Explain the plot of the song "Convoy"

Cafe Society
21

Well, ultimately, it’s a novelty song. It exaggerates because it’s funny–like the truckload of hogs stinking so bad they closed up the Duck’s sinuses from five miles downwind. Nevertheless, I’m going to try to analyze the scenario as if it were a (mostly) real account.

Insofar as logic applies, the reason for the extreme police reaction was not just because they were driving down the road together. It’s because they were doing something illegal (and potentially dangerous) and refusing to submit to authority. By the time the song first references a major police reaction (a roadblock and a police chopper), they had traveled over 1400 miles. The Duck originally claimed they were clear (of police) all the way from Los Angeles to Flagstaff, Arizona, which is only about a third of that distance. Presumably, after that point, a number of attempts were made to get them to stop, which may well have involved multiple (futile and dangerous) high-speed chases.

In Tulsa, the Duck effectively declares war on the cops, leading 85 big rigs (which would be a pretty terrifying mass of metal moving at high speeds) to crash through a roadblock. Such roadblocks are often formed of police cars, so he’s probably added destruction of public property, at least, and possibly reckless endangerment of the cops and the members of his own convoy. At this point, it would be pretty reasonable for the authorities to conclude that the convoy presents a serious threat to anything in its path. Frankly, the military escalation at Chicago (another 700 miles, at least one major city, and presumably multiple other attempts to stop the convoy down the line) seems like a pretty rational response; they’re trying to stop “a thousand screaming trucks”, at least one of which is loaded with explosives. Would you want to tackle them in a squad car?

The real oddity isn’t the police reaction, it’s why the convoy is doing this in the first place. Obviously, they aren’t just trying to complete a delivery quickly, though it seems to have started out that way. Then it escalated to (somewhat) civil disobedience, wherever a cop first tried to pull them over for speeding–they ignored him just as they were ignoring the new speed limit. Why did the Duck decide to turn it violent at Tulsa? Why did the rest of the convoy go along with it? Were they really that pissed about the speed limit? If it was really intended as a protest, drawing out a major roadblock should have garnered enough attention to get their grievances on the news.

Maybe the Duck just wasn’t rational by then. If he drove non-stop from L.A., then even at extremely high speeds, he’d have been driving for somewhere between 16 and 20 hours, and there’s no telling if he was rested when he started. So he was punchy, and probably feeling a mix of anger at the cops who’d tried to pull them over and arrogant satisfaction at blowing them off. When he saw the roadblock, he didn’t make a reasoned decision about a protest, he just got angrier, and (feeling invincible) decided to crash through it. The rest of the convoy had been following him for the better part of 24 hours, and were probably drowsy and halfway under highway hypnosis; they may not even have realized what was going on until they sped through the scattered remnants of the roadblock–at which point, they were sort of committed. (Though I note that Pig Pen quietly withdrew from the convoy at some point and went off in another direction.)

Well. That turned into quite a heap of over-analysis, didn’t it? It’s just a silly song, after all.

22

Did Pig Pen take off on his own, though? I was under the impression that he just kept getting shunted to the rear of the convoy so nobody had to put up with the smell of the hogs. By the time the song ends, and the Duck (and the front part of the convoy) is in New Jersey, the convoy has grown so big that Pig Pen (at the rear), finds himself in Omaha.

Of course, in practical terms, a CB transmitter in New Jersey isn’t powerful enough to communicate with one in Omaha, and vice-versa, but it makes for a funny ending to a silly song.

I’ll add that I think your analysis is a good one. I recall a lot of opposition to the 55 MPH national speed limit, and the way it was implemented; and I also recall that truckers were particularly opposed to it–their schedules, and rates based upon those schedules, depended on going faster than 55. Already burdened with regulation (logbooks aka “swindle sheets,” scaling through, permits for each state), and the quickly-rising cost of fuel (remember the energy crises of the 1970s and how fuel prices jumped when fuel was available), the 55 MPH limit was the last straw–at least, in terms of the song. “Convoy” may have been a silly song to begin with, but it seems to me that it captured the real-life frustration of the time extremely well.

23

To add to the rap sheet compiled by balance, note that the truckers “tore up all their swindle sheets and left ‘em settin’ on the scales”. This was at a time when trucking was heavily regulated, and “swindle sheets” were mandatory Interstate Commerce Commission reports. Tearing them up was at least a mis and probably a felony, and yet another way to piss off The Man.

And finally, they just weren’t a-gonna pay no toll. This is the ultimate crime. You can get away with a lot of things in Chi-town, but try to cheat the Toll Road Authority and may God have mercy on you, because The Man will not.

24

Don’t forget quite likely strung out on uppers. From a line from another McCall truckin’ song (“Night Rider”):

“Got a belly fulla jelly and a head fulla pain,
Bennies spinnin’ spiderwebs a-messin’ my brain…”

No idea if they still do (I’d guess probably) but it was apparently fairly common for truckers back in those days to indulge in all sorts of upper-type drugs to keep them awake so they could drive longer. So a whole convoy of 1000 speeding trucks going 85 mph and driven by junkies…yeah, that’d be a little scary. :slight_smile:

25

Well, he did rejoin the Duck in the sequel after dropping off his hogs, so you could be right.

