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Why is a British "Road song" so hard to do well?

The yanks have 100's of the things, & we have err..........
Billy Bragg's A13 & Richard Thompson's 1952 Vincent Black Lightning (which is magnificent, and is covered by Bluegrass legend Del McCoury & Reckless Kelly).

Any others of note?

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by david turnbull on April 2, 2009 at 11:29am

I can think of a couple...
It's Immaterial - Driving Away From Home
Sniff'n The Tears - Driver's Seat
thats about it though

Permalink Reply by Thom Ciskoe Pike on April 3, 2009 at 10:29am

One Yank's two-cents:

I sympathize, but y’all ARE geographically challenged in that regard.

But as the Home Island Nation, you guys have always led the league in sea-faring songs.

I submit that that is Britain’s version of the road song:

“From Liverpool to ‘Frisco a-rovin’ I went . . .’

A trad. tune I can’t get out of my head lately is Willie Taylor, both the version by Uncle Earl, and the one by Taylor Brooke: A young lady finds adventure, revenge, and career advancement in the British Merchant Navy with a little hot-blooded murder.

Cheers,

Ciskoe
Albuquerque, NM
USA

Permalink Reply by paul hurst on May 6, 2009 at 8:03am

the saw doctors did a track n17 which i know is not british but irish and the levellers did a track called the road but thats the best i can come up with,british town names do not have the romance of our american cousins

Permalink Reply by Belladrum Tartan Heart Fringe on June 1, 2009 at 5:53pm

In all seriousness, its tough to make a good story out of a journey that only takes 10 hours to bottom, in American whole adventures can happen in the days it takes to traverse the land mass, the same reason as road movies being difficult to imagine on our small island.

Having said that you take the low road and I'll take the High Road and I'll be at Belladrum Festival before you July 24 to August 8th the best two weeks to be in The Highlands.

Permalink Reply by solenoid lopez on June 3, 2009 at 8:39am

I recently sat down to write a road song and it ended up using being full of americana imagery such as "I like the way this blacktop feels underneath my rumblin' wheels, like a greased rollercoaster. Shedding miles at unholy speeds, laying waste my blatant needs, like a damned great plains twister"

Driving in the UK is generally is quite dull however this thread reminded me of that TV series about Britains best drives with Richard Wilson, anyway in that series he drove from Lands End to St Ives in Cornwall which happens to beone of my favourite drives anywhere, so maybe I'll try and write a song about that!!

Permalink Reply by Tom Jennings on July 23, 2009 at 10:07am