ICC is checkin’ on down the line

[static]

It’s an old trick.

Find a catchy tune that was also a smash hit that is just old enough that your audience will have never have heard the original and then remake it as your own.

Cover tunes make money.

All the big boys have done it: Pat Boone, Eric Clapton, Michael Jackson and the Grateful Dead are good examples. I am guilty of falling for that trick, when I was young; I was absolutely certain that Janis Joplin had written “Piece of My Heart”.

As I got older, I learned that playing the music was easy, but that composing it was the hard part. During my salad days, singer-songwriters gained their place of importance in the business. Artists that had once been big off of others' tunes faded out. Pat Boone was replaced by singer-songwriters such as the Beatles, who actually wrote and performed their own music.

I grew up listening to the music that I heard on KSAN, (the long-gone seminal FM station in San Francisco) and I particularly liked the somewhat local bands such as Taj Mahal and Commander Cody. (Neither were actually from San Francisco, but had come to the Bay Area to make it big)

I recall that Taj’s “Giant Step” and Commander Cody’s “Lost In The Ozone” were among the earliest records that I ever bought. (A very used copy of Big Brother & The Holding Company’s “Cheap Thrills” being the first)

I liked Taj Mahal’s version of “Six Days On the Road”, and must have played that track a million times. I literally wore out my copy of Commander Cody’s “Lost In The Ozone”, and their next release “Hot Licks, Cold Steel and Truckers Favorites”. What was it about these tunes? Songs of the open road, of travel, of adventure and of trucks captured my imagination. Good tunes, but these were all "covers". I didn't know any better.

To this day I like nothing better than a road trip. It doesn’t have to be to anywhere in particular, just a road trip.

And for as many years as I have been enamored by the open road, I have driven an old, air-cooled VW bus. One thing that these old VW buses don’t like is being run hot. They run fine in northern Germany, but will continually melt valve seats doing what the Americans demand of them.

Unless you want to meet tow truck drivers and collect shocking repair bills, you learn to travel when the temperatures are cool and the engine doesn’t overheat. That means that you drive only at night. Don’t ask me how I learned this.

I loved traveling at night. Once you escape the city rush hour traffic, the roads empty out. There is not much out there except for long-distance semi trucks that drive most of the night. Since an old VW bus is among the slowest vehicles on the road, I would find myself with trucks, passing trucks and being passed by trucks. Truckers are generally a polite bunch; they dim their headlamps for you to let you know that you have enough space to merge.

Old VW Westfalia campers have a blind spot, you have to use your mirrors all the time, a signal from a truck is greatly appreciated. Trucks have to use their mirrors as well, and I always dim my lights for trucks trying to merge back in. In appreciation, they blink their taillights at you. I love this. I love the courtesy. Professional drivers are the best.

I also like the music; that sort of sub-genre of Country Music written for truck drivers, songs like “Six Days On The Road”, (the song that I first heard as sung by Taj Mahal.)

Over the years, I tracked down the original songs as written (or at least popularized by) the original artists. Dave Dudley, Red Sovine, Hank Snow, Johnny Bond, the Willis Brothers, Merle Haggard. Listening to the eclectic playlist of Gilroy-based radio station KFAT (and later KPIG) helped to popularize these great songs to a brand new audience.

What was amazing about these tunes is that they seemed timeless.

Certainly, the remakes (that had fooled me when I was younger) had not even bothered to improve upon the songs or their arrangements. The originals had sufficiently powerful vocals and oftentimes extremely hot guitar licks.

Dave Dudley’s 1963 song “Six Days On The Road” opens with a guitar hook that is perfect, and the guitar licks are tasty. It is perhaps the perfect ‘truckers song’, and still gets airplay. I confess to singing along at times. I just wish that I could sing like Dave.

I’m making a “run” down to Bakersfield, Barstow, Mojave and Searchlight soon. I will be in the right lane, trying to maintain a safe speed and dimming my headlights for the truckers. I will have my radios on. My CB will be set to channel 19 so that I can listen to the truckers whine about their dispatchers, and my car stereo will most likely be blasting “Six Days On The Road”.

Dave Dudley died on December 23rd of 2003. He was 75. He had more than 40 hits during his career. His Billboard chart hits included "Truck Drivin' Son of a Gun" (No. 3, 1965), "What We're Fighting For" (No. 4, 1965), "Vietnam Blues" (Number 12, 1966), "There Ain't No Easy Run" (No. 10, 1968) and "The Pool Shark" (No. 1, 1970).

(I wrote this in early 2004. Thanks for reading it)

[spiffy]

Great writing.


The lure and romance of the open and lonely road is exactly like the lure and the romance of composing music.......very inward yet epiphany filled moments can't be predicted along these journeys but hopefully you get to enjoy and experience one or two.

[RussellK]

.

[glasseye]

There's something magic about solo driving, the open road and music. The only thing that comes close to replacing the music is a night baseball game.

In the middle eighties I had a contract to make a documentary film requiring travel to coal mining operations thoughout western North America. Rather than create a complex schedule of flights and and rental vehicles, I elected to load my '76 Ford Econonline with maps, camera gear, a SSB CB radio and music - casettes, in those days. Although my wife and the client questioned my sanity, I spent several weeks on the road driving, listening and learning. Better times were never had.

Static: did you manage to replace your Hot Licks, Cold Steel and Trucker's Favourites?

[static]

Static: did you manage to replace your Hot Licks, Cold Steel and Trucker's Favourites?

Yes, I have it on CD now.

[Sluggo]

I grew up listening to the music that I heard on KSAN, (the long-gone seminal FM station in San Francisco) and I particularly liked the somewhat local bands such as Taj Mahal and Commander Cody. (Neither were actually from San Francisco, but had come to the Bay Area to make it big)

I have this wonderful bootleg of Bob Marley performing a dozen songs live on KSAN promoting his first tour for "Catch A Fire". I have loads of Marley albums & bootlegs but this recording is the best!

[Amskeptic]

(A very used copy of Big Brother & The Holding Company’s “Cheap Thrills” being the first)

I fell in love with Janis Joplin right around "Summertime"
When Faith Hill tried to cash in on "Piece Of My Heart",
I thought it time for a new American Pie lament,
"The Day That Class and Dignity and Respect For Great Artists Died"
but that was just me whining and pining for the old days, I guess.
I got the original Janis Joplin rendition and played it for the hill-billy new generation in my gf's family. Bingo! We have a new Janis fan! One of them gave me a perfect "dang she's serious"
Colin

[LiveonJG]

There's something magic about solo driving, the open road and music. The only thing that comes close to replacing the music is a night baseball game.

Damn dude, that's poetically beautiful, brings a tear to my eye. Day games are OK too.

-John