Song 224: This week's playlist track is Six Days on the Road by Dave Dudley, written by Earl Green and Carl Montgomery. In the summer before the Beatles came along and rocked my world, I was singing along with this track every time it popped up on the radio, along with a few other country and folk hits. I still well remember my parents being amused as they listened to their 11-year-old son sing, "I could have a lot of women but I'm not like some other guys." A few years earlier I had enjoyed every episode I could catch of a TV show about truck drivers called Cannonball, and growing up, my personal circle included a few men who drove trucks, including my father's brother, so I knew a few things about that world, such as the log book and the ICC (Interstate Commerce Commission) mentioned in the lyrics. Knowing some of the details of a truck driver's lifestyle did not in any way inspire me to want to be a trucker when I grew up, though, and speaking with a neighbor a couple of years ago as he commented on his recent experience of long hours on the road that ended up paying him less than minimum wage, the conversation solidly confirmed my impression that I hadn't missed anything by not going down that road. I did, however, get to see the highway from the passenger side of a trucker's cab a few times back in the 1970s, and I remain eternally grateful to every driver who stopped to pick me up when they saw me standing by the road with my thumb pointed in the direction they were headed. I am most grateful to the trucker who stopped for me and my female companion on a cold April evening in 1972 at a spot near D.C., later dropping us off by a motel around Harrisburg where we got a warm room for the night that only cost $10. So "Thank you" to all the truckers who gave me a ride, and if it happens that today adds up to Six Days on the Road (or more) for you, then I hope you're "gonna make it home tonight." On a side note, the woman at my side for that April 1972 hitch, and a bunch of other travels in that era, has a first name that begins with the letter K, as in my song Apology to K, which you can hear (in rough-cut video form) here. For one other side note, while the Dave Dudley version of this tune was the first, and to my ears is still the best, lots of other singers have covered it, and I also really like Livingston Taylor's take, from his autumn 1970 debut LP Livingston Taylor, for the way he rocks out on this old classic, in a way that fits in perfectly with a set of 10 of his own compositions. The opening track from that LP, Sit On Back, is Song 196 on this playlist, and if you follow the YouTube link on that listing, it plays the entire album, song by song, so you'll hear his version of this song as well -- it's the 3rd track, after Sit On Back and Doctor Man.
No comments:
Post a Comment