Music and Cars: Evaluate Your Karma

Americans love their cars. And whenever America loves anything, music is sure to follow. This connection initially flourished in the sixties. The Beach Boys alone were responsible for a bundle of car classics such as "Little Deuce Coupe", "409", "Fun Fun Fun", "Shut Down" and many more. Oddly, their song Little Honda was about a crappy motorcycle. Who would have guessed that Honda would eventually becomes one of the world's largest automakers?

Whenever there is musical success in a new genre, copycats are close behind. There were songs about Chevys, Fords, GTO's, Cobras and, of course, Cadillacs. These days we rarely hear new songs about cars. Is it because folks are less passionate about the automobile? I doubt it. Seems to me that songwriters have just moved on to other subjects, mostly the same old relationship-type subjects as always, and that the genre of car songs was a passing fancy. Except, of course, in the world of country music in which it is considered normal to love your pickup as much as your wife, kids and dog.

Want proof that people are as passionate today about their car? Talk to a Prius owner (I'm married to one). They love the way their car symbolizes their commitment to a cleaner environment and reduced dependence on oil, foreign and otherwise.

At the world's largest trade show for the automobile, the Detroit Auto Show which ended two days ago, a new hybrid was unveiled: the Fisker Karma. What a beauty. The Karma looks like a Maserati, costs $80,000, goes from zero to 60 in under 6 seconds and can travel 50 miles on battery power alone. I can already hear the advertisement, "Karma Karma Karma Karma Karma chameleon......" Boy George and the Culture Club can hardly wait to collect their royalties.

Nothing like using a song in a car add to ruin it. Remember Bob Seger's "Like A Rock". How many hundreds of times did you have that while Chevy tried to sell you a pickup? That song alone was responsible for me learning how to punch the mute button with the speed of a gunslinger.

But "Like A Rock" was just the warm up act for Chevy's latest advertising atrocity: John "Cougar" Mellencamp's "This Is Our Country". This trite piece of Americana drivel is overplayed enough to induce mass vomiting attacks with its cloying use of patriotic imagery, all in the name of selling another Chevy pickup. How could he sell out so badly? It's not like he was a poor man. I hear he's on the campaign trail for John Edwards, along with Jackson Browne and Bonnie Raitt, two musicians I greatly admire. Jackson and Bonnie, and Mr. Edwards too, please jump ship. Send Mellencamp back to Indiana now. Or better yet, tell him he can stay only if he demands that Chevy pull that awful song.

Karma eventually has something in store for us all. Mellencamp's is definitely falling. I think Barack's is rising. John F. Kennedy liked to say: "A rising tide lifts all boats." So I'll close this post about music and cars by talking about boats. Let's hope all of our boats rise with the tide of 2008.