What song takes ye back and why?

UK PROFESSIONAL DRIVERS FORUMS OLD TIME LORRIES, COMPANIES AND DRIVERS (INTERACT
1

Just lisenin to some 70s music / early 80s music and certain songs remind me of certain places, the old days and where i was…

For example:

Chanson D’amour - Manhattan Transfer - I was in Marseille , aged 12 listen to this
yes Sir I can Boogie - Baccara -we were on our way to Spain - Dover Bound listen to this
Mul Of Kintyre - Wings - On me way to Hamburg
Mamma Mia - ABBA - on way to Grimsby in a 111 non sleeper!
Kissin in a back row in a movie on a sat night - Drifters - load of plumbs on the fridge from Italy Dad had just come back with, picked us up in another non sleeper headin again to Grimsby…
Green Green Grass of Home - Tom Jones -Enroute Milan
Velvet Mornings - Demis Roussos - Headin Dussleldorf - - remember thuis one well , were supposed to be goin to Naples, load changed to Germany… here we come… F89… ALL WHITE /TRAILER…

All these on an 8 track, does anybody remember these ? Pure Class

So …

what song reminds u where u where and why ?

2

You have a good point with this, everytime I hear The power by Snap it reminds me of a little villiage in Italy, Keep on moving by Soul to Soul reminds me of the Route Napoleon & any Rolling Stones remind me of Austria, but my earliest musical memory is listening to Nillson singing Without You, in candlelight as I waved my Dad off during one of the power cuts in the early 70s, he had a purple & silver Guy Big J4 & a 40’ spreadaxle skelly with a 40’ Swedish Lloyd box on & it was snowing.

3

‘My Guy’ by Mary Wells.
It was constantly on the juke box in a little bar in Antwerp late one night in 1965 as the crew of my first ship and I were dancing, rather the worse for wear, with some large and over glamourous ladies. Thank goodness we were incapable of anything else, shortly before leaving we realised that their 5 o’clock shadow was worse than ours. :open_mouth: :blush:

‘Six Days on the Road’ by Dave Dudley.
Obvious reasons really, although it mentions Jimmys and Whites, the dark smoke ‘as black as coal’ and ‘passing everything in sight’ certainly struck a chord in the 60s and 70s. :wink: :laughing:

4

too many to list - always been into music (like lots of people, I know) - I did always like putting on the War of the Worlds tape in down at cluses and IIRC it used to last over the blanc and down to aosta or santhia, may have to buy it on CD for a nostalgia hit :laughing:

5

Tme most memorable (and accurate!!) was “Nothing’s gonna stop me now” by Starship at a Renault Truck G series launch.

That truck was never known for having the most useful brakes!!!

6

I used to play Road to Hell by Chris Rea when I was heading towards the Turkish-Iraqi border at Habur. I always put it on between Kiziltepe and Silopi because in my mind it was the road to Hell !!
GS

7

Dont speak by no doubt sticks in my mind as was always on in zarafshan when out for a few refreshers, also pink floyd dark side of the moon as bought the cd in smolensk just to see what the fuss was about as they were before my time and i still have it in the car now!! :smiley:

8

Orrr Colin, you have got me going now :smiley: .

Dark Side Of The Moon by Pink Floyd and Tubular Bell’s by Mike Oldfield, going through the Sahara Desert in a series 2 Landrover in 1975. Wish You Were Here by Pink Floyd and The Eagles Greatest Hit’s by The Eagles.
Ommadawn by Mike Oldfield bought for 50p at the ferry terminal car park near The Harem Hotel in Istanbul in 1980 played in continuously when ever I was in Turkey.
Tubular Bell’s 2 by Mike Oldfield a birthday prezzy in 1991 alway’s put it on when in Scotland, must be something to do with the bagpipes :laughing: .

Spardo, I am surprised that you didn’t mention A Pub With No Beer by Slim Dusty or was that before they had cassette player’s :laughing: .

9

mushroomman:
Orrr Colin, you have got me going now :smiley: .

