Promoted – The 8 best driving songs ever chosen by you
Here are your picks for the songs best heard on the open road...
From Jimi Hendrix’s Crosstown Traffic to AC/DC’s Highway to Hell, driving and rock n’ roll are one of the world’s great double acts.
A set of wheels and an open road have stood as metaphors for arrival and escape, freedom and folly. But what are the driving songs that most inspire you? The tunes that get your motor running? The tracks on endless repeat on your car stereo?
To celebrate the launch of Music, Dynaudio’s new range of intelligent music systems, we asked you those very questions on Facebook – and thousands of you had your say. We removed the votes for David Brent’s Free Love Freeway (you were joking, right?), tallied up the results and came up with a top three, which we then put to vote on Twitter.
Here, in reverse order, are your winners.
8. Eagles - Life in the Fast Lane
Inspired by a terrifying car ride with a drug dealer, the story behind Life in the Fast Lane is perhaps the best explanation of why we aren’t rock stars. An ideal road-trip song, Life in the Fast Lane has it all: an actual fast-lane right there in the lyrics, a punchy, fast-paced riff and Don Henley’s suitably husky vocals (for the second time, Don, get out of our heads).
7. Grace Jones - Pull Up To The Bumper
Perhaps best-known for her fashion career secret-agent menacing, Grace Jones’ 1981 hit Pull Up To The Bumper is endlessly funky and was boycotted by strait-laced American radio stations who read a little too much into the lyrics. Great for late-night drives.
Promoted: The intelligent music system
Think you could make a better list? Yep, we all do. That’s why Dynaudio Music, the intelligent music system, learns your listening habits and automatically creates made-to-measure playlists. So you get all the songs you want to hear - and none of the ones you don’t – at the touch of a button. Click here to find out more.
6. Motley Crue - Kickstart My Heart
Five minutes of magnificently melodic audio chaos, Kickstart My Heart is the only song to play as you pull off the 405 into Los Angeles. Or into Bracknell car park for the 9am meeting your boss was very clear you should be on time for. Regardless of where you listen to, Kickstart my Heart's guitar riff is bang on the money for anyone with a chattery exhaust and a love of acceleration.
5. The Verve - Bitter Sweet Symphony
Duh-duh-duh-duh-duh-durrrrrrr, duh-duh-durrr, duh-duh-durrrrrrr. Opening strings don’t get more iconic than Bitter Sweet Symphony's, a song that's formed the soundtrack to many a teenager’s angsty-est years. It's a great remedy for those who get wound-up behind the wheel, while the line "I’ve never prayed / but tonight I’m on my knees” is purpose-built for disgruntled commuters wishing they were in a car.
4. Aerosmith & Run DMC - Walk This Way
Ah yes, a song that nearly didn’t make the list because after he stayed up all night writing the lyrics, Aerosmith frontman Steve Tyler left them in the back of a New York taxi. You’ve opted for the magnificent Run-DMC cover of Walk This Way, a glorious collision of hair metal and rap that revived the fortunes of Tyler et al, and propelled rap into the mainstream. MTV showed the video twice an hour on release, back when MTV was about music and not about reality TV stars botching their fake tans.
Promoted: Meet the family
The Dynaudio Music family comprises four devices – Music 1, Music 3, Music 5 and Music 7 – each packed with game-changing technology. These intelligent music systems come armed with RoomAdapt and NoiseAdapt technology, automatically sensing where they’ve been placed in a room and optimising their performance to deliver the best possible performance. Click here to find out more.
3. Dire Straits - Telegraph Road
It's impossible to talk about driving songs without including the ever-popular Dire Straits. Telegraph Road is an absolute classic and thematically on-point. Roads! Driving! Hiking! America! It's a song made for the digital age, by the way, because at nearly 14 minutes long it occupies about a third of a blank cassette tape.
2. Chris Rea - The Road to Hell
What is it with Chris Rea and driving songs? You have to hand it to the man, though. The Road to Hell is the best, and possibly only song (and video!) about rush hour on junction 15 on the M25. That’s the one with the M4, dads everywhere.
1. Don Henley - The Boys of Summer
Maybe it’s the iconic guitar riff in the intro, maybe it’s the magnificently post-modern video. Whatever it is, you love a bit of Don and The Boys of Summer. A heady mix of 80s synths and good old-fashioned strings make this solo effort by the Eagles’ drummer a road-going belter, with Henley’s smokey, weary voice a gorgeous metaphor for a long journey.
To find out more about the Dynaudio Music range, click here.
