I usually drive my car at about the same speed as everyone else on the highway, but TWICE in my life I got speeding tickets, and both times I was listening to Santana’s “Black Magic Woman”. Coincidence?? I think not.
What other dangerous songs should I avoid, what songs compel you to change into a slavering speed maniac?
Anything that has a pretty fast, hard beat–in my high school days, it was Ministry (esp. ‘Jesus Built my Hotrod’), these days it’s Apollo 440, Fatboy Slim, Crystal Method, and certain songs by Moby. Anything in the pseudo-big-beat category.
I once entered what had to have been a trance state of some kind while listening to Gregorian chant in the car. I don’t know how fast I was going, because the speedometer needle was buried. I was passing EVERYTHING, though.
The only speeding ticket I ever got, and I rarely sped after that, was listening to The Godfather’s “Birth, School, Work, Death.” I was in a late model Toyota MR2 and the music just lulled me into a trance-like state…yeah, that’s the ticket…
Bob Dylan
Ninety Miles an Hour (Down a Dead End Street)
I’ve gotten two speeding tickets, as well. One time, I was listening to Idlewild’s Hope is Important CD (I forget which track, exactly). The other time, I was listening to “I’m the only one” by Melissa Etheridge. However, those two tickets are only the times I’ve been caught…
Anything fast by Idlewild, “Semi-Charmed Life” by Third Eye Blind…well, pretty much that entire album, anything by Avail, Moby, anything off of Document by REM…if I don’t have music on, I find that I don’t speed :o.
I am familiar with this phenomenon - I actually made a mix tape at one point in college which I entitled “Music to Break Speed Limits By” - but I lost it a while ago and can’t remember what songs I had put on it.
A few recent songs that get me going:
“Everything in it’s Right Place” off of Radiohead’s Amnesiac - the rhythm of the opening just makes my foot go to the floor.
Anything off of Tool’s Lateralus, but particularly the track “Lateralis” (yes, it’s spelled differently) - there’s a moment two-thirds into the song that no matter how fast I’m driving, I just have to kick it up a notch.
The pianist Oscar Levant once got off a speeding ticket in southern California by telling the state trooper he was listening to the final movement of Beethoven’s 7th Symphony on the car radio.
i got a ticket for doing 94 in a 70 after playing “sabotage” by the beastie boys over and over again.
Beethoven’s “Hallelujah!” -from the Garden on the Mount of Olives. i didn’t even see his lights go on behind me and i was (aparently) going 45 in a neighborhood. too much emotion for driving. i have to also mention NIN The Fragile. it always makes me drive like i am in a hurry.
Returning from Dope-a-Ween this weekend, tdc leaned over, eyed the speedometer and politely suggested, “I know you like this song, but maybe 80 in a 55 is a bit much?”
I was listening to Ani DiFranco’s “Like I Said” compilation album and had started flying on “The Whole Night” through “Both Hands.” 
This is a common Ani occurence for me…but I haven’t been pulled over for it [sub]yet[/sub].
Jerry Reed’s “Eastbound and Down” has a strange effect on my gas pedal. I can’t even begin to describe what happens with the Dukes of Hazzard theme.