# Need songs about life on the road **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [June 24, 2009, 6:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/need-songs-about-life-on-the-road/500808 "2009-06-24T06:33:58Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![NicePete](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ee7513/32.png) [@NicePete](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NicePete)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2009, 7:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/need-songs-about-life-on-the-road/500808/41 "2009-06-24T19:47:10Z")
How about: _On the Road Again Jack Straw The Music Never Stopped The Wheel_ All by the Grateful Dead ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2009, 7:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/need-songs-about-life-on-the-road/500808/42 "2009-06-24T19:50:18Z")
> [@](#): > > The chorus of “Song & Danceman” by Mike McClellan > > I’m just a song & dance man goin’ from town to town, playin’ one night shows and country rodeos. After the first chorus, Kevin Johnson’s [Rock & Roll I Gave You the Best Years of My Life](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4yuwhUx35Uc&feature=related) focuses on spending one’s life in different cities. ---
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2009, 7:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/need-songs-about-life-on-the-road/500808/43 "2009-06-24T19:57:53Z")
Running Down A Dream (Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers). Not sure if it fits the OP, as it seems to be more about going for a drive then anything else. ---
**Author:** ![Parenchyma](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Parenchyma](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Parenchyma)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2009, 9:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/need-songs-about-life-on-the-road/500808/44 "2009-06-24T21:01:31Z")
Here’s a folkie one: Ferron, [Our Purpose Here](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KTXdRzCVcOg&feature=related) ---
**Author:** ![jackdavinci](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackdavinci/32/3259_2.png) [@jackdavinci](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jackdavinci)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2009, 9:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/need-songs-about-life-on-the-road/500808/45 "2009-06-24T21:34:12Z")
FWIW here is the road trip themed playlist I made for my last road trip America The Beautiful - Beyonce & Cast - America the Beautiful/My Country ‘Tis of Thee/The Battle Hymn of the Republic/God Bless America (Patriotic Medley) - Soluna - Breathe Me (Mylo Remix) - Sia - [for it’s use in the road trip at the end of Six Feet Under] Chicago - Sufjan Stevens - Country Road - James Taylor - Crossroads - Jonell Mosser - Drive - Bic Runga - Drive - Blind Melon - Drive - Incubus - Drive - R.E.M. - Drive My Car - The Beatles - Driver Education - Amy Ray - Drums A Go-Go - Hollywood Persuaders - [for the Natural Born Killers road trip] En El Sur - Mikel Erentxun - Endless Highway - Various Artists - Fast Car - Kristian Leontiou - fast car (live tracy chapman cover) - vertical horizon - Five Hundred Miles - Laura Love - Flashing Red Light Means Go - The Boxer Rebellion - Freedom Of The Road - Martin Sexton - Freeway of Love - Aretha Franklin - Further On Up The Road - Eric Clapton - Gas Hed Goes West - Live - Going For A Ride - David Newman - The Golden Road - Grateful Dead - Gypsies, Tramps & Thieves [Live] - Cher - Heart Like a Road Sign - Mountain Heart - High Performance Car - Start Drive And Stop - Madacy Music Group - I Brake For - Kirby Super Star - I Drove All Night - Celine Dion - I Love, I Love (Traveling 2) - Dar Williams - I Would Walk 500 Miles - Less Than Jake - I Would Walk 500 Miles - The Proclaimers - I’m Good, I’m Gone - Lykke Li - In My Car (I’ll Be The Driver) - Shania Twain - The Infinite Improbability Drive - Douglas Adams / BBC Radio Collection - Iowa (Traveling III) - Dar Williams - J Ralph - One Million Miles Away - - Johnny Appleseed - Joe Strummer & The Mescaleros - Jonas & Ezekial - Indigo Girls - Kiss The World - Disappear Fear - The Last Mile Home - Larry Stewart and Greg Jennings - Last Train Home - Ryan Star - Leaving On A Jet Plane - Chantal Kreviazuk - Let’s Go Riding - Mr. Freddie - Life Is a Highway - Tom Cochrane - The Long and Winding Road - Aretha Franklin - The Long and Winding Road - The Beatles - Magic Carpet Ride - Bedlam - Miles Away - Madonna - $0.99 Motorcycle Drive By - Third Eye Blind - My Own Private Idaho - The B-52’s - Never-Ending Road (Amhrán Duit) - Loreena McKennitt - $0.99 Never-ending Road (Amhrán Duit) - Loreena McKennitt - $0.99 The Never-Ending Starlit Road (We 3 Kings) - Kathleen Ryan - $0.99 Nowhere Road - Fastball - The Ocean - Dar Williams - Ol’ 55 - Sarah McLachlan - On Improbability Drive - Douglas Adams / BBC Radio Collection - One More Mile - Tom McRae - Open Road - Slowhand Row - Ride This Ride - Sonia - Road Buddy - Dar Williams - The Road Goes on Forever - Robert Earl Keen - The Road Not Taken - Patrick O’Rourke - The Road That Never Ends - Keali`i Reichel - Road That Never Ends - Mountain Heart - A Road That Never Ends - Sean Wilson - Road To The West - Yoko Kanno - Shambala - B.W. Stevenson - Shambala - Rockapella - Shambala - Three Dog Night - Somewhere in New Mexico - Jill Sobule - Southland In The Springtime - Indigo Girls - Speed Of Sound - Coldplay - Speeding Motorcycle - The Pastels - Speedway - Counting Crows - Speedway - Morrissey - Stand - R.E.M. - Ten Thousand Miles - Altan - There Is a Land of Pure Delight - Red Mountain Church - This Land - Pete Seeger With Bruce Springs - This Land Is Your Land - Peter, Paul And Mary - Those Winding roads of Life - Michelle Pan - Three County Highway - Indigo Girls - three miles down (rare saves the day cover) - bright eyes - Ticket To Ride - The Beatles - Trains - Jill Sobule - Traveling Again (Traveling 1) - Dar Williams - The Traveling Song - will.i.am - The Trembler - Duane Eddy - Wanderlust - Björk - while roving - Dar Williams & John Gorka - Within A Mile Of Home - Flogging Molly - Wonderlust King - Gogol Bordello - World Falls - Indigo Girls - You Can Sleep While I Drive - Melissa Etheridge - Zoom zoom zoom - Artists - Soundtrack - 20.000 Miles Over the Sea - Enigma - 200 More Miles - Cowboy Junkies - ---
**Author:** ![Katriona](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/katriona/32/113_2.png) [@Katriona](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Katriona)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2009, 9:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/need-songs-about-life-on-the-road/500808/46 "2009-06-24T21:51:37Z")
Driving My Life Away - Eddie Rabbitt ---
**Author:** ![hanna\_the\_curious](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/34f0e0/32.png) [@hanna\_the\_curious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hanna_the_curious)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2009, 10:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/need-songs-about-life-on-the-road/500808/47 "2009-06-24T22:24:56Z")
Ramblin’ Boy — Tom Paxton Why Don’t We Do It in the Road — Beatles Ramblin Scramblin — Jerry Jeff Walker ---
**Author:** ![mailman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/8491ac/32.png) [@mailman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mailman)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2009, 10:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/need-songs-about-life-on-the-road/500808/48 "2009-06-24T22:36:23Z")
Six Days on the Road–Dave Dudley ---
**Author:** ![msmith537](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d9b06d/32.png) [@msmith537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/msmith537)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2009, 10:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/need-songs-about-life-on-the-road/500808/49 "2009-06-24T22:41:56Z")
No Sleep 'til Brooklyn - Beastie Boys Bed of Roses - Bon Jovi Turn the Page - Metallica cover of Bob Seger I’m thinking John Mellencamp, Tom Petty and Bruce Springsteen have some songs but they might be more “let’s get the fuck out of this small town” songs. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2009, 10:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/need-songs-about-life-on-the-road/500808/50 "2009-06-24T22:46:40Z")
“I’m On the Road” - The Partridge Family What? ---
**Author:** ![Ponderoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ponderoid/32/19221_2.png) [@Ponderoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ponderoid)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2009, 12:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/need-songs-about-life-on-the-road/500808/51 "2009-06-25T00:36:28Z")
They Might Be Giants - “The End of the Tour” Huey Lewis & the News - “Whole Lotta Lovin’” \*\*\* Ponder ---
**Author:** ![Hometownboy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/5e9695/32.png) [@Hometownboy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hometownboy)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2009, 12:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/need-songs-about-life-on-the-road/500808/52 "2009-06-25T00:52:00Z")
Wow! Thanks so much. I’m familiar with a lot of those songs, but just couldn’t bring them to mind. :smack: And there are a bunch of thing I never would have thought of, plus another bunch I’m not familiar with and will get busy researching. Thank you all. Bonus points for everyone. Hometownboy-the-grateful ---
**Author:** ![Horatio\_Hellpop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Horatio\_Hellpop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatio_Hellpop)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2009, 1:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/need-songs-about-life-on-the-road/500808/53 "2009-06-25T01:09:46Z")
> [@HazelNutCoffee](#): > > James Taylor’s “Fire and Rain”. Um, no. This one’s about a girlfriend committing suicide while the narrator was in rehab. ---
**Author:** ![stpauler](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9d8465/32.png) [@stpauler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/stpauler)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2009, 2:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/need-songs-about-life-on-the-road/500808/54 "2009-06-25T02:10:42Z")
> [@Parenchyma](#): > > Here’s a folkie one: > Ferron, [Our Purpose Here](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KTXdRzCVcOg&feature=related) This is an excellent choice from an excellent album. ---
**Author:** ![HazelNutCoffee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/ac91a4/32.png) [@HazelNutCoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HazelNutCoffee)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2009, 2:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/need-songs-about-life-on-the-road/500808/55 "2009-06-25T02:17:36Z")
> [@Krokodil](#): > > Um, no. This one’s about a girlfriend committing suicide while the narrator was in rehab. No, it isn’t. The first verse is about a friend who killed herself while Taylor was working on an album in London (maybe this isn’t exactly “on the road” but he was away from home because of his music). It was his first big break, so his friends didn’t tell him right away because they wanted him to concentrate on his work. ETA: [The Meaning of 'Fire and Rain' | Snopes.com](http://www.snopes.com/music/songs/firerain.asp) ---
**Author:** ![koeeoaddi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/koeeoaddi/32/408_2.png) [@koeeoaddi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/koeeoaddi)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2009, 2:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/need-songs-about-life-on-the-road/500808/56 "2009-06-25T02:39:27Z")
Folkie checking in. Brave Companion of the Road - Nanci Griffith Night Ride Home - Joni Mitchell The Highwayman - Phil Ochs Can’t Help But Wonder Where I’m Bound - Tom Paxton On the Road to Find Out - Cat Stevens Don’t Think Twice - Bob Dylan Texas - Chris Rea Dead Skunk in the Middle of the Road - Loudon Wainwright Highway 61 - Bob Dylan Walkin’ Back to Georgia - Jim Croce Willin’ - Little Feat Early Mornin’ Rain - Peter, Paul and Mary Transfusion by Nervous Norvus, …and Jesus Take the Wheel by Carrie Underwood. (sorry) 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Simmerdown](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/simmerdown/32/14859_2.png) [@Simmerdown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Simmerdown)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2009, 2:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/need-songs-about-life-on-the-road/500808/57 "2009-06-25T02:39:30Z")
Also from Simon & Garfunkel – _America_ ---
**Author:** ![Valgard](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/7feea3/32.png) [@Valgard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Valgard)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2009, 4:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/need-songs-about-life-on-the-road/500808/58 "2009-06-25T04:18:38Z")
A couple of AC/DC tunes: “It’s A Long Way To The Top (If You Want To Rock And Roll)”. Bonus points for working bagpipes into a rock & roll tune. “Ain’t No Fun (Waitin’ Round To Be A Millionaire)” “Rock 'n Roll Singer” “Rock And Roll Damnation” (kinda) ---
**Author:** ![cjepson](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a9adbd/32.png) [@cjepson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cjepson)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2009, 2:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/need-songs-about-life-on-the-road/500808/59 "2009-06-25T14:53:27Z")
By the way, the movie and soundtrack album “200 Motels”, by the Mothers of Invention, is all about how touring can make you crazy. Unfortunately, I’m not sure that there is any one song on the album with lyrics that are obviously on that theme. ---
**Author:** ![gallows\_fodder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/8c91f0/32.png) [@gallows\_fodder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gallows_fodder)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2009, 7:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/need-songs-about-life-on-the-road/500808/60 "2009-06-25T19:12:19Z")
Come on, no mention of Metallica’s “Wherever I May Roam”? I reckon they’d sound great next to Simon and Garfunkel. 🙂 Also, Tom Waits’ “Pony”. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/need-songs-about-life-on-the-road/500808.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/need-songs-about-life-on-the-road/500808.md?page=4)