Music is a powerful force, and a good clean source of fun. Yesterday afternoon I was listening to a couple of friends doing a jam-rehearsal while I recommended certain selections the could add to their repertoire for violin+guitar & one voice. One of the guys is somewhat (in)famous for rewriting song lyrics, and at my prompting the added his classic “With or Without Shoes” to their playlist, done to the tune of a certain well-known U2 song. This is also the guy fond of stand-up guitar comedy (or whatever one might call it) and has done a whole routine around an infomercial for the collection, “Dan Fogelberg sings every song ever written.” It’s a little scary when he gets going — but not quite so scary as what he produced spontaneously yesterday afternoon when I suggested a tribute to aging Boomers… AC/DC as elevator music.

So anyway, on this music theme, we’re off on an 8,000-KM road trip on Thursday morning. One of the jobs that always falls to me is to gather up the music for the trip… previously this has been CDs (hey, it used to be cassettes, and my first car had an 8-track), but this time it’ll be MP3s which take up a lot less space. ;^) It helps that I got my wife an iPod Nano as a combination Mother’s Day / Birthday gift (it’s today — happy birthday, wife!). In addition to a few classic audio books (e.g., Huckleberry Finn), the format of course allows me to compile different music sets by genre… blues, jazz, and so forth. This being a road trip, I was thinking I should compile a collection of quintessential driving songs. Road music. But what to put on the list? Criteria:
• eclectic is good • don’t have to be road-themed • inspiring the urge to finger-drum the steering wheel, air guitar, or sing along is good • must be “wide-awake” songs, not for sleeping to • classic rock rules • no “dead teenager songs” • relatively family-friendly is best.

Let’s see, thinking out loud…

• Steppenwolf
  • Born to be Wild
  • Magic Carpet Ride
• Tom Cochran, Life is a Highway
• War, Low Rider
• Don McLean, American Pie
• Supertramp
  • The Long Way Home
  • Fool’s Overture
• Dr. Hook, Cover of the Rolling Stone
• Joe Walsh, Life’s Been Good
• Guess Who, American Woman
• Chuck Berry
  • No Particular Place to Go
  • Johnny B. Goode
• Bob Dylan, Highway 61 Revisited
• Doobie Brothers, China Grove
• Rolling Stones, Paint it Black
• The Who
  • I Can See for Miles and Miles
  • Who Are You?
• The Eagles
  • Seven Bridges Road
  • Hotel California
• Heart, Barracuda
• Trooper, Boys in the Bright White Sports Car
• ELO, Don’t Bring Me Down
• David Lindley, Mercury Blues
• Charlie Daniels Band, The Devil Went Down to Georgia
• The Monkees, Last Train to Clarksville
• John Mellencamp
  • Pink Houses
  • R.O.C.K. in the U.S.A.
• Van Morrison, Brown Eyed Girl
• The Beatles
  • Back in the U.S.S.R.
  • Twist and Shout
• Golden Earring
  • Radar Love
  • Twilight Zone
• Wall of Voodoo, Mexican Radio
• Billy Joel, It’s Still Rock and Roll to Me
• Lynyrd Synnyrd, Sweet Home Alabama
• Three Dog Night, Joy to the World
• The Proclaimers, 500 Miles
• Robert Palmer, Bad Case of Loving You
• Kim Mitchell, Patio Lanterns
• T.Rex, Bang a Gong
• Best versions?
  • Mustang Sally
  • Black Betty
• Vanity Fair, Hitchin’ a Ride
• Queen, Another One Bites the Dust
• Paul Simon, Kodachrome
• Bruce Springsteen, Born to Run
• Joan Jett, I Love Rock ‘n’ Roll
• The Kinks
  • Lola
  • Come Dancing
• The Animals, House of the Rising Sun
• The Knack, My Sharona
• Meatloaf, Paradise by the Dashboard Light
• George Thorogood, Bad to the Bone
• CCR, Run Through the Jungle
• Johnny Cash, Folsom Prison
• Timbuk3, The Future’s So Bright, I Gotta Wear Shades
• AC/DC, T.N.T.

So what would you add to the list — what are your top “driving songs”? Only another, what 4-500 to go, then the jazz and blues sets…