A Deeper Side of Hot Rod Music
by Jon Mikelonis

I'll admit it, I can't dance. I'll never forget a remark the high school
quarterback said to me, in front of my date, during my junior prom. "Hey
guy, you're supposed to dance to the beat, not the words". Ever since, I've been trying to listen for rhythm during those "must dance" situations.
I ultimately resigned myself to what I call "aerobics dancing" during
weddings and parties. Aerobics dancing is a cross between hopping and
lunging for a basketball. It's not pretty, but it's better than sitting on
the sidelines.

Over the years, that remark from the quarterback has held true. I still
dance to words. However, a large part of the problem has become clearer, I'm personally enthralled and distracted with both listening to and analyzing song lyrics. My fixation with lyrics is also the reason why I prefer the deeper music of singer-songwriters over shallower but dance-friendly pop tunes. From my perspective, songwriters are poets and their art is setting poems to music.

The 1970's are considered the decade of the singer-songwriter. Fortunately, for Ford musclecar enthusiasts like you and me, a few singer-songwriters romanticized elements of our favorite pastime with their stories and their music. Artists like Bruce Springsteen and Gordon Lightfoot have both written introspective songs that go deeper than what you are used to hearing the DJ spin at the Show N' Shine. Don't get me wrong, I still enjoy the perfect images of 50's and 60's Southern California hotrodding conjured up when I hear Dick Dale, Jan and Dean, and the Beach Boys. It is just that those songs leave me wanting more when I hear lyrics like "...she's real fine my 409" and "...the last thing I remember doc, I started to swerve".

	Bruce Springsteen's 1978 release "Racing in the Street" embraces the struggle between one middle-aged man's passion for racing and his time spent with loved ones.

"Racing in the Street"
Bruce Springsteen is most respected for his ability to creatively express the emotional dark side of the human experience. As Ford hobbyists, we are fortunate that "The Boss" has a passion for American musclecars and racing, or at least has a keen understanding of both.

In a Detroit concert, earlier this year, Springsteen opened his 1978 tune "Racing in the Street" with a parallel to the 1971 movie, "Two-Lane Blacktop", which starred another 70's singer-songwriter, James Taylor. Dennis Wilson, a member of the Beach Boys, whose hot rodding music I so casually pointed out as unsatisfying, also starred in the movie. Given that "Racing in the Street" and "Two-Lane Blacktop" had no connection in production, during the concert, Springsteen reportedly mentioned how oddly similar the movie was with the story told in his song. Even though "Two-Lane Blacktop" shares a lot with "Racing in the Street" there is one aspect of our hobby not addressed in the movie that the song so perfectly communicates. If you have ever struggled with balancing hours dedicated to wrenching and racing, against time spent with loved ones, then you may identify with the dilemma portrayed in the second half of the song.

I met her on the strip three years ago
In a Camaro with this dude from LA
I blew that Camaro off my back
And I drove that little girl away
But now there's wrinkles round my baby's eyes
And she cries herself to sleep at night
When I come home, the house is dark
She sighs, "Baby, did you make it alright?"
She sits on the porch of her daddy's house
But all her pretty dreams are torn
She stares off alone into the night
With the eyes of one who hates for just being born

For all the shut-down strangers and hot rod angels
Rumbling through this promised land
Tonight my baby and me we’re gonna ride to the sea
And wash these sins off our hands

Tonight tonight the highway’s bright
Out of our way mister you best keep
cause summer’s here and the time is right
We’re goin’ racin’ in the street

Songwriters are typically reluctant to divulge the meaning behind a song because they want their story to be interpreted by the listener, not defined by the writer. Similar to "abstract" paintings, once the artist defines the work, the work loses its appeal or ability to stimulate passionate discussion. Sprinsteen is that kind of artist. Other, less mainstream but more cerebral, Springsteen songs that include references to the recklessness of powerful American machines from decades long gone are "Jungleland", "Night", and "Open All Night".

	Gordon Lightfoot's 1971 folksong, "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald" honors 29 lives lost when the Cleveland-bound iron ore freighter broke up in an early November squall on Lake Superior in 1975.

"The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald"
Have you ever contemplated the laborers that built your car? If you have something older than 30 years then this thought can be especially profound since it is possible that a number of the men who built your car may no longer be living. You just may be driving the product of a working man's life long effort to provide for his family.

Gordon Lightfoot's "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald" has never been directly connected with Hot Rodding. However, when I first read the lyrics and put the geography and timeline together I was able to see a curious relationship. For those of you not familiar with the 1976 folk song, "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald" honors the lives of 29 men who died in a shipwreck on Lake Superior in November of 1975. Loaded with 26,000 tons of raw iron ore (taconite) pellets, the freighter was downbound for Detroit with a final destination of Cleveland. The ship broke up when it was caught in when an early season squall. The exact reason why the ship sank is still contested. Most believe the covers that sealed the cargo holds were not secured properly and high waters flooded into the ship. Others speculate that the Fitzgerald was effectively "high centered" on a large swell and broke in half. Regardless, 29 men lost their lives while shipping the taconite destined for the Michigan foundries that could have casted the Ford engine block you are running today.

Even though the Fitzgerald crew never had a hand in assembling Ford vehicles, their livelihood was based on the consumption of the iron ore destined to create the domestic automobiles that we call classics today. The Fitzgerald was launched in 1958, shipped more than 1 million tons of taconite by 1964, and sank in 1975. The next time you are underneath your vintage Ford, think about this... Is there an ounce of Fitzgerald- shipped taconite in your chassis?

With a load of iron ore - 26,000 tons more
Than the Edmund Fitzgerald weighed empty
That good ship and true was a bone to be chewed
When the gales of November came early

The ship was the pride of the American side
Coming back from some mill in Wisconsin
As the big freighters go it was bigger than most
With a crew and the Captain well seasoned.

Concluding some terms with a couple of steel firms
When they left fully loaded for Cleveland
And later that night when the ships bell rang
Could it be the North Wind they'd been feeling.

Conclusion
I'm quite certain that neither "Racing in the Street" nor "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald" will ever be on the Show N' Shine playlist, since I am wise enough to understand that Car show DJ's are responsible for catering to the masses. The mainstream golden oldies of the Beach Boys will always be the music of choice at these events, even if Brian Wilson himself has to self-induce an outer body experience to get through one more chorus of "Little Deuce Coupe". This is a shame because the Beach Boys do have more poignant car songs that get no play time, like "Ballad of Ole' Betsy". Until I do hear a more dynamic hot rod song while walking the aisles of a swap meet, I'll just have to be content with being my own DJ in my own garage, which is just fine by me.