Setting Music To Marques

Steven Lang
by Steven Lang

Some folks like music. Or at least a series of sounds that vaguely resembles music.

They will rip CD’s. Collect several yards of vinyl. Develop a nice little Youtube playlist. Perhaps even have an Ipod-like device with hundreds of digitized recordings. Some play. Others listen. But the enjoyment is always there.

Right around the early to mid-30’s something happens to these people. Either they become more into music. Or they have music merely serve as background noise for other hobbies.

Or, if they are among the Best & Brightest who regularly visit TTAC, they surely have certain types of music that reminds them of certain cars.

Those are the ones that truly enjoy a musical Nirvana. Or perhaps a Welk-ish purgatory.

Paul Simon’s The Obvious Child has always reminded me of Saabs. Off-beat. Wonky. A feeling that the car you drive, and the life you live, is set to a unique almost non-rhythmic beat.

Then there is the opening salvo to Asia’s “Only Time Will Tell.”. I always imagined a Chrysler commercial from the mid-90’s that starts with some shots of Chrysler’s Auburn Hills R&D center in the first five seconds. Then you start hearing that cowbell and see snapshots of different ‘new’ Chryslers that transformed the company. Neon, Intrepid, Ram, Viper… you get the idea. Then the final five seconds with the drum cymbals has the vehicle driving towards the camera and morphing from one model to the other in that typical 1990’s Chrysler way.

Okay, maybe I’m a bit too into incorporating car commercials into my musical tastes. But that’s the fun of it! At least for me. I have about 40 to 50 of these ideas that have been spinning around in my head since my college days.

I won’t ask you for a script or a series of vision boards to explain your own ideas. Just a simple question.

What songs remind you of a given car or marque?

Extra credit if you can figure out what type of car best fits “ Boris The Spider“. And no… it can not be an Alfa Romeo.


Steven Lang
Steven Lang

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  • "scarey" "scarey" on Apr 28, 2012

    Blonde in the blue T-bird- Walter Egan Call Me Lightning- The Who..."My XKE is shining so brightly"... Life's Been Good- Joe Walsh..."My Maserati does 185, I lost my license and now I don't drive"... Chevy Van- Sammy Johns..."We made love in my Chevy Van".... "Legs"- ZZ Top...that red '33 Ford Eliminator car, and the Eliminator girls, of course

  • "scarey" "scarey" on Apr 28, 2012

    From Wikipedia..."Mercury Blues" is the title of song written by K. C. Douglas and Robert Geddins in 1949. The song, originally titled "Mercury Boogie," pays homage to the American automobile, which ended production in 2010.

  • Ajla If I was Ford I would just troll Stellantis at all times.
  • Ronin It's one thing to stay tried and true to loyal past customers; you'll ensure a stream of revenue from your installed base- maybe every several years or so.It's another to attract net-new customers, who are dazzled by so many other attractive offerings that have more cargo capacity than that high-floored 4-Runner bed, and are not so scrunched in scrunchy front seats.Like with the FJ Cruiser: don't bother to update it, thereby saving money while explaining customers like it that way, all the way into oblivion. Not recognizing some customers like to actually have right rear visibility in their SUVs.
  • MaintenanceCosts It's not a Benz or a Jag / it's a 5-0 with a rag /And I don't wanna brag / but I could never be stag
  • 3-On-The-Tree Son has a 2016 Mustang GT 5.0 and I have a 2009 C6 Corvette LS3 6spd. And on paper they are pretty close.
  • 3-On-The-Tree Same as the Land Cruiser, emissions. I have a 1985 FJ60 Land Cruiser and it’s a beast off-roading.
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