Born to Take the Highway: Women, the Automobile, and Rock N Roll
Born to Take the Highway Chris Lezotte 161 Born to Take the Highway: Women, the Automobile, and Rock ‘n’ Roll Chris Lezotte In a Washington Post feature article from a few but also in the profusion of auto-themed songs years back, popular music critic J. Freedom du about favorite cars (GTO, Barracuda), car Lac laments the death of the car song. Du Lac engines (Chevy 409, Rocket 88), car parts (Four attributes the demise of the car song—a musical in the Floor, Stick Shift), and highways (Route phenomenon that peaked in popularity during the 66, Thunder Road) (38). In addition, cars—as 1950s and 1960s—to the current crop of automo- objects of desire, devotion, and obsession—were biles. He contends that the quiet, safe, economi- often linked through song with women (Maybel- cal, and eco-friendly cars of today provide little lene, Mustang Sally), or given feminine personas inspiration for music about cars. While he (Betsy, She’s My Chevy). As du Lac writes, acknowledges that contemporary music often ref- automobiles—in song and on the road—were erences the automobile, as du Lac remarks, “they not only good for getting girls, but were also aren’t actually car songs at all.” “desirable girls themselves.” The classic car song to which du Lac refers— The decades following the Second World and to which music journalists and scholars War produced two exclusive male provinces— most often address—is that intertwined with the American car culture and rock ‘n’ roll—which automotive culture of the post-World War II serendipitously and successfully combined into era.
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