Bob Wills & The Texas Playboys Band Tour Bus during a parade in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

Bob Wills was known as the King of Western Swing.

Image & text source: http://www.kunc.org/post/nine-oclock-blues-bob-wills-and-texas-playboys

Johnny Cash's customized MCI tour bus.

"Imagine the stories this coach has to tell, having covered nearly 400,000 miles as Cash's home on wheels from 1979 until his passing in 2003. It ferried not only Cash and his wife, June Carter, but pals like Kris Kristofferson, Waylon Jennings, and Willie Nelson. The bus is subdivided into four areas, and naturally, the overriding color theme is black. Cash paid over $500,000 to have the bus custom built by Custom Coach Corporation in the late 1970s. "

Text source: http://www.motortrend.com/classic/features/c12_0603_johnny_cash_tour_bus/#ixzz35ZbIy2AZ

A close up tour of Johnny Cash's Tour Bus: The J.C. Unit One served as Johnny Cash's tour bus for the last two decades of his career.

Meredith Rutledge, Assistant Curator At The Rock Hall, gives us a look inside the second home of Johnny Cash.

Video source & more info on Johnny: https://rockhall.com/blog/post/6469_johnny-cash-tour-bus-story/

“It makes me feel good to gaze out of the windows of the bus at the towns and signs and landscapes going past,” says Willie Nelson. “It’s like the other side of the feeling I got when I was a little kid and heard a railroad train whistling and rumbling into the distance in the middle of the night. This is what might have happened if you had ever really caught that mysterious midnight train.”

“You’ve got a home, but you don’t have to stay too long in one place,” he says. “My bus is like a cocoon too that I can seal myself up in in if I need to be alone… I can be close enough to the so-called real world that I could reach out and touch it from inside Honeysuckle Rose, yet I can be as quiet and alone as I wish.”

– Willie Nelson

"The entertainer Willie Nelson has a ranch in Texas and a residence in Hawaii, but the place that he calls home is a bus named Honeysuckle Rose. Willie Nelson is the king of the rock-star bus.

The singer who proclaimed, "like a band of gypsies, we go down the highway," is on the road a reported 135,000 miles each year.

Even when he is at his ranch in Spicewood, Tex., Mr. Nelson is said to often sleep on the bus, which is where he frequently engages in what he calls “adjusting his personality” — or smoking marijuana.

All told, there have been five buses named Honeysuckle Rose, according to representatives at Florida Coach, where Nelson has gotten his transportation since 1979. "

More about Willie and his bus life: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/08/us/willie-nelson-rode-on-bus-but-called-another-home.html?_r=0

Paul and John on the Magical Mystery Tour bus.

"Magical Mystery Tour is a 52-minute long British television film starring the Beatles (John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr) which originally aired on BBC1 on Boxing Day, 26 December 1967. Upon its initial showing, the film was poorly received by critics and audiences."

More about the flick: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magical_Mystery_Tour_(film)

Image source: http://www.thebeatles.com/album/magical-mystery-tour

Inspired to get the band back together and hit the road? This article covers everything you need to know about touring on the road. Sex, drugs rock and roll on a budget.

"You’re ready to embark on your first band tour—you’ve emptied your entire bank account, as well as your piggy bank and rainy day savings. But how do you make that money last, and maybe even come home with a couple bucks? Take some advice from Derek Smith the lead singer of Arizona indie rock band, Mourning Maxwell....."


Article: http://sonicweekly.com/articles/budgeting-your-tour/

In 1991, David Gilmour, Nick Mason and Pink Floyd's manager Steve O'Rourke participated in the infamous South American automobile race La Carrera Panamericana. The film was released in 1992, features footage of the event and is set to the music of Pink Floyd.

Youtube Part I- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tR-hNikoZC0

Youtube Part II- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6JgZ5MQL5u4

More info: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carrera_Panamericana

The Commitments cover the signature song about the car, made famous by Wilson Pickett's "Mustang Sally," which became one of the top hits of 1966. It began:

"I bought you a brand new Mustang

A nineteen sixty-five, huh!"

Johnny Cash - One Piece At A Time (1976)
Written by W. Kemp
Recorded by Johnny Cash on 3/5/76
Number one - County Chart; Number 29 - Pop Chart