Dark Side Of The Moon by Pink Floyd and Tubular Bell’s by Mike Oldfield, going through the Sahara Desert in a series 2 Landrover in 1975. Wish You Were Here by Pink Floyd and The Eagles Greatest Hit’s by The Eagles.
Ommadawn by Mike Oldfield bought for 50p at the ferry terminal car park near The Harem Hotel in Istanbul in 1980 played in continuously when ever I was in Turkey.
Tubular Bell’s 2 by Mike Oldfield a birthday prezzy in 1991 alway’s put it on when in Scotland, must be something to do with the bagpipes :laughing: .

Spardo, I am surprised that you didn’t mention A Pub With No Beer by Slim Dusty or was that before they had cassette player’s :laughing: .

Hullo Mushroomman.
. By that brings back memories, I was sat in the Piermont Hotel, in Sydney. Half peed on Schooners of Tooheys ? lager, in 1957, when I first heard that song. It was a real – Dinky die, Bonzer Song.

10

Although I was very active in the London club scene in the sixties going to gigs to see bands such as the Stones, Yardbirds, Fleetwood Mac, The Who, Georgie Fame etc.,etc. it is an album by Perry Como that always brings a warm feeling back to me from my truck days.

I was on my way back from Bandar Abbas with a fellow Simon’s driver by the name of Derek Gull ( aka Snout). It was the winter of 75 which was a bad one and we had parked up in eastern Turkey for the night still with our chains fitted. It was bitterly cold and the fans didn’t work in my Scania so when I was stationary, I got no warm air in the cab. So I spent the evening drinking tea in Snout’s Volvo. He kept the engine running and it was lovely and warm in the cab. I remember he had just two tapes and one of them was this album of Perry Como numbers. I’ve always associated this album with that time in the warmth of a truck cab. I subsequently bought the album. Well, I had to, didn’t I. Must be the only Perry Como album in my collection!!!

11

this has to be the beat driver song
much better then convoy go to youtube
and put in CHAMPION AT KEEPING THEM ROLLING
writen by Ewan mc Coll and song by Paddy Reilly or The Dubliners

12

This could be a very long reply cos I’m a bit of a softy when it comes to music and memories, Eagles, Abba, Stevie Wonder’s “Songs in the key of life” all have me remenissing about my driving days, I remember vividly travelling home on a cold January '77 middle of the night, DAF road train dropping down through a beautiful mountainous area somewhere between Prague and the East German border, tall Fir trees with branches weighed down by snow lined the sides of the road, radio Lux fading in and out when “Don’t cry for me Argentina” by Julie Covington drifted out of the speaker, ah yes like it was yesterday! Then of course you can’t beat a bit of John Denver going over the Blanc. Kathy’s song by Simon and Garfunkel very appropriate for me and I distinctly remember it playing one night as I was travelling over the Cerdon area heading for Cluses, light traffic as it was very late and in the distance I could see the illuminated head board of an approaching lorry, if you remember we Brits had a quaint custom of switching on and off the head board light instead of flashing the headlights, this done I nearly jumped out of my skin when I suddely heard “are you on channel Febland?” I’d had the CB squelch turned down and forgot it was on.

13

Hiya Theres nothing wrong with ON THE ROAD AGAIN Canned heat that did it for me. when i’am 64 Beatles/Honkytonk woman Stones/Whiter shade of Pale
Procol Haram.OH SOD IT anything from 64to1980 that will do.
John

14

Here are few of mine

1975 Rod Stewart Sailing, My first ever journey with a HGV in to Europe on the Norstar from Hull — Rotterdam. Playing on the ships radio was the top twenty & sailing was at number 1 as we set sail.

Mul of Kintyre Wings

Always reminds me of Frank Macshane at Fearns Tankers running down the M5 every time it came on the radio, He would weave across all three lanes while ever it was playing and the road was clear.

Imagine John Lennon
1980 I had just pulled of the M18 at Thorne, when the news came on the radio
Imagine there’s no countries It isn’t hard to do Nothing to kill or die for And no religion too Imagine all the people
Living life in peace

I heard it through the Grapevine, Marvin Gaye
1984 I was driving through Luxembourg in the early hours, I had just been listening to the song on tape & switched over to the
2 O’clock news to hear he’d been shot.

Got a Ticket for my Destination. Paul Simon

I always played this one when I loaded for anywhere in the EU except UK.
I’m sitting in the railway station. Got a ticket for my destination. On a tour of one-night stands my suitcase and guitar in hand.
And every stop is neatly planned for a poet and a one-man band. Homeward bound, I wish I was, Homeward bound,

Country Roads, John Denver

I always played this one when I loaded for home

Country Roads, take me home, to the place I belong: West Virginia, mountain momma, Take me home, country roads.

