Fewer Trucking Songs

Darryl Hattenhauer · Post by **Darryl Hattenhauer** » 2 Nov 2006 8:19 pm

Is it just my ignorance, or have there been fewer songs about trucking in the last decade or so then there were twenty or thirty years ago?

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"I take my wife everywhere, but she keeps finding her way back." --Henny Youngman

Jim Cohen · Post by **Jim Cohen** » 2 Nov 2006 8:34 pm

Yes. And trains. And momma. And prison. And drinkin'. Well, maybe not drinkin'... [This message was edited by Jim Cohen on 03 November 2006 at 01:51 PM.]

Darryl Hattenhauer · Post by **Darryl Hattenhauer** » 2 Nov 2006 8:44 pm

"I was drunk the day Mom got out of prison/so I went to pick her up in the rain/but before I could get to the station in my pickup truck/she got runned over by a damned old train." D A Coe

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"I take my wife everywhere, but she keeps finding her way back." --Henny Youngman

Bob Blair · Post by **Bob Blair** » 3 Nov 2006 5:20 am

Steve Goodman actually wrote that one. But for all the appalling things DAC has done since, he definitely nailed that one.

How many of us have have listened to enough of the radio stuff from the past two decades to know whether they're still writing about trucks? Bill Kirchen is still singing about them! And as long as "drinking" still ryhmes with "thinking" I'm sure that topic is safe.

Ray Minich · Post by **Ray Minich** » 3 Nov 2006 5:32 am

"Wearing nothing but a smile and a towel in the picture on the billboard in the field near the big old highway..."

Shane Reilly · Post by **Shane Reilly** » 3 Nov 2006 6:06 am

"The Truckin' Sessions" by Dale Watson.Normally I'd rather drink a gallon of diesel than hear a whole album of truckin' songs,but Dale could sing your obituary and you'd believe you were dead.Ricky Davis burns rubber on it too.10-4!
Thank Ya Driver! I'll be gettin' out here!
Shane

Jim Cohen · Post by **Jim Cohen** » 3 Nov 2006 6:51 am

Oh, yes, and Jr. Brown is helping to keep the sub-genre alive too ("Yeah, I'm Semi-Crazy")[This message was edited by Jim Cohen on 03 November 2006 at 01:50 PM.]

Erv Niehaus · Post by **Erv Niehaus** » 3 Nov 2006 7:44 am

Mama's don't let your babies grow up to be cowboys (or truckers).

I think the glamour has gone out of the trucking business. It's not much fun anymore, just business.

Charlie St Denis · Post by **Charlie St Denis** » 3 Nov 2006 9:09 am

Hey Darryl- There is a group out of Canada
called The Roadhammers and they have done
some remakes like Eastbound and Down and
Girl on the Billboard. But you are right
they are far and few.
Charlie

Rick Schmidt · Post by **Rick Schmidt** » 3 Nov 2006 11:34 am

It seems like most of the new crop of truckers I meet these days are all into southern rock and metal anyway.

Mike Winter · Post by **Mike Winter** » 3 Nov 2006 11:45 am

We do Commander Cody's "Semi Truck" and the Dave Dudley standard "Six Days On The Road." Can't say that I recall any new ones coming out for a long time.

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Mike
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Blue Moon Highway
(Country Music...and then some.)
www.bluemoonhighway.com

ZB Custom S-10 (#0509)

Bill Hatcher · Post by **Bill Hatcher** » 3 Nov 2006 1:15 pm

I hope that I do not offend any one here but I do not think that the present day trucker really is representative of what the truckers in the 40s, 50s and 60s were like. The songs that were written about them came from what a trucker was like back then. They were the most professional and courteous drivers on the road. If you were broke down on the side of the road, the most welcome sight you would ever want to see would be a big rig coming, because the truck driver of that era would be the first person to stop and offer help to you. That has all changed. I am not saying at all that todays truckers are not good folks and good drivers. All I am saying is that the truck driver of yesteryear had a much better reputation than the trucker of today for whatever reason.

My Dad was in the trucking business all his life and my two brothers drove. I have a good on hands knowledge of this.

Maybe the lore about the trucker has not really impressed itself today as it did many years ago.

