Every now and then I become aware of a country song that captures the philosophy of old trucks, presumably because more country songs focus on old trucks than do hip hop or metal songs.
I am not a guy who listens to country music enough to be considered a fan, but I am always willing to embrace a song that picks up on the old pickup truck vibe.
Recently, a song called “Truck Yeah” came across my music radar and I believe this song gets as close to the soul behind old trucks as any tune. The song is a hybrid of rock-style guitar licks and hell-raising country style anthem: “Truck Yeah” is the catchy operative chant in said anthem.
I agree–Truck Yeah-I do love old pickups, even before Tim McGraw told me I should love them. I don’t even need the song along with a dozen Buds to buy into the McGraw mantra because the old work-horses are still a classy set of wheels for me.
Think of how many movies have starred old pickups alongside human beings. The trucks tend to help us buy into the hardworking and honest lead character in the movie. The humans are usually unpretentious guys who are trying to make an honest buck in a dishonest and unscrupulous world.
That is the movie and song side of the equation and both may have romanticized the old truck, but there is really something special about the old trucks in their original form. They had claustrophobic cabs by comparison to today’s giant four door diesel behemoths and they rode like a frontier buckboard headed into Dodge City, but that was a large part of their charm.
The old trucks were built to work hard. They were not designed for long summer vacations or romantic moonlit drives; they were designed to haul bales, grain or livestock depending upon the time of year. There were no vacations for these blue collar four-wheeled heroes, just a life of hard work until they could work no more.
The old trucks also looked pretty cool. They wore the design features of their manufacturing years and they wore them with style. A lot of car guys have very fond memories of old pickup trucks, many because their father or grandfather owned an old truck.
They may have spent their childhood riding in old trucks with their fathers or grandfathers, or learning how to drive in one, and the old truck experience is now a sentimental journey to their pasts. That is how things work for old truck fans because the old pickups are a fond reminder of an uncomplicated part of their lives. Even the old trucks are simple by comparison.
The trucks had open windows for air-conditioning and a folding paper map for a GPS system. Many did not even have a radio and, if they did, it was an AM radio likely set on a local country music station that played George Jones, Faron Young and the daily livestock reports.
That is how things worked when these old trucks were new and that is why we loved them so much then and why we still love them now. Truck Yeah.
Jim Sutherland
Like stories about old trucks? Take a look at this link to MSCC Star Truckin’
