There is always a certain flavor to road trips, whether on the mythical roads of the United States or in France, on the autoroute du soleil, the national 7 or the road to Normandy… Immortalized by Jean-Luc Godard in his film Weekend, traffic jams, ham and cheese sandwiches swallowed on motorway service areas, bizarre encounters and accidents are part of the collective imagination of the French.
This week, we’re setting sail, to music!
If you have a Mercedes Benz, or want to imagine yourself behind the wheel, French rap group NTM’s cover of the song by French singer duo Brigitte, consisting of Sylvie Hoarau and Aurélie Saada (now separated), is as cult a hit as the original. With delicious languor they whisper, “Let me zoom zoom zang in your benz benz benz…”
Country singer and Texas activist Willie Nelson wrote this song (on a vomit bag apparently) in the fall of 1979 to talk about life on the road, and it’s his biggest hit. It is also the title song of the film Honeysuckle Rose, in which he plays the main role, that of a failed and aging musician, taking his songs from city to city in the United States…
He himself was then 47 years old when this bouncy, almost jazzy, brilliant melody was released, which won him a Grammy Award. After spending so much time on the road himself, alongside his career he opened a chain of steakhouses and invested in biodiesel.
This call to the road trip has the sweetness of nursery rhymes. Released as a single only in Europe, it is unknown to Americans. Yet it is one of the flagship songs of the Red Hot Chili Peppers, formed in Los Angeles in 1982, and who still seem so united. It evokes a surf trip made on the Pacific coast by singer Anthony Kiedis, bassist Flea and guitarist Frusciante, who had just rejoined the group after having been close to death and bankruptcy, seriously attacked by his addiction to heroin.
The idea is not to fall asleep on the road, but how to swallow miles of road without listening at least once to one of Portishead’s most beautiful songs: “Roads”, from their sublime first album Dummy, which revolutionized the music of the 1990s and contributed to the success of English trip hop.
Never had an openly gay rapper broken into the world. At 24, Montero Lamar Hill, aka Lil Nas X, achieved this feat. And that’s not his only miracle. Hailing from Georgia, the Dirty South, he popularized hick-hop, a hitherto relatively private genre of incorporating country beats into rap tracks. The fusion of music stamped “redneck” and “ghetto African-American” was risky. But his song “Old Town Road” featuring Billy Ray Cyrus (Miley’s father), was number one on the charts for nineteen weeks in a row. Sacred as one of the most influential personalities by Forbes, awarded numerous prizes, supported by Kanye West, Elton John, Megan Thee Stallion, Miley Cyrus (all of whom collaborated on his album), he is the best remedy for bigotry. Yihaa!
