriate since it was Holy Week.
Did you mean “Fortunate Son” by CCR? (Who ‘ain’t no Senator’s son’.)
Among my current earworms are the few tunes on the Blitz Girls EP I found on YT. A very underrated early 80’s punk band.
Weird coincidence that you listed “99 Luftballoons”- I heard it just last night while watching the flick Watchmen.
Also, check out Donna Summers “I Feel Love” for an amazing tune that transends Disco and is considered to be the beginning (or at least at the beginning) of Techno or whatever you want to call it, and earbuds are definitely going to enhance the listening experience!
One more- Patti Smith’s “Kimberley”, from her debut album, Horses.
Fixed! Thank you!
Love surf music for driving. Incidentally Link Wray was a Native American
+1. Dick Dale, FTW. It sucks that Sirius doesn’t have a dedicated surf channel.
His ‘Be What You Want To’ album was in heavy rotation for me in the early 70’s 🙂
Jamiroquoi – Jay Kay is a car freak anyway, and the music seems to work best at freeway speed.
Perfect timing, BTW. I am doing a quickie trip to Biloxi and back this weekend, and the tunes will be playing the whole time. Mostly Sirius First Wave, but it changes if I get bored.
Extremely broad. I go back to really old stuff like Bix Beiderbecke and Louis Armstrong from the 1920s through early 50s bebop when it comes to jazz. I like rock/pop from the beginnings up through the early 70s where my interest dips, but then picks up again by the early 80s.
And my children have turned me on to things from the 2010s like That’s Not My Name by the TingTings (from my daughter’s learning-to-drive playlist) and Lake Street Dive from my middle son.
Speaking of 80s, have you noticed that there are two parallel tracks of 80s music? There is the Van Halen and Bon Jovi track and then the more new-wavy stuff. I choose B. And a lot of old timers had great hits in the 80s like James Brown (Living In America)
The 80’s are at their most interesting when those two parallel tracks cross over. Listen to Aztec Camera’s cover of Van Halen’s Jump. It couldn’t be more different but after a few listens is even better and seems even more “right”.
https://youtu.be/COtZZmWKcRI
Nice find Jim. The musical arrangement reminds me some of Dan Fogelberg’s ‘Hard to Say’ from ’81.
Wow, yes there are definite similarities, I never knew of that one, thanks!
As Paul often says, so much car design is influenced by an earlier design. The Ford Taurus however groundbreaking, owes much to the Ford Sierra. Same goes for music. 🙂
‘Old Town Road’ always reminded tremendously me of ‘Under the Bridge’ by the Red Hot Chili Peppers. You be the judge.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ho88VXJTBg
Lake Street Dive is awesome!
I’m listening at work to Sloan’s concert at Massey Hall. Middle aged guys with guitars, kind of like me 🙂 but with a bit more talent…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LkebgKJVmHw
In the car I’m a CBC/NPR guy.
The car is perma-tuned to 1st Wave on Sirius (33), I’m sort of stuck on the 80’s New Wave. But then I also go up a few channels to 36 for AltNation. For any road trip, my old CD of New Order’s Substance ’87 double disc usually accompanies me with multiple replays of “Temptation”.
“Birdhouse” in your lead, Edward, is one of the great songs. I’ve seen those guys abut half a dozen times and they put together a really good and fun show. Their manager is actually Jamie Kitman, who’s also a car writer and a big Alfa and Lancia fan amongst other marques, i.e. a true gearhead. He also managed the Meat Puppets. I think they all live kind of up near you somewhere…
The CC effect is apparently not just to do with cars, but now also music – as I have Jump playing in the background on YouTube as I finished writing the above, it just segued into New Order’s “Taboo No. 7”, which was renamed as “Temptation” a few years after first being played. Spooky.
You might like this channel on YT. He’s up to #42
I like that kind of music. I forgot about Power Station. Robert Palmer was cool.
