The Age Old Question: A Podcast for Music Fans · Rich Price and Clint Bierman

What Is The Greatest Driving Song?

May 24, 2024·37 min·2 clips

Tom Petty’s “Time to Move On” matches its title with a driving drum beat.

1. The Age Old Question: A Podcast for Music Fans asks what the greatest driving song is, and Rich Price opens with Steppenwolf’s “Born to Be Wild.” 2. Rich Price and Clint Bierman host the show, and their back-and-forth matters because they keep testing songs against real driving scenarios. 3. The episode asks which song works best when you are not driving to errands but heading out “for a drive” with nowhere to go. 4. Rich says he breaks driving songs into influences such as time of day, weather, distance, who is in the car, what kind of car, and how fast you want to drive. 5. He uses examples like a convertible, a sunroof, a blizzard, California, and a late-night breakup drive to show how the setting changes the playlist. 6. Steppenwolf’s “Born to Be Wild” comes up as a starting point because of its “huge jam in the middle” and its link to Easy Rider in 1969. 7. Rich notes that “Born to Be Wild” was written by Mars Bonfire as a ballad before becoming the rocker version listeners know. 8. For a sad late-night drive after a breakup, Rich picks Sting’s “Why Should I Cry for You,” and he connects it to high school and college. 9. Rich and Clint also discuss Beck’s “The Golden Age” from Sea Change, describing it as a more sincere, introspective, and acoustic-driven driving song. 10. Rich points to Tom Petty’s “Time to Move On” from Wildflowers because the title, the beat, and the line “it’s time to move on” all fit the road. 11. He says Tom Petty’s “Running Down a Dream” from Full Moon Fever was on his yellow Sony Sports Walkman in the summer of 1989. 12. Rich calls “Running Down a Dream” a song about driving and cites the lyric “I hit cruise control and rubbed my eyes.” 13. For California, the hosts choose “California Love” by Tupac and Dr. Dre and describe it as sounding like driving on the 405. 14. They also mention Lindsey Buckingham’s “Holiday Road,” written for National Lampoon’s Vacation and recorded with Buckingham playing everything. 15. Rich cites U2’s “Where the Streets Have No Name” and “Beautiful Day” as songs for an epic sunny drive in a convertible. 16. The episode also includes Patti Griffin’s “Rain,” which Rich says fits the windshield-wiper, low-visibility mood of rainy driving. 17. The tone is conversational and scenario-based, with the hosts moving quickly from one song example to another. 18. The format mixes memory, car-specific details, and short music clips with a comments section from Instagram listeners. 19. Listeners who like rock songs, road-trip playlists, and music nostalgia will probably enjoy this. 20. Listeners wanting one definitive answer instead of a scenario-by-scenario debate may skip it.

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