This week for Song Lyric Sunday we have an amazing invitation: to play a song that mentions either Cars or Trucks. This was suggested by Clive of Take It Easy – oh, hang on, that’s me. It’s wonderful what can come out of a comments chat, isn’t it! I’ve no doubt that this or something similar has been an SLS theme before, but as that would have been before I started joining in I don’t count it! Jim’s post Driving With Music explains all.

I’m playing a couple of songs today, both of which have been favourites of mine for many years. They kind of mention cars and trucks: the vehicles are central to their themes. First up, this bit of classic rock:

Little Feat, of course, with Willin’ – the second version they recorded. And here are the lyrics:

I’ve been warped by the rain, driven by the snow
I’m drunk and dirty, don’t you know
And I’m still willin’

And I was out on the road, late at night
I seen my pretty Alice in every headlight
Alice, Dallas Alice

And I’ve been from Tucson to Tucumcari
Tehachapi to Tonopah
Driven every kind of rig that’s ever been made
Driven the back roads so I wouldn’t get weighed
And if you give me; weed, whites, and wine
And you show me a sign
I’ll be willin’ to be movin’

Well, I’ve been kicked by the wind, robbed by the sleet
Had my head stoved in, but I’m still on my feet
And I’m still willin’

I smuggled some smokes and folks from Mexico
Baked by the sun every time I go to Mexico
And I’m still…

And I’ve been from Tucson to Tucumcari
Tehachapi to Tonopah
Driven every kind of rig that’s ever been made
Driven the back roads so I wouldn’t get weighed
And if you give me weed, whites, and wine
And you show me a sign
I’ll be willin’ to be movin’

Lyrics: genius.com

Songwriter: Lowell George

Having borrowed the lyrics from genius.com I may as well give you an edit of some of what they say about the song:

“Willin’ is s song written by Lowell George about a truck driver driving a semi-trailer truck through the American Southwest and Mexico (Tucson, AZ., Tucumcari, NM., Tehachapi, CA., Tonapah, NV.) There are 3 versions recorded and released by Little Feat. The first is on their debut album in 1971. A different studio version (the more popular, and the one I’m playing) is on the album Sailin’ Shoes (1972) and a live version is on Waiting For Columbus (1978). Lowell was inspired to write it from his experience working at a gas station while studying Art at Los Angeles Valley College. It’s an anthem about a “trucker’s life”. Living on the road, high on drugs and alcohol, avoiding weigh scales, smuggling, and feeling lonesome, drunk and dirty. And all the time thinking of Dallas Alice. The only thing keeping him going is drugs and alcohol and seeing a sign telling him not to stop for either a passenger or God.”

You probably got the references to drugs and booze, but in case you’re wondering about ‘whites’ this is likely to mean amphetamines, which were commonly used by truck drivers to stay awake – and maybe still are, for all I know, never having driven anything bigger than a Ford Transit! As was mentioned in the genius.com extract, Willin’ in this version was a track on Little Feat’s second album, Sailin’ Shoes, which was released in February 1972 and only charted – just – in the US, where it staggered all the way up to #203. I still like the album, though: for me they could do no wrong in their early days, with a whole string of great albums.

There have been several cover versions of the song, notably by Linda Ronstadt. Much though I love her, that just doesn’t feel right to me: her beautiful voice doesn’t seem to fit a song that needs, in my view, to have an air of dirt, dust and illegality about it. For that reason my favourite cover is the one by Steve Earle on his outtakes album, Sidetracks, released in April 2002 and making #109 in the US.

Speaking of Steve Earle and of dirt, dust and illegality, here is my second song for today:

Copperhead Road, the title track from Steve’s third album, which was released in October 1988 and peaked at #14 in Canada, #42 in the UK and #56 in the US, though it did get to #7 in the US Country Albums Chart. The track was released as a single and reached #12 in Canada and #45 in the UK, and made #10 in the US Mainstream Rock chart, which was based on radio airplay. According to Wikipedia:

“The song’s narrator is named John Lee Pettimore III, whose father and grandfather were both active in moonshine making and bootlegging in rural Johnson County, Tennessee. Pettimore’s grandfather visited town only rarely, in order to buy supplies for a still he had set up in a holler (i.e. a ‘hollow,’ a small valley) along Copperhead Road. Pettimore’s father hauled the moonshine to Knoxville each week in an old police cruiser he bought at a surplus auction. According to a family story, a revenue man once confronted John Sr. on Copperhead Road, intent on apprehending him for his moonshine activities, but never returned. John Jr. himself is killed in a fiery car crash on the same road while driving to Knoxville with a weekly shipment.”

Whilst John Lee Pettimore III is probably fictional, the story would have been repeated countless times. It makes for a great title track for an excellent album, one that I played to bits at the time and still return to now.

That would be it for today, but I can’t resist throwing in a little bit of fun for a bonus. From 1979 to 1982 the BBC ran a sketch comedy show called Not The Nine O’Clock News, which gave their big breaks to Mel Smith, Griff Rhys Jones, Pamela Stephenson (now Mrs Billy Connolly), and Rowan Atkinson, probably best known to most as Mr. Bean. They ended their shows with a song, which explains the credits rolling over this – for me this was one of their best:

Keep it classy, Clive 🤣

That’s all for today: as always I’m grateful to Jim for running the show and am looking forward to seeing what others will play for this excellent theme….ahem.

See you again for Tuesday Tunes? 🎶