For my commute over the last month or so I have been listening to the podcast “Crimetown” about Providence (worth it for the accents alone, plus the theme music by Goat).
But then on last week’s roadtrip from San Diego to Tucson with a flock of Boy Scouts, I went pretty schizophrenic on them: Quite a bit of Trampled by Turtles https://youtu.be/6_6M_6KStEw (neo-bluegrass string band with a punk sensibility and indie songwriting), followed by Dream Theater (metal but with less anger), Supertramp (I am a child of the 70s), and the Dead and Yes (gotta make sure those kids are cultured!), then OSI (slightly more anger, appropriate for how I felt about the several almost-show-us-your-papers CPB stops) and the Meat Puppets (apropos for being local to AZ).
Of course what the boys actually wanted to hear was pseudo-classical from video game soundtracks (nope!), and then they sang along loudly with the Hobbits drinking song… Kids these days 😉
OT to the post but still ok for CC, I rented a new F150 ecoboost for trip to Tucson. Way too big for a DD, but perfect for a road trip. Comfortable, quiet, and it got 22mpg for the trip, doing 75 mph with 5 passengers and probably 600 pounds of gear. And passing on a 2 lane road was a revelation. Holy crap did it have power to spare. Things have come a long way since my last new car 10 years ago!
My kids have always been forced to listen to every kind of music, since it is easy for them to listen to today’s stuff. So, they get a taste from the 1930s – to today. When they are trapped in my car, they get educated. This week, they have been listening to Dusty Springfield, the Eagles, Decemberists, Broken Bells, and Ella Fitzgerald.
Consequently, my kids know the sounds of each decade, the major performers during each era, and their music and band teachers are usually floored that my elementary and junior high kids know the words to big band standards, Beatles, and pop 60s.
It has been adorable to hear my kids sing, “Rose Garden”, “Hands”, “Take Me Home Country Roads”, and they have gone through many stages loving different songs, bands and styles. Annie is in love with the band Garbage this week, “I’m Only Happy When It Rains”.
In a couple of weeks, I’m singing Schubert’s Mass in G in Latin. The twins are performing a musical in church Sunday. My big girl is performing in her Jazz Choir tonight in a couple of hours.
They like today’s crap too, btw.
My wife loves Mumford and Sons, we’ve seen them recently on the last US tour. We follow quite a few bands. St. Louis is a great place to hear the latest stuff, inexpensively.
+1 for exposing the kids to a variety while they’re captive in the car. I have great memories of my then-seven-year-old belting out Behind Blue Eyes at the top of his lungs (he’s 22 now); my daughter was caving in WV just last week and snapchatted me a video of her and her friends singing Country Roads as the drove home to B’more.
I am surprised though at how much of my high school music they and their friends actually know, and not just Queen either…
https://youtu.be/OWTKxIjZmfs
I admit to rolling around in the Mainstream of Country, Top 40 and Classic Rock/Oldies. I’m a radio personality, this has been my wheelhouse since the 1970s.
“Make Your Own Kind of Music” was out when I was 12. It was omnipresent when new so I was surprised to learn it barely cracked the Top 30 back in 1969. you’d have thought it was a Top Ten record. Just like many of Neil Diamond’s classic songs, Top 20 at best, yet they’re some of the most fondly remembered tunes of the era. IMO…
Wifey has a SiriusXM subscription and we often listen to the Beatles Channel, I’ll probably be tired of smiling before I’m tired of Fab.
If you read the Wikipedia entry for Boston’s 1986 hit “Amanda” it mentions a Fall 1984 bootleg recording leaked via satellite feed and played on Rock stations.
I had a copy of it much earlier, January 3, 1984. The Top 40 station where I was music director, in Cortland NY, had just hired a new program director from Buffalo, who brought a bootleg copy of “Amanda” with him from a friend at CBS Records. We played the snot out of it until a verbal cease-and-desist came from CBS, but it was fun while it lasted. When it was finally, officially released 2 1/2 years later, it was on MCA. Boston couldn’t come to terms with CBS/Epic on a contract.
