Song of the Day 2/16: C.W. McCall, “Convoy”
For conservatives, bad ideas never die, they just get recycled ad nauseam. So when a few dumbfuck truckers decide they’ve had enough of this mask-wearing, vaccine-taking reality, they retreat to the same dumb response their pappies and grandpappies did when faced with problems that, given their limited intellects, they couldn’t possibly understand.
This was a stupid song back when it came out, and it has remained stupid through the years. Sure, it was only written and produced in 1975 to capitalize on the citizens band radio craze of the day, but its sentiment — that truckers were somehow being victimized by government because they had to follow safety regulations — was born from the same narcissistic obsession with their imaginary victimization so common among conservatives today. Fuck your feelings? Yeah, because they’re too busy whining about their own.
Ask yourself, do you really want truckers dodging the regulations on load weight and driver rest that exist to keep other motorists safe? Was it really onerous to have to drive 55 mph? Did common citizens support this agenda? Of course not, just as common citizens don’t support the conservative agenda today.
The name “C.W. McCall” was just as bogus as the trucker complaints outlined in the lyrics — he was created by an adman, William Dale Fries, for bread commercials. The commercials led to a couple of country songs, one of which reached No. 40 on the country charts, before “Convoy” became a surprise No. 1 hit. Fries tried repeatedly to capture more lightning in the same bottle without anywhere near the same success, so he became an environmentalist and moved to Colorado.
The music, by the way, was written by Chip Davis, who later proved this mediocrity was no fluke by founding Mannheim Steamroller.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lqYTX7parRw
How is a truck driver going to drive 1,000+ miles in a day if they have to drive 55 mph?
Easy – Load the container on a freight train.
Ba-dump-bump.
But then you wouldn’t get to pretend you are master of your domain. Rugged individualist, Marlboro Man in command of your powerful horse/rig/herd of cattle. Don’t need no stinkin’ regulation.
Marlboro Man? No self respecting truck driver would smoke anything but no filtered Camels, Pall Malls, Luckys or Chesterfields.
“The music, by the way, was written by Chip Davis, who later proved this mediocrity was no fluke by founding Mannheim Steamroller.”
Lol
I figured when the truckers got to the Champs Elysees Alby would break out that old chestnut.
The whole Canadian spectacle got me thinking back to my combat engineer days, and a little thing called (natch!) a Combat Engineer Vehicle — essentially a tank equipped with a giant, armored bulldozer blade and a monster boom. Would have made quick work of those crybabies’ “big rigs” without even resorting to its demolition cannon.
My young French friends were actually glad the protest was worst on the Champs Elysees, the general consensus being that only rich shoppers and tourists were affected.
We get notified by text from the US Embassy whenever a protest is planned — and, this being France, an unplanned protest is unthinkable because who would do the paperwork? So were were warned that we should avoid Place de la République, which is two blocks away. We walked through it anyway. Police outnumbered protesters by about 200 to 100.
It was interesting, though, to see that fascists have moved away from red, black and white to their new color, yellow.