dpd project [Full List of Discs] [FAQ] [Find A Song or Band] [Message Board]      

DPD: 056 - Blood Runs Red On The Highway


Track Listing:

1

Dead Joe - The Birthday Party

2

Nimrod's Son - The Pixies

3

Warm Leatherette - The Normal

4

Cars Pass in Cold Blood - The Faint

5

Understanding in a Car Crash - Thursday

6

The Right Profile - The Clash

7

Made of Stone - The Stone Roses

8

Last Kiss - Pearl Jam

9

Bat Out of Hell - Meat Loaf

10

In the Kingdom #19 - Sonic Youth

11

Daddy's Speeding - Suede

12

The Best Film He Ever Made - Sad Lovers and Giants

13

Killer Cars - Radiohead

14

Motorist (Alternate Take) - Jawbox

15

Two Suns in the Sunset - Pink Floyd

Date: September 6th, 2004  


Darpino I've been wanting to do this theme for quite a long time now. Something about the idea really captured my imagination. The fact that one car accident can have so many victims (directly or indirectly) and that it can change the fates of all involved forever is a really heavy subject to think about. My life was changed forever by a car wreck when I was a kid and the subject of them has always intimidated and fascinated me. There are so many strangers out there in the world and the thought often occurs to me that so many of them meet only in death, when their cars collide. Anyway, I picked this theme because I knew there had to be some great songs written about this awe-inspiring subject. It just took us awhile to collect them. So enjoy and don't forget to buckle up.

Diamond We've got more vehicular carnage than the highway sequence of Jean Luc Godard's Weekend. For some great visual accompaniment to this disc, visit wreckedexotics.com, good stuff.

Prokop Car Crashes are always highly emotional affairs. They always affect some body, some group or even a nation. Naturally, the songs about such things are also highly charged.


1: Dead Joe

    The Birthday Party - Junkyard


Selection by: diamond

More men than women die each year in motor vehicle crashes. Men typically drive more miles than women and engage more often in risky driving practices including not using a safety belt, driving while impaired by alcohol, and speeding.
However, deaths of female drivers have increased during the past 25 years while male driver deaths have declined. More women now are licensed than in the past. They drive more miles and are more likely to be driving at night. The fatal crash rate per 100 million miles of travel for male and female drivers decreased similarly between 1977 and 2001—a 48 percent decrease for female drivers and a 45 percent decrease for male drivers.


2: Nimrod's Son

    The Pixies - Come On Pilgrim


Selection by: darpino

I love this song and I almost forgot it until last night. Everybody always remembers the incest part and always forgets the motorcycle crash part. But Black Francis really paints the picture with a great economy of words in this one.

"One night upon my motorcycle through the desert (I) sped
And smashed my body so that all my friends thought I was dead
My sister held me close and whispered to my bleeding head
You are the son of a motherfucker."

That's just great fucking stuff.

"In my motorcycle mirror I think about the life I've led
And how my soul's been leaking out the holes where I had bled"

And that, well that's poetry.


3: Warm Leatherette

    The Normal - Warm Leatherette / T.V.O.D.


Selection by: prokop

This is the classic; really, I can’t say much more that hasn’t been said. Founder of MUTE records, Daniel Miller. JG Ballards Crash. Offbeat electrical pulses. c’mon...


4: Cars Pass in Cold Blood

    The Faint - Blank Wave Arcade


Selection by: diamond

There's cause for concern when older people do drive because they have higher rates of fatal crashes than all but the youngest drivers per mile driven. This is largely due to their increased susceptibility to injury, particularly chest injuries and medical complications, rather than an increased tendency to get into crashes. Fragility begins to increase at ages 60-64. At age 75, older drivers do begin to be markedly overinvolved in crashes, but fragility is the predominant factor explaining the elevated deaths per mile among older drivers.


5: Understanding in a Car Crash

    Thursday - Full Collapse


Selection by: darpino

To occupy this 4 minutes and 24 seconds of his life that he will never get back, here's a recipe for Diamond to pass the time.

Car Crash Victim Spare Ribs:

2 parts speed
10 parts broken glass
1 1/2 ton of twisted steel
3 cups gasoline

Add a dash of Whiplash for flavor

Heat over a raging fuel fire for 1-3 hours depending on remoteness of location.

Serve off of engine grill in the order emergency personnel arrive.


6: The Right Profile

    The Clash - London Calling


Selection by: prokop

Poor, poor Montgomery Clift. Over night Hollywood star, lit up the screens for almost 10 years, then had his face smashed coming home from Elizabeth Taylors. The crash was highly publicized; he barely survived, as she had to rip some teeth from his mouth to stop him from choking to death. Had he actually died, he would have been immortalized forever, like James Dean. Instead, he led what has been called the longest Hollywood suicide. He lost his good looks, slipped further into drugs and alcohol, and a whole nation watched him waste away and die in New York.


