When we drove cross country the first time it seemed like I picked up a vintage globe in every port. When I was living in the City of Angels a globe like this would cost you a pretty penny, so when I found people were practically giving them away I was buying what they were selling. I amassed quite a collection and I gave a lot of them away as I think they make very cool gifts. I have two more globes that I have no room for and I shall be giving away one each to two people! I will announce the winners next Monday, April 22, 2013. Because I will be driving 2500+ miles in a few weeks this question is a bit self-serving, but I am curious to read your entries and perhaps put together a little mixed ‘tape’ for our trek. To enter to win just answer the following question below:
What is your favorite driving song?
And I never did mention who I chose for the wood box storage bestowal, that would be Jessica Reed. I loved her word–“I have always been enamored with the Dutch word Schoon. I love how it sounds and that it means both clean AND beautiful.” When I posed that question I didn’t think that I would be getting non-English words but was pleasantly surprised! I also like the meaning of her word as I love clean + beautiful!
P.S. Tomorrow I am going to be discussing the shop + sales, I get a zillion emails a day asking how I did it and I shall reveal my experience with you!
Miss Tristan B. is the proprietress of Besotted Brand and the writer of this delightful blog. She recently re-located to the country with her handsome husband and two pups and will be re-locating back to the city in the very near future.
I would say something energizing at the beginning of the trip or for short trip to stressful rendez-vous, i.e “Faith” from George Michael i can sing aloud very loudly like a teenage girl i’m not anymore. And maybe Enigma for the longest trip to relax and remember my time in NeW rZealand as i discovered these band.
The first song that comes to mind is Muse’s “Map of the Problematique” from their album Black Holes and Revelations. It has a very “accelerating” tendency in the beginning, where it moves slowly but smoothly forward and grows in tempo just in time for you to have switched to the highest gear. I especially find this very satisfying driving a car that has a manual shift stick, which I personally believe every car in the world should have! The song is very energetic and has a certain intensity that hands your driving a sense of riding into battle rather than heading for a quick trip to the grocery store. If you’re into singing, it also has some very heart-clenching intervals of lines such as “I can’t get it riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiight” which is just perfect for situations where you’re feeling a general frustration with life and just feel like driving around in your car and singing about it. Which I do.
I love the song “Sweet Disposition” by The Temper Trap. It always reminds me of sweet summer days when I drive with the windows down.
The Wallflower’s One Headlight (or the entire Bringing Down the Horse album). I think this hearkens back to 1997, when my older brother first got his driver’s license and we used to cruise around at night listening to this album on repeat.
‘nowwhere fas’ from Fire.Inc. it’s such a burst of energy :)
When I’ve been on a long drive and am heading home, I start my music list with Country Roads by John Denver.
I love love love LOVE Supermassive Black Hole by Muse. In fact, the first Twilight soundtrack is a fantastic travel disk!
The first thing that comes to my mind when thinking about road trip music is the type of music my dad would play in the car when I was young and we were all driving 1,000 miles from OK to NC in the summer. So my suggestions are going to be from the 80s and are more country than you might like (but I don’t know?) . . . Have you heard of the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band? They formed in the 60s in Long Beach, CA, as a country-folk-rock band (yay for CA, right?). :) Perhaps you could include them in your playlist for when you are driving through the plains states (due to the country nature of the music). “Fishin’ in the Dark” is my all-time favorite song and is very conducive to dashboard/steering wheel drumming. I also love the instrumentals and sound of “Mr. Bojangles.” If nothing else, you can add them for some variety during a very long trip!! Can’t wait to see all the suggestions.
2 oldies but goodies that stand the test of time: The Rainbow Connection
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tqj456ImNSY
On the Road Again, by Willie
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1TD_pSeNelU
stop in Colorado and drop off a globe!! Tail wags ~moose
“Jessica” by the Allman Brothers is a fantastic windows-down/sunshiney/pretty day driving song.
