I live very close to the Palisades Parkway,
which starts at the George Washington Bridge and goes north along the Hudson
River towards the US Military Academy. The Palisades Parkway is one of the most
beautiful roads in America, it’s a winding road with two lanes, river views,
lots of trees and no trucks. What a great ride and what a great time to listen
to music, especially now.
When you’re my age you can’t go around the neighborhood or to Whole Foods with your convertible top down or windows and sunroof open blasting “Revolution” from the car. You really look like a degenerate old guy trying to look cool, but on beautiful Sunday mornings, after the gym around 9 am ish, without too much traffic on the Palisades and the top down or windows open with the radio blasting it’s totally worth it. I can sometimes even ride with the top down into November (with the heat and heated seats on).
When you’re my age you can’t go around the neighborhood or to Whole Foods with your convertible top down or windows and sunroof open blasting “Revolution” from the car. You really look like a degenerate old guy trying to look cool, but on beautiful Sunday mornings, after the gym around 9 am ish, without too much traffic on the Palisades and the top down or windows open with the radio blasting it’s totally worth it. I can sometimes even ride with the top down into November (with the heat and heated seats on).
When
I first got my license there was only AM radio with a speaker the size of a
coffee cup saucer. I remember the first car I drove was my mom’s Malibu Blue
1964 Thunderbird and The Beach Boys came on the radio... “Fun, Fun, Fun, till
her daddy takes the T-Bird away.” I thought I was in heaven. You see, freedom
for a 17 year-old was a car, and for less than $.30 a gallon you could buy
$2.00 worth of gas and drive all day or night long with the windows open, radio
volume on 10 and static every time you’d go under an electric wire. Actually,
static all of the time, but you felt free.
Later
on when I bought my own car, a 67 GTO, I bought one of the first eight track
players. The guys who installed it suggested I buy separate speakers and run it
through the new speakers not the existing ones... a really great idea. Plus, they
gave me two eight tracks free, The Four Tops Live and Sargent Pepper. I remember
the first time I went through the Midtown Tunnel and the music stilled played.
(In those days the radio didn’t play in the tunnel.)
One
of the pleasures of my life has been music. It helped define my generation’s politics
and personality. And driving gave me freedom, the first freedom I really tasted
as a young man. I have fond memories of both. I still treasure my freedom to
drive every once in a while listening to the re-mastered “Born to Run” and I
appreciate all the people who helped me get the freedom to be able to do
this.
The
reference to “The big man joined the band” at the beginning of this blog post
is from the re-mastered “Born to Run” Tenth Ave Freeze Out, which I just
downloaded from I Tunes. Give it a go yourself. What I do is divide the album
in half and drive one-half of the album and then turn around.
I
also sometimes drive to work on the Garden State Parkway listening to
Springsteen. Does it get better than that? Oh yeah, I’m driving an F-Type… so
it does even get better. Yep, freedom did some amazing things in those cars,
especially in the back seats, but I never ate in them, drank coffee or put on
makeup in traffic…
