3 Driving Songs for Your Next Road Trip

Road trip songs and playlists are crucial. And depending on where you’re headed, you may curate the list directionally or seasonally.

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You might opt for wintry songs if you dare to brave the Chicago winds in December or Southern jams when you’re headed in that direction. You may want to crank “Mountain Song” by Jane’s Addiction whilst motoring through Colorado or set the playlist to randomize Queens Of The Stone Age or The Flying Burrito Brothers by the time you enter the desert.

Consider these three driving songs for your next road trip.

“Road Trippin’” by Red Hot Chili Peppers

Californication remains the Red Hot Chili Peppers defining album for many reasons. It’s their biggest seller but also for the California-centric theme and the gritty survival of the bandmates. John Frusciante had returned from a near-death drug addiction. At the same time, Anthony Kiedis survived a battle with his own demons, but here they were with several hits, including “Scar Tissue”, to tell the story. The album ends with a folk song called “Road Trippin’” which documents their camaraderie. It’s both an immediate road trip and the long ride they’ve shared.

“Drivin’ On 9” by The Breeders

The Breeders’ cover of “Drivin’ On 9” brought attention to a little-known Boston folk group called Ed’s Redeeming Qualities. The cover appears on Last Splash alongside the Gen X classic “Cannonball”. Kim Deal met Ed’s Redeeming Qualities as her former band Pixies gained attention and said of Ed’s: “They were really good at what they were doing, but there was a really cool amateur quality that was truly amateur.”

Deal’s voice, whimsical and distant, doesn’t entirely remove the lo-fi vibe of the original but reimagines it as a campfire alt-country jam featuring Ed’s violinist, Carrie Bradley.

“Drive” by R.E.M.

You know when you’re on a road trip and it’s late at night and the painted lines begin to blur? Then a track on your playlist jolts you awake, and soon a second wind hits you. That song is R.E.M.’s youth anthem from Automatic For The People.

Peter Buck’s cycling arpeggio on “Drive” lays an earnest framework for Michael Stipe’s advice to push kids into some kind of action. Maybe it’s political action or simply taking charge in another way. Strings swell behind Stipe’s “ticktock” lyric before Buck steps on his distortion pedal. R.E.M. are the masters at finding power in quiet songs.

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