Even if the convoy were long enough, however, I don’t see how the tail could be in Omaha–he couldn’t get there on I44/I55, which is the convoy’s route to Chicago. He would have had to cut north on a state highway to Kansas City, then take I29 to Omaha. Once he was there, he could get on I80 for Chicago. For him to be part of the convoy in Omaha, it would have had to expand about 500 miles backwards along the interstate from Chicago–which means it would have been effectively two convoys merging somewhere near Joliet. Even at that, it would mean he’d split off from the convoy in Tulsa, and it just grew enough to reabsorb him.

26

How many trucks ended up in the convoy?

The distance from Omaha to Jersey City is 1150 miles or so, or 6,072,000 feet, according to my google search.

Semi-trucks vary in length. Let’s use 75 feet. 6,072,000/75=80,960.

27

Aparantly my google-foo is week. Now I’m getting 1240 miles.

28

First of all, let me say that I really enjoy the work of C.W. McCall. But a lot of my enjoyment is ironic in nature.

Convoy is the ideal expression of McCall’s schtick, combining most of the elements that recur in his opus: working class values, southernism, sentimental Americana, benign humor and fantasies of masculinity. For that last part let me be clear that we’re not talking about a kind of aggressive, mean-spirited masculine fantasy. We’re talking about a sentimental aw-shucks, ma’am, masculinity. Songs about a man’s relationship to his truck, about camaraderie among men engaged in whitewater rafting, etc.

What McCall does in Convoy is present a certain working class male American fantasy about men with trucks taking on the world. The song ends before any actual consequences can manifest, or even the inevitable dissolution of the united truckers can arise through fuel shortage, running out of road, etc. He only gives you the exciting fantasy part. The fact that the fantasy was not feasible isn’t the point, because a fantasy is all it is. You’re supposed to just indulge in it for the duration of the song, not worry about what the rest of the plan is supposed to be.

29

Well, CB radios were restricted by the FCC to only five watts output to the antenna, so, normally they weren’t powerful enough to communicate between New Jersey and Omaha, but if the Duck and Pig Pen were using illegal signal boosters…

There’s another violation that could have resulted in heavy fines, at least.

30

“The man who laughs has not been told the terrible news.”

http://www.copblock.org/4990/manchpd/

31

I think 60 feet might be a better average, especially since a trucker buddy often talked about hauling a “60-foot combo,” when he drove the common configuration of a 53-foot trailer plus the cab. However, some cabs would create an overall length in excess of 60 feet; not all trailers are 53 feet (some are shorter); some cabs could have been hauling tandem trailers, or trailers and pups; some cabs could have simply been bobtailing; and finally, some “straight” trucks (i.e. non-semis, and necessarily shorter) might have joined in. And don’t forget the distance required between rigs travelling at those speeds (likely 200 feet, at the very least). I think, overall, that the convoy measured tens of thousands of trucks; but it would be impossible to specify exactly how many based only upon the distance from Jersey City to Omaha.

This must be the SDMB. Now, we’re nitpicking based upon the facts presented in an intentionally-silly song! :smiley:

32

Right. I was just playing with the numbers. 2 trucks a mile (for 2500 trucks) doesn’t sound like much of a convoy.

33

True enough. It first occurred to me that the drivers relayed the messages back and forth through the convoy; but I think you’re likely closer to the mark. The Duck and Pig Pen must have been using illegal signal boosters–otherwise, we wouldn’t have the real time dialog of “Pig Pen, what’s your twenty? … Omaha?”

34

Chip Davis helped create the character of C.W. McCall, co-wrote “Convoy”, and founded Mannheim Steamroller in Omaha.

35

What I like is the contrast between C.W.'s gruff-Gus, Johnny Cash-like vocals and the chorus of castrati.

36

And you didn’t even explain how they managed to refuel. (That always kind of bugged me. It seems like the cops could pick each trucker off pretty easy when stopped for fuel.)

37

Garden hose, close formation driving, and a few tanker trucks. The redneck equivalent of mid-air refueling.

38

Man that song was popular when I was in grade school. All the boys were going to be truck drivers when they grew up. None of them ever did.

39

This is not just the secret to the popularity of the song (truckers and long haired friends of Jesus? chartreuse?), it is the meaing of the song - grassroots v. government. This is essentially a libertarian song.

Or Weed, Whites, and Wine (I love that song)

Yeah, that’s where you went wrong, wasn’t it?

This was just a funny little song.

40

All the boys and some of the girls. I remember being absolutely obsessed with 18 wheelers around that period. I took a cross country trip with my parents in 1976 and I spent the whole trip counting trucks on the highway. One of the highlights of the trip was when we stopped at a rest stop and a real trucker let me sit in his cabover Kenworth. :slight_smile: