Need songs for my road trip playlist!

Cafe Society
1

Regular Dopers have seen this request from me before. Every year my buddy and I take a road trip and see baseball. And every year I make a playlist for our in-car listening enjoyment.

I populate the playlist with songs about the places we’re visiting, as well as songs about baseball, driving, drinking, and the like.

This year poses more of a challenge than usual. Geographically (the Pacific Northwest), the pickings are somewhat slim. And over the past 18 years, I’ve burned through a lot of tracks in the other categories, including most of the obvious ones you can probably think of. I need to dig deeper. All genres of music are on the table.

Specifically, this year’s destinations are: Eugene, Salem, and Hillsboro OR; Tacoma, Pasco, and Spokane WA; Missoula and Helena MT; and Vancouver BC.

Dopers have given me some great suggestions in the past. Thanks as always for your help!

2

The city of Missoula made this list, I’m just providing the link: 17 songs that name drop Missoula

There really aren’t any great songs about Tacoma AFAIK so you might as well go for the good home-town feel of Neko Case’s Thrice All American.

Dolly Parton - Eugene Oregon
Lafa Taylor - Eugene

That’s a start, right?

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John Linnell - Oregon

4

Some off-the-wall suggestions:

Tacoma? Seattleisn’t too far away.

I guess you’ll be passing through Portland, how about The Dream of the 90s?

Eugene? Well, this is a real stretch but here’s a Pink Floyd song. (If you want something spooky to listen to late at night :D)

Oh, and a more normal road trip song suggestion: Country Road by Al Kooper

5

Helena by My Chemical Romance is a banger even if it is not about the city.

Keeping with the Northwest theme, whenever I hear Jeremy by Pearl Jam it sounds like they’re singing “Jeremy’s from Spokane, Spokane”.

6

How about the theme song for Portlandia?

The Dead Milkmen’s “I am the Walrus” encourages us all to move to Portland.

(yes I realize that Oregon != Portland. But it’s closer than nothing!)

Lizzo’s Ridefeatures the line “so I dip to the PNW - some of y’all don’t know where that is - GOOD!” about taking a break from life with her girls.

If you’re going to Canada, might as well do the Kids in the Hall theme song.

Piazza, New York Catcheris maybe a song “about” baseball that you haven’t used yet. Also it’s completely lovely.

Drunks and Children by the Mighty Mighty Bosstones is probably my favorite song about drinking.

Windowsby Chance the Rapper is about driving…pretty much.

Diddy Bop by Noname is just a great summer song. Not about anything on your list.

7

Steve Miller Band “Rock’n Me”

I’ve been from Phoenix Arizona all the way to Tacoma…

That’s all I got.

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Montana’s in the Rocky Mountains, right? John Denver is mandatory.

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Going Out West by Tom Waits.

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Another “out west” suggestion (although it’s more about the southwest) is Marty Stuart’s ***excellent ***album from last year Way Out West. Highly recommended for any listening situation.

11

I recently made a road trip playlist, not just songs about driving but some are on my list just because of the tempo. It’s kinda long, there is rock, metal, R&B, punk, you name it. Here are some highlights:

White Zombie - Thunder Kiss ‘65
War - Low Rider
Van Halen - You Really Got Me
White Stripes - Hardest Button to Button
White Stripes - Black Math
Offspring - Bad Habit
Allman Brothers - Rambin’ Man
Sublime - Scarlet Begonias
Stone Temple Pilots - Crackerman
Smashing Pumpkins - Today
Sam & Dave - Soul Man
Rob Zombie - Dragula
Rage Against the Machine - Bulls on Parade
Waylon Jennings - I Ain’t Living Long Like This
Linda Ronstadt - Willin’
Billy Jo Shaver - Georgia on a Fast Train
Misfits - Hybrid Moments
Misfits - American Nightmare
M.I.A. - Paper Planes
Lynyrd Skynyrd - Free Bird
Lynyrd Skynyrd - Call Me the Breeze
Led Zeppelin - When the Levee Breaks
Led Zeppelin - Communication Breakdown
Johnny Cash - I’ve Been Everywhere
Joe Tex - I Gotcha
Guns N’ Roses - Paradise City
Guns N’ Roses - Nighttrain
Green Day - In the End
Green Day - Basket Case
Green Day - Holiday
Gorillaz - Feel Good Inc.
Foghat - Slow Ride
Dropkick Murphys - Billy’s Bones
Dropkick Murphys - Barroom Hero
CCR - Proud Mary
CCR - Fortunate Son
Black Sabbath - Paranoid
AWOLNATION - Windows
AWOLNATION - Run
Audioslave - I am the Highway
Alice in Chains - Dam That River
AC/DC - Pretty much all their songs lol
Hank Williams - Lost Highway
Joan Jett - Summertime Blues
Ramones - Surfin’ Bird
Social Distortion - Highway 101
Social Distortion - Ring of Fire
The Band - The Weight

12

You have to have the classics, man!

Golden Earring - Radar Love
Jeff Beck - Freeway Jam
Free - All Right Now
Sublime - Doing Time
Madness - One Step Beyond
and try this one
Steve Stevens - Feminova

13

Rory Gallager: Walk On Hot Coals. The live version from Irish Tour. 10 minutes of rockin’ good times!

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Todd Snider is from Oregon, and he some of his early songs reference the area, though not explicitly. He does have one that comes to mind titled “Talkin Seattle Grunge Rock Blues.”

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“Wheels” - The Flying Burrito Brothers

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“I wanna be”, aka “500 miles” by The Proclaimers. On repeat! :smiley:

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If you like Nirvana, you could throw a few tunes of theirs in there, since they are from Washington state.

18

It depends how much you like John Denver. In such a situation, I’d rather go with Joe Walsh.

19

I’m kinda digging Charlie Puth stuff for some reason. I usually listen to classic rock but I’m liking his easy lyrics. I probably listened to “Attention” 20x last weekend on a road trip down to San Diego.

20

Foster the People - Helena Beat

EDIT:

In attempt to get clever: a drinking song with the name of a Northwest MLB team in the title:
Decemberists - The Mariner’s Revenge Song