Jul 272011
This morning as I was making coffee a car drove by with the windows down and the stereo turned way up—nothing unusual about that. The song blaring out was, sadly, quickly recognizable as the ghastly ’80s duet ballad “Almost Paradise,” by one of the Heart sisters and the Loverboy guy with the headband, Mike Reno. I knew it was from some crappy movie but couldn’t remember which one. (It was Footloose.)
So what’s the weirdest song you’ve heard coming from a car lately?
Two weeks ago I heard Pink Floyd’s “Astronomy Domine” (the Ummagumma version) coming from a late-model Accord in a Publix supermarket parking lot as I was walking by.
This wasn’t lately, but I was at a friend’s for a picnic one day and one of the guys came on his big motorcycle (I don’t like those things so I have no idea what kind, real big, that’s all). Anyway, he gets up to go and puts on his old leather jacket and his kamikaze goggles, and fires it up. The radio is blasting because it probably has to just so he can hear it, and what does it blast?
More Than a Woman by the Bee Gees. I almost fell off my chair I laughed so hard!
Last week I heard the Byrds’ version of “You Ain’t Going Nowhere” loud from a car as I was going to work.
A few years ago, I heard the Kinks’ Dead End Street come out of a 4×4 w/big tires.
Yesterday, I heard “Cold as Ice” coming out of a Honda on Walnut St. Not a very unlikely song — it’s all over classic rock radio — but it’s a kinda hilarious song to hear blasting out of a car.
This is where we get to test our mettle as storytellers and liars, right?
Okay…I was in the Publix parking lot blasting the Ummagumma version of “Astronomy Domine” when….
Seriously, though…
Tone, I’m in Publix country, too, though I prefer the Kroger on Gwinett St.
One day this spring, I heard that Charlie Daniels song on my way to the car after dropping my kid off at daycare, you know…the followup to “Devil Went Down to GA.” It’s called “In America.”
I suppose they were playing it because Obama finally took Bin Laden in a knife fight, or something. But it still seemed weird. I hadn’t heard it since it came out.
It’s true, you never hear that song. If you look up the word “jingoistic” in the dictionary, it should play that song. It has two lines that from time to time pop into my head: the one about “if the Russians don’t believe that they can all go straight to hell!” and the one that dares our enemies to “go and lay your hand on a Pittsburgh Steelers’ fan and I think your gonna finally understand.” Classic. Take that, you commies!
For those who don’t remember: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8kB7OR161-U
i was *just* watching that youtube.
note that the line about the Russians receives applause.
The other standout line is one about the “cowboys, and the hippies, and the rebels, and the yanks” all sticking together.
In my ten year-old-kid head, I remember thinking, “there are really cowboys in America?”
Charlie was much cooler when he was playing on “Nashville Skyline,” or fashioning himself as the “Long Haired Country Boy.”
Oh man I envy you your access to Publix. When I was in Alabama last week I got to experience real grocery shopping again.
It’s been too hot here for anyone to be driving around not sealed up inside their AC. Yesterday evening I came out of a restaurant, turned on the radio, and the announcer said “It’s 104 degrees in midtown.” At 7:30pm!
Piggly Wiggly or Food Lion?
Publix built a huge store right in my buddy’s neighborhood in Montgomery. It’s awesome.
I remember they had Food Lions in Baton Rouge when I was in grad school there in the late 70s. And I used to bag groceries at a Piggly Wiggly when I was in high school. Good times.
When I was in college, I came home for the weekend and pulled up next to a car that was blasting my band’s record. My brother was selling them in his high school out of a backpack and sold 40 of them the week it came out.
Maybe it was my move to the suburbs, but I almost never hear anyone blasting anything anymore out of their cars.
My brother in law has worked for Publix since he was 15 (he is 38 now) In Atlanta there is one evey 20 feet.
You might enjoy this one, too, then, that also got a lot of airplay at the time–“Legend of the Wooly Swamp.” And which the Frenchy guy introduces as “In America.” Damn foreigners.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sCZGNnaWcaY&feature=related
Maybe this explains your shocking membership in the BAC…
Here in South Florida the major supermarket chains are Publix, Winn-Dixie, and the latin-oriented Sedanos. Publix is everywhere – there are five within three miles of my house. We’re seeing Target and Super Walmarts popping up too, though they’re usually way out in the suburbs because of their size. There are also a couple local semi-gourmet chains (Gardners and Milam’s Market) and Whole Foods.
I like Publix – they’re kept clean, the meat and produce are good, and the people are almost invariably polite and helpful.
My wife, our younger boy, and I took a trip down to the Jersey shore tonight, primarily to test out something on my wife’s car but also to grab a few slices of Mack and Manco’s pizza and to allow me to get my mind off a really busy stretch in work for a night. (I find road trips relaxing.) We were making great time on a Thursday night when we hit a horrendous road work-related traffic jam about 5 miles from our destination. The 2 miles sitting in “Everybody Hurts”-like traffic took almost as long as the other 63 miles. Anyhow, the only drive-by music we heard blasting out of other cars was standard-issue rap or hip-hop or whatever. Our son noted one young, white guy blasting some really raunchy, bad-ass rap stuff. He was cracking up at the contrast between the music and the driver.
Coming home we found a shore oldies station that played an incredible run of “Build Me Up Buttercup,” “Don’t Pull Your Love Out on Me Baby,” “War (What Is it Good For?),” “American Woman,” and “Layla.”
It goes to say we weren’t too far from Urges in Atlantic City, but they wouldn’t have let our 10 year old in.
a bit off topic, but i recently presented the first chicago-area appearance by melanie safka in 33 years. while driving her and son to a friend’s house in logan square two days after the show, the free-form radio station we were listening to played her nickel song. what are the odds of hearing a melanie song on the radio while driving with her?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-tHhe-gkpC0
That’s pretty cool. I assume she got a kick out of it.
at first she was convinced that i was playing a cd. she gave me a copy of her most recent release to send to the station.