Car (Driving) Songs: Bruce Springsteen's "Waitin' on a Sunny Day," a sunny day, & driving a car

This song doesn't have much about cars or driving in the lyrics, but I have a strong, and more recent, car memory that goes merrily along with it.  Guess maybe I should call it a "driving song."

After battling traffic driving solo to the Jersey shore from upstate New York the summer of 2013, and after presenting my paper at an academic conference I was there to participate in, the biggest pressures of the trip were off, and I had an afternoon free.  The conference didn't meet far from the Springsteen-famed Asbury Park amusement park, and I decided to locate the place for myself and take in the sites and the sights.

Had a wonderful time strolling the boardwalk, taking my shoes off, and putting my toes in the Atlantic Ocean (cold!), watching people.  It was a beautiful, warm but not yet hot sunny day -- early to mid-June, when those days can still feel somewhat new to those of us who live in the Northeast and work predominantly inside.  Spring had come late, and summer had not yet fully arrived, so the day felt special just for the weather.  It didn't matter what else happened at the conference, or if I could make my way back through the traffic to get home in a couple of days.  That glorious weather at that particular location on that particular day was enough to make my spirits soar!

Taking it all in, I chatted with the vendors, sat on the benches, took photographs, and just genuinely enjoyed how similar the sight all was to the pictures Springsteen's songs always brought to mind when I listened to them.  It was one of those rare experiences when an artist's work is full of place -- and when you visit that place, you feel at home simply because you have enjoyed that artist's work for many years before you got there. 

I remember feeling the same way when I first visited the moors of the Bronte sisters in West Yorkshire, England.  Charlotte, Emily, and Anne's house.  The graveyard.  The mossy, ragged, wild moors all around.  I knew that place!  What I saw in front of me on that gray, misty day was just what their books had created in my imagination so many times for so many years before.

Well, after spending the entire afternoon at Asbury Park, New Jersey, it was time to go back to the conference location to prepare for the banquet a bit later on that evening.  I got in my now-hot car, rolled down the windows, and turned on the radio, and there it was -- Bruce Springsteen himself serenading me on the radio with none other than -- "Waitin' on a Sunny Day."  How did he know I was there, and how nice of him to greet me to his hometown that way! 

I cranked it up, left my windows down, and drove down the shore as far as I could before the song and time ran out.  One of those perfect drives combined with the perfect music accompaniment, you know? 

The song is actually from Springsteen's post 9/11 album, The Rising, though it was reportedly written before the 9/11 attacks.  In the context of that album, the simple pop melody and lyrics recall an earlier, more innocent time and a desire to find happiness and peace of mind yet again.  While the lyrics make it clear the day is not yet here, the melody makes it sound like the sunny day is not far away.  It is not a deeply poetic song, but its lightheartedness fits its theme.

As, for me, now it's a car song and has joined my favorite driving songs playlist.  And, at least for now, until another memory adds to it, whenever I hear it, it will always make me think of that sunny Friday afternoon, driving along Asbury Park and the Jersey shore in June of 2013!

Thanks, Bruce!

Song/video link:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TiCxqhu9cio

LYRICS:

by Bruce Springsteen

It's rainin' but there ain't a cloud in the sky
Musta been a tear from your eye
Everything'll be okay
Funny thought I felt a sweet summer breeze
Musta been you sighin' so deep
Don't worry we're gonna find a way

I'm waitin', waitin' on a sunny day
Gonna chase the clouds away
Waitin' on a sunny day

Without you I'm workin' with the rain fallin' down
Half a party in a one dog town
I need you to chase the blues away
Without you I'm a drummer girl that can't keep a beat
And ice cream truck on a deserted street
I hope that you're coming to stay

I'm waitin', waitin' on a sunny day
Gonna chase the clouds away
Waitin' on a sunny day

Hard times baby, well they come to tell us all
Sure as the tickin' of the clock on the wall
Sure as the turnin' of the night into day
Your smile girl, brings the mornin' light to my eyes
Lifts away the blues when I rise
I hope that you're coming to stay

Car Songs (?): "Start Me Up" by the Rolling Stones

The above HD concert video is fun to watch, but the vocal in the "video" below is actually the track of the song  (better vocal)!

Well, yeh; it's a sexy song; I get that.  But could it also be a car (or perhaps motorcycle) song? 

What do you think? 

Lyrics:

If you start me up
If you start me up I'll never stop
If you start me up
If you start me up I'll never stop

I've been running hot
You got me ticking gonna blow my top
If you start me up
If you start me up I'll never stop
Never stop, never stop, never stop

You make a grown man cry
You make a grown man cry
You make a grown man cry
Spread out the oil, the gasoline
I walk smooth, ride in a mean, mean machine
Start it up

If you start it up
Kick on the starter give it all you got, you got, you got
I can't compete with the riders in the other heats
If you rough it up
If you like it you can slide it up
Slide it up, slide it up, slide it up

Don't make a grown man cry
Don't make a grown man cry
Don't make a grown man cry
My eyes dilate, my lips go green
My hands are greasy, she's a mean, mean machine
Start it up

Start me up
Give it all you got
You got to never, never, never stop
Slide it up, baby just slide it up
Slide it up, slide it up, never, never, never

You make a grown man cry
You make a grown man cry
You make a grown man cry
Ride like the wind at double speed
I'll take you places that you've never, never seen

Start it up
Love the day when we'll never stop, never stop
Never, never, never stop
Tough me up
Never stop, never stop

You, you, you make a grown man cry
You, you make a dead man come
You, you make a dead man come

Songwriters:  Mick Jagger, Keith Richards
Copyright:  EMI Music Publishing Ltd.

Car Song: "Fast Car" by Tracy Chapman - "Is it fast enough so we can fly away?"

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"Fast Car" by Tracy Chapman

Such a moving song -- oops.  Didn't mean the pun.

Have always liked it.

Above she is singing it; below are the lyrics.



"Fast Car"

by Tracy Chapman

1988

You got a fast car
I want a ticket to anywhere
Maybe we make a deal
Maybe together we can get somewhere

Anyplace is better
Starting from zero got nothing to lose
Maybe we'll make something
But me myself I got nothing to prove

You got a fast car
And I got a plan to get us out of here
I been working at the convenience store
Managed to save just a little bit of money

We won't have to drive too far
Just across the border and into the city
You and I can both get jobs
And finally see what it means to be living

You see my old man's got a problem
He live with the bottle that's the way it is
He says his body's too old for working
I say his body's too young to look like his

My mama went off and left him
She wanted more from life than he could give
I said somebody's got to take care of him
So I quit school and that's what I did

You got a fast car
But is it fast enough so we can fly away?
We gotta make a decision
We leave tonight or live and die this way

See I remember we were driving, driving in your car
The speed so fast I felt like I was drunk
City lights lay out before us
And your arm felt nice wrapped 'round my shoulder

And I had a feeling that I belonged
I had a feeling I could be someone, be someone, be someone

You got a fast car
We go cruising entertain ourselves
You still ain't got a job
And I work in the market as a checkout girl

I know things will get better
You'll find work and I'll get promoted
We'll move out of the shelter
Buy a bigger house and live in the suburbs

See I remember we were driving, driving in your car
The speed so fast I felt like I was drunk
City lights lay out before us
And your arm felt nice wrapped 'round my shoulder

And I had a feeling that I belonged
I had a feeling I could be someone, be someone, be someone

You got a fast car
And I got a job that pays all our bills
You stay out drinking late at the bar
See more of your friends than you do of your kids

I'd always hoped for better
Thought maybe together you and me'd find it
I got no plans I ain't going nowhere
So take your fast car and keep on driving

See I remember when we were driving, driving in your car
The speed so fast I felt like I was drunk
City lights lay out before us
And your arm felt nice wrapped 'round my shoulder

And I had a feeling that I belonged
I had a feeling I could be someone, be someone, be someone

You got a fast car
But is it fast enough so you can fly away?
You gotta make a decision
Leave tonight or live and die this way

*

Muse:

This song is about important social issues, of course, but I wonder how much, if any, of the attraction for motor racing is a need or desire for escape?  A fast car, or a car of one's own, especially in the U.S., I think, means freedom.  If you have a car, you can go just about anywhere you want, as long as you have money for gas and maintenance.  That's huge for someone who comes from a small town, or who feels a need to get away from troubles at home, or for the adventurer...

Interestingly, escape does not seem to be an obvious factor with race car drivers, at least on the surface.  Many have taken to the sport directly from family members who race -- fathers, uncles, moms, grandparents, siblings.  They don't leave "home," so to speak -- run away to the circus, as it were -- to race, though if they become professionals, they do enter a traveling circus environment in that they must go to where the races are each weekend.  They stay, many times still living in the same hometown where they grew up, often racing for the same teams as their predecessors.  Escape doesn't seem to be in their equation.

Amateurs who race may or may not be using racing as an escape.  Like any past-time, sliding into a race car and giving a race your complete focus may be just the escape they need to recharge their batteries in a healthy way to come back to the "real" world and deal with work responsibilities, family, community, etc.  It is certainly no indictment on the race driver hobbyist who may use his/her hobby to get away from the trials and entanglements of daily life once in awhile.  The same will be said of those who go fishing or swim or exercise or go shopping!  We all need escape to keep our brains healthy and to be able to cope with life and also appreciate whatever it is in our lives we have removed ourselves from for awhile.

Cars are made by people, and they have changed our culture.  People can move farther, faster, relocate, eat their lunches in them, sleep in them, do other things in them......!

Cars play a pivotal role in so many of our lives -- they need not be race cars.  But when you elevate your interest in them to collecting them or racing them or reading about them, etc. what does that mean? 

Is it an accident (no pun intended, again!) that so many of us individually, or we collectively as a culture, have a romance with the automobile?  And if it's a race car, isn't that a natural progression, a heightened aspect of this same desire and fascination? 

What is the role of escape in it all?

What do you think, dear reader?