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. The jet-inspired automobiles of the 1950s a plethora of music about the automobile. The and the noisy and powerful muscle cars of the car song came to prominence at a time when 1960s and 1970s, writes du Lac, were “objects of men were in the driver’s seat of both the auto- lust, symbols of liberation and power, and the motive and recording industries. The car song center of the youth movement’s sexual uni- was produced and marketed by men for the verse.” These big, loud, and powerful automo- consumption of the young white male driver. biles were an integral component of teenage Whether expressed through the “country culture and inspired the music of a generation. tinged” rhythm and blues backbeat style of As Jack DeWitt, in “Cars and Culture,” sug- Chuck Berry (Garofalo 99), the lush multi-part gests, the automobile’s influence on popular harmonies of the Beach Boys, or the rough music was evident not only in the names of working-class vocals and simple guitar riffs of fledgling singing groups (Vettes, Deuce Coupes), Bruce Springsteen, the intention of the car song A native Detroiter, Chris Lezotte spent a portion of her past life writing car commercials. After exiting her advertising career, Chris completed the master’s program in Women’s and Gender Studies at Eastern Michigan University, where the first draft of this essay was written. She is currently pursuing her interest in women’s relationship to the automobile as a PhD candidate in American Culture Stud- ies at Bowling Green State University. The Journal of American Culture, 36:3 © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. 162 The Journal of American Culture Volume 36, Number 3 September 2013 was to reflect a collective and exclusive male Car Songs, Women’s Voices, experience communicated through a masculine and the “Woman Driver” voice. While the classic car song, by du Lac’s definition, may cease to exist, the automobile does, in fact, remain a recurring theme in popu- The classic car song has attracted a good lar music. Perhaps today’s car song is unrecog- amount of attention in the popular media, spawn- nizable to du Lac because it is often performed ing numerous oldies CDs, Internet top 100 Car in a different—i.e., higher—pitch. Song lists, and articles in popular music and classic Contrary to du Lac’s assertion, the passing car publications that reflect upon the greatest car of the classic car song is not due to changes in tunes of all times. In terms of relevant literature, the automobile that inspired it, but rather, in Paul Grushkin’s Rockin’ Down the Highway: The the voices and experiences of those who sing Cars and People That Made Rock and Roll is per- about it. The female singer-songwriter—who haps the most comprehensive popular history. came late to both automobility and rock ‘n’ The Illustrated Discography of Hot Rod Music roll—has infused the automobile and popular 1961-1965, another important resource, concen- music with multiple new meanings. Women trates primarily on the cars songs that emerged from a variety of musical genres—rock ‘n’ roll, from the California car culture scene. In scholar- R&B, country, and pop—have called upon the ship, Jack DeWitt provides a short history of the automobile as a vehicle of freedom, escape, rec- car song within the context of Whitman’s Song of ollection, and rebellion, performed through the the Open Road. E. L. Widmer, in “The Automo- voice of women’s experience. In the process, bile, Rock and Roll and Democracy,” suggests they have reconfigured the car song from a both cars and rock ‘n’ roll were significant as lib- recounting of the white teenage male’s rite of erating influences for the individual, allowing for passage into a metaphor for the multiplicity of unprecedented amounts of personal expression. women’s lives. In “Cars and Girls,” Duncan Heining calls upon This investigation focuses on music composed the car song to examine the early contributions of and performed by women of diverse social loca- black artists to rock ‘n’ roll as well as to explore tions intersected by race, class, and sexual orien- the ways in which masculinity is revealed in pop- tation to consider how women’s experience has ular music. While the essays of DeWitt, Widmer, influenced and reconfigured the convergence of and Heining address the car song specifically, the automobiles and rock ‘n’ roll known as the car primary references to the music-automobile rela- song. Focusing specifically on the music of tionship in academic literature are most often singer-songwriters Joni Mitchell, Bonnie Raitt, short blurbs in larger automotive texts. These Tracy Chapman, Nanci Griffith, Toni Braxton, include DeWitt’s Cool Cars, High Art—which Lucinda Williams, Shania Twain, and soul legend refers to the car song as “a much underappreciated Aretha Franklin, it examines how women’s subgenre of rock” (23)—and Tim Falconer’s entrance into both the music industry and Amer- Drive. In regard to the car song and the female ican car culture has altered the way we think singer-songwriter, a few sources make reference about cars and popular music. It considers the to Joni Mitchell, but other female recording artists car song not only as an expression of the various are rarely, if ever, mentioned. While there is not a meanings women ascribe to cars, but also as a great deal of scholarship devoted to the car song, location for the examination of women’s lives. the available resources focus almost exclusively Calling upon feminist standpoint theory, this on music produced and performed by men in investigation calls upon women’s experience to which the automobile is constructed as a vehicle uncover alternative relationships to the automo- of male identity, experience, rebellion, and power. bile as well as to suggest new possibilities for the The myriad of meanings the automobile holds for woman behind the wheel. women, as voiced through the popular car song, is Born to Take the Highway Chris Lezotte 163 generally absent in analyses of the relationship try efforts to market the automobile to women as between the automobile and music. a time saving domestic technology. In her docu- Women’s problematic entry into rock ‘n’ roll mentation of women’s automotive use over the and American car culture has attracted the notice past half-century, Margaret Walsh argues that of feminist scholars over the past three decades. although women increasingly rely on the automo- The original objective in both arenas was to make bile for work transport, popular representations women visible through the reconfiguration of continue to focus on the “woman driver” in her music and automotive histories. In music scholar- domestic role (“Cars”). The purpose of past and ship, Aida Pavletich, Lucy O’Brien, and Char- present automaker strategies, argue Scharff, Co- lotte Greig were instrumental in reclaiming the wan, and Walsh, was not only to construct female voice that had historically been silenced. women as a separate consumer base with different Feminist music scholars such as Gillian Gaar automotive needs and desires, but also to rein- were particularly interested in the strategies called force and maintain prescribed gender roles in upon by female recording artists as they negoti- home and on the road. Recent scholarship within ated male dominated rock ‘n’ roll culture. Studies multiple disciplines has made note of women’s of women and music produced by Sheila White- resistance to pervasive woman driver stereotypes ley and coauthors Simon Reynolds and Joy Press through the assumption of new driver identities focused on particular artists to suggest how music associated with the “chick” car (Lezotte, opened up a particularly fruitful space for female “Chick”), the classic muscle car (Lezotte, “Mus- resistance. More recently, scholars such as Mina cle”) and racing (Pflugfelder, Sloop). Attention to Carson, Tisa Lewis, and Susan Shaw have alternative woman driver positions demonstrates attempted to identify and celebrate how female that, despite the efforts of automakers to shape artists have distinguished themselves from their women’s driving habits and automotive choices, male counterparts through the creation of a rec- women continue to make informed and indepen- ognizable “women’s” music (Mitchell 548).

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