This isn't a road song or a gold song or a geology song by any stretch of the imagination. Nevertheless, any explorationist worth their salt should have it in their repertoire.
I'm claiming a new song category: Gold Songs. And kind of like the Road Song category—songs that have to mention roads, streets, etcetera—gold songs are those that mention gold, gold mining, and possibly just mining in general. As a new category, at least on the blog, the definition has not yet been set in stone, so to speak. Another example of a "gold song" would be Heart of Gold by Neil Young.
This particular gold song, Seminole Wind, specifically mentions "days of old" and men digging for gold and silver, after which they "leave the empty holes," i.e. mine shafts, glory holes, or open pits. The song particularly emphasizes a couple negative aspects of gold and mining, though it really focuses on a hope that the Seminole Wind, and possibly the ghost of Osceola, will come and blow currently existing things to shit. (At least that's my interpretation.)
And so, when you happen to be gathering in places where the wind can blow ferociously—for example in Florida, in tornado country and the Midwest in general, in the Mojave Desert, and even in Nevada—watch out.
This is a road song in that it mentions streets. It's an oldie to me, one that was appropriate when it first came out, and one which is appropriate now. I'm not sure I can say more about it, other than...listen.
I haven't updated my road song list for quite sometime, in fact my post list by "road songs" indicates that I added the last new one in August, 2015, more than two years ago!! One The Road Again, not to be confused with the song with the same title by Willie Nelson, is an oldie from the Woodstock days, one I had pretty much forgotten about until MOH reminded me of it last week. In my mind this is old time hippie music to go along with Tupelo Honey (Van Morrison), Sugar Magnolia (Grateful Dead), and Creole Belle (Jesse Colin Young).
Sorry I can't guarantee that music videos I post will remain online. Enjoy while you can! 😊
This is technically a road song because it mentions streets twice and roads once, and because the video that came out with the song also shows a lot of streets. It's a rather dire song — quite appropriate today IMO — but it is not the sort of song I think of when heading out on the open road. (The open road in the west is often a dirt road, and who knows where it will be taking you when you leave the pavement.)
This came into my playlist again (not that I really have a playlist!) when Trump decided it was an appropriate campaign song. Maybe he though it was pro-USA; who knows. It isn't, and maybe he's figured that out by now.
MOH turned me on to this song just yesterday (I didn't listen to much besides classic rock and country in the 80s). The song refers to the National Maximum Speed Law (part of the Emergency Highway Energy Conservation Act) enacted in 1974 in the wake of the 1973 oil crisis. Nevada got around this law by issuing "wasting energy" tickets of $5 beginning in 1981, and although Wikipedia — and its cited source — states that "troopers were directed not to take the new law as a signal to stop writing tickets," as far as I noticed, speeding tickets were no longer issued for speeds under 70 mph (except perhaps on rare occasions). At 70 mph, you were going 15 miles over the actual speed limit, so you could be given a speeding ticket along with a reckless driving ticket, and on some roads (like the Mount Rose Highway and the Geiger Grade), you could be issued a reckles mountain driving ticket as well (higher fines).
This song--like this one posted earlier--reminds me of "the road" and of life on the road as an exploration and recon geologist. It also reminds me of my Dad: because one of his favorite artists, Willie Nelson, is one of the singers; because of the dam building and Boulder Dam reference (even though the building of that dam was before his time); and because he'll always be around (at least for me).
Here's a second version (essentially the studio version, although the accompanying video references to "starship" don't match my Star Trek ideas of what starships really are and will be).
I've finally taken a hint from an earlier comment by Dan McShane, and am playing "the original" (to me) Hot Rod Lincoln - though it's not by Commander Cody. And this is the way I remember it:
This is an obvious Road Song, one for which, possibly, the category was named. In fact, the song was *on* one of the first road song tapes — surprise, surprise! Another of the first road song tapes can be played or perused here. On the Road Again is from the early 80s (barely 80s), when we were all on the road. It reminds me of roads, Highway 50, central Nevada, geologists, driving late at night to get home, driving anywhere to get out into the field, geological heroes, and much, much more. Today, it's dedicated to my Dad. My mom, a child of the 30s and 40s, was inspired to play this song (among many others) at his memorial service. The associated, perhaps fortuitous, metaphor, just stuns me.
Here's another road song about life on the road, written by Bob Seger. I like the Seger version best, but the Metallica version is also good.
I hope to be on the road soon, traveling more for vacation, family, and visits, than for work, but will probably be keeping an eye on roadcuts, mountains, deserts, and canyons as we go along.
This song always reminds me of "the life" -- that is, the life of an exploration geologist. You may have to click through to YouTube to listen to this original version, which is the one I know best.
Here's another version, with the pixelated pictures evoking the kind of traveling I'm thinking of when I hear the music. You may still have to listen to it on YouTube.
