The ultimate road trip songs, according to Ezra Furman
What is a road trip without a playlist and a fight for the aux cable? Before the toothpaste, boxers and other pointless brick-a-brac are stuffed in the overnight bag, the sacred ritual of curating a playlist takes place. Whether it’s a half-hour journey or longer, it will always be backed by a list of songs no shorter than six hours, with all the appropriate mood changes while on the road.
While the songs chosen may be in line with my imagination of a vast open road, traversing through the expanse of the American desert, the reality is they’ll be played in the depths of a tailback on the A38. Nevertheless, escapism can be harnessed with the right track, and the playlist should be curated accordingly.
So, with that in mind, what is the perfect road-trip song? While nothing screams Great British bank holiday traffic like Lynyrd Skynyrd’s ‘Free Bird’, and when the tailback realities seep in, Talking Heads’ ‘Road to Nowhere’ is probably more pertinent. There are a handful of songs that muse on the literal reality of being on the road, whether it’s Canned Heat’s ‘On the Road Again’ or AC/DC’s ‘Highway to Hell’, all appropriate enough to romanticise the passage of driving time while offering a singalong chorus with some gusto.
But after the first few hours of the journey pass and the excitement inevitably wears off, you need to wave goodbye to the road-beating symbolism. As your head leans against the window and the cold air brushes your face, a weird sense of vulnerability creeps, rarely replicated in normal life, and so, the emotional undertow of the songs seems to hold heightened power.
As an artist, Ezra Furman has never needed an open road to tap into something meaningful and existential. As a creative approach to their art with an unflinching sense of vulnerability, their take on songs that soundtrack the observational passages of a road trip needs to be considered. So what are Furman’s picks?
“In my experience, the greatest thing is to blast ‘Head On’ by the Pixies right when you hit the highway,” they told Interview magazine. “It’s like, what a feeling. So I’m going to choose that one.”
Furman further added, “If we want to get into driving at night, I love the album Transfiguration of Vincent by M Ward. It’s got that cinematic, hit the road, big drums and harmonicas feel, and I really love that. And then definitely some Sharon Van Etten. I like everything from her new record. I guess it also works because the album cover is her sticking her head out the car window. But there’s one she did that made me cry like 20 times …it’s her cover of ‘Drive All Night’ by Bruce Springsteen. It’s not even a Bruce Springsteen song I ever noticed or liked, but her version of it destroyed me.”
Van Etten’s take on the Springsteen classic was never officially released, so its playback in the car would have to rely on bootleg recordings of her live version or, better yet, an a cappella take led by Furman. But between Pixies, M Ward and maybe a sprinkling of Springsteen, Furman has all the emotional bases covered for a touring epic through the American countryside.
