H: Hot Rod Lincoln

 

Hot Rod Lincoln

Originally recorded by Charlie Ryan in 1955, "Hot Rod Lincoln" was an "answer song" to an earlier record, "Hot Rod Race."   

The song's premise is described below (from link above):

It describes a drive north on US Route 99 (predecessor to Interstate 5) from San Pedro, Los Angeles, and over "Grapevine Hill" which soon becomes a hot rod race that ends with serious consequences.

The car race is described between two hot rod cars, the narrator's Ford Model A (with a Lincoln motor) and a Cadillac. The song says the Ford's "got 12 cylinders", overdrive, a four-barrel carburetor, 4.11:1 gear ratio, and safety tubes. The narrator ends up being arrested by the police for his high-speed driving, and is thrown into jail, where the narrator calls his father to bail him out, and describes the exasperation of his father: "He said, 'Son, you're gonna drive me to drinkin' / If you don't quit (or "Stop") drivin' that hot rod Lincoln!'"

Country singer Johnny Bond also recorded the song in 1960, with a few lyrical changes  (See Wikipedia link for details). The most successful version of the song, however, is that by Commander Cody and His Lost Planet Airmen in 1971. As with Steely Dan, Jethro Tull and Lynyrd Skynyrd, no one in the group was named Cody. Rather "Commander Cody" was an alias used by frontman George Frayne IV. Commander Cody's rendition of "Hot Rod Lincoln" reached #9 on Billboard. This version retained some of the lyrical changes from the Johnny Bond version, but also changed the lyrics to further maintain the original story.  Below is Commander Cody's version with the lyrics in the video description.