Jim Harper · Post by **Jim Harper** » 3 Nov 2006 1:37 pm

Guy,s i ran over the road for 30 year,s and boy has the truck driver,s changed.I have had flat,s and broke down on the road and they would be 7-8 truck,s pull in behind and help me with my problem and i did the same.Just out of Albq. NM a driver hollered at me on the c.b.and said a lady was on the side of the road broke down with kid,s in the car. I pulled up behind her and asked if i could help and she said=call the police i need help with my car.I told her i might help and she said no. She was scared to talk to me. It is a sad day when folk,s feel that way.==Jim Harper

Lawrence Sullivan · Post by **Lawrence Sullivan** » 3 Nov 2006 2:41 pm

Probably my favorite trucking song was John Denvers Hey It Good To Be Back Home Again and pretty much echoed the sentiments of most of us that spent the better part of our lives on the road.
Todays drivers don't command the respect of the public we once did because they don't show the respect to other drivers as we once did, not even to each other.
It never was the glamourous life that some songs portrayed, just a hard way to make a living.
Respectfully Larry

Leslie Ehrlich · Post by **Leslie Ehrlich** » 3 Nov 2006 2:59 pm

I heard the Roadhammers, and I hate them.

Jim Cohen · Post by **Jim Cohen** » 3 Nov 2006 3:10 pm

Sure, Leslie, but don't hold back. Tell us how you really feel about them...

Darryl Hattenhauer · Post by **Darryl Hattenhauer** » 3 Nov 2006 8:33 pm

http://www.theroadhammers.com/index.php?content=music

Thanks for the tip. I like them. Excellent harmonies.

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"I take my wife everywhere, but she keeps finding her way back." --Henny Youngman

Mike Shefrin · Post by **Mike Shefrin** » 3 Nov 2006 8:36 pm

nowwwwww Jim.

Shane Reilly · Post by **Shane Reilly** » 3 Nov 2006 10:12 pm

My mother visited me recently and she caught a lift with her trucking friend.She rode 800kms in a big rig cross this wide brown land,I picked up my 63 yr old mum at a truck stop on the edge of the city.She could have flown but she wanted to ride the rigs.There are some good truckers out there but the world has changed around them.
" I've been from Tucson to Tucumcari,Tehachapi to Tonopah
I've driven every kinda rig that's ever bin made,
driven the back roads so I would'nt get weighed
and if you give me....weed,whites and wine and show me a sign
I'll be willin', to be movin'." Lowell George,Little Feet

Darryl Hattenhauer · Post by **Darryl Hattenhauer** » 3 Nov 2006 10:19 pm

Shane,

Don't they have rigs in the outback that tow about five trailers?

I used to call that song "Willig" because there was a trucking company by that name back then. In concert, Linda Ronstadt dedicated it to all the truckers in the audience. But from what everybody says here, things aren't what they used to be, and it took me thirty years to notice.

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"I take my wife everywhere, but she keeps finding her way back." --Henny Youngman[This message was edited by Darryl Hattenhauer on 03 November 2006 at 10:26 PM.]

Shane Reilly · Post by **Shane Reilly** » 4 Nov 2006 8:46 am

We call them road trains here Daryl,and yeah they get bloody long.The Ronstadt version is great! I'm sure Linda uses Willig trucks on all her tours.

cheers,Shane.

Doug Garrick · Post by **Doug Garrick** » 4 Nov 2006 10:05 am

Me too. I was wondering where the trucker songs went and within the last couple of months I started hearing (seems like) quite a few new trucker songs on XM's X-Country channel 12.

Here's one of em. It's not the best clip but I think he's got a couple more trucker songs/
http://youtube.com/watch?v=pNohXOLAk3o&mode=related&search=

Smiley Roberts · Post by **Smiley Roberts** » 4 Nov 2006 2:23 pm

Bill Hatcher said:

...the truck driver of yesteryear had a much better reputation than the trucker of today...

AMEN BROTHER!!!
Some of 'em,today,are downright road hogs! In attempting to pass 'em,they wait until you get right up to 'em,then they pull out into the left lane,or two of 'em will get side by side,goin' up a hill,& ya can't pass either one of 'em. They slow ya down to,about,40 in a 55 or 65 mph zone.

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<pre> ~ ~
©¿© It don't mean a thang,
mm if it ain't got that twang.</pre>

Robert Murphy · Post by **Robert Murphy** » 4 Nov 2006 3:22 pm

Bill Kirchen,"Dieselbilly" Amen!

John Hauck · Post by **John Hauck** » 4 Nov 2006 3:36 pm

Great call Robert. Here's the link:
http://billkirchen.com/CrosstownArts/client_music/kirchen/html/king_of_dieselbilly.html