I love “Soak up the Sun” by Sheryl Crow. I can’t help but sing along with it (very loudly).
“Negotiations and Love Songs” by Paul Simon. Okay, that’s a whole album, but it was the album of the best road trip I ever took.
Love to cruise to Dire Straits “Telegraph Road,” because it always takes me back to the road trips I remember a kid; open roads for miles and miles, the windows down (no one had AC) and my hair flying all around the place, playing games in the backseat with my sisters, and of course, singing along with the radio.
Rumor has it by Adele is my favorite driving song. It’s just so catchy.
Oh, this is hard. I will digress a bit – because that’s what I do – when I say that whenever I hear the B-52s ‘Love Shack’ I WISH I was driving a car, trees blurring in my peripheral vision, that “seats about twenty!” And there are so many great songs to choose from, but…Stevie Wonder’s Sir Duke has to be the one. Besides being a surge-of-joy kind of song in and of itself, it brings me right back to when I was a kid and my older sister Virginia took me out for a drive in her blue Ventura. Sir Duke began to play on the radio and Ginny pumped the breaks in tune with the horn section. Today whenever I’m running to this song, I am transported right back to that moment on Riverside Drive.
AC/DC “Highway to Hell” makes me drive way too fast! Woohoo!
I’d have to say Bob Dylan’s Highway 61 Revisited will always be on our cross country album list. “Like a Rolling Stone” is one of my favs. The hubs and I moved to the Grand Tetons the summer before we got married and every time I hear that album it puts me back in the front seat of our tiny Altima, unable to see out of the back window. Everything we owned was stuffed into that little car. Lots of sandwich making on the large black CD binder in my lap. Sweet, simple memories. :)
Brick by Ben Folds Five! Safe travels!
Fast Car by Tracy Chapman or Steal My Kisses by Ben Harper!
I have a hard time staying awake on roadtrips so anything with a good beat that I can sing along to is great. Justin Timberlake is one of our favorites and we love making cheesy dances and singing dramatically to “What Goes Around.” His new “Mirrors” is awesome too and we listened to it over and over again on our last roadtrip until we had it memorized. Have lots of fun!
I love driving for long periods of time. It gives you so much time to think, or, not to think and simply enjoy the feeling of either getting away from or going towards something. That’s why I love road trips. They can be such solitary experiences in you go out on your own or you can learn things about the people you’re with that you never expected, both good and bad. For that reason, I think my favorite driving song is Audioslave’s “I Am the Highway.” When I listen to it while driving, it reminds me that while I am physically going from one place to the next, I am also traveling within myself, searching for something, whether it be a new experience or a nostalgic one, whether I’m heading into the unknown or back into the warm familiar.
Now I feel like going on a road trip. :)
Sugar, by Tonic!
California by Delta Spirit. Actually, their entire album has a great driving beat. :)
Sound of Sunshine by Micheal Franti and Spearhead, anything Avett Brothers or Mumford and Sons… :)
“Hey Jude” by the Beatles! We LOVE listening to it over and over and belting out ‘naaa, naaa, naaa, na-na-na-na, na-na-na-na, Hey Jude!” at the top of our lungs during long road trips!
When my family takes long car trips, we crank up Jack Johnson and Alan Jackson, along with a few interspersed Mumford and Sons. :)
I like to think I have good taste in music, but instead of going with “cool” I’m going for just straight up fun to sing in the car :) Rod Stewar Maggie May
On our annual family trip to our favorite beach spot, my husband is in charge of the music. Chicken Fried by Zac Brown Band is a favorite of all of us. My husband thought I might add Lonely Boy by The Black Keys, too. I think that Adele (all songs!), Mumford and Sons, Fun., and Lumineers will make the cut this year! Music is an absolute on a long drive, to be sure. Sate travels to you and your husband!
this one is the best ever:
“this is how we walk on the moon” – arthur russell