I listen to music while I'm driving. The car is my favorite place to listen to music; it's also frequently almost my only place to listen to music, but it's not merely my favorite by default. As a former pop journalist, I should try to propagate an image of sophistication and deliberation, retiring to my study, brandy in hand, intent on contemplating the splendor of a virgin vinyl Pet Sounds played through a 5.1 surround stereo system that cost more than I made in twenty years of freelancing for Goldmine. And...no. To be fair, there are decent meals that cost more than I made freelancing for Goldmine, but that's irrelevant. Pop music was meant to be listened to on cheap speakers, loud and distorted, as you're movin' down the highway at 500 miles an hour.
(This example is intended as hyperbole. Always obey posted speed limits, even when The Ramones are on.)
And I won't apologize for it. The unique experience of listening to rockin' pop music in the car is magic, nearly an out-of-body rapture. It was true when I was a little kid, hearing The Beatles, The Dave Clark Five, and The Bobby Fuller Four blastin' outta WNDR-AM in my brother's fragile Alfa Romeo. It was true much later, when my Dad gave me his '69 Impala, and early '80s AM Top 40 on Buffalo's 14 Rock gave me Tracey Ullman, Toni Basil, Prince, and Paul McCartney. It was true when the FM radio in my otherwise-crappy '78 Bobcat allowed me to achieve my dream of hearing The Ramones on a car radio--thank you, WBNY-FM! It was true when cassette decks granted me the opportunity to customize my motorized listening, and when car CD players let me immediately immerse myself in an album I'd just purchased, right then and there on the drive home from the record store. Radio. Mix Tapes. Mini-discs (plugged in via a car kit). CDs. Satellite radio. My intrepid iPod. The wide world of pop music lives in my car.
None of this is intended to downplay the impact and enjoyment I have felt in other listening environments. I would not have become the giddy, contented pop fan I am without all of the joyful hours spent listening to radio in my room, from Smokey Robinson & the Miracles and Badfinger through The Sex Pistols, The Go-Go's, and...well, everyone. I can never forget the sheer thrill of the first time I heard "Porpoise Song" by The Monkees, courtesy of a girl in high school who let me borrow her copy of the Head LP. I retain the sense of transcendent inspiration from a neighbor playing Otis Redding's Live In Europe, or friends hooking me on stuff by David Bowie, The O'Jays, Fingerprintz, and Anny Celsi, or hearing a Nada Surf CD playing in a record store and saying to the clerk GIMME!, or boppin' around my dorm room or apartment or suburban house, exulting in the sweet sounds of Fools Face, Chuck Berry, Gladys Knight & the Pips, The Kinks, The Flashcubes, The Isley Brothers, P. P. Arnold, The Barracudas, a crunchy James Brown 45, a Bay City Rollers eight-track, a Gretchen's Wheel mp3, all playing back on whatever home stereo equipment was/is available at the time. I wouldn't surrender a second of any of that.
Still: music in the car. Irreplaceable. Windows down (or air conditioner up) in the summer, snow tires barreling forward in the winter, the music turned up LOUD. It's a solitary experience, a communion; it's not quite the same when there's a passenger. When The Monkees released the digital single "She Makes Me Laugh," the first tease from the 2016 album Good Times!, I was disappointed with it...until I listened to it in the car. Then I got it, and I loved it. Pop music is made for the car. Driving in nearly any weather, give me my tunes, and I'll get there. The wind, the rain, the sun, and the snow are no match for the power of my music. Sunglasses on. Car stereo on. Let's go.
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Our new compilation CD This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio, Volume 4 is now available from Kool Kat Musik! 29 tracks of irresistible rockin' pop, starring Pop Co-Op, Ray Paul, Circe Link & Christian Nesmith, Vegas With Randolph Featuring Lannie Flowers, The Slapbacks, P. Hux, Irene Peña, Michael Oliver & the Sacred Band Featuring Dave Merritt, The Rubinoos, Stepford Knives, The Grip Weeds, Popdudes, Ronnie Dark, The Flashcubes,Chris von Sneidern, The Bottle Kids, 1.4.5., The Smithereens, Paul Collins' Beat, The Hit Squad, The Rulers, The Legal Matters, Maura & the Bright Lights, Lisa Mychols, and Mr. Encrypto & the Cyphers. You gotta have it, so order it here. A digital download version (minus The Smithereens' track) is also available from Futureman Records.
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