PASTIMPERFECT:SOMETHING INVARIABLY overlooked on this side of the Atlantic is the vast influence country music has had on the old car movement in the US.
It was the release of Bonnie & Clydein 1967 that did so much to boost the appeal of both vintage cars and authentic country music in America. A car chase in the film was accompanied by a lively piece of fiddle and banjo music, setting in train a new association between vintage cars and American county music.
It soon became the in-thing in the years that followed. Harmonica ace Charlie McCoy featured a Mafia-style hitman and a period car on his album The Nashville Hit Manwhile Billie Jo Spears' 1975 album The Best of Billie Jo Spearsfeatured a 1940s American street with an amazing selection of historic cars – all viewed through the window of another car.
But it’s not just the album sleeves that follow the association between vintage cars and American county music.
There are the sub-genre songs about trucks and truck drivers. Of these, one album stands out, not just for the songs it includes, but also for its cover art-work, which has become a collector’s item in its own right.
The album is Hot Licks, Cold Steel Truckers' Favouritesby the wonderfully named Commander Cody and His Lost Planet Airman, and includes such classic songs as Truck Driving Man, Truck Stop Rockand Mama Hated Diesels. The sleeve design featured an illustration by artist Chris Frayne detailing a large number of early American commercial vehicles.
Sometimes the cars themselves are celebrated in song; Lincoln cars feature in Charlie Ryan's Hot Rod Lincolnand The Dart and the Lincoln. Then there's Clint Eastwood's Honky-Tonk Man, the soundtrack sleeve to which features Eastwood with a wonderful Auburn Roadster, a car that featured throughout the movie.
Such connections between vintage cars and American county music seem endless and serve to confirm that vintage cars have a special place amongst the icons of country music.
