Wednesday, November 13, 2013

I Drive With A Soundtrack

My iphone, with all the tunes.

I listen to a lot of stuff while I'm driving - mostly podcasts and audiobooks, but I also listen to a lot of music.  I have over 2,000 songs on my iPhone.  I don't know how that happened.  I did burn a lot of the CDs I have, but I've also spent a lot of money on iTunes. 

Lately though, when I find a new song that I like, usually something I've heard on The Voice or a TV show soundtrack, I can usually find it free on the internet.  Free is good. 

Anyway, I was thinking the other night while I was driving, about how I like to play certain songs when I'm going through the places that are featured or mentioned in the song.

Here are ten songs I like and the locations they're connected to.  If you click the title of each song, it'll take you to a YouTube video for it (I didn't make the videos, just found them.  Don't hold it against me if you don't freakin' like them):

I Ain't In Checotah Anymore by Carrie Underwood
This song is about the place Carrie Underwood was raised.  She was born in Muskogee but raised in Checotah.  The first line of the song says, "Where 69 meets 40 there's a single stoplight town..."  And that's exactly where you'll find it - at Interstate 40 and State Route 69.  She also mentions Eufaula Lake in the song, which is the big lake just south of town.  Both are places I just drove through last week and I make sure to hit that song and say "Eufaula Lake" as I'm passing it!

Missing Missouri by Sara Evans
The chorus includes the line, "Where they love me, where they know me, where they show me back in Missouri..."  I love this because it refers to the state's motto - Missouri is the "Show Me" state.  So when she says "where they show me" I think it's a very clever lyric.  Country Singer Sara Evans was born and raised in Boonville, MO which is about 150 miles west of Saint Louis.  She lives in Nashville now.

Ellsworth by Rascal Flatts
I love this song.  It's about an elderly grandma who is losing her memory, but when you bring up grandpa, her husband, she remembers everything like it was yesterday.  The line, "Tomorrow she won't remember what she did today, but just ask her about Ellsworth, Kansas, 1948..." is the part that has the power to bring a tear to my eye.  Watch the video and follow along with the lyrics on the screen.  (That's for you Mom - since you never know "what they're saying" in the songs.)

Love Is The Key by LSD
I totally get into this beat.  "Blowin' hellachronic smoke..." There's a part in the song (2:33) where they say "West Coh-veena...where the shit goes down."  Every time I hear that, I think of cruising through West Covina, California, past the mall that sits right on I-10.  We've actually been to this mall. I remember it well as it's where I dropped $250 on M.A.C. cosmetics.  That was a great day. 

Allentown by Billy Joel
We've been to this town many times and I've
written about it in the past.  It's a sad reminder of America's most famous steel town and our industrial past.  Good song.

Empire State of Mind by Jay_Z and Alicia Keys
The "concrete jungle where dreams are made of...there's nothing you can't do...these streets will make you feel brand new...the lights will inspire you..."  Of course, Frank Sinatra's "New York, New York" is the all-time forever New York song, but this one is fresh and cool and has beats, baby.  I love to play this one when I'm crossing the George Washington Bridge, hoping it's clear enough so that when I look south toward Midtown Manhattan I can see the Empire State Building, and when Alicia Keys says to put "one hand in the air for the big city", you can bet I have my hand in the air.  Waving it for New York.


Funkin' For Jamaica by Tom Browne
This song PUMPS ME UP.  Jazz trumpeter Tom Browne kills this tune.  Wooooooooeeeeeeee!  Queens, New York representin' in this song.  It just makes me happy.  "Jamaican funk, that's what it is.  Let it get into you."  Love that line.  Tonni Smith is smooth when she sings that.  The funk is in me!  I feel it inside my soul.  The horns.  The beat.  The sooouuuul.  LOVE LOVE LOVE this song!  It's over 30 years old and it still makes me feel the same as I did when I first heard it in my late teens.


Sugarland by Sugarland
I love Jennifer Nettles, the singer of the music duo Sugarland.  I'm not sure if she's talking about Sugar Land, Texas in this song because she spells it all as one word, but every time I hear it I imagine this young teenage girl growing up in small town Texas.  The song starts with the lyrics, "Warm breeze blowin', long dirt road... First time that I saw him was such a long time ago... I was sixteen goin' on seventeen... Blue bonnet Texas queen fell in love with a rodeo king... Down in Sugarland."  It makes me wish I was a small town Texas teenage girl....well, for the duration of the song anyway.


El Paso by Marty Robbins
The first time I heard this song, someone sang it to me and replaced the name of the Mexican girl, Felina, with my name, Salena:  "Out in the West Texas town of El Paso...I fell in love with a Mexican girl...Night-time would find me in Rosa's cantina... Music would play and Felina would whirl..."  What a classic country and western song.  So country.  So western. 


Walking in Memphis by Marc Cohn
Your feet just gotta be ten feet off of Beale when you hear this song.  The ghost of Elvis, gospel in the air, Muriel playing the piano at
The Hollywood (in 1986, Marc Cohn visited the Hollywood Cafe and was invited to sing Amazing Grace with Muriel. This encounter inspired him to write his hit song).  So good. 


~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
2012: Who Doesn’t Love A Sunset?
2011: Personally Yours. But Not Mine.
2010: Sheltered Madonna And Child
2009: Breaking A Leg Doesn’t Always Mean Good Luck
2008: Showing Its True Colors, Even On The Cloudiest Day
2007: Priorities
2006: It’s All In The Cards
2005: A Blond Moment

5 comments:

Marlaina said...

I must say, your musical recommendations are always hits (lol) with me.

I have one for you, that fits this genre. I too like hearing songs about places that I drive. Listen to Carrie Underwood, The Night Before. It really
sums up a great American educational, coming of age new reality. The young women are leaving home, getting an education, and the young men are being left behind, literally. The statistics show this in a stark way. Young men are not as educated as the young women and their job prospects are less.

I love the the chorus, she'll be rolling down I-10 Baton Rouge, LSU, 18 years behind in her rear view.

The Daily Rant said...

MARLAINA: You like Carrie Underwood?? Who knew? And of course I know "The Night Before (Life Goes On)" Great song. And I also belt out that chorus....rolling down I-10 in Baton Rouge! LOL

Belledog said...

Thank you for this playlist. Recognize the older songs, but not the new. Checking them out.

I think Allentown is my fave Billy Joel song (which ain't saying that much). It's a short story about decline set to music.

Pat said...

I assume you have "I Love You Arizona" by Rex Allen?

The Daily Rant said...

PAT: I Love You Arizona? Really? You DO read my blog, right?? LOL My heart belongs to NY and I cheat on NY with TN. I never even think about AZ. :)