Don’t squawk and drive there, good buddy.
I hope you all enjoyed your extra hour of sleep this weekend better than I enjoyed my extra hour of work. And if your home state/country doesn’t participate in annual time-mindfuckery… please send me a travel brochure sometime. Clock Slave Savings Time also means you had to wait an extra hour to find out what the next awesome song is going to be in The Nest’s Top 30 Songs We Just Feel Like Playing, and that’s just so unfair! The Countdown of Whatever is rolling down Highway 26 this week, and the wheel of variety has landed on country rock today! Lucky you….
#26. “Drivin’ My Life Away” – Eddie Rabbitt
The 1970’s were kind for a heyday for the cultural relevance of the all American semi truck driver. The CB Radio was all the rage (The first book I ever bought from a school book sale was a post-fad paperback full of CB lingo), Smokey and the Bandit was a cult phenomenon, and CW McCall had a quirky little hit about a “Convoy” that I ignored for my novelty song countdown because I’m apparently one of the few people around who doesn’t like it…
The sciurine version of a convoy…
Kind of in the middle of all of both the truck driving fad and the concurrent rise in the popularity of country crossover songs was a man named Eddie Rabbitt. Rabbitt first made a name for himself as a songwriter, penning The King’s late career hit “Kentucky Rain.” In the late 70’s, he finally had some success singing his own songs. His 1980 album Horizon spawned Rabbitt’s two biggest hits… one of which was his only #1 “I Love A Rainy Night.” But the single released before that is a huge favorite of mine, even if it “only” did make it to #5…
Now that’s some great music to drive down the highway to! And if that happens to be Highway 61 you’re revisiting… well, there’s a good reason for that. Bob Dylan’s iconic “Subterrainian Homesick Blues” (aka, the song where Dylan’s holding all those cue cards in the video) was one of Eddie Rabbitt’s influences in writing “Drivin'” At least unlike Mr. Zimmerman, Eddie gave it a name everyone can actually remember…
Rainy Day Skunk Number…. well, I don’t know.
I think it’s about time to give this countdown a more modern sound. The Countdown of Whatever’s first song from the new millennium comes up next Monday!
Evil Squirrel's Nest 
I LOVE thia aong… but how sad that eddie had to go… somewhen in the 90’s? oder later?
it’s BS to write in a dark room, … I meant “this song”
1998, the day after I started at Mecca. I remember Frank Sinatra died that same week, but Eddie didn’t make the headlines then I guess…
I have never heard of this Rabbit, not known here near Siberia. The photo of the Skunk made me smile, thank you.
There is nothing more joyful than driving music and wet skunk…
Heh, you are not a squirrel, but evil yes.
I too like “Drivin” better than “I Love A Rainy Night”. When I saw the picture of the trucker, I was worried you HAD picked “Convoy”. I am so glad to see you didn’t. This song is sooo much better!
I’m glad someone else isn’t crazy about Convoy… I take a lot of flak for not liking that song. BTW, I forgot to tell you, but since comments were disabled on it… I actually LOVED that video you had on your blog last week! I had no idea Eminem formed a band, and I fully expected that I would turn the video off within 15 seconds after playing it… but I watched the whole thing and laughed the entire time!
No, Convoy is annoying. Very!
Cool thanks! I think it’s funny too!
I didn’t know the comments were disabled. Someone I follow has the same problem, plus I can’t see your poll. Conspiracy!! Lol
Agreed that this is a great driving song……….I remember singing to this as I drove my life away to work.
Pam
It’s the perfect driving song! A lot of that country pop that came out in that era was either really good or really awful. This one was definitely one of the best!
I forgot about the truck driving craze of the 70s-early 80s. Some nostalgia came out when I read your post. 🙂
A little nostalgia is always good for the soul…
This one is great, but I also love me a rainy night!
That song’s OK, but for me, it pales in comparison to Drivin’…
Oh what a throw back indeed, great song pick there Evil, I love all of Eddie Rabbit’s songs, but his two or should I say his best three songs are Driving My Life Away, I Love A Rainy Night and his duet with Crystal Gayle, Just You and I. What an underrated country singer.
I’ve probably heard the duet before, but I’m not familiar with it from my head. The country crossovers from 40 years ago are pretty interesting. The country crossovers from today, not so much….
Thank you! I just started a playlist of the songs I most remember liking as a kid and I added I Love A Rainy Night but I couldn’t think of the other Eddie Rabbit song I liked so well. I better go add this to my playlist before I forget it for a few more decades!
There you are, The Nest’s free musical memory service comes through again! I hope there’s a lot of cheesy 80’s music on that playlist!
I saw the title to this post and thought of this one:
Never paid a great deal of attention to Mr. Rabbitt, so I missed out on the song you shared. And hubby (who was a trucker) wouldn’t have cared for it, I’m sure. He was pretty strictly C&W (including CW McCall). Convoy? I always thought the song was pretty funny actually, and the movie inspired by that song? Hilarious. Especially the ‘pig pen’ truck getting into too close a proximity to everyone. “Them hogs is gettin’ intense” is a truism, if you’ve ever been downwind of a hog farm. Rainy would have serious competition (and tell her to point that thing in another direction…)
That reminds me that I probably should have considered “Touch of Grey” for this countdown (Don’t think it would have made the cut, but it’s the one Dead song I adore). And Truckin’s about the only other one of theirs I’ve heard on a somewhat regular basis. For being one of the most legendary bands in rock, their music sure didn’t cross over into pop culture much…
Very cool song to be driving down the road to! Though I’ve never heard of Mr Rabbitt.
Now you’ve got me curious about how well American country music is known about overseas. I wouldn’t think it’d be much of a thing outside of the US and Canada, but I’ve learned a lot of things about music I never knew before while doing these posts….
I’m aware of the biggies – Johnny Cash, Dolly Parton, Kenny Rogers and the like. Shania Twain if you want to get a bit more modern. Who’s Canadian, but still American, continent-wise…
Oh yeah, I remember and like both these songs. We had a cassette with these on there, and listened to them a lot.
I really wanted a CB radio back in the day. Never got one, but later I got a shortwave so I could listen to that, and a police radio, too. Still listen sometimes to them. 🙂
I had a police scanner as a kid! My grandpa used to have one of the old style ones with the crystals you’d have to buy to pick up each frequency, and it became mine after he passed. Later, I got a digital scanner and that’s when I learned that most cordless phones back then used frequencies you could pick up on a basic scanner! That’s why cordless phones switched to the out of bounds 900 GHz about two decades ago…
Good song to start the week with. I’m ready to put on my boots and do some dancing.
Yeehaw! Now you need to take Vlad line dancing…
Seriously, I do don’t I.
This song reminds me of my hometown. Mr. Rabbit came to our small-town festival and sang it live. And the crowd went wild. First time I think I ever danced in the streets!
There you go. Please feel free to dance wherever you are to my YouTube embedment of Mr. Rabbitt’s song…
A great snappy tune that makes you want to move, even if you’re still trying to adjust to the new time.
P.S. Consider me in the same camp as you in not being a fan of CW McC’s silly tune. Puleez. 🚛