Much is being said about the imminent demise of the American car industry.

General Motors, Ford, and Chrysler are all warning that letting them go into bankruptcy will have dire effects for the word economy. Apparently unless the US government bails them out, one out of 10 American jobs will vanish, sports teams are going to shutter, TV shows are going to get canceled, the Ironman triathlon races will vanquish, the world will end and so on.

I for one don’t have much affinity for American cars. But yet again, I spent my first nineteen years in Europe so I grew up with Alpha Romeos and BMWs and Peugeots and Vauxhalls – not Cadillacs and Buicks and Studebakers. These guys lost the plot 30 years ago and never got it back. But that’s a different story.

Anyway. Driving to work this morning, I heard “My Hometown” by Bruce Springsteen The lyrics say something like “I’d sit on his lap in that big old Buick and steer as we drove through town”.

Then about 10 minutes later I heard “Pink Cadillac” (yes, also a Springsteen song; this guy loves cars): “Well honey it ain’t your money ‘Cause baby I got plenty of that, I love you for your pink Cadillac, Crushed velvet seats…”

So then I started thinking, “gee, I wonder how many pop songs actually mention American car models in their lyrics. Here’s a small sample of answers I got from the folks in the office:

Stray Cats – “Look at that Cadillac”
Wilson Pickett – “Mustang Sally”
Bruce Springsteen – “Cadillac Ranch”
Commander Cody – “Hot Rod Lincoln”
Lightnin Hopkins – “Big Black Cadillac Blues”
Drive-By Truckers – “Carl Perkins’ Cadillac”
Little Feat – “Cadillac Hotel”
Bo Didley – “Cadillac”
Rancid – “Time Bomb” (“Black coat, white shoes, black hat, Cadillac”)
Beach Boys – “GTO”
Tom Waits – “Ol’ 55”
ZZ Top – “Chevrolet”
Don McLean – “American Pie”, (“Drove my Chevy to the levy”)
B-52’s – “Love Shack” (“Got me a Chrysler it’s as big as a whale”)
Beach Boys -  “Fun, Fun, Fun”, (” ‘…til her daddy takes the T-Bird away”)
Don Henley -  “Boys of Summer” (“…dead head sticker on a Cadillac“)
Brian Setzer – “49 Mercury Blues”
Bob Dylan – “From A Buick 6”
Pretty Ricky – “Chevy”
Jan & Dean: “Little Deuce Coupe”
Chuck Berry -  “No Money Down” (“I want a yellow convertible 4 door De Ville”)

And I didn’t even search the ‘net. The collective publishing and record sales and airplay revenue generated from these songs is God knows what. An entire part of American pop music would have never existed had it not been for songwriters daydreaming about these cars, being inspired by and writing about these fantasy machines.

So hey, maybe the music business should show a bit more gratitude. Maybe we should bail these guys out after all.

Panos

P.S. Know of a song that has lyrics containing American car models? Let me know!

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