[I'd also argue that rock's demise is also the demise of the car...]

I can think of a few. Kraftwerk's Autobahn, Rush's Red Barchetta, Neu!'s Hallogallo (their motorik beat was meant to soundtrack driving a car), Radiohead's Airbag, the aforementioned Queen's I'm in Love with My Car.

What else am I missing? Any thoughts on the relationship between cars and rock? And how does prog fit in?

That's cool that you're in the Netherlands, a place which was horrified by car accidents and pedestrian deaths, especially of children, fought back against cars, and built amazing bike-friendly pedestrian-friendly infrastructure.

Do people listen to rock when riding bikes? I found that when I was living in Europe and often taking trains, the music I wanted to hear was techno. So much of German techno seemed designed for listening on a train - futuristic, moving to the rhythms of travel by train...

I'll wager you are right - we'll find that mainstream, more traditional rock and roll, particularly American r&r, is more concerned with the car. I think that's why American critics tended to be wary of European rock forms such as prog. US critics had such a conservative view of what rock should be, and thought it shouldn't stray too far from its 'roots' (Elvis, Chuck Berry, etc.). That's why they loved Bob Seger and ridiculed Jethro Tull and Yes. But since rock didn't originate in Europe, Europeans felt much freer to play with it, innovate and be creative. That is both why European rock (e.g. the various British Invasions) was so exciting, but also why places like the UK were so quick to abandon rock and move on to new musical forms, or to stretch rock even further into dance and rave forms...

 

How can you tell what they're listening to if they have earphones/earbuds?

 

agreed, and I have about a 40 minute ride to work, so that's two sides of TFTO - but it's not Bruce Springsteen, which I what I think of when I think of music and cars rather than music in cars.

I never thought of prog as urban music. I think of hip-hop and jazz fusion and funk music as urban, certain kinds of dance music like techno and house.

Like, Genesis is all medieval knights, Victorian drawing rooms and hunting foxes at the country manor; Jethro Tull is about minstrels on heavy horses singing songs in the woods; Camel's music conjures caravans and the moon over a desert oasis; Yes: "in and around the lake mountains come out of the sky"; Pink Floyd does the ocean (Echoes) and the creepy countryside pretty well (Cirrus Minor, Grantchester Meadows, and axe-wielding serial killers named Eugene); Rush does songs about trees in forests vying for sunlight, with Tom Sawyer off skipping stones across the river...

This is really interesting to me. Which prog bands or albums would we say are urban? I know many of these bands were in fact from the city. I think Hawkwind were in the city; yet their music seems to be about exploring outer space more than urban spaces... I'll have to think about this 

** One album I think of as urban is Marillion's Brave, and certain tracks, like Invisible Man.

Neil Young

This reminds me, there's a really cool Youtube series called "What Are You Listening To?," set in various cities around the world, especially Europe and Asia. I find it far more interesting than it has any right being, and can spend hours watching it. Basically, the interviewer stops people in the streets and asks them what they are listening to; the answers are often surprising and interesting. Here's the Amsterdam edition:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MJ0gW2YoaxA" rel="nofollow - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MJ0gW2YoaxA

 

I agree with what you say, yet I think of prog as urban because it's so fair removed from what is "natural" - in spite of the lyrics, there is a sophistication and intellectualism to prog that could only come from an "unnatural" environment.  It's not music that you would make sitting around on the back porch.

There seems to be a trajectory to cars and rock. At first, in the 50s and early 60s, cars symbolized youthful rebellion and freedom in music. (Not all was rosy; Lennon: "He blew his mind out in a car; he hadn't noticed that the lights had changed.") As the 70s wore on, in Southern rock, 'ramblin' men' took to the highway because they're 'freebirds,' movin' from town to town. But out on the west coast of the US (LA, the first postmodern city, a sprawling suburb with no urban center), the highway was becoming an ominous thing: There were creepy hotels; killers on the road with brains squirming like a toad; life in the fast lane will surely make you lose your mind; the car is running on empty. And then in the 80s, on the east coast with Springsteen, the car promised a way out of the city (re: white flight), which is depicted as a jungleland. Living at the edge of NYC, in a New Jersey suburb, he could've headed into the city; instead, he fled, drove straight out to Nebraska, as far as one can get. (If he had been older, his migration would've probably been to Florida.) But yet ultimately the promise of the highway is broken; the car doesn't offer freedom, and the road just goes on and on, to nowhere...

Most people don't know the origins of techno. It originated in Detroit in the early 80s among black musicians in the city, and was influenced by Kraftwerk and funk. Detroit was of course the auto capital of the US, but with de-industrialization the city was rapidly deteriorating. A key early techno track is called "Cosmic Cars," http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aOBUqCIXXWY" rel="nofollow - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aOBUqCIXXWY  and imagines a different kind of flight from the city:  futuristic flying cars piloted by black astronauts and heading for outer space. Germans went wild for the music coming out of Detroit, the music crossed over to Europe, and the rest is history. 