There are some cool Country stories too, between Wheeling, WV, one-time home of its own Grand Ole Opry-type show called Jamboree USA, and Pittsburgh, aka HOME, where Y108 still keeps me around, and I’m very, very grateful.
Plus my oldest son – the one still driving a ’93 Accord – and I produce a syndicated show called RedCup Country that airs on weekends.
For anybody here who follows current Country, here’s the best new song you’re not hearing enough of…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kVwLu4_kDfc
I go through phases on the Beatles. It’s not an exaggeration that they changed the world overnight for those of us of a certain age, but at times I’ve just wanted to say ‘enough!!’. And then after a few years I listen to Roll Over Beethoven, or Getting Better, or You Mother Should Know, or virtually anything on Revolver, and it all comes flooding back.
Well, if you get tired of The Beatles, why not add a little Star Wars into the mix?
May The Fourth be with you 🙂
I used to listen to a bit of everything but a couple of years ago I just really zeroed in on hip-hop with a little R&B on the side. So a lot of J. Cole, Anderson.Paak, 6LACK, Kendrick Lamar, etc. And I always have time for the soulful voice of Khalid although you can’t go anywhere in 2019 without hearing one of his songs now. I’ve also been listening to Nipsey Hussle, may he rest in peace.
Often I just want to listen to music I already know but maybe once a week or so, usually when I’m at work, I’ll check out Spotify’s Release Radar and/or any of their suggested stuff. I’ve found some great artists through Spotify like Odie, Masego (he incorporates lots of his own sax-playing) and even a few great Aussie ones: Ziggy Ramo, Anfa Rose and Manu Crooks.
I don’t usually listen to Aussie hip-hop because I just don’t think our accent works with the genre but those three are pretty consistently good. So if you ever wanted to listen to some Aussie music, click below:
Ziggy Ramo – Same Script
Anfa Rose and Manu Crooks – Fuego
It’d be rather hard to list my current music tastes, since I listen to rather broad categorical selections. Though spotify does help and I’ve managed to create two separate driving playlists. The first one is a mix of hard rock and relaxing cruise style music (classic hip-hop, some 80s hits, etc). The second one is night driving and is mostly more low-key, slower paced, and eclectic in nature. It has lots of soundtrack music, and various artists that tend to make less fast paced and mainstream music. Though, after having watched it for the first time a couple days ago, I have gotten heavily into Repo: The Genetic Opera’s soundtrack, as I was genuinely surprised at how much I enjoyed it. It’s not something for everyone, it requires a special sort of person to enjoy it, and I just happened to be that sort of person.
Kool And The Gang, The Doobie Brothers, The Kills, Joe Jackson, Norah Jones, and ELO are in my CD changer today in the car. (Yeah, I still use one of those) But I have a stack of discs in the center console so I can change them out easily because it’s an in-dash one.
‘I’m the Man’ by Joe Jackson remains one of my favourite early power pop new wave hits. More energy than many of his later hits.
I listed to mostly Country or Classical. I know that’s an unusual combination, but I’ve always listened to Country, and my wife is an amateur classical musician, so over the years we’ve adopted each others musical tastes.
The country albums I’ve been listening to heavily recently are Michael Martin Murphey’s series of Cowboy Songs — I’m helped here by the fact that my kids love those albums too.
As far as Classical (and keeping in mind that my wife is a French horn player), I’ve been liking a recent album by European hornist Radek Baborak of Horn concertos.
Our cars are probably the only ones worldwide that play these albums back-to-back.
Like your eclectic tastes in music Edward. If you aren’t familiar with it, you might enjoy KC’s comeback pop hit from 1983, ‘Give it Up’.
As Jim Klein mentioned earlier, I also appreciate when artists take another artist’s popular hit, and make it their own. I suspect Joseph Dennis and Jim would see the soul and energy here of the original version of the popular Cathy Dennis hit from 1991 “Touch Me (All Night Long)”. IMO the Fonda Rae version from 1984 is vastly superior to the 90s smash hit.
