Schenectady Synecdoche

Commander Cody & His Lost Planet Airmen,
Hot Licks, Cold Steel & Truckers Favorites (1972)
1. Truck Stop Rock 2:43
2. Truck Drivin' Man 2:50
3. Rip It Up 2:50
4. Cravin' Your Love 3:54
5. It Should've Been Me 3:07
6. Watch My .38 5:54
7. Semi-Truck 2:23
8. Kentucky Hills of Tennessee 4:03
9. Looking at the World Through a Windshield 2:26
10. Diggy Liggy Lo 1:55
11. Mama Hated Diesels 5:18
12. Tutti Frutti 2:50

Also on the CD that BP just burned:
The Flying Burrito Brothers,
Last of the Red Hot burritos(1972)—side 1
13. Devil in Disguise 3:51
14. Six Days on the Road 3:05
15. My Uncle 2:23
16. Dixie Breakdown 2:08
17. Don't Let Your Deal Go Down 2:27
18. Orange Blossom Special 3:47

It's interesting to listen to this stuff again. Southern rock just got harder and harder to listen to, especially as the artists began responding to Neil Young's "Southern Man." Those responses pushed them to obviously indefensible positions, and our discomfort with how well Southern rock lent itself to white supremacy—sometimes deliberately—made it just too hard to take. "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down," for example: musically, I just love that song. But how can you tap your toes to a celebration of the Confederacy? It's not quite like watching Birth of a Nation to while away your leisure evening, but it's not that far off, either. Ironically, I can listen to Prodigy's "Smack My Bitch Up" with a smile: to take it seriously would just be too ludicrous, and musically, it's a great song. But then again, am I not just in denial about the ways in which others might take up that song?

Anyhow. In digging around for trucking music, we've unearthed Southern rock that we're able to enjoy, at least for the nonce.