Lyrics:
Well, I left Kentucky back in '49
An' went to Detroit workin' on a 'sembly line
The first year they had me puttin' wheels on cadillacs
Every day I'd watch them beauties roll by
And sometimes I'd hang my head and cry
'Cause I always wanted me one that was long and black.
One day I devised myself a plan
That should be the envy of most any man
I'd sneak it out of there in a lunchbox in my hand
Now gettin' caught meant gettin' fired
But I figured I'd have it all by the time I retired
I'd have me a car worth at least a hundred grand.
CHORUS
I'd get it one piece at a time
And it wouldn't cost me a dime
You'll know it's me when I come through your town
I'm gonna ride around in style
I'm gonna drive everybody wild
'Cause I'll have the only one there is a round.
So the very next day when I punched in
With my big lunchbox and with help from my friends
I left that day with a lunch box full of gears
Now, I never considered myself a thief
GM wouldn't miss just one little piece
Especially if I strung it out over several years.
The first day I got me a fuel pump
And the next day I got me an engine and a trunk
Then I got me a transmission and all of the chrome
The little things I could get in my big lunchbox
Like nuts, an' bolts, and all four shocks
But the big stuff we snuck out in my buddy's mobile home.
Now, up to now my plan went all right
'Til we tried to put it all together one night
And that's when we noticed that something was definitely wrong.
The transmission was a '53
And the motor turned out to be a '73
And when we tried to put in the bolts all the holes were gone.
So we drilled it out so that it would fit
And with a little bit of help with an A-daptor kit
We had that engine runnin' just like a song
Now the headlight' was another sight
We had two on the left and one on the right
But when we pulled out the switch all three of 'em come on.
The back end looked kinda funny too
But we put it together and when we got thru
Well, that's when we noticed that we only had one tail-fin
About that time my wife walked out
And I could see in her eyes that she had her doubts
But she opened the door and said "Honey, take me for a spin."
So we drove up town just to get the tags
And I headed her right on down main drag
I could hear everybody laughin' for blocks around
But up there at the court house they didn't laugh
'Cause to type it up it took the whole staff
And when they got through the title weighed sixty pounds.
CHORUS
I got it one piece at a time
And it didn't cost me a dime
You'll know it's me when I come through your town
I'm gonna ride around in style
I'm gonna drive everybody wild
'Cause I'll have the only one there is around.
(Spoken) Ugh! Yow, RED RYDER
This is the COTTON MOUTH
In the PSYCHO-BILLY CADILLAC Come on
Huh, This is the COTTON MOUTH
And negatory on the cost of this mow-chine there RED RYDER
You might say I went right up to the factory
And picked it up, it's cheaper that way
Ugh!, what model is it?
Well, It's a '49, '50, '51, '52, '53, '54, '55, '56
'57, '58' 59' automobile
It's a '60, '61, '62, '63, '64, '65, '66, '67
'68, '69, '70 automobile."

5 min video with music by
Peter Peter Hughes

"Juan Manuel Fangio Castiga Los Pecados Del Mundo"

"For those who might still be wondering, What the fuck is this? I offer this brief summary:
When I was seventeen, for reasons that will remain forever inscrutable, I wrote a song for my Casio-powered solo project Party of One which imagined the 1950s race car driver, five-time Formula One World Champion, and Argentine icon Juan Manuel Fangio piloting a then-current 1980s-model Saab 900 Turbo across the Andes mountains on a covert mission to assassinate the Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet. It sounded like this:

Twenty-three years later I bought a well-traveled example of the ingeniously versatile car that accompanied the hero of that song, and began writing songs for an album that would pick up where “A Fangio for the ’80s” left off.
The real-life Fangio died in 1995, long retired from racing. On the track he’d been known as El Maestro—the teacher—and a legendary bad-ass. Off it, he was El Chueco—most commonly translated as “bandy-legs”—short, squeaky-voiced, the very essence of good-natured humility and universally beloved for it.
The Fangio of my imagination is slightly different. He’s still alive for one thing—though by what Borgesian mechanism it’s never made clear—and so haunted by his own refusal to speak out against the atrocities of Argentina’s Dirty War that he’s gone underground as a sort of international rogue agent, beholden to nobody and determined to clear his conscience by evening the score: against the CIA, against the cartels, against every agent of oppression that conspired to terrorize and exploit the people of Latin America over the last half century. This album should be properly read as one part DC comics, one part Tom Clancy novel, and one part Marxist revolutionary tract.
Fangio was recorded entirely at home, by me, using GarageBand—which, in its ubiquity, cheapness, and user-friendly simplicity, I regard as the clear 21st century successor to my old Casio MT-100. And it sounds like New Order because I’ve always wanted to play in a band that sounded like New Order. I make no apologies."

Directed by Davey G. Johnson

Buy the track and read more here: http://www.fivetools.com/blog/peter-peter-hughes/

2009 single EP cover from Calvin Harris's single 'You Used To Hold Me' on Columbia Records. Taken from his #1 album 'Ready For The Weekend'.

‘You Used To Hold Me’ is backed by a series of huge club mixes courtesy of Laidback Luke & Nero, and an explosive video packed full of monster truck action.
Source: http://hangout.altsounds.com/news/114344-single-calvin-harris-hold.html#68C44lIlxb5MG1V0.99

"Helen Wheels" was Paul McCartney’s tongue-in-cheek nickname for his Land Rover vehicle ("Hell-on-Wheels"). A number 10 US hit in 1973 for Paul McCartney and Wings

"Forever Blue is the fifth album by American rock and roll musician Chris Isaak, released in 1995. The album included three hit singles. In 1996, Forever Blue was also nominated for Best Rock Album."

Text source:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forever_Blue_(Chris_Isaak_album)

Eric Clapton and BB King Album cover.

Macklemore & Ryan Lewis - White Walls. Great video!

Cover art from Cake's 1996 7inch vinyl. The song "The Distance" is laced with auto lyrics....or are they?

