I walked out of Southpaw here in Brooklyn last week after the dB's show and snapped this photograph. Immediately I said to my friend Laura "Isn't there a song about trucking trees for Christmas?" She, being married to a well known authority on truck driving songs, confirmed that indeed there is. So here you have it....
Download:
GONE mp3
by Red Simpson, 1973.
available on Trucker's Christmas
Photo © Ted Barron, 2007.
Last week we heard a couple of trucker songs played by west coast hippies. Today we'll listen to the genuine article, and some cover versions it spawned.
In 1954 Terry Fell recorded this, the first version of the second most popular truck driving song ever (third maybe if you count "Convoy"). The first, would be Dave Dudley's "Six Days On The Road," and wouldn't come for another decade or so, so this very important record jump started a genre that has rocked the interstates for more than half a century.
Download:
"Truck Drivin' Man" mp3
by Terry Fell and The Fellers, 1954.
available on Truck Driver's Boogie, Big Rig Hits 1939-1969
"Truck Drivin' Man" mp3
by Buck Owens and His Buckaroos, 1964
available on Together Again/My Heart Skips A Beat
"Truck Drivin' Man" mp3
by Red Simpson, 1966.
available on Roll, Truck, Roll
"Truck Drivin' Man" mp3
by Don Walser, 1996.
availlable on Rig Rock Deluxe
"Truck Drivin' Man" mp3
by James Luther Dickinson, 2006.
available on Jungle Jim and the Voodoo Tiger
Download:
"Don't Drop It" mp3
by Terry Fell and The Fellers, 1954.
available on Truck Drivin' Man
"Don't Drop It" mp3
by Wilbert Harrison, 1957.
available on Kansas City
"Don't Drop It" mp3
by Jerry Lee Lewis 1963 (?)
available on Sun Essentials
top photograph © Ted Barron, 2002.
Sometimes a song will make you do foolish things.
Over the years I've driven many American roads making photographs. Partially inspired by Robert Frank's The Americans and partially by Jack Kerouac's On The Road, which I'm currently re-reading for the first time since I was a teenager in its "restored" single paragraph scroll version. Not to mention my favorite film genre- the road movie. On all of these drives, music has been central to my relationship to wherever I am - sometimes by accident and sometimes quite deliberately.
One of my favorites for California has always been the first Little Feat record, which contains two truck driving songs by the late Lowell George: "Truck Stop Girl" and "Willin,'" the latter of which inspired me last week to drive from Tehachapi to Tonopah. I know, I know.
I don't know yet if the photographs are gonna be any good, but I do believe I've exorcised from my obsessive self the need to do this again. I found some lovely scenery out there in the empty spaces between Tehachapi, CA. (quaint small western town) and Tonopah, NV. (decrepit dying one-horse casino town,) but quickly found myself hightailing it to Yosemite to cleanse my palate.
Anyway, below are a few versions of each of these numbers. Little Feat recorded "Willin'" twice in the studio on each of their first two records. The first version features Ry Cooder on guitar, and the second is anchored by Bill Payne on the piano and Sneaky Pete Kleinow on pedal steel. Also, a radio broadcast of Lowell George joined by Linda Ronstadt on harmony vocal, and Steve Earle's version with the Bluegrass Dukes. Then, It's "Truck Stop Girl" by Little Feat, Kelly Willis, and my favorite version by the Byrds, who also have a live version of "Willin''' but I've excluded it because I've always found the vocals to be a little weak.
Okay, here goes...
Download:
"Willin'" mp3
by Little Feat
from Little Feat, 1971.
"Willin'" mp3
by Little Feat
from Sailing Shoes, 1972.
"Willin'" mp3
by Lowell George with Linda Ronstadt
from WHFS-FM Radio Broadcast, 1974.
"Willin'" mp3
by Steve Earle
from SideTracks, 2002.
"Truck Stop Girl" mp3
by Little Feat
from Little Feat, 1971.
"Truck Stop Girl" mp3
by Kelly Willis
from Rig Rock Deluxe, 1996.
"Truck Stop Girl" mp3
by The Byrds
from Untitled, 1970.
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***************** BONUS *********************
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Download:
"The Heart of California (for Lowell George)" mp3
by Terry Allen and the Panhandle Mystery Band
from Smokin' The Dummy, 1980.
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