Austalia in the spring of 2002.
Somewhere on the Great Ocean Road, sitting on a bus with other like-minded backpackers as part of the Oz Experience tour.
Our amicable guide was nicknamed “Two Dogs,” for some obscure reason I can’t remember now. He sported a soul-patch on his chin and could pull off some pretty neat stunts with a pair of whips (which he demonstrated at the hostel the night before).
He also loved obscure Australian folk music. Which normally wouldn’t have been a big deal. To each their own right? Except here’s the thing: he also figured the rest of us should love it as well and blared it over the bus speakers.
I remember most of us tried to endure it. But you can only take so many repetitions of Waltzing Matilda and “jumbucks” from “tuckerbags” before you start fantacizing about kicking in the cd player.
I stand by this musical compilation as the closest anyone has ever come to roadtrip soundtrack enlightenment.
To be fair, Two Dogs asked us if we had any music we wanted to hear. Sadly, I had a cd wallet full of my own various favourite bands, but nothing that offered a quality hour or so of roadtrip music. Neither did anyone else.
I remember Two Dogs shrugged his shoulders, said something like “Fair Dinkum” and resumed playing his Australian folk music.
From that moment, I vowed to create the greatest roadtrip cd ever, which I would carry with me in case I was ever called upon again. And so I did.
The following is the track listing for the Greatest Roadtrip Cd Ever (capitalization intentional).
Though there are a few tracks that probably wouldn’t have made the cut today, I stand by this musical compilation as the closest anyone has ever come to roadtrip soundtrack enlightenment.
- 1. ACDC – Highway To Hell
- 2. The Hives – Hate To Say I Told You So
- 3. Blink 182 – Damnit
- 4. Matthew Good – Rico
- 5. Supergrass – Pumpin On Your Stereo
- 6. Offspring – Get A Job
- 7. Bryan Adams – Summer of 69
- 8. Wheatus – Teenage Dirtbag
- 9. Crash Test Dummies – Peter Pumpkinhead
- 10. Spin Doctors – Two Princes
- 11. Violent Femmes – American Music
- 12. Rancid – Ruby
- 13. Tom Cochrane – Life Is A Highway
- 14. REM – It’s the End of the World
- 15. Third Eye Blind – Semi-Charmed Life
- 16. John Mellencamp – Small Town
- 17. Coldplay – Yellow
- 18. Tom Petty – Free Fallin
- 19. U2 – With Or Without You
- 20. Neil Diamond – Cherry
- 21. Mr. Big – To Be With You
Now I’d be foolish to assume that music is a relative matter.
But, for a roadtrip song to even be considered, it must possess one or all of the following qualities: a head bobbing beat, a scream-at-the-top-of-your-lungs chorus, or the ability to evoke feelings of wide-open roads and a never-ending horizon.
With that said, I’d like to open up the comments here to ask you:
What music do you deem essential for your favourite roadtrip soundtrack?
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“gold” by spandau ballet for the start of the trip, “the boys are back in town” by bruce springsteen for when you get back and then you need to have “country roads”. *lol*
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hey stacy & boris, thanks for the additions! i think it would be a cool idea to come up with a collaborative GREATEST ROADTRIP SOUNDTRACK EVER volume 2. you in?
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Your post brings up a touchy subject for me. I recently posted my “Top 10 Most Influential British Bands” (http://travelblog.viator.com/england-rocks/) and received a barrage of criticism for leaving off people like Elvis Costello and Brian Eno. And now I’m hesitant to get back into the fray… who am I kidding, of course I will. Here goes:
1. Nirvana. I’m not a huge Nirvana fan, but it’s always good to start with a power alt ballad.
2. Tom Waits. I’m thinking Frank’s Wild Years. Or Swordfishtrombones.
3. Calexico. This is great driving music.
4. The Clash. Come on, I can already see you tapping your fingers on the steering wheel to the tune of ‘Death or Glory’.
5. Old 97s. A little Alt Country is good for driving through the Badlands of Texas.
6. Beastie Boys, Paul’s Boutique. This is classic road music.
7. I’m not kidding here: Mozart’s Requiem. I need a break from guitars every now and then. And the Requiem is just what the doctor ordered.
8. Lucinda Williams, Car Wheels on a Gravel Road. Again my country side shows. I am OK with that.
9. Fugazi. After some mellowness let’s crank it back up.
10. More Tom Waits. Seriously. You can never have enough Tom Waits.
Happy road tripping.
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Hi Ian, I think most people would laugh at my taste in music (I go from country to classic rock like AC/DC and Led Zeppelin to late 60’s music like Traffic and Buffalo Springfield.)