"Fashion Nugget is the second studio album by Cake, an alternative rock band from Sacramento, CA. It was released in 1996, and contains 14 songs. "The Distance" became one of the band's biggest hits."

Text Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fashion_Nugget

Image Source: http://eil.com/shop/moreinfo.asp?catalogid=162832

A audio upload of the song "Mercury Blues". Written by K. C. Douglas and Robert Geddins in 1949. The song, originally titled "Mercury Boogie," pays homage to the American Mercury car (RIP 2010).
Since then the song has been covered by: Steve Miller Band (1976, on their album, Fly Like an Eagle), David Lindley (1981), the Finn Pave Maijanen (1987), Alan Jackson (1993), Meat Loaf (2003) and Dwight Yoakam (2004).

Text Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mercury_Blues

Blondie performing "I'm on E" live on German Television (Musikladen)1977.

I will post the lyrics as there are MANY hidden themes in this fantastic song!


"I'm on E.
I'm on E.
I'm on E.
Got nothin' to say.
I used to have a car of my own.
I'm on E.
I'm on E.
I'm on E for England.
Laid out for maybe a week.
I've walked my feet to the bone.
I'd give my life for a car of my own.
I'm on E.
I'm on E.
Two weeks ago saturday I was on TV.
I'd like a show of my own.
But you see I'm still on E even though everything is happening to me.
So when your drivin' on home don't regret your loan.
I'm on E.
I'm on E.
I gave my car to a guy named Vinnie.
I feel like gassin' my feet.
They've totalled (?) and skipped a beat.
I used to have a car of my own.
28 or 58.
Walking to refrigerator.
To the pump, do the bump.
Still on E, I'll think of something.
I'm on E and I'm on E.
I'll never have to stop my feet.
28 or 58.
Walking to refrigerator.
To the pump, do the bump.
Still on E, I'll think of something.
I'm on E and I'm on E.
I'll never have to fill my feet up."

I just rediscovered this 1999 Moby music video 'Honey'. I forgot it has a Mercedes-Benz 280SEL as the Star (no pun intended!). If repetitive Moby music is not your thing....I would avoid watching as it will get stuck in your head.

Peter, Paul and Mary posed on their album 1700.

The physical location of the album cover was 70 Bedford Street between Commerce Street and Morton Street, New York. This is a picture of the actual location today with transparent copy of the 1967 photo placed on top. To see more album covers like this photo visit: http://www.popspotsnyc.com/forthcoming_new_york/

The song "Chevy Van" dubbed over a clip of the 1977 Film B movie THE VAN. According to IMDB "Despite the song "Chevy Van" by Sammy Johns appearing throughout the soundtrack of the film, the titular "Van" is a 1977 Dodge B200 Tradesman van (which was prepared for the film by the legendary motion picture car customizer George Barris)." Source: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0075378/ & fraserw2 @ youtube.com

Late for the Sky is the third album by American singer/songwriter Jackson Browne, released in 1974. The car appears to be an early 50's Chevrolet...anyone know more?

Source: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/motoring/picturegalleries/6671366/The-worlds-greatest-car-album-covers-picture-gallery-25-to-1.html?image=24

Gram Parsons/Emmylou Harris singing the "The New Soft Shoe" off Gram' s Album GP. The lyrics mention a Cord; see of you can catch it.

"Senior citizen drop-outs" 1965 Jack Benny and Bob Hope get Hip with the Beach Boys, and their surfing lifestyle.

Smokey Robinson and the Miracles (Crusin) video not worth watching all the way through...but the music is good for the soul :)

Drive My Car-The Beatles

Steve Allen show 1963. Frank Zappa Playing music on a Bicycle. "I don't want to spend my life explaining myself," Frank Zappa once said. "You either get it or you don't."

Read more: Frank Zappa Biography http://www.musicianguide.com/biographies/1608000554/Frank-Zappa.html#ixzz2OetDw3B9

The Buzzcocks performing the song FAST CARS live in 1981

David Bowie Bowie has enjoyed a four decade-long career as a singer, producer, actor and artist. Seen here in his younger days, posing with Rolls Royce.

Skip to 1:00 min mark and the rest of it is laughable low budget entertainment. Da Yoopers singing "Rusty Chevrolet" find out more about this crazy band at dayoopers.com/travshw.html

King of the Road by Roger Miller

"Riding a Stutz Bear Cat, Jim ya know, those were different times.."
Lyrics from "Sweet Jane"
Composed by Lou Reed

455 Rocket sang by Kathy Mattea. Olds Rocket engines were rated by a special fuel consumption scale known as "smiles per gallon".

70's musician Jim Croce talking & singing about his inspiration for his truck driving song called "Speedball Tucker".

"I'm in Love with My Car" supposedly written about a Triumph TR4. This song can be found on Queen's fourth studio album A Night at the Opera from 1975.

Anther wacky song brought to you by the Presidents of The United States of America singing about a "Little Dune Buggy"

I wanted to share Martha and the Muffins cover of "Motorbikin" but failed...so we will just have deal with the original version by Englishman Chris Spedding!