The Perfect Playlist for Your Ford Truck Road Trip
Behind the wheel is a great place to be, some songs make it feel even better.
1. Johnny Cash: Hit the Road and Go
Our journey today starts out the way Johnny Cash's 1977 album The Rambler does: with Hit the Road and Go. The freakin' song even opens with Cash starting his truck and pulling out of the driveway. Cash himself wrote every song on The Rambler, and it plays like a journey across the country, featuring dialogue from characters with names like The Fisherman and The Cowgirl between tracks. "County road 6-40, State Highway 45. Life out of the interstate is very much alive. There's magic in the mountains and music in the valleys down below, and my song ain't through playin' yet, so I believe I'll hit the road and go."
2. Peggy Sue Wright: I'm Dynamite
Since we're in country territory, why not visit a place that seems familiar, yet new at the same time. If that's how Peggy Sue Wright's I'm Dynamite feels to you it's for good reason; Peggy Sue is the middle sister of country music superstars Loretta Lynn and Crystal Gayle. I'm Dynamite's vibe is solid old-school country music, with easy going slide guitar working as a foil to powerful, emotional vocals. This song was the single from her 1969 debut record, and the lyrics aren't messing around: "You turn me on but I can't turn me off, I guess the switch is buried in my mind/The flame of love is burning just begging to be used/I'm dynamite so please don't light the fuse." These aren't even the most sensational lines!
3. Neil Young: Comes a Time
Neil Young may be a rock star, but he still loves a good truck. He's sung about Econoline vans and sedan delivery wagons. His 1978 song Comes A Time deals with maturing and staying free at the same time, all while the world around you is racing by — perfect stuff for a journey in your trusty Ford. "This old world keeps spinning round/It's a wonder tall trees ain't layin' down," Young writes. A little bit country, a little bit rock and roll, Canadian-born Neil Young's songs have wheels in both fields.
4. Steve Earle: Devil's Right Hand
Steve Earl was Virginia-born and Texas-raised, and it is no wonder that his Devil's Right Hand has been called the most perfect Country song ever written. Perhaps most surprising though, it was written by Earle when he was only 22, struggling to break though as a musician, and still working blue-collar gigs to pay the rent. Like a truck you lose in a divorce, Earle lost the rights to his own song in his separation with CBS Records. He had to wait five long years, and look on as another man recorded it and made it famous (Waylon Jennings), before he was finally able to re-record and release it himself.
5. Billy Joe Shaver: Georgia on a Fast Train
He dropped out of the eighth grade to pick cotton. He lost parts of two fingers in a lumber mill accident. He wrote most of Waylon Jennings' Honkytonk Heroes, the album that changed country music forever. He fell in love, and married the same woman three times. Texan Billy Joe Shaver is the real deal, and if you think his life sounds tragic, that's not even the half of it, check out his Wikipedia page for more details on his unbelievable odyssey. In between it all, Billy Joe gave us Georgia on a Fast Train. Keep an eye on your speedo when this one comes on because your foot is liable to edge its way toward the floor.
Additional Truck Info: Shaver also wrote a song called Ragged Old Truck.
6. ZZ Top: Waitin' For the Bus/Jesus Left Chicago
Everybody knows the Tres Hombres from Texas love their four-wheeled friends. Not only do they write songs about life on the highway, their songs are perfect for hitting the highway. Though their song I'm Bad, I'm Nationwide mentions "Movin' down the road in my V-8 Ford," we're going with the one-two punch of Waitin' for the Bus/Jesus Just Left Chicago for the way it chugs along like no other combo on record. Billy Gibbons' underrated guitar-you-can-taste never interrupts the shuffle, but merely adds another layer of flavor. And you gotta love the decision to make these two tracks run together without a gap, one of the most classic (with Journey's Feelin' That Way/Anytime) uses of this tactic on record. Bonus points if you listen to this in or passing thru Chicago, New Orleans, Mississippi or California — all mentioned by name. More bonus points if you hit repeat to hear this duo one more time. We always do.
7. Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention: Montana
Sometimes road trips require detours. Montana, from Zappa and the Mothers, is perfect for a pit stop for fuel, or to wake you up at 3 in the morning. Like a lot of Zappa songs, this one has its share of Jazz Guy time and chord changes but the main groove survives intact. If Billy Gibbons got you primed for some serious guitar playing, this is Zappa at his circa-1973 virtuoso best; the solo in Montana is almost as long as some pop songs, and twice as interesting.
Fun Fact: Tina Turner and the Ikettes sing background on this track.
8. Rush: Working Man
The guys in Rush who wrote this song may be Canadian, but the American Rust Belt made it famous. Cleveland disc jockey Donna Halper was the prime mover in spreading the Rush word to the good people of the USA, as explained in the truly excellent documentary, Rush: Beyond the Lighted Stage. She was the first DJ in the US to give heavy airplay to Working Man, effectively launching the band's career. The lyrics "I get up at seven, yeah/And I go to work at nine/I got no time for livin'/Yes, I'm workin' all the time," struck a chord with the good people of Cleveland in 1974... and they still resonate today.
9. Heart: Magic Man
While we're still in the land of '70's arena rock let's stop at Heart's Magic Man. This tune might actually sound better coming out of Jensen 6x9s in the back of a custom van — with teardrop windows and Frank Frazetta murals on the side — but we'd be just as happy listening from behind the wheel of an F-150. Magic Man's guitar solo sounds at times like a revving engine; we wonder how many of the songs on this list were written on the bus during the many miles between gigs.
10. Twofer — Foghat: Slow Ride & Blackfoot: Train, Train
We pulled Foghat's Slow Ride from the office suggestion box. It's the "If this van's a rockin', don't come a knockin'"of songs. All 8+ minutes of it. This is another one where the pace picks up in the middle, so watch that you don't pick up your pace too much along with it. And be careful, too, if you exit your truck after Slow Ride, you might still hear that thumping drumbeat in your head hours later. For some reason Foghat always reminds us of Blackfoot. Maybe it's the slide guitar, or how the names sort of make sense together, but probably it's the locomotive chug chug Train, Train shares with Slow Ride. If there's one thing you need on the road it's cadence.
Bonus points: to Foghat for putting a Ford Pickup on their cover.
11. Creedence Clearwater Revival: Suzy Q
Another song with the right cadence to make its 8:37 run time go by before you know it, CCR's version of Suzy Q is a song we'd be happy to listen to over and over for a whole road trip. Originally written by Dale Hawkins and Robert Chaisson, it appeared on Creedence's first album, and also featured prominently in an unforgettable scene from Francis Ford Coppola's Apocalypse Now. Suzy Q is the sound of the road going by under your wheels and the blur of fences passing you by.
12. Lynyrd Skynyrd: Simple Man
Free Bird has been retired. Just wanna get that out of the way before we start. If you want a Lynyrd Skynyrd song for the road, allow us to suggest Simple Man. But we'd leave it for the final song of the trip, its emotional power would make anything that follows it seem like an anticlimax. Decades may pass, but with great music and good truck by your side its time well spent.
For help with service on your truck, check out the how to section of Ford-Trucks.com