Trucking Songs - YouTube playlist
There have been numerous stories in the news lately, locally and globally, about the pressures truck drivers are facing right now to transport the supplies we all need. And I'm not just talking toilet paper and hand sanitizer.
But this feature is meant to give us all a boost right now, and thinking of the men and women in the transport supply chain who are doing their best to deliver the goods right now makes me think of how often truck drivers have been celebrated in song over the years, and this would be a good opportunity to recall some of those moments.
Let's start right in our own backyard with the best known musical Maritime truck driver that ever hauled another big load of potatoes, Stompin' Tom Connors' signature hit Bud the Spud. I once saw Blue Rodeo do this during an early morning encore at Halifax's Misty Moon Cabaret, while throwing taters they'd found in the club's kitchen into the crowd. Sadly, that moment occurred in the pre-smartphone era, but there's still nothing like the original version from the Skinners Pond plywood smasher.
How about a classic trucking anthem that also doubles as a motto for social distancing? I give you, the 1964 hit Give Me 40 Acres by the Willis Brothers.
Jumping ahead a few decades, discussion of this topic with some co-workers brought up the modern Southern rock outfit Drive-By Truckers , who don't necessarily sing about their namesake (although they do occasionally sing about highways), but their music has a certain working-class grit with the heat of summertime asphalt in its snarling guitars, particularly during the years when songwriter Jason Isbell was among its members. So here's one particularly powerful ballad from the Isbell years, the title track to his first record with the Drive-By Truckers, Decoration Day.
In a similar vein, here's 1990s country/folk-rock favourite Uncle Tupelo, which would eventually split up into Son Volt with Jay Farrar and Wilco with Jeff Tweedy, giving a serious kick in the tires to a song that's appeared on more 8-track tape truckin' song compilations than you can shake a gearshift at. Dating back to the 1954 version by Terry Fell, Truck Drivin' Man has been covered by everyone from Boxcar Willie to Commando Cody & His Lost Planet Airmen, but I have a special fondness for this version by Uncle Tupelo, even though it only gives a hint of what its members would later accomplish.
Truck drivers aren't just larger than life in country songs (or their rocking contemporary covers), they've also been featured heavily on the big screen, especially when there was a fresh wave of interest in trucking songs ignited by the 1975 C.W. McCall hit Convoy, which inspired a sprawling slugfest of a movie directed by Sam Peckinpah. Instead of that rather sad note in the film career of "Bloody Sam", I'd rather be reminded of the runaway Burt Reynolds hit comedy Smokey & the Bandit and its unforgettable theme song Eastbound and Down by his costar, guitar man Jerry Reed.
As you may have noticed, this playlist is a little heavy on the male side, and I guess that's just due to the nature of the subject matter. Apart from Minnie Pearl's Giddyup Go Answer, a sequel to the Red Sovine hit Giddyup Go, I was hard-pressed to think of another eligible song off the top of my head. Thankfully, there's also Norma Jean's Truck Driving Woman, by a singer who rose to prominence in the 1960s on The Porter Wagoner Show (before he was joined by his most famous discovery, Dolly Parton). This 1968 song wasn't as big a hit as her singles I Wouldn't Buy a Used Car From Him or Heaven Help the Working Girl, but it fits the bill and it's a great example of the kind of spirit that makes her music so fun to rediscover 50 years later.
Since Norma Jean mentioned it by name in Truck Driving Woman, the next song had to be that eerie story of the lonesome highway, Phantom 309 by the dean of truckin' songs himself, Red Sovine.
Now this one isn't about driving a truck per se, but Willie Nelson's On the Road Again feels like a perfect fit nonetheless. He's really singing about hopping back on his bus, the Honeysuckle Rose, and getting to the next show, but since someone's gotta drive that bus, and a couple of big rigs full of audio equipment, instruments and lights, this ode to a musician's life on the open highway works for me.
And, oh, what the heck. I know some readers would be wondering why C.W. McCall's 1975 smash hit Convoy wasn't on here if I didn't include it, so let's just crash the gate doing 98 saying "Let them truckers roll. 10-4."
