William's Song a Day Blog - est. September 2007

This is kind of a leftover from my theme week. I almost chose it, but it technically is not a car crash song, however it technically is because of the best-known lyric contained in the song: "Indians scattered on dawn's highway bleeding, ghosts crowd the young child's fragile egg-shell mind." The song was recorded seven years after Jim Morrison's death using recordings of him reciting his poetry. Ever since I heard it I immediately loved this song, there is something about the 70's funk-inspired music combined with his poetry that really makes this song simply awesome in my opinion. From what I understand this poetry was inspired by an accident that Jim Morrison witnessed as a child; he believed that the spirits of the dead Native Americans in the crash entered his body at that time. Here is the music video on YouTube. +

I have noticed that I have woefully neglected choosing songs this week from what is thought of as the "golden era" of car crash songs. I figured that choosing the song that most would probably view as one of the quintessential car crash songs would be an excellent choice to end my theme week of vehicle wreck songs. The song was originally written and recorded by Wayne Cochran and the C.C. Riders, but when most think of this song it is probably the J. Frank Wilson version, who made the song famous. From what I have read this song was inspired by an actual car wreck in 1962 Barnesville, Georgia where a car load of teens collided with a flatbed truck and most were killed; this song was dedicated by Wayne Cochran to the memory of one of the victims of the crash. Here is a recording of the song on YouTube. Here is the Wayne Cochran and the C.C. Riders original on YouTube. +

I figured that this would be an excellent addition to my vehicle crash song theme week. This is the climax song in the pseudo rock opera that the album consists of. The songs on the album were supposed to be part of a musical sung by Adam Faith; they were written by Ian Anderson and David Palmer. After it did not come to fruition and was scrapped, Ian Anderson then decided to go ahead and make the already-written music into the next 'Tull album. In this one the main character, Ray Lomas is a '50s-'60s Rocker/Greaser that refuses to change his image or his lifestyle with the times and finds himself as a relic. All of his friends have "sold their souls" and moved on with their lives and have families and respectable jobs, which makes him quite despondent. He ends up going on a wild bike ride down the A1 Motorway and ends up crashing. This song has a happy ending, however. After he wakes up in the hospital he finds out that his fashion has come back into style and i...

Not all car crash songs are based on fictional stories, sometimes they are inspired by actual events. Apparently members of the band were into heavy drug use and were trying to clean themselves up at the time and Gary Rossington "fell off the wagon" and crashed his car into a tree. This song was written about the incident and the consequences of alcohol and drug abuse. Here is a recording on YouTube. Here is a live performance from '77 on YouTube. Here is a live performance from '96 on YouTube. +

I figured for the hump day of my theme week I should choose what some refer to as "The Ultimate Wreck Song." This song features a star-studded cast of musicians from both The E-Street Band and Todd Rundgren's Utopia. It was written by Jim Steinman, who grew up with and liked a lot of the epic wreck songs from the 50's and 60's, which is when these crash songs were being made in the greatest quantity. He ended up creating a "magnum opus" in the same vein as those songs that almost lasts ten minutes. Here is a recording of the song on YouTube. Here is a live performance on YouTube. +

I decided on this intense song to continue my week about car wreck songs. I ran into this song a while ago and was drawn to it because I liked the sound that this band puts out. They remind me a bit of The Foo Fighters in sound, but that might be just me. For those who do not know about the band, M83 is a French Electronic Rock band that is in a genre called " Shoegazing ." Anyway, I have noticed that a lot of the songs about car crashes have to do with young lovers getting into a wreck and usually only one is killed. The song then is usually written around the other trying to make sense of and coming to terms with the loss. This can make for an emotional, heart wrenching track in some cases; this song follows that formula quite well. Here is a music video on YouTube. Here is a performance of the song on YouTube. +

Continuing my theme week of vehicle crash songs, this is actually of my favorite Kiss songs. The song is written about a Kiss fan that died in a car accident on the way to a concert. Here is a recording of the song on YouTube. Here is a live performance on YouTube. +

I have decided to do a full theme week this week; the theme, as macabre as it is: vehicle crash songs. I have already posted some songs that would fit in this theme; two that I can think of right off the top of my head are Robert Mitchum's " The Ballad of Thunder Road " and Red Sovine's " Phantom 309. " However, there are plenty more songs of this kind in existence to fill this theme week; you would be surprised just how many if you thought about it. I figured that this light-hearted offering from Devo would be an excellent one to kick it off. The music and vocals in this song are quite upbeat and catchy. In this crash song the main character drives on the expressway in his Datsun and smacks into a semi. Here is a live performance on YouTube. +