Road Trip Tunes

The best road tunes suggest movement. Alone in your car, the emotions of a song can grip you, fuel your wanderlust and set your mind free. They can evoke ecstasy and reflection in equal measures. Here's my Top 5, but I suggest downloading the LPs they were plucked from and placing them on shuffle.

“Hejira”: Joni Mitchell (Hejira, 1976)

“A defector from the petty wars/that shell-shock love away,” Mitchell recorded Hejira —the ultimate road album steeped in gorgeous melancholy—in the wake of her rocky dalliance with Bob Dylan’s shambolic Rolling Thunder Revue tour and the young playwright Sam Shepherd. Jaco Pastorius’ fretless bass provides nuanced counterpoint to Mitchell’s unique guitar tunings and the kind of exquisite poesy that should be taught in classrooms.

“America”: Simon & Garfunkel (Bookends, 1968)

A rueful masterpiece that evokes flight with a narrative that turns inward. The search for America represents an existential quest during tumultuous times. “Kathy I’m lost, I said, though I know she was sleeping,” Simon sings plaintively. “I’m empty and aching and I don’t know why!”

“Drivin’ South”: Jimi Hendrix (BBC Sessions, 1998)

A rollicking rocker that builds with the force of a runaway train with propulsive drumming by the inimitable Mitch Mitchell. There are no less than three versions of this instrumental on the compilation and they’re all stupendous—just the kind of kick-out-the-jams track you want with the windows rolled down and the pedal to the metal.

“Tonight and Forever”: Joe Jackson (Big World, 1986)

Recorded live in New York’s Roundabout Theatre, this rousing ode to unadulterated desire is part of a song cycle that touts global exploration while decrying Western arrogance during the Reagan/Thatcher years. The production is crisp, and the band is tight, with Jackson’s angry-young-man fire burning brighter than ever.

“Fast Car”: Tracy Chapman (Tracy Chapman, 1988)

Chapman and Luke Combs’ performance of this tune was a highlight of the 2024 Grammy Awards. The POV suggests the need for escape: from poverty, family dysfunction and hopelessness. The arrangement is mainly acoustic guitar—all the better to focus on the song’s sense of urgency. “Leave tonight or live and die this way.”

Essential bonus songs

“Silver Train,” Rolling Stones ( Goat’s Head Soup , 1973); “Keep on Running,” Stevie Wonder ( Music of My Mind , 1972); “Katmandu,” Bob Seger ( Beautiful Loser , 1975); “Back in the U.S.S.R,” The Beatles ( The Beatles , also known as “The White Album,” 1968); “Running on Empty,” Jackson Browne ( Running on Empty , 1977)