It’s sacreligious to call Hot Wheels music in earnest compared with anything else on this playlist, but few tunes get my heart going with such ease. Just don’t play it too loudly at a drive-through, else be thought of as the typical just-passed, spotty-faced hooligan behind the wheel of their mum’s hatchback. It’s a country song about a road trip to watch stock cars at Talladega that contains lyrics such as “like those cars my thoughts roll over and over”.
Fun fact: Highway to Hell is the nickname given to the Canning Highway, a stretch of road in Australia that the late AC/DC lead singer, Bon Scott, would travel down in the late 1970s to reach popular rock ’n’ roll hotel Raffles. It’s the mix of the emotions that always gets me in this song. She starts off slightly morose but then builds to the more upbeat notes in the chorus. It’s uplifting and calming, just how I like my journeys.
Driving is my thinking time, and to put this song on is to drift away, concentrating but not concentrating. This lovely modern-folk ballad details how cars move through our lives with us, from being curled up on the back seat as a child, to being the driver excitedly heading to meet your first love, to rekindling old friendships when visiting your hometown many years later as an adult. I love the chaotic optimism of this 22-minute epic.
It’s just a joyful, intricate track, and while you can obviously listen to it anywhere, there’s something a bit spiritual about blasting it out while driving down an actual autobahn, no matter how fast or slow you’re going.Richard LaneAny song by The Boss is guaranteed to be just brilliant, especially when it’s about roaring around town in an all-American muscle car. Given this song was released in 1975, it’s probably not about the Fiesta.