Anyway, this is probably getting too far from the topic, "Prog and Cars" 

 

it may be far from the topic, but I enjoyed the discourse all the same. 

The only prog song about driving that really comes to mind is Khan's "Driving to Amsterdam" from "Space Shanty".

Sean Trane wrote: Living in the Netherlands for the past 11 years, I don't get the impression that society fought back cars because of the "accident and pedestrian deaths" issues. Bikes ruled well before cars appeared and the historical city centre structures were simply not built to accomodate cars, period.

My favourite way of listening to music will always be while driving my vehicle. That might not be so if I lived in a city but up here in Wasaga Beach it's all very chilled.

I'm really surprised how many said they like this topic. To be honest, I've been thinking about it for years, and entertained the idea of writing a book on it, since I couldn't find anything else written on the subject. (Maybe it's out there and I just haven't found it.) I've written sections here and there, whenever I get the urge...

All of that is great that you wrote, especially the sex angle 

Well, I thought I'd break with the norm and actually discuss your original question instead of flying off on tangents like everyone else. 

Our earlier cars only had AM band radios, and coincidentally, prog bands like ELP, Yes, and Focus began to generate huge AM radio hits in this time period.  "In the Beginning," "Roundabout" and "Hocus Pocus" all had heavy rotation.  Other bands, such as Tull and Flash, had minor AM radio hits.  

In this manner, I believe that the American automobile experience definitely helped to boost the rise of prog.  A bit later on, our cars commonly became equipped with the 8-track cassette music system, which increased access to the music while driving.  

I'm very glad to have experienced it at the age that I was, I have fantastic memories of Yes playing in the largest Chicago venues to enthusiastic crowds.  It was a golden age, the likes of which we probably will never see again.  Lady GaGa sells the biggest venues now.  Pity.

 

I have shared a few times Yes Roundabout youtube vid to fb, each time I dedicated it to the People of Milton Keynes  a friend of mine lives there and they have so many roundabouts

Since surf music and hot rod music were closely related my memories of cars and music would be I Get Around by The Beach Boys, Dead Man's Curve, Little GTO, etc.

A little before Prog though.

Q: Why do Yugo's have heated rear windows?

A: To keep your hands warm when pushing them.

Q: How do you double the value of a Yugo?

A: Put a litre of petrol in the tank.

Q: How do you get a speeding ticket in a Yugo

A: With a tow-truck

All Yugos come with anti-theft devices as standard - you have to pay extra to have them de-badged.

Great point about Kerouac. No self-respecting rocker was without a worn-out copy of On the Road, especially in the US! 

 

Just ask Deep Purple.

 

 

 

 

That's a really nice tune and that first Young album is unique ....one of my favorites from him and he never did another quite like that one.

 

Regarding prog and cars..I never really noticed any connection.

I guess we're liable to find more references to spaceships and unicorns than to Chevys and VWs in prog.. 

 

and that's the way it should be.  Cars are interesting to drive but not so interesting to talk about, Top Gear notwithstanding.

 

The Beatles - "Why Don't We Do It In The Road?"

And of course his track "Cars," an utter classic. 

Mike Keneally "The Car Song"

 

Todd Rundgren "Emperor Of The Highway"

Hi,

Hmmmmm ... I'm a fan of the Grace Slick'est of them all ... getting stopped on 101 in California for going 120mph, and the cops decided to take a look at the engine of the car instead, and not give her a ticket.

She probably got one, and it was for $5. But who knows?

As for the kind of car ... I don't think it was an American car! Those can't go fast enough to even make a cover of an album, unless your name is Mr. Chevrolet!

The late (very great) Cedric Sharpley.

As the owner of a TVR Chimaera 4.5, it resonates. The eternal green agenda, the relentless crackdown on speed (even where it's safe) with endless speed bumps - I feel like that driver in the song. Persecuted. (And before you ask - I've got no speeding convictions at all, so I'm not a maniac).

The only problem is that my car is blue, not red.

Porcupine Tree - Open Car

I totaled my first car ('76 Porsche 914) in a 5-car accident (my fault) because I was trying to find just the right mix of bass & treble for Traffic's "Low Spark of High Heeled Boys" which I had just put into my cassette deck.  I didn't notice everyone else had stopped...

Every time I hear that raunchy saxophone, I'm reminded of how a 914 can literally disintegrate.

Edited to add: I had that car for 3 whole weeks.  When I reflect back on it all (which I try to do very infrequently), I'm amazed I made it out of my somewhat troubled youth more or less unscathed.

Yes- White car

Rush - Red Barchetta

King Crimson - Neal and Jack and Me (mentions a 1952 Studebaker)

Gary Numan - In Cars (technically not really prog but close imo)

More broadly speaking, I think Hawkwind was influenced by the "motorik" beat originating with Neu! (see "Hallogallo") and used by other so-called Krautrock bands like Can and Kraftwerk (see "Autobahn"), and which was meant to emulate driving on a motorway.

There do seem to be more prog songs that are evocative of driving (often completely instrumental) than there are of prog songs about cars.

Here’s another good one, IMO (though it does start slow):