So if you're on the road a-trackin' down your every night
And singin' for a livin' neath the brightly colored lights And if you ever wonder why you ride the carousel You did it for the stories you could tell
Quite a while back, as the result of this post at En Tequila Es Verdad, I was turned on to Roger Clyne and the Peacemakers. Dana not only blogged about them, pointing out a road song or two of theirs, but get this: she sent me a CD of their songs! So, I'm finally getting around to posting a video one of their many road songs, Buffalo.
Note that while this qualifies as a road song by mentioning the iron rail and freeway, it is actually an anti–road song. And the lyrics remind me of the movie Little Big Man.
All that you touch and all that you see
all that you taste, all you feel
and all that you love and all that you hate
all you distrust, all you save
and all that you give and all that you deal
and all that you buy, beg, borrow or steal
and all you create and all you destroy
and all that you do and all that you say
and all that you eat and everyone you meet
and all that you slight and everyone you fight
and all that is now and all that is gone
and all that's to come
and everything under the sun is in tune
but the sun is eclipsed by the moon
"The final words ['but the sun is eclipsed by the moon'] are Jerry Driscoll's. His original words were, 'There is no dark side of the moon really. As a matter of fact it's all dark... and the thing that makes it look alight is the sun.'"
And so, following on from the post "What is a Road Song," here is the essence of one of the three road tapes I made in the late 1980s. I find that this plays better in Firefox than in IE8, haven't tried Chrome (that is, I can't play it in IE8 unless I've first opened it in Firefox; after that, it plays fine in IE8). Unfortunately, you will not be able to skip through the "tape" because of licensing requirements. Also, 8tracks may not play the songs in the original order, and the streaming may not be perfect all the time. I had to change a few songs because of mix requirements (no more than two songs by the same artist), because one song was poorly recorded (many are from my original tape recording of mostly vinyl), and because one song wouldn't stay on the mix for some unknown reason. Title of the roadsong tape was taken from the third song. The original tape was as follows:
1) Take it Easy, Jackson Browne, 1973 2) Hotel California, Eagles, 1977 3) I'm Willin', Seatrain, 1970 4) Preroad Downs, Crosby, Stills, and Nash, 1969 5) Maggie May, Rod Stewart, 1971 6) I'll Be Leavin' Soon, Mark-Almond, 1972 7) Leaving Louisianna in the Broad Daylight, Emmy Lou Harris, 1979 8) New York's Not My Home, Jim Croce, 1972 9) Country Road, James Taylor, 1970 10) Me and Bobby McGee, Janis Joplin, 1971 11) America, Simon & Garfunkle, 1968 12) Where to Now St. Peter, Elton John, 1970 13) Six Days on the Road, Jesse Colin Young, 1972 14) Stories We Could Tell, John Sebastian, 1974 15) Sweet Baby James, James Taylor, 1970 16) El Condor Pasa, Simon & Garfunkle, 1970 17) So Far Away, Carole King, 1971 18) Come Monday, Jimmy Buffett, 1974 19) Ol' 55, Tom Waits, 1973 20) Quiet Man, John Prine, 1971 21) Pancho and Lefty, Emmylou Harris, 1977 22) Homeward Bound, Simon & Garfunkle, 1966 23) Truckin', Grateful Dead, 1970
Two versions of this classic Townes Van Zandt song:
Emmylou Harris, 1977.
For the next one, you'll have to turn the sound down (compared to the first one).
Merle Haggard / Willie Nelson, 1983
Livin' on the road my friend
Was gonna keep you free and clean
Now you wear your skin like iron
Your breath's as hard as kerosene
Weren't your mama's only boy
But her favorite one it seems
She began to cry when you said goodbye
And sank into your dreams.
Pancho was a bandit boys
His horse was fast as polished steel
He wore his gun outside his pants
For all the honest world to feel
Pancho met his match you know
On the deserts down in Mexico
And nobody heard his dyin' words
Ah, but that's the way it goes.
(Lyrics from Emmylou Harris, 1977, as heard by myself.)
Originally recorded on the "Tucson to Tucumcari" road-song 90 minute tape back in the 1980's.
In a somewhat unrelated aside, here's a plug for one of the best movies the west has ever known, Little Big Man, and one of my many favorite quotes from that movie, "You go down there," said unambiguously to Custer by our hero Jack Crabb upon the eve of Custer's last stand. The part in question starts about half way through, at 2:37.
"You want me to think that you don't want me to go down there, but the subtle truth is you really *don't* want me to go down there!"
A probably more accurate version of the events that day can be listened to here.
And here's a possibly related non-road song to go with the movie quote, by one of my earliest favorite singers, Johnny Horton.
"But Custer didn't listen, at Little Big Horn Custer died."
I don't suppose there's any moral to all this, it's just what came up while I was writing another post.
Pink Floyd
