Top 10 Driving Songs
- The Top1039
- Anne Watkins’s version
- Your version
×Tangled Up In Blue: Bob Dylan
Dylan’s disjunctive and impressionistic lyrics to “Tangled Up in Blue” seem to tell a story of some kind, but it’s hard to tell exactly what happens in the narrative. What does come across is the bittersweet emotion, which seems to carry some sorrow about the passage of time and lost relationships. Most of all, the song is a sort of transient epic, all about moving forward and not looking back, which makes it great to listen to at the start of a journey.
×Proud Mary: Creedence Clearwater Revival
Creedence Clearwater Revival’s “Proud Mary” is technically about a riverboat, but we don’t have to take the lyrics so literally. The song has a powerful and infections rock groove that feels like a heavy dose of caffeine running through the veins, and the “Rollin’ on the river” chorus sounds perfect as the soundtrack to the rolling pavement of a highway under your car’s wheels.
×Drivin'
of my personal favorite driving songs. Especially when you’re heading out on a road trip, there’s something liberating about getting in the car and getting away from your normal, everyday life. The Kinks’ song captures this feeling, portraying a simple day trip as a peaceful escape from all the world’s problems.
×9th Symphony: Beethoven
Classical music doesn’t always make the best soundtrack for driving—the soft parts too often get lost beneath the hum of the vehicle—but there are some very noteworthy exceptions, especially Beethoven’s 9th symphony. Right from those opening notes, the symphony is so energizing that you almost feel like you can power your car on Beethoven-fuel alone. I don’t advocate actually trying this, though.
×Come Wind Come Rain: Vashti Bunyan
Vashti Bunyan’s catchy folk tune “Come Wind Come Rain” comes across as a lighthearted trifle, but if you listen closely it’s actually a moving song about the joys of hitting the road early in the morning at the start of a long journey. The lyrics refer to country footpaths and “muddy boots plod[ding] down the lane” but the medium of motion is not nearly as important as the feeling itself, and Bunyan gets it right.
×Out on the Weekend: Neil Young
Taking a long road trip is one of the best ways to escape from the trials of love and life and to at least feel as if you’re moving on to something new. Neil Young’s “Out on the Weekend” captures this emotion, starting with the poignant and memorable line, “Think I’ll pack it in and buy a pick-up, take it down to L.A.” You don’t have to be driving a pickup or heading to Los Angeles to know what he’s getting it. I think we’ve all been there.
×Abbey Road medley: The Beatles
The Beatles’ Abbey Road medley is technically eight tracks, but I feel it’s enough of a unified piece of work to qualify for this list. The suite of songs contains some of the Beatles’ best moments and is full of symphonic highs and lows without those quiet moments in real symphonies that just don’t work in cars. Listening to the medley, it almost feels as if you’re going on a journey, making it a sort of smaller-scale version of an actual road trip.
×Gimme Shelter: The Rolling Stones
If you ask me, pure rock ‘n’ roll songs make the best driving music, and The Rolling Stones, being the quintessential rock ‘n’ roll band, have a catalogue full of perfect road songs. Personally, I like the entire Exile On Main Street album for longer road traps, but that album works best as a whole rather than on a song-by-song basis. As far as single tracks, I’d pick “Gimme Shelter” from Let It Bleed, but it’s probably not the best choice if you’re naturally an aggressive driver.
×On the Road Again: Willie Nelson
Willie Nelson’s “On the Road Again” doesn’t take much explanation. It’s all about the joys of being on the road, and, in true Willie Nelson fashion, it also manages to capture the poignant sense of melancholy that can go along with the transient way of life. Of course, you can also take the lyrics completely literally, in which case the song is pure fun.
×Sister Ray: The Velvet Underground
The Velvet Underground’s demented, 17-minute epic, “Sister Ray,” comes across as a sort of mean-spirited joke—music that is challenging and abrasive just for the sake of being challenging and abrasive. But now that 40 years have passed and The Velvet Underground have made their way into the rock canon, the song is viewed as one of their masterpieces. It’s a grower, and it’s lyrics aren’t exactly child-friendly, but it provides a strangely perfect soundtrack for highway driving.
