Miscellaneous - November 2009

  by Lisa Torem

published: 20 / 10 / 2009

intro

In 'Rock Salt Row' Lisa Torem talks with a different Pennyblackmusic writer about a different aspect of rock. In this latest installment, she talks with Dan Cressey about musicians and their cars

Two Writers Season One Historic Moment “I’m your vehicle, baby/I’ll take you anywhere you wanna go/I’m your vehicle, woman/but I’m not sure that you know/that I love you…” 'I’m Your Vehicle' by Jim Peterik, of Berwyn, Illinois, who founded the group Ides of March in 1964, had this to say about his number one hit. “I wrote vehicle when I was 18. I was a car nut and when I was 18 I took my first publishing check to get my car – a Datsun 240Z. That was my lucky charm. I was dating a girl that dropped me. I wrote this song for my girlfriend to win her back. She was calling me for rides and I said, 'All I am is your vehicle.’ 37 years later that girl is still my wife.” Peterik goes on to say, “My three loves are girls, cars and guitars. The song 'Vehicle' epitomizes the whole rock culture. It set the course for my career.” Jim Peterik is not the only musician to laud the virtues of the iconic car. Since the automobile was invented, it’s become a paean of rock music lauded by Chuck Berry, Elvis, the Beach Boys, the Violent Femmes, Bruce Springsteen, Bob Dylan, the Beatles and many more. This vehicle may represent: freedom, abandonment of responsibilities, a chance to get away from the sameness of ordinary life, growing up, showing off and a sanctuary in which to blast one’s own music. This vehicle is a love object with few strings attached - an ephemeral beauty which carries the possible promise of a ’lost week-end’, or a ‘brief vacation.’ But to others, getting behind the wheel represents danger, a lack of identifiable emotional boundaries, alienation, a desperate lonely road to nothingness, or a chance to derail an unsuspecting victim. One can put the keys in the ignition and head for the comfort of home or escape from the bleakness or danger of what might have been home, but miserably became derailed. The Violent Femmes, in 'Gimme the Car' sing, “Come on, dad, gimme the car tonight/I’ll tell you what,/I’ll tell you what I’m gonna do/I’m gonna pick her up/I’m gonna get her drunk/I’m gonna make her cry/I’m gonna make her laugh,,,” Peterik’s verse in 'I’m Your Vehicle' esponges, “Hey, well, I’m a friendly stranger in a black sedan/won’t you hop inside my car?/I got pictures, got candy/I’m a lovable man, and I can take you to the nearest star…” These two protagonists have a grand plan involving that individual who enters the car. Richie Havens, opened the three-day peace festival, Woodstock, by singing his flaming anthem abtly entitled 'Freedom' to half a million hippies. In 'Mustang Sally' Wilson Pickett says, “I bought you a brand new Mustang ‘bout 1965…all you want to do is ride around Sally, ride, Sally, ride.” The Beatles sang, “Baby, you can drive my car/Yes, I’m gonna be your star/baby you can drive my car/and maybe I’ll love you…beep beep m beep beep, yeah…" Whose freedom are we talking about here? How much freedom do we need? Is the vehicle as ‘rock icon’ powerful, awe-inspiring and worthy of all the notoriety or is it an exploitative, commercially crass bull-dozing brat? Is there a fed-up pedestrian or chrome hub-cap freak out there ready to row? DAN As this is meant to be a row, I'll start by taking issue with your whole question. There is no reason that the car can't be both “powerful, awe-inspiring and worthy of all the notoriety” and “exploitative [and] commercially crass.” The fact that something is big business doesn't mean it's not rock and roll. Look at how many guitars Fender are churning out these days, look at the Rolling Stones, look at alcohol and drugs. Like them or loathe them, it’s hard to argue they’re not rock and roll. Equally, the fact that cars are expensive is part of their appeal because in this case we're not actually talking about cars in general. We're talking about expensive cars. There is no glamour in cruising down the Interstate in a Honda Civic with a tiny engine puttering away under the tin foil bonnet. Change that to a cherry red 1958 Ford Mustang and you have a whole different proposition. Equally, there's nothing rock and roll about a Prius. If the car's engine isn't capable of howling like a mad thing it just isn't rock and roll. Like the music, it's about noise and power and the ability to scare old ladies. This is not to say that rock's relationship with cars is or should be slavishly advertorial. Some of the best songs about cars have been subtly subversive. Chuck Berry's classic 'No Particular Place to Go' starts out like a commercial for automotive power: there he is cruising and playing the radio, with his baby beside him at the wheel. In the end though American manufacturing lets him down: “Can you imagine the way I felt?/I couldn't unfasten her safety belt.” (If he'd been in a BMW with some decent engineering that song would have had a very different ending.) Johnny Cash is equally circumspect with his take on America's obsession with cars. On 'One Piece At A Time' he relates the story of a man so desperate for a car that he steals one from the GM plant over years, one piece at a time. When he eventually puts the parts together though it doesn't go to plan, all the parts are from different years. Even this cloud has a silver lining: “You'll know it's me when I come through your town ... I'll have the only one there is around.” This highlights another aspect of car obsession, by buying something off the peg you can buy freedom. (A theme Berry also explores on ‘No Money Down’, when he lists all the options he wants on his jalopy). And as has been pronounced before, freedom isn't free, it's pretty expensive. There's no kudos to be gained in cheapness. That's why rocks relationship with public transport has always been ambivalent at best. Trains are there to take your baby away from you (cf: ‘Love in Vain’). Greyhound buses are even worse. Of course this obsession with cars is foolish and destructive, Detroit's ongoing slow motion collapse stands as testament to that. But foolish and destructive behaviour is rock and roll. Only by having a car can you actually go where you want to go. And you can play whatever music you like while you're doing it. LISA Well, Dan, behind the chrome hubcaps I’m seeing some deeper meaning - maybe some identity crises? I’m thinking the car is a metaphor for masculinity. Your reference to ‘One Piece of a Time’ clearly showed desperation though I’m wondering if there is more of a back story to his character – is there a loved one he is trying to impress? Is he just battling his own inadequacies and does obtaining these items really fill one up? Jim Peterik clearly felt used being the "chauffeur" at the onset of his song. And, if trains are there to “take your baby away” wouldn’t the guy buying the bigger, more expensive car be a competitor as well? Do we ever reach the finish line by accumulating more and more? Interesting about Chuck Berry – I saw a documentary in which he slept in his car to save money when he was unsure a promoter was going to pay him. I’m sure given his situation his vehicle served as a stable companion. In a song by Rusty Harp the lyrics go, "I used to have money, a home and a car and my old guitar" and in the chorus the protagonist complains, "Fast women, slow horses and wine have made me an old man ahead of my time." So here even the horse gets lambasted – that’s justice for you! Bruce Springsteen has explored the pathology behind men and their cars. In ‘Stolen Car’ from his fifth album ‘The River’ he writes about a man’s declining marriage – the man steals cars essentially to get “caught” and to reclaim his existence. On the album ‘Tracks’ Springsteen records an alternate version in which the man – for the duration of three verses – discovers ephemeral hope in the fading relationship, but when they renew their vows and kiss, he feels again that tug of disillusionment and resorts back to his habit. Let’s assume that Springsteen felt strongly enough about this song to bring it back for a second look. Interestingly enough, Patty Griffin also covered this song – does that indicate that perhaps women can relate to this pathology in the same way> I think Springsteen also disavows himself from the materialistic aspects of the automobile – looking deeper into what the car represents on a personal level. On ‘Thunder Road’ he writes, "All the redemption I can offer, girl, is beneath this dirty hood/with a chance to make it good somehow/Hey, what else can we do now except roll down the window and let the wind blow back your hair?" "Well, the night's busting open/these two lanes will take us anywhere/we got one last chance to make it real/to trade in these wings on some wheels.’ Here is one song where the word "chance" shines through and the physical attributes of the vehicle itself takes second place. Now, that’s more like it! Speaking of female writers who use cars as themes, Lucinda Williams, in ‘Car Wheels on a Gravel Road’ describes a restless housewife, "Pull the curtains back and look outside/somebody somewhere/I don’t know, come on now, child, we’re gonna go for a ride." ‘Low hum of voices in the front seat, stories nobody knows, got folks in Jackson we’re going to meet, car wheels on a gravel road’ And in the third verse she sings, "Child in the back seat, about four or five years, lookin’ out the window/Little bit of dust, mixed with tears…" We have no idea whether this car has a souped- up engine or how many mpg it holds, neither does she. But, the car is a mere back-drop to the central relationships in her life. Janis Joplin in a song written by Kris Kristofferson sings, "Oh, Lord, won’t you buy me a Mercedes Benz/my friends all ride horses/I must make amends, worked hard all my lifetime/No help from my friends/ so, oh, Lord, won’t you buy me a Mercedes Benz.’ Now, Joplin, known for her fast life-style, was prone to status seeking. She showed up at her high-school reunion with her limo to impress those that bullied her when she was younger. So, is the expensive car simply a cover-up for one with an insecure childhood or should we accept it, as you say, as just another ‘toy’ like a ‘Les Paul?’ I think it’s time to go deeper – like Springsteen and Peterik and Williams – and put the car back where it belongs – back in the garage and in the street ready for a grocery run or a road trip – but not to replace what wasn’t there in the first place, rock’n’roll, not withstanding. DAN I think you’ve fallen into the trap of confusing songs that happen to feature cars with songs about cars. Surely the key here is whether the car is a symbol in rock? To deal with a couple of specific points – “is there a loved one he is trying to impress?” on 'One Piece at a Time'. Cash does sing, “About this time my wife walked out/and I could see in her eyes she had her doubts/but she opened the door and said ‘honey take me for a spin.’” So he is not actually using his car to catch a woman, he’s already married. While some people may think they can impress “by accumulating more and more” that’s not really why the car is important in rock. Whether you agree with them or not, many people do think cars are sexy. Let’s go back to the Rolling Stones for one of the most wonderfully sleazy songs ever recorded, ‘Brand New Car’, where Jagger might be singing about his new automobile or he might be singing about his new woman. I don’t think those lyrics are fit to reproduce in a family friendly forum like this one. You may be confusing two issues here. Male rock stars sing about cars; that is true. And there aren’t many female rockers who pen decent paeans to cars; that is also true. But isn’t this likely to be because, frankly, there aren’t many female rock stars? Why that is so and if it should be so if a whole different row, but rock is dominated by men. You could argue that the automotive obsession is a generally male preserve (female racing drivers are few and far between) and the examples of songs by women you give highlight this – they’re not really about cars, they just happen to feature cars as a plot device. The only possible exception to this that springs to mind is the Tracy Chapman borefest ‘Fast Car’, which has a foot in both camps as both seeing the car as freedom and being something of a miserable lament. But the best car songs aren’t about someone’s slow decline into obsolescence. They’re about doing whatever you want, even if it happens to be nothing. Let’s go retro and look at Bob Seger: “Didn't need the real truth/Didn’t need the meaning/Straight ahead ignoring every sign”. Okay, Seger doesn’t explicitly mention a car in ‘Brave Strangers’, but it is heavily implied. There doesn’t have to be a back story, it’s just about going living fast (and if you’re inclined towards the James Dean, dying young too). The question of whether an expensive car is “simply a cover-up for one with an insecure childhood” or should be accepted “as just another ‘toy’ like a ‘Les Paul” is also slightly disingenuous. Insecure people – and, to be cruder, men who aren’t well endowed – may cover this up with by putting a huge bonnet/hood in front of them. That doesn’t mean every powerful car is a cover-up for an insecure childhood. If you could, why wouldn’t you want to drive a powerful car really fast, especially in the consequence-ignoring world of rock? Like a guitar, a car isn’t a toy, it’s a tool. The job it does is to move you. And that’s really the point of my argument: fast, noisy, brash, and loud is what rock should be about. Finally, you make two crucial and very telling errors in your quote of Joplin. She doesn’t sing, “My friends all ride horses”; she sings, “My friends all drive Porsches’. And far from status seeking, I think this was intended as an attack on materialism, but many people (including the ad directors at Mercedes) took it at face value. Hippie values are no match for gasoline*. Nice try on passing it off on Kristofferson too. He didn’t write this song, but he did write another tune that Joplin arguably made famous, ‘Me and Bobby McGee’. And what happens in that song? Two people who don’t have a car are forced to bum lifts from a truck driver and their story doesn’t end happily. .And if you really want a song that counters America’s car obsession you could do a lot worse that Outkast’s 'Gasoline Dreams': “Don’t everybody love the smell of gasoline? Burn, burn American dreams. Don’t everybody love the taste of apple pie?” LISA Okay, Dan. You really got me on that Freudian slip - ‘My friends all ride horses.’ Can’t believe I said that… But, since I did, I really wouldn’t mind if my friends did ride horses instead of mini-vans and SUVs. In fact, how about bicycles? Why doesn’t Aerosmith write about that? And don’t get me started on skater boys…Even a man with a Napoleonic complex looks good on one of those. I don’t think of trains as simply something that takes our loved ones away from us, either. Take Woodiy Guthrie – how he put romance into those nomadic journeys. Touche about Kristofferson as well – a guy who would definitely look comfortable in the back of a pick-up truck. No, he didn’t write ‘Mercedes Benz’, but I do feel Joplin fully embraced the role of the rock star, status-seeking lifestyle – riding in a limo to her high-school reunion. A millionaire hippy? I don’t think so… If I had paid more attention and gripped the steering wheel with white-knuckled hands more tightly, I would have noticed the dangerous sixteen- wheeler in the rear-view mirror. Or is it possible this character was bringing his sweetie a dozen roses? You see, unlike rock, alt. country/Americana always manages to keep the substance in the song. Remember Melanie sang, "I’ve got a pair of brand new roller-skates/You’ve got a brand new key?" I guess those were simpler times. But, I can imagine her throwing a bunch of kids into a 1950s jalopy and meeting up with Lucinda – roller-skates in the trunk – anxious to head off down that gravel road to someone or something – even if her vehicle didn’t have antique wing-tips or pin-stripes. Yes, loud, brash and spinning out-of-control cars are here to stay. Yes, their physical and auditory attributes make for great dance records. You’ve sufficiently greased my axel and lubricated my valves. What’s left now? Kicking my whitewalls? Keep in mind, there’s that expression, ‘Guns don’t kill, people do.’ So, as a person living in a country with surprisingly lax gun control, I rest my case - big, flashy, loud, thunderous, commercially crass vehicles don’t drive, rock stars do. Beep beep m beep beep, yeah. Ah, and one last scathing comment just in from Dan: “Much as I’ve enjoyed this row, I feel I should confess at this stage, I can’t drive…”