Racin' & 'Shine' Music
Bobby Williamson
Saturday June 21 2008, 10:52 AM
What about those great racing/moonshine songs over the years? Anybody remember pop/folk singer, Jim Croce ("Bad-Bad LeeRoy Brown" and other classics)? Come to find out, Jim, who liked to write about life, as he had experienced it, musta done some racin' research, consider this:In the early '70's on one of Croce's few albumns, was the tune......."Rapid Roy, That Stock-Car Boy" the song was based on the life and times of Georgia stock car/moonshine tripper "Rapid Roy Hall". Ol' Jim Croce would have had to dig pretty deep, or either "know somebody" to have such info, but it's a cool song:Oh Rapid Roy that stock car boy, he too much too believeYou know he always got an extra pack of cigarettes rolled up in his T-shirt sleeveHe got a tattoo on his arm that say "Baby", he got another one that just say "Hey"But every Sunday afternoon he is a dirt track demon in a '57 ChevroletOh Rapid Roy that stock car boy, he's the best driver in the landHe say that he learned to race a stock car by runnin' shine outa Alabam'Oh the Demolition Derby and the Figure Eight is easy money in the bankCompared to runnin' from the man in Oklahoma City with a 500 gallon tankYeah Roy so cool, that racin' fool he don't know what fear's aboutHe do a hundred thirty mile an hour smilin' at the camera with a toothpick in his mouthHe got a girl back home name of Dixie Dawn, but he got honeys all along the wayAnd you oughta hear 'em screamin' for that dirt track demon in a '57 ChevroletAnd what about the Steve Earl's haunting "Copper Head Road"?Well, my name's Conley PettimoreSame as my daddy, and his daddy beforeYa hardly ever saw gran-daddy down hereHe only come-a-town 'bout twice a-yearBuy a hundred pound o' yeast and sum copper lineEver-body knew that he made moon shine.......Now the revenoor man, wanted grand-daddy badRun him up the holler with ever-thing he hadBefore my time, but I've been toldYou never come back from Copper Head Road!Gran-Daddy hauled whiskey in a big block DodgeBought it in an auction at the Mason's Lodge"Johnson County Sherriff" painted on the side....We just shot a coat of primer and looked insideWell him and my uncle tore that engine down....I still remember that rumbling soundNow the sherriff came around in the middle of the nightHeard momma crying, knew something weren't rightHe was headed down to Knoxville with the weekly loadyou could smell the whiskey burnin' down Copper Head Road!I volunteered for the Army on my birthDAY....They draft the White Trash first 'round here anyWAYI dun two tours of duty in VietNAMI come home with a brand new plan.....I take seed from Columbia and MexicoSpread it up the hollar on Copper Head RoadNow the DEA's got a chopper in the airI wake up screamin' like I'm back over there.....I learned a thing or two from 'Charlie' don't ya knowya better stay away from Copper Head Road!!And there's the classic Robert Mitchum "Thunder Road" theme song, too.Pretty cool stuff, back in the day, and on the radio, AND part of our heritage!
Jeff Gilder
@jeff-gilder   16 years ago
thanks, Bobby, we're playing Coperhead road in our mix on RacersReunion Radio. I'll find Rapid Roy and add that one and Thunder road. If you come up with any more let me know.
Jeff Gilder
@jeff-gilder   16 years ago
Bobby, we found the songs...Rapid Roy...and the ballad of Thunder Road. and we now have then mixed on RacersReunion Radio during the period including our new Junior Johnson interview with Jim Seay.
Dale Dodge Jr
@dale-dodge-jr   16 years ago
Stroker Ace Was Born to Race. Is a good one to.
Jerry Sims
@jerry-sims   16 years ago
I've written a couple that my bluegrass band used to do when we were together that were tied to my favorite movie. "Thunder Road". One is "Chalk Gap Road" and the other is "Full Moon Over Thunder Road".I was talking to a riding buddy of a friend of mine who was an ex-cop about the "runners" and such things while we were campfire picking up at Love Valley NC. It set me to thinking about all the good songs about that sort of thing and we got to compairing notes and wondering why there was never one written from the "oppisition's" point of view. Rangers had "Big Iron" by Marty Robbins, State Troopers had "Highway Patrol" by Junior Brown and even local law had "Sheriff of Boone County" by Kenny Price and it didn't seem fair. So I set out to write one based on a point we both made during the discussion........you can't outrun a radio! Next time we got together I had "Motorola Man" done from the lawman's point of view to sing for him. The look on his face was priceless when I told him that he was responsible for it, just made his day.
Tom
@tom   16 years ago
I grew up listening to Jim Croce. I have a CD in my car of his greatest hits that I listen to often. Infact, Rapid Roy is one of my favorite songs. I've never seen Thunder Road, but I've heard the song once.
Jerry Sims
@jerry-sims   16 years ago
Jim is a favorite of mine too. I've got a CD set with everything he recorded (including a few done in his kitchen with just an acoustic guitar) that has some really nice music on it. He wrote about everything from stock car racers to telephone operaters to roller derby queens and did it all with style.You owe it to yourself to see Thunder Road at least once. It was filmed in and around Asheville NC where a good friend of mine had a hobby shop and he even got the sign from the service station where a pivitol scene was shot when they tore it down many years later to make way for new construction. I've spent many hours on the same roads they used, some in a '57 Ford a lot like Mitchum's. My mom has place about halfway between Chimney Rock and Asheville and there is some pretty country up there not to mention some mighty crooked roads. LOL
WideOne
@wideone   16 years ago
I was a big fan of Jim Croce. He also did "I got a Name" for the movie based on Jr Johnson's life, although in this case he did not write the song.. I believe it was "The Last American Hero" based on Thomas Wolfe's story.