Those were the days my friend , Mary Hopkins

I think of these words all the time.

Those were the days my friend We thought they’d never end We’d sing and DRIVE forever and a day
We’d live the life we choose We’d fight and never lose For we were young and sure to have our way.

Cheers Mel

15

Nice one!

16

Nikita, Elton John

This one takes me back to 1984 every time

Set of for Hungary running with Ginger, usual float of £200 & not much more, we had a great run all the way till we got to the Slovakia - Hungarian border

Ginger was in front as we hit the border he went over the single axle weigh bridge & moved on down the line, as I went over the weigh bridge the guy in the office went into a rant in Hungarian & gave me a red card, My first time over this boarder & Ginger said just stick with me, so I did.

When I pulled up behind Ginger in the queue my feet hadn’t touched the ground when I was whisked of by four armed customs officers into an office with a cell, after about an hour I found out I was over loaded by 500Kg on the back axle.

Well to be honest it was the first I knew as someone else had loaded it for me, worked it out straight away his normal tank was tri-axle & mine was a tandem
So he got the dips the wrong way round, after going over the weigh bridge at least six times & getting six different gross weights I said I was paying no £260 fine
Mistake maybe! Well after several hours trying to convince them to let us trans ship it from the back pot to the front in walked NIKITA,

Our eyes met across the room it was love at first sight, she was a beauty absolutely gorgeous she too was a customs officer she went over to her colleges & after five minutes came walking straight over to me, speaking in fluent English she said you must go over the weigh bridge again, and I said it’s a waste of time! No she said I will come with you we went over the bridge together issued with a green card to proceed, from then it was plane sailing she saw to everything visa all paperwork & when they were going to search my truck for any propaganda she called him back spoke with him & as he turned to come back to me she winked & blew me a kiss, he came back to me handed me all my papers & said ok Mr Haynes you are free to go.

Now for the connection to the song & the words.

On the very weekend of my return from that trip I was watching Swap Shop the program Noel Edmonds did on Saturdays, it showed a video of Nikita in which Elton John drove up to an eastern block border in a red Rolls Royce to try and rescue Nikita

All though I never new her name she was my Nikita, I had a red Rolls Royce at the time & did quite often think about going back. I have never seen that video since if anybody has seen it you’ll understand

Sweet memories, Mel Will post a picture later

Oh Nikita You will never know anything about my home I’ll never know how good it feels to hold you Nikita I need you so Oh Nikita is the other side of any given line in time Counting ten tin soldiers in a row Oh no, Nikita you’ll never know

And if there comes a time Guns and gates no longer hold you in And if you’re free to make a choice Just look towards the west and find a friend

Watch the videohttp://youtu.be/CLet_aHMHbM

PS Ginger if you read this, THANKS for standing by me on that day Cheers Me

17

jj72:
too many to list - always been into music (like lots of people, I know) - I did always like putting on the War of the Worlds tape in down at cluses and IIRC it used to last over the blanc and down to aosta or santhia, may have to buy it on CD for a nostalgia hit :laughing:

youtube.com/watch?v=W8JLqsbK5V0&feature=fvw

Youtube is cheaper :stuck_out_tongue:

18

3300John:
Hiya Theres nothing wrong with ON THE ROAD AGAIN Canned heat that did it for me.
OH i never mentioned that 6 months ban did i. The load was coca beens. A loaded trailer from Stoke to Hull catch weight bags all hand ball.The truck
was a ERF 205 ■■■■■■■ DVT 496J It was nice to be back.
john

19

coca cola kid:
Country Roads, John Denver

Cheers Mel

I had a lot of John Denvers tapes.
My favourite song was Annies Song,(My wifer’s name),but when loaded on my way back from the m/e,I always played “Country Roads”,get quite emotional about it even now!

Johnny Cash was also one of my all time favourites,some brilliant truckin’ music.

20

I had a lot of American truck driving/Country and Western music,Merle Haggard,Red Sovine,Johnny Cash,Dave Dudley and the like.
One song I always found amusing and poingnant was,“How fast them trucks can go”.I’ve forgotten who the artist was,but I still remember the words.