At home, in the car and at my desk, I’m usually listening to All Classical Radio, otherwise known as KQAC 89.9 FM in Portland. They’re the ones with the nice ’54 Chevy panel truck (CC here).
The Budos Band just dropped their fifth album. Their earlier albums were more directly Afrobeat influenced, but their newer stuff is a little guitar heavy. Good driving music- heck, their new song is called “Old Engine Oil!”
Won’t embed, here’s the link:
[youtube https://youtube.com/watch?v=2uILL4pPHTo ]
Listen through all the change-ups. I hope you enjoy it. BTW, it is OK if you find yourself lifting your arms and spinning around.
Mongolian rock:
I’ve been on a psychedelic music kick lately, along with blues and 80s metal and some 80s new wave I posted in a reply upthread.
I liked that!
If you like the 80’s…Here is a song that was the first song played on MTV. It is redone at a benefit by the original composer & producer Trevor Horn.
Debi Doss and Linda Jardim’s chorus still resonates, doesn’t it? I put The Buggle’s on occasional rotation still 40 years later…
Plastic Age is, IMO, a terribly underrated album.
Some good blues will get me moving too
Nothing to impress anyone here, or anyone else for that matter, just what I like right now. The car radios are programmed for the last few decades to KROQ in Los Angeles. Weezer, Sublime, Offspring, 311, Blink 182 are typical of the bands in the rotation.
At home, it is more diverse, with Hawaiian, Reggae, Jimmy Buffett, Junior Brown, classic Country, Dean Martin, and Leo Monte in the mix.
Just spent 6 hours driving back from the Puget Sound listening to this group, which I discovered from an magazine article I read the night before.
Something a bit different:
That is very creative. I’m sampling some interesting music here today.
The Partita was the winner of the Pulitzer Prize for music, incidentally, 6 years ago. I first heard it at a Roomful of Teeth concert in Bethlehem, PA in 2016. Great group of performers. Can’t imagine the piece as driving music, however.
As for “Make Your Own Kind Of Music,” a character not previously seen (Desmond) drops the needle on an LP and nearly the entire track is heard during the opening minutes of Season 2 of Lost – the only scene of that series that I can recall with pleasure.
For driving I prefer music with colorful chord changes and rhythms, for example XTC’s “Omnibus” and Steely Dan’s “I Got the News.”
I listen a pretty wide range as well, but a high percentage of my earworms over the past few years have come from Kid Francescoli. Late night music.
Most of the time I’m commuting and stuck in traffic and need to just listen to the radio, either WIYY 97.9 (98 Rock in Baltimore) or its sister station WBAL 1090-AM (or WIYY 97.9-2 on the Digital Radio) in order to get my regular traffic reports.
However if pleasure driving or going on a trip, I’ve got lots of music from various genres on my iPad (or even a thumb drive if using the Honda).
A personal favorite is listening to Rush’s 1981 song from their album Moving Pictures called “Red Barchetta”…. bonus points if I get to the “One Lane Bridge” at the same time they do in the song!
Most times though, I’ll leave the radio off and just “Listen to the engine moaning out its one note song”… well, ok, several notes if I’m driving spiritedly. 😉
If I’m actually hauling anything in my truck it’s jerry reed, Dave Dudley etc. They make the ride really enjoyable.
If you are in the Boston area try am 740 – Bob is one of a kind.
A good companion to “99 Red Balloons” would be “1999” by Prince. “Everybody’s got a bomb, we could all die any day!”
If you prefer your carnage by more conventional means, “I-Feel-Like-I’m-Fixin’-to-Die Rag” by Country Joe and the Fish
I’ve never surfed, but Jack Nitzsche’s Lonely Surfer makes the most mundane commute feel like a heroic quest. Those french horns!