In between, I have a soft spot for 70’s music from Sammy Johns, Three Dog Night and Paul Simon and you don’t even want to know what I like from the early 60’s. LOL.
My husband is the one for road trip music, and I I like of a lot of his picks, so it works out. Talking Heads is one of my favorite groups.
John Sandford, the author of the Prey books, has a good list on his site…
http://www.johnsandford.org/prey16.html↵ -
scott — i can’t believe i’d overlooked beastie boys and nirvana. my bad.
and stacy, thanks for the list. i’ll check it out for some more inspiration for v2.0.
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I was once asked to make one for a friend of mine who was going on a roadtrip to France with some friends. They loved it. None of them knew what came next.
I liked the idea when you’re travelling with people who all have a different music taste. Just ask somebody else with a broad music collection to make a roadtrip cd (in my case: mp3-cd).
I couldn’t resist the temptation to add “Ca Plane pour moi” after about an hour or 3. Guessing they would be in France by then.↵ -
If anyone is planning on taking this such a CD on a trip through Australia, there is one MUST HAVE that is missing.
Hunters and Collectors – Holy Grail
There is an AWESOME live version of it that was recorded in Sydney floating around the intertubes somewhere (the standard edit has nothing on the live version – Nothing I say!)
It posses all the requisite features for a great road-trip song and you will get extra credit and many nods of appreciation from any locals you meet along the way.
Ian, while it is not a folk song, it is practically a pub anthem down here, I sure hope this guy introduced you to it. Shame on him if he didn’t!
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I’m a big fan of, oh the shame, 70s anthem pop/rock for road trip sound tracks. Meet the new boss, same as the old boss… Met a little girl in a Hollywood bungalow… And I think it’s gonna be a long long time… Ack. Maybe it’s because when you’re traversing the big spaces of the US, it’s anthem rock, cowboy pop (I hate that stuff, though props to ScottMc for the alt country) and talk talk talk. You can always get old Boston songs,though, and that stuff sounds like road trips to me!
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I would like to add few poppy rock songs for the roadtrip.Kind of radio-tune songs but nice to have for roadtrip,IMHO.
1.1979- smashing pumpkins
2.have a nice day – stereophonics
3.my favourite game – cardigans
4.traveller’s tune – ocean colour scene↵ -
Tiny Dancer by Elton John
(See the movie Almost Famous)Fast Car by Tracy Chapman
America by Simon and Garfunkle
(Also in Almost Famous)↵ -
“Early Morning Rain” and “Canadian Railroad Trilogy”- Gordon Lightfoot
“The Weight”- The Band
“If 6 Was 9″- Jimi Hendrix
“Me And Bobby Magee”- Chris Kristofferson
“Truckin’” and “Friend Of The Devil”- Grateful Dead
“Thunder Road”, “Born To Run”, and “The Rocker”- Bruce Springstein
“Sitting On The Dock Of The Bay”- Otis Redding
There’s probably a lot more where that came from i just can’t think of them right now!↵ -
These always get me into a wicked mood while driving:
Steppenwolf – Born to be Wild
Rolling Stones – Paint it Black
Derek and the Dominos – Layla↵ -
*pulls up chair and sits down*
I can beat this.
This is the music that accompanied me on an epic solo road trip from New York to Las Vegas in the summer of 2000.
* George Thorogood, “Who Do You Love.”
* Donna Summer, “Bad Girls.”
* Sister Hazel, “All For You.”
* the Police, “Synchronicity.” (The first cut off the album, NOT the better-known “Synchronicity 2″. This is important.)
* I concur with the above inclusion of Steppenwolf’s “Born To Be Wild.”
* Dire Straits, “Skateaway.”
* the Go-Go’s, “We Got the Beat” and “Our Lips Are Sealed.”
* the Guess who, “American Woman.”
* Sting, “Desert Rose.”
* Allman Brothers, “Jessica.”
* Moby, “Run On.”
* U2, “Desire.”
* Johnny Cash, “I’ve Been Everywhere.”
* The Who, “Baba O’Reilly.”
* Elton John, “Saturday Night’s Alright For Fighting.”
* New Radicals, “You Get What You Give.”
* Ben Harper, “Steal My Kisses.”
* Bruce Springsteen, “Born To Run.”The above was supplemented with the B-52’s greatest-hits double-CD set “Nude On the Moon,” and with a copy of “The Joshua Tree” (which was only played when I reached Utah and Nevada).
“Steal My Kisses” was something I actually discovered while ON the trip — I tried the radio somewhere in Ohio, and stumbled upon this song and it drove me into a Wal-Mart for the first time in my life ever to get a copy.
And I’m shocked that no one has mentioned “Jessica” before now. Seriously.
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