Turnpike Travel, Music of Yore

[dlgood]

I've had a thought bouncing about my head, pretty much since the return drive from the AtPO meet in NYC.

Pretty much as soon as I crossed the Verrazano into Staten Island, I put "The Cars/Candy-O" into my CD player for the drive down. There's something about that band that really strikes me as fitting while driving down the Jersey Turnpike. I'm not really sure why.

Perhaps, it's association. In my youth, the bulk of our rather close extended family lived in NYC, on Long Island, or in Connecticut - and so with family events, weddings, Bar-Mitzvahs, and just general travel, we made many trips along the I-95 corridor. And among the many tapes we took (and oh did I hate my mother's love for Manilow and Neil Diamond when trapped in a car) were a few Cars. Perhaps it's that.

And these are albums I've listened to for years. "Candy-O" in particular, is just a really quirky album where the songs flow but sound so different, and just odd. But the beats are just right for Turnpike Travel. And it helps that Benjamin Orr is just about the only singer I can actually sing along to with any degree of competence, so there's extra fun when an Orr song turns up.

So on my four hour trip back, I listened to just four albums ("Cars",
"Candy-O", "Panorama" and "Heartbeat City") all by the same band, and all over twenty years old. And it felt really appropriate, and neat.

Anybody else out there have any particular album/highway associations like that, or is it just me being wacky?

Comments

Fangurl Squee!!

[mshepnj.livejournal.com]

I icarously enjoy reading about your pleasant roadtrip.

Pretty much as soon as I crossed the Verrazano into Staten Island, I put "The Cars/Candy-O" into my CD player for the drive down. There's something about that band that really strikes me as fitting while driving down the Jersey Turnpike. I'm not really sure why.

Oh, hee! I had Candy-O on 8 Track (or is that Eight Track?) and played it over and over and over and over and...well, it was a fangurl favorite back in the day. It was also a car favorite going Down The Shore.

There is something so - so... evocative about the New Jersey Turnpike, innithere? Usually it evokes, uh, rage. But if you go into it already knowing that traffic happens and can make the most of it, there's plenty of good NJTurnpike-listening music to be had.

At one time I tried to put together a songlist of "NJ Places" but I only got a few before I gave up. There's "State Trooper" by Springsteen (sung by him or the Cowboy Junkies), and James McMurtry's "Down Across the Delaware" which also mentions the NJT, and "Bury my Heart in Atlantic City" by Shannon McNally.

Sometimes I just put on Bruce. "Thunder Road" still give me goosebumps every time I warble along with it.

p.s.

[mshepnj.livejournal.com]

That "v"icariously. Duh.

And I love your Paddington Bear icon.

Re: Fangurl Squee!!

[dlgood.livejournal.com]

But if you go into it already knowing that traffic happens and can make the most of it, there's plenty of good NJTurnpike-listening music to be had.

Very true. Although, this time, I got off at Exit 8A and went down 130 until I got to 195. But that also meant I got to go past the AEGIS Combat building near Moorestown just off 295, which is cool because it looks like the bridge of a Ticonderoga.