Road trips (which we do often in the west): LSUG on satellite. Love the little history lectures that Steven Van Zandt gives but he is a bit too preachy and political.
In the garage: ’60s to ’80s rock music: Small Faces; J. Geils; Dave Edmunds; Cheap Trick; The Who; AC/DC; Black Crowes; Yardbirds; Flamin Groovies; Humble Pie; Beach Boys by Fendertones; Animals; Hollies.
In my case, I am temporarily hooked on Australian rock: INXS, Midnight Oil, Church.
But as a tiny break/pick me up Todd Rundgen/Utopia Swing to the Right…still relevant sounding 35 years later.
That’s funny, I’ve been on a Church kick lately too! I’m not an Aussie, just been nostalgic for 80’s music.
Classic rock sounds better on a classic stereo in a classic car
I agree, especially if it’s on the radio.
For some reason music sounds best in my garage. Makes no sense because I have better stereos in my home and car.
I’m not so eclectic as many of the great choices seen above. In fact, it makes me realize just how much music is out there that I’m not familiar with! Most of my driving favorites don’t move much from my go-to genres.
Keeping this car related, I’m trying to think of music I like to listen to on road trips especially and in the car generally. Not all the music I like fits that category. I’m a big road warrior, hitting the road for a good cross country trip is one of my favorite things and one of the things I love about it is listening to music. Some of it just better on the road!
60’s/70’s: Santana (first 3 albums), Jimi Hendrix, Neil Young (though my favorite road album is Ragged Glory 1990), Allman Brothers, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Buddy Rich Big Band
70’s/80’s: Rush, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Genesis, ZZTop
90’s: Red Hot Chili Peppers, Pearl Jam, Chris Isaak, Third Eye Blind, Lauryn Hill (her one album and some Fugees), Cranberries, Metallica
2000’s: Blink 182/Angels and Airwaves, The Fray, Blue October, Jimmy Eat World, Third Day, David Crowder Band, Miranda Lambert
I’m sure I’m forgetting lots, but that’s a sampling!
The perfect car song for me is Lush – Ladykillers. Just fantastic.
https://youtu.be/Iedz_x6Hlhw
The car I use has a CD player. I am not a streaming person and never warmed to MP3. For me the album´s sequence matters. You don´t read chapter 4 of Ulysses first, do you? I guess it´s a generation thing. My brother-in-law is the same age and doesn´t care at all for playlists or album sequences though.
Anyway, what am I listening to? I have a new-ish album from a French band, La Femme. The album is Psychotropical Berlin and despite the name it sounds like surf rock. I have a recording of a California date from David Bowie´s 1995 tour which featured the Nine Inch Nails. The sound quality is not so good. And there´s an album I bought a long time ago but forgot until last week, Spooked, by Robyn Hitchcock. It is good in parts.
When I first started driving in high school this was the song that made me do all kinds of crazy stunts.
ttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U4WiyxXpyZc&ab_channel=stanosijek
Since most of today`s music isn`t even worth listening to, I listen to Sirius Radio ‘1940s Junction’. All the great big band/swing groups from the era. Also to pre-MTV rock `n roll, and some classical music. However, most to the time I listen to some conservative talk shows.When I`m on a long drive, I generally keep the radio-cd player off and just enjoy thr drive.
Last minute comment to say no one has mentioned the obvious.
OK, it was 46 years ago, but I was doing long solo trips in the dented OHC Pontiac back then, and when this came on the one speaker AM, the time and miles just flew by, and I wasn’t the only one.
And this song will get you a ticket going by “Faster and faster and faster and faster”
on my commute to and from work, i listen to klove christian music. and i also listen to my playlist on either my iphone or android phones and they consist of a mix of 50′,60’s,70’s,80’s,90’s and early 00’s. mix of rock,pop,christian,Haitian(sweet mickey)music as well as some salsa and romantic spanish.
I find that Gordon Lightfoot and Steely Dan are great driving music as well as Sweet Mickey!