# Real-life encounters with song titles **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [July 20, 2002, 12:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/real-life-encounters-with-song-titles/119904 "2002-07-20T00:46:48Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![MsWhatsit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/eb8c5e/32.png) [@MsWhatsit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MsWhatsit)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2002, 12:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/real-life-encounters-with-song-titles/119904/1 "2002-07-20T00:46:48Z")
That might be a crappy title for this thread, but I had trouble thinking of a better one. I was inspired by the “Recommend some new music” thread where people are talking about Big Black. This is my Big Black story: Back in 1999, MrWhatsit and I were driving cross-country in a rented 14-foot U-Haul. We’re tooling down a Minnesota highway when a sign looms in the distance. I was driving and thought nothing special of it. The sign said, simply: > [@](#): > > Jordan MrWhatsit shrieks like a woman, yells “STOP THE TRUCK!” and I frantically pull the truck over to the side of the road, thinking that I just unknowingly hit a pedestrian or something. He says, “grab the camera!” so I did, and followed him out of the truck. He walked 30 yards back down the road so that he could stand in front of the sign and get his picture taken. Then he kept saying, “It’s Jordan, Minnesota! How could I not?!” In case you don’t believe me, I have [photographic evidence](http://www.12pointfont.com/images/temp/keithjordan.jpg). Feel free to post your own song-based experiences. If that makes sense. ---
**Author:** ![digs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/digs/32/14889_2.png) [@digs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/digs)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2002, 4:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/real-life-encounters-with-song-titles/119904/2 "2002-07-22T04:54:53Z")
I first ran into this phenomenon while a kid in the back of a station wagon on a family trip. I was studying the map, and wondering why I was humming “Sweet Baby James”. Then I realized that we were on “the turnpike from Stockbridge to Boston”. No one else thought it the least bit interesting… Much later, a co-worker drove miles out of the way on a business trip, just so I could be “Standin’ on a corner in Winslow, Arizona”. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Universe\_Lashes\_Out](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8797f3/32.png) [@The\_Universe\_Lashes\_Out](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Universe_Lashes_Out)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2002, 7:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/real-life-encounters-with-song-titles/119904/3 "2002-07-22T07:07:09Z")
A while ago I was in Boston on the subway and I went past the Government Center. But, alas, I didn’t have a lotta lotta lotta hard to do. And I certainly didn’t stop in and make the secretaries feel better. ---
**Author:** ![VDarlin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/e56c9b/32.png) [@VDarlin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VDarlin)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2002, 7:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/real-life-encounters-with-song-titles/119904/4 "2002-07-22T07:11:16Z")
Going cross country from CA to IA almot every summer, we found ourselves driving through Winslow, AZ on a regular basis, and without fail, every time, my mom would start singing that derned song as soon as we’d see the first sign, some hundred, or so miles out of town, and not stop until we’d get through Winslow. I can’t tell you how many times I threatened to _leave_ her on a corner in Winslow, AZ. ~V ---
**Author:** ![John\_Carter\_of\_Mars](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/2bfe46/32.png) [@John\_Carter\_of\_Mars](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Carter_of_Mars)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2002, 1:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/real-life-encounters-with-song-titles/119904/5 "2002-07-22T13:54:11Z")
I rode the Night Train once: [James Brown] “Miami, Florida Atlanta, Georgia Raleigh, North Carolina The Night Train The Night Train” [/James Brown] ---
**Author:** ![MrVisible](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/46a35a/32.png) [@MrVisible](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrVisible)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2002, 3:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/real-life-encounters-with-song-titles/119904/6 "2002-07-22T15:35:59Z")
In the midst of Colorado, at the intersection of two very, very long roads with very little on them, there is Last Chance. Small town, a few houses, a sandwich shop… and a Texaco. I even had the Rickie Lee Jones tape with me. I have filled up at the Last Chance Texaco. ---
**Author:** ![Scarlett67](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scarlett67/32/7387_2.png) [@Scarlett67](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scarlett67)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2002, 4:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/real-life-encounters-with-song-titles/119904/7 "2002-07-22T16:14:54Z")
On a road trip with some friends, listening to the radio. “Saturday . . . in the park . . . I think it was the Fourth of July.” BWAhahahahaha! We also had to sing the obligatory song while driving through Kalamazoozoozoozoo-zoooooooooo. “A-B-C-D-E-F-G-H-I got a gaaaaaaaal . . . .” ---
**Author:** ![Kilt-wearin\_man](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/82dd89/32.png) [@Kilt-wearin\_man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kilt-wearin_man)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2002, 4:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/real-life-encounters-with-song-titles/119904/8 "2002-07-22T16:39:16Z")
Well, while driving the other night, an oncoming car refused to dim his headlights. So, I was…Blinded By The Light. Does that count? ---
**Author:** ![MachV](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d9b06d/32.png) [@MachV](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MachV)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2002, 4:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/real-life-encounters-with-song-titles/119904/9 "2002-07-22T16:51:07Z")
This weekend I gave my woman a “Whole Lotta Love”. Afterwards, I was “Comfortably Numb”. What? Ok, fine. When I was seventeen I got hold of a bottle of Night Train & was so excited. Of course it was because of the G-n-R song, not the James Brown one. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2002, 5:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/real-life-encounters-with-song-titles/119904/10 "2002-07-22T17:24:55Z")
When I went to London, everything reminded me of record titles, from Abbey Road to Sunny Goodge Street. London is immortal in song. ---
**Author:** ![xizor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/xizor/32/102_2.png) [@xizor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xizor)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2002, 6:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/real-life-encounters-with-song-titles/119904/11 "2002-07-22T18:48:33Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by digs \* > \*\*Much later, a co-worker drove miles out of the way on a business trip, just so I could be “Standin’ on a corner in Winslow, Arizona”. \*\* I did this too, but no girl in a flat bed Ford even drove by, let alone slowed down. ---
**Author:** ![Ol\_Gaffer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Ol\_Gaffer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ol_Gaffer)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2002, 7:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/real-life-encounters-with-song-titles/119904/12 "2002-07-22T19:50:36Z")
I stayed at the **Hotel California** in Madrid and drove really, really fast around **Deadman’s Curve** on Sunset (or is it Mulholland) Drive. ---
**Author:** ![Horseflesh](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/horseflesh/32/7502_2.png) [@Horseflesh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horseflesh)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2002, 9:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/real-life-encounters-with-song-titles/119904/13 "2002-07-22T21:31:47Z")
I have also driven on _Deadman’s Curve_, though a friend of mine said it was a curve on Highway 1 in California where a lot of accidents had occurred. In Arizona (or maybe New Mexico) there is a town where the main street is an old section of _Route 66_. My wife got into a car accident while we were there. I’ve driven through New York blasting _Big City Lights_ by the **Scorpions**. I’ve reached Amarillo by morning. I have ridden on a horse that had no name (yet) and hung out with a friend who had a dog named Boo. I’ve even had _Paradise By The Dashboard Light_.