“jump like a Willys in four wheel drive” Sugar Magnolia - Grateful Dead
Chuck Berry songs –
Jaguar And Thunderbird,
You Can’t Catch Me (Coupe Deville),
Dear Dad (Ford),
No Money Down (Cadillac, Ford).
B52s – Love Shack (Chrysler)
Blondie – Rapture (Cadillacs, Subarus, Lincolns, Mercurys)
Billy Joel – We Didn’t Start the Fire (Edsel)
Charlie Daniels – Uneasy Rider (Chevrolet)
Eagles – Take it easy (Ford), Hotel California (Mercedes Benz)
Note: Janis Joplin’s Mecedes Benz also mentions Porches
Susan Werner’s “Big Car”:
So you can keep your stupid SUV
Give me a big old ugly LTD
A Lincoln Town Car
Or a Grand Marquee
And I’m a woman driving destiny around
Slick Black Cadillac - Quiet Riot
Look At That Cadillac - Stray Cats
The Wreck Of The Barbie Ferrari, John Hiatt
Buick McKane, T-Rex
White Valiant, The Muttonbirds
Blue Belmonts, Blam Blam Blam
“I drive a Maserati GT/With snakeskin unholstery”: I Ain’t Got You, The Yardbirds
“I drive a Rolls Royce/'Cos it’s good for my voice”: Children Of The Revolution, T-Rex
“I got a Ford Cortina that just won’t run without fuel - fill 'er up, Jacko”: The Clash, London’s Burning
“Hot Rod Lincoln” was by Commander Cody, a.k.a. George Frayne, and the Lost Planet Airmen.
Joe Walsh - Life’s Been Good
“My Maserati does 185.
I lost my license, now I don’t drive.”
D’oh! - OK, Ryan originally recorded it, but the version by Commander Cody is more well-known.
Actually, “Janie Jones.” I was listening the the first Clash album on the way into work this morning. Really loud. Just one more reason I could never carpool.
Ben Vaughan Combo, “Motor Vehicle”: “I got a 1965 Rambler American / Baby aren’t you impressed? / Sure I could drive a Datsun 280-Z / But I’m not like all the rest”
Sir Mix-a-Lot, “My Hooptie”: “My hooptie rollin’, tailpipe draggin’ / Heat don’t work an’ my girl keeps naggin’ / Six-nine Buick, deuce keeps rollin’ / One hubcap 'cause three got stolen …”
Public Enemy, “You’re Gonna Get Yours”: “Suckers to the side / I know you hate / My 98 …”
Sammy Johns, “Chevy Van”: “She woke up and took me by the hand / She’s gonna love me in my Chevy van / And that’s all right with me”
Youc an almost see the airbrushed desert scene painted on the side, can’t you?
Ween, “El Camino”
Lloyd Cole & The Commotions, “2cv” (mentions the Citroën 2cv)
The Gourds, “Escalade”
Pat Travers has a version that’s quite tolerable as well.
Not to mention the “big old Buick” in My Hometown or “the barefoot girl sitting on the hood of a Dodge” in Jungleland.… or “the skeleton frames of burned-out Chevrolets” in Thunder Road.
Come to think of it, is there any Springsteen song that doesn’t mention cars or driving in some capacity?
Here is another honourable mention for this classic car in an equally classic lyric by Ian Dury:
…had a love affair with Nina
in the back of my Cortina
a seasoned up hyena
could not have been more obscener
she took me to the cleaners
and other misdemeanours
but I got right up between her
rum and her Ribena…
I realize there’s no way most people here have heard these, but hey, a couple from Spain:
Qué difícil es hacer el amor en un Simca 1000, by Los Inhumanos (Making Love in a Simca 1000 is Real Complicated). The title is probably true, too: those things are like boxy cousins of the VW Bug and as the lyrics say you can’t push back the backs of the seats.
Cadillac Solitario, by Loquillo y los Trogoditas. One of their signature songs, “Lonely Cadillac” aka “L.A.” has been a fixture in Spanish radio for over gasp 20 years now.
Skee-Lo - “I Wish”
I wish I was little bit taller,
I wish I was a baller
I wish I had a girl who looked good
I would call her
I wish I had a rabbit in a hat with a bat
and a '64 Impala
Barenaked Ladies - “If I had $1,000,000”
*If I had a 1,000,000 (If I had a 1,000,000)
I’d but you a **K-car ** ( a nice **Reliant ** automobile)
If I had a 1,000,000, I’d buy you love *
The Siegel-Schwall Band’s “On The Road” sings about the Geo Metro.
Marc Cohn’s followup to “Walking in Memphis” was “Silver Thunderbird.”
And another:
Elton John - Made in England - “I was made in England like a blue Cortina.”
Actually, I think that’s the only post-1984-or-so Elton John song that I like at all.
Keep Risin’ to the Top Doug E. Fresh and the Get Fresh Crew
“I’m in a Cherokee, Chill Will in a Audi”
Springsteen:
Cadillac Ranch as mentioned:
“James Dean in that Mercury `49…
Even Burt Reynolds in that black Trans Am”
Racing in the Street’s Chevy as mentioned, more specifically:
" '69 Chevy with a 396
Fuelie heads and a Hurst on the floor"
Pink Cadillac as mentioned
But my love is bigger than a Honda
It’s bigger than a Subaru
There’s Studebaker by Warren Zevon.
And this lovely bit in “I Been to Georgia on a Fast Train” by Billy Joe Shaver:
“I love the wiggle in your walkin’
Your big city talkin’
And your brand new shiny Plymouth ragtop car.”
B-52’s:
She came from Planet Claire
I knew she came from there
She drove a Plymouth Satellite
Faster than the speed of light