Top ten road accident songs

A slightly morbid topic this week, but there have been some great songs written about road accidents so this was too good a topic to ignore. So let me run you through my top ten songs  - have have truck accidents, bus accidents car accidents, motorcycle accidents and  pedestrian accidents all through the list this week.

 

Please take care on the  roads though, don’t end up in one of these songs.

 

10 - Last Kiss – Wayne Cochran

“We were out on a date in my daddy's car,

 We hadn't driven very far.
 There in the road straight ahead,
 A car was stalled, the engine was dead.
 I couldn't stop, so I swerved to the right,
 I'll never forget the sound that night.
 The screaming tires, the busting glass,
 The painful scream that I heard last.”

I was first introduced to this song via the Pearl Jam cover that became a hit a few years back. Personally, I am not a fan of the Pearl Jam cover, it’s a bit too pedestrian for my liking. So I have turned to Wayne Cochran’s version. You can’t deny it fits the theme though.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ebAjGHqa7Ig
 

 

9 - Car Crash – Eskimo Joe

“I don't wanna die
 In a car crash with you
 Tonight
The roads are wet
 And you're asleep at the wheel
 Open your eyes”

 Eskimo Joe are a good Australian rock band. Kav Temperley’s vocals are really suited to such dramatic songs like this one as he really portrays a lot of emotion in his lyrical delivery.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vdjo43dIeLU

 

8 - Indisposed – Australian Crawl
“Wanna tell you 'bout my Frenda
 He got hit by a Fender
 But he'll soon be on the menda
 He's of the male genda”

 So the back story here – Australian Crawl are an up and coming band on the verge of making it, and they are booked to appear on “Countdown”, the music TV show you want to get on in Australia in the early 80’s. Their lead singer, James Reyne though, manages to get hit by a car and ends up having to do the Countdown performance with two broken arms.  This incident also inspired this song, a stomping rock song that is a lot of fun, in spite of, or maybe because of, the dodgy lyrical rhyming!

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iQ9BDhvUwHM

 

7 - Stan – Eminem

“So this is my cassette I'm sending you, I hope you hear it

 I'm in the car right now, I'm doing 90 on the freeway
 Hey Slim, I drank a fifth of vodka, you dare me to drive?”

 

I was debating whether to include this song, because this accident is no accident if you know what I mean. Eminem’s signature tune, it’s the story of an obsessed fan who locks his pregnant partner in the trunk of the car and drives off a bridge. Charming I know, but it is a well constructed song.

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aSLZFdqwh7E

 

6 - There is a Light and it Never goes Out – The Smiths

“And if a double-decker bus
Crashes into us
To die by your side
Is such a heavenly way to die
And if a ten-ton truck
Kills the both of us
To die by your side
Well, the pleasure - the privilege is mine”

 Its only a fleeting reference to an accident, but too good a lyric to overlook for this list. I am not really a Smith’s fan, but “The Queen is Dead” album which features this track is brilliant and was a contender for my favourite albums list.  A great song, and a wonderful lyric that is sweet and morbid simultaneously.

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DRtW1MAZ32M

 

5- Anytime – Neil Finn

“see a dog upon the road
 Running hard to catch a cat
 My car is pulling to a halt
 The truck behind me doesn't know
 Everything is in the balance
 Of a moment I can't control
 And your sympathetic strings
 Are like the stirrings in my soul
 I could go at anytime”

 

In “Anytime”, Neil just sets up the accident, doesn’t tell us what happens, and then reflects on how quickly a small thing can change your life forever. Not a bad achievement in a short pop song!

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jpUcz8xhqvI

 

4- Leader of the Pack – The Shangri -Las
“The tears were beginning to show
As he drove away on that rainy night
I begged him to go slow
But whether he heard, I'll never know
Look out! Look out! Look out! Look out!”

 Well let this be a warning to school girls all over. Mess with the cool guys and this is what happens. No one approved of her hanging out with the leader of the pack and it ended with devastating consequences.

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q8UKf65NOzM

 

3- Bat Out of Hell  - Meatloaf
“And I never see the sudden curve until it's way too late.
Then I'm down in the bottom of a pit in the blazing sun,
Torn and twisted at the foot of a burning bike,
And I think somebody somewhere must be tolling a bell.
And the last thing I see is my heart, still beating,
Breaking out of my body and flying away
Like a bat out of hell.”

 From one motorcycle accident to another, but a lot heavier this time. According to Wikipedia, Jim Steinman had a desire to write the most extreme crash song of all time. Did he succeed? Well I only put it third on the list, but there is no denying it is more extreme than the next song so maybe he did. As  usual, Meatloaf carries the song with his dramatic vocal delivery.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3QGMCSCFoKA
 

 

2 - Don’t Pass Me By – The Beatles

“I'm sorry that I doubted you

I was so unfair
 You were in a car crash
 And you lost your hair”

 Hehehe…I cannot explain to you how much I love this song, when I think it would be safe to say that most people, including Beatles fans, think it’s a load of rubbish. Ringo’s contribution to the “White Album”, it’s a magnificent piece of faux-country with Ringo wondering where his darling is, and contemplating the fact that she might not love him any more. It turns out that she was in a car crash though. I love it, it’s a great track.

 You are probably wondering why I chose this and not a genuine Beatles masterpiece “A Day in the Life”, which also makes reference to a car crash. Well I felt the reference was too fleeting (and yet I included the Smiths song, hypocritical I know) whereas with “Don’t Pass Me By”, the car crash really underpins the whole song. Although it is only mentioned in the lyrics once, it explains why the darling didn’t arrive and leads to Ringo’s paranoia about whether his loved one still likes him.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LsZjHeQRX-M
 

 

1- Lights on the Hill – Slim Dusty

“So it's down through the gears, she's a-startin' to pull

The gauge on the tank is a-showin' they're full
 And the lights comin' over the hill are a-blindin' me
There's rain on the road and I can feel the load start a-shiftin
 In a dance
 Too late, I see the post and I haven't got a ghost of a chance”

So for today’s number one track, I also turn to country music, and Slim’s masterpiece “Lights on the Hill”. Written by his wife, it’s the happiest sad song you will ever hear. But underneath that cheery melody, the lyrics are the story of a truck crash. Brilliant stuff.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DCKZ-EKg0AY
 

 

So there it is, my top ten list – what other songs make you want to crash?