Car Tunes

It was near midnight last evening when I worked on this post. I remembered something I used to use in class, an old audio cassette with a blues number, "Dynaflow Blues," by Johnny Shines. Why I used it, or how, or anything about the context, I'm not sure about. It may have been some kind of exercise in establishing criteria for criticism.

I looked it up on YouTube and found it. Then I started thinking about other car tunes. (Sounds a little like cartoons, doesn't it?) I could have gone further with this and may do a part II at a later date.

First, here's Johnny Shines. He sings, "She's got a bad disconnection, baby, somewhere down below." Dontcha love that line? Great slide guitar work, too.



This next one, I wasn't familiar with till I found it last night. But I like it. Another blues number.
Johnny Basset, Motor City Horns: "Cadillac Blues."



Gotta have a Ford tune. I really like this one. It's got that old '50s vibe working. Ronnie Dawson, "V8 Ford Boogie."



And, of course, Bill Haley, "Rocket 88." Some say it's the prototypical Rock and Roll song. Some say Jimmy Preston's earlier "Rock the Joint" started it all. I'm not getting into that debate or the one about whether this version or Jackie Brenston and His Delta Cats (Ike Turner and the Kings of Rythm) is the most influential. Bill Haley's version is the one I heard first, so here it is.



I heard Johnny Bond's version of this first in the early '60s, but from somewhere in the '70s, here's Commander Cody and the Lost Planet Airmen, with "Hot Rod Lincoln."



This last one I'd never heard either, and it's an okay song, but I'm posting it mainly because of the great video of that black 1955, Series 62 Caddy convertible. No matter what you think of the tune, the car is absolutely stunning.

Vince Taylor. "Brand New Cadillac"