Commander Cody and his Lost Planet Airmen

This week’s Song Lyric Sunday is all about rockabilly music, as set out in Jim’s post, The Earliest Style Of Rock And Roll. This was one of those genres that I had a pretty good idea of, but I went to Wikipedia to check it out just to be sure. Hey, I had it right! This is what they say: “Rockabilly is the earliest style of rock and roll music. It dates back to the early 1950s in the United States, especially the South. As a genre it blends the sound of Western musical styles such as country with that of rhythm and blues, leading to what is considered ‘classic’ rock and roll. Some have also described it as a blend of bluegrass with rock and roll.” I had an inkling of whose music I might play for this, and was pleased to see them included in the list of rockabilly acts Wikipedia kindly provides. So here is my choice for this week:

In case his accent is too strong for you, here are the lyrics of this homage to a car:

My pappy said, “Son, you’re gonna’ drive me to drinkin’
If you don’t stop drivin’ that Hot Rod Lincoln.”

Have you heard this story of the Hot Rod Race
When Fords and Lincolns was settin’ the pace.
That story is true, I’m here to say
I was drivin’ that Model A.

It’s got a Lincoln motor
And it’s really souped up.
And that model A body makes it look like a pup
It’s got eight cylinders; uses them all.
It’s got overdrive, just won’t stall.

With a 4-barrel carb and a dual exhaust,
With 4.11 gears
You can really get lost.
It’s got safety tubes, but I ain’t scared.
The brakes are good, tires fair.

Pulled out of San Pedro late one night
The moon and the stars was shinin’ bright.
We was drivin’ up
Grapevine Hill
Passing cars like they was standing still.

All of a sudden in a wink of an eye
A Cadillac sedan passed us by.
I said, “Boys,
That’s a mark for me!”
By then the taillight was all you could see.

Now the fellas was ribbin’ me for bein’ behind,
So I thought I’d make the Lincoln unwind.
Took my foot off the gas and man alive,
I shoved it on down into overdrive.

Wound it up to a hundred-and-ten
My speedometer said that I hit top end.
My foot was blue, like lead to the floor.
That’s all there is and there ain’t no more.

Now the boys all thought I’d lost my sense
And telephone poles looked like a picket fence.
They said, “Slow down! I see spots!
The lines on the road just look like dots.”

Took a corner; sideswiped a truck,
Crossed my fingers just for luck.
My fenders was clickin’ the guardrail posts.
The guy beside me was white as a ghost.

Smoke was comin’ from out of the back
When I started to gain on that Cadillac.
Knew I could catch him, I thought I could pass.
Don’t you know by then we’d be low on gas?

We had flames comin’ from out of the side.
Feel the tension. Man! What a ride!
I said, “Look out, boys, I’ve got a license to fly!”
And that Caddy pulled over and let us by.

Now all of a sudden she started to knockin’,
And down in the dips she started to rockin’.
I looked in my mirror; a red light was blinkin’
The cops was after my Hot Rod Lincoln!

They arrested me and they put me in jail.
And called my pappy to throw my bail.
And he said, “Son, you’re gonna’ drive me to drinkin’
If you don’t stop drivin’ that Hot… Rod… Lincoln!”

Source: Musixmatch

Songwriters: Charles Ryan / W Stevenson

That’s a lot of lyrics for a song that clocks in at under three minutes long, but the breakneck speed is a great match for the story being told of a manic car race. The song was written in 1955 by Charley Ryan, and he reached #33 in the US charts with it in 1960. The version I played, which is the one that introduced me to the song, dates from 1971 when the brilliantly named Commander Cody and His Lost Planet Airmen scored a US hit with it. Perhaps unsurprisingly, neither version – or anything else by either act – reached the British charts.

The band were founded in 1967 by George Frayne IV (aka Commander Cody) in Ann Arbor, Michigan, which even my rudimentary knowledge of American geography tells me is about as far away from the South as you can get! George was born in Idaho, also a long way from the South – top left on the map, as opposed to Michigan on the top right. Their name was inspired by 1950s film serials featuring the character Commando Cody and from a feature version of an earlier serial, King of the Rocket Men, which was released under the title Lost Planet Airmen. I didn’t have any of their records but heard them a fair bit on the radio: I don’t know who it was, but one of our DJs must have liked them – my money is on Johnnie Walker, who I had been listening to since his pirate radio days, but don’t quote me.

I thought they were great, in that utterly bonkers way you can see in this video, and in these days of streaming have added them to my Apple Music library. Above all they were fun, which for me is one of the most important elements of music. The song was included on the band’s debut album, Lost in The Ozone, released in November 1971, which reached #82 in the US and #75 in Canada. It then became a single in March 1972 and peaked at #9 in the US and #7 in Canada. Perhaps ironically, as this is still one of the songs by which the band is mostly known, it was the only track on the album for which the Commander took lead vocals. He carried it off with panache, I think.

I’ve mentioned Charley Ryan a couple of times, so it seems only fair to leave you with his version of his song: