Got a Feel for My Automobile

Chris Walter

When queen sang “I’m in Like with My Car” on their elegant 1975 album, A Night at the Opera, the line “got a sense for my automobile” labored for the reason that it rhymed, not simply because Freddie Mercury, Brian Might, and drummer Roger Taylor (who sang this track) have been gearheads. But historical past brims with rock stars who actually did like autos, who sang about them, collected them, even died driving them. Well-liked tunes, particularly after Globe War II, has been mortally joined with vehicles.

For the average teen, the car or truck radio grew to become as significant as the automobile alone. I had suitcases of mixtapes and dubbed cassettes, then guides of CDs that dates and buddies flipped via as I carved the side roads in southern Maine. I knew which ­station was acquiring the Led out at any specified hour. But my timeless enjoy for Pink Floyd and Bruce Springsteen experienced to acquire a again seat for this, the initially-ever Road & Observe Songs issue, where by we’re taking a refreshing appear at the inseparable histories of two incredibly Ameri­can phenomena.

To stay clear of the outdated vehicle clichés, we made a banned-band record to protect against ourselves from steering down an editorial highway jammed with damaged heroes on a final-likelihood electricity push. Go forward and make your own checklist. Here’s mine:

Eric Clapton. Say what you will about Clapton’s new music he had a Ferrari named immediately after him.
Sufficient reported.

Nick Mason. Again, I love Pink Floyd, and like most gentleman guitarists, I worship the playing of David Gilmour. Floyd’s drummer, Mason, was no John Bonham, but he has a wonderful automobile collection. So excellent, in fact, that automobile mags have been covering it for good. You are a awesome person, Nick, but you’re overexposed.

James Hetfield. Yeah, I do not treatment about his autos.

Springsteen. What exactly is a last-likelihood electric power generate?

ZZ Prime. Even though they had been at the time heroic mumblers with nasty ­guitar perform, the cheese of Eliminator almost led to a vehicles/songs divorce.

The record is significantly longer than we have place for. There’s at least 70 a long time of motor vehicle clichés in pop. So alternatively, read on and learn the contemporary things we went for: the sonic landscapes that Elliot Scheiner designed for Acura, the very little-identified street excursion that led to the Sgt. Pepper’s album, the car or truck collection of Killer Mike, and Hunter S. Thompson’s demise-defying quest to dangle with Product drummer Ginger Baker. Then there’s our profile of Miles Davis, who was extremely easily the motor vehicle guy Clapton only wishes he could be.

Road & Track