7: Made of Stone

    The Stone Roses - The Stone Roses


Selection by: diamond

Only 2 percent of motor vehicle-related deaths are bicyclists. Among a majority of those killed, the most serious injuries are to the head, so it's important for bicyclists to wear helmets. Helmet use has been estimated in one study to reduce head injury risk by 85 percent. Nineteen states and the District of Columbia have helmet laws applying to young bicyclists; none of these laws applies to all riders. Local ordinances in a few states do require some or all bicyclists to wear helmets. A nationwide phone survey estimated that state helmet use laws increase the probability that a rider will wear a helmet by 18 percent. Helmets are important for riders of all ages, especially because adult bicyclists represent more than three-quarters of bicycle deaths.


8: Last Kiss

    Pearl Jam - Last Kiss/Soldier of Love


Selection by: darpino

Pretty much the main time people listen to the radio these days is while driving. The idea of people driving around listening to songs about crashing and burning seems like a pretty odd thing for people to do. I'm sure any DJ who would stop to think about it would come to the same conclusion. So my theory on Car Crash songs that make it on the radio is that they must be pretty phenomenal to get so much air time. I know this one certainly is.

This song dominated the air waves the summer I met Greta. It wasn't intended as a radio single, but its popularity through requests made it a genuine sleeper hit. The song strikes a chord in me, as I'm sure it did all the thousands of people who requested it that summer. It is a perfect romantic tragedy and just the thing to make you hold your lover a little tighter on a warm summer night.


9: Bat Out of Hell

    Meat Loaf - Bat Out of Hell


Selection by: prokop

OK, first off, rock operas rule, let’s just get it straight. OK, maybe not Jesus Christ Superstar, but in general, the stories capture all the details of any angst ridden youth, wait this is car crash songs.

OK, so this guy is living in this hell hole town, and the only thing in his world is his girl. He’s gotta leave, to search for something better, and leave his only love behind. He spends his last night with her, before he escapes for the highway on this bad ass bike. In his fiery passion, he puts it full throttle and dies at the bottom of a cliff. He’ll no longer get his girl, but he set himself free from his life of hell. That’s cool.


10: In the Kingdom #19

     Sonic Youth - EVOL


Selection by: diamond

Eighty-seven percent of teen motor vehicle deaths in 2002 were passenger vehicle occupants. The rest were pedestrians (6 percent), motorcyclists (3 percent), bicyclists (2 percent), and people in other kinds of vehicles (3 percent).
Motor vehicle crashes are the number one cause of death among 16-19 year olds. Forty percent of deaths of 16-19 year-olds in 2000 from all causes occurred in crashes. This is the latest year for which this information is available.


11: Daddy's Speeding

     Suede - Dog Man Star


Selection by: darpino

My brother and I lost our father to a car wreck when we were just pups. That accident changed our lives forever. I wonder sometimes what the alternate reality would be like had our father lived and raised us. How would we have gotten along? What kind of life would I have today? Would I be anything like the man I've become? What kind of man was he? Unfortunately (or fortunately?) I'll never know.

"He crashed the car and I was born"
"He crashed the car and left us here"
"Daddy's speeding, can you see him?"

This song really speaks to me.


12: The Best Film He Ever Made

     Sad Lovers and Giants - Cowboys E.P.


Selection by: prokop

I just can’t believe how amazing this song is.


13: Killer Cars

     Radiohead - High and Dry/Planet Telex Pt. 2


Selection by: diamond

There were an estimated 6,316,000 car accidents in the US in 2002. There were about 2.9 million injuries and 42,815 people were killed in auto accidents in 2002.
An average of 115 persons die each day in motor vehicle crashes in The United States -- one every 13 minutes.


14: Motorist (Alternate Take)

     Jawbox - Jackpot Plus


Selection by: darpino

"Forever in the business of tossing curve balls at their devoted fans, JAWBOX spent three and a half weeks in their ultra-secret subterranean bunker squeezing out the first twenty seconds of 'Motorist'. (How they got it to sound so inordinately crappy we will leave up to the listener's imagination, but let's just say it involved refrigerator magnets and several cups of cold coffee.)"-- from Southern Records' website

This "alternate" take is actually the original version referred to above. It totally trumps the album version which was re-recorded a year later on For Your Own Special Sweetheart. This version is incredible. It is perfection. It might be my favortie Jawbox tune. Eveything about this version strikes a chord in me. The subject matter, the perfect vocal delivery, the amazing guitar work, that awesome bass-line and the totally unbeatable choruses. These are some of Robbins' best lyrics too. God, I get so damn passionate about this song. It is perfectly crafted. Every damn note they play feels so natural but works so effectively in sucking you in that they must know exactly what they are doing! It works like magic.


15: Two Suns in the Sunset

     Pink Floyd - The Final Cut


Selection by: prokop

The conclusion of The Final Cut, is probably the best song on the album. Pink Floyd is great at layering all the background noises that reinforce the details and emotions of the song. The passing trucks, memories of your child at the playground. Without knowing much, you can tell he’s leaving, headed down the highway, mind wandering, ready for it to all go wrong. It times like this people start making the analogy between the moment before you slam into an 18 wheeler, and the upcoming holocaust ready to destroy us all. It’s those precious few moments, before your tears evaporate, you realize there really is equality for all people, and it’s in death.