Music to Devour Pavement

Have you ever been driving down the road and that perfect song comes on and you really start to get into the groove of it and then you hit the next red light? The worst part of all that is you lose the song to the light. No? Is it just me?

I had to set up a riding mix a while back. It came from one of those moments when I realized the music I have on my phone fits too many different situations. Believe me when you are riding and all of a sudden something like My Humps from the Black Eyed Peas comes through the speakers and you realize that this doesn’t fit the situation at all… It has an effect, let me tell you.

Yeah, I don’t know if there is a purpose here for any of this other than a moment for me to ramble about some music and cruising. See, I have very eclectic taste in music. I listen to just about everything and I am very much about the mood of the moment for what fits the situation. My wife likes to tell me that I am building my own radio station.

Which is to say that I have a lot of music saved to a hard drive. The amount I put on my ipad or my phone is only a fraction of what I have available. And the stuff I put on the satellite units (ipad and phone) is meant to be situational. I can set up music mixes that will cover an entire car ride across the country without repeats. And probably do that a couple times. Is there a time when you collection gets out of control?

But I digress…

So where were we? Oh yeah, thinking of the cruise and the music that goes along with it. So here it was, last night we had gone to a soccer game. My second daughter’s boyfriend plays in an amateur league. Like I said, I have a riding mix because if I don’t use it, I tend to get music that doesn’t fit the ride.

It wasn’t until after I had created the list and used it a few times that I realized the truth of the thing. See, the majority of the music it ended up being Judas Priest. On the surface it makes sense that the majority of it is metal of various varieties. The back of a bike needs something that gets the blood pumping and that can cut over the roar of the engine.

But for me, Judas Priest is the epitome of riding music. I saw them live back in 1990 in San Diego. Probably one of the view bands I have actually seen live (I so hate crowds). It was the tour with Megadeath, and Testament. Great show but a bit irrelevant to this moment. Other than to say that Rob Halford came onto the stage that night riding his motorcycle (this was the Painkiller tour now that I remember it). The roar of the engine blasted through the roar of the crowd. And you would think this would be part of the whole thing that pulled me into the association.

But that is only a minor part of the whole thing…

See, it actually started years before that with the Turbo album. Turbo Lover is the song that cemented in my mind the whole love of the open road and the need to get into the ride. Aside from it’s connection to sex and speed it burned into my mind everything of what the ride could be.

Which brings us back to the start of this bit of random thought today. So we were leaving the soccer field and the mix had started. On the bike the best I can do is change the volume if I am not wearing my gloves, otherwise it is just let the music go and don’t worry about anything but the road around me. So there is no opportunity to replay songs or anything like that (forced safety, no way to read texts or play with your phone on a bike).

We were going down a main street which means a number of stop lights around businesses and such. And wouldn’t you know that Turbo Lover would come into the mix. Mind you there are no unhappy endings in this rambling today other than the lost opportunity of a song that plays at the worst time to play. Because you know what happened right? Half way through the song I ended up at a stoplight. Yeah, I had to sit there flaccidly while traffic to both sides of me got to go. I was ride blocked by public safety.

Of course, after all that, the rest of the play list was a bit of a let down. I just didn’t have anything left to enjoy because the moment had slipped away.

How about you? Do you have a connection to music when you drive or ride? Any special songs or what not that just fit a specific moment that carry you through?

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