The Hot Rod Race...

[Jive-Bomber]

Almost exactly 60 years ago (November of 1950), Arkie Shibley and his Mountain Dew Boys released a Western Swing single called "Hot Rod Race" (Gilt-Edge record #5021), a catchy little Boogie Woogie number about a Ford and a Mercury racing out of San ...

To read the rest of this blog entry from The Jalopy Journal, click here.

[beauishere]

Nice post. I really like the Red Foley version. The guitar really kicks it. Thanks for the obvious effort that went into the research for what probably should be this website's theme song.

[koth]

That was fun to listen to and compare. I agree, Red Foley's version was best, plus the shots of the cars
Thanks for sharing it.

[stude_trucks]

Nice way to start the day, thanks!

[fuel10922]

This is one of my favorite songs. Thanks for the history!

[Kenny DFW]

Never knew what a direct rip off "Hot Rod Lincoln" was!!! Great post.

[BOWTIE BROWN]

thanxz alot jive-bomber. Awesome.....

[rottenleonard]

Originally Posted by Kenny DFW

Never knew what a direct rip off "Hot Rod Lincoln" was!!! Great post.

Actually Hot rod lincoln has a different story, and was actually about a run he actually had right out of the town I'm sitting in right now! The owner of the place I work at can remember him singing out at the paridice club(long since torn down)
Here is a cut and paste from his fan site;

One night his Lincoln chased a friend's Cadillac over the Clearwater river bridge and up the Lewiston grade. The telephone poles were whizzing by so fast they looked like picket fences as Charlie later referred to in his hit song, "Hot Rod Lincoln". Charlie wrote the song "Hot Rod Lincoln" in 1950, recorded it first in 1955 and the song was released in 1957. The song hit the Billboard top 100 charts in 1960 and stayed there for six months. It was the number one song in many parts of the country. While the song tells of a race between a Lincoln and a Cadillac on the Grapevine grade in California, the actual location was on the Lewiston grade in Idaho. The mythical Hot Rod Lincoln was really a Model "A" coupe body set on the original 1941 Lincoln frame Charlie had been driving in the early 50's with a hopped up Lincoln engine.

the site http://hot-rod-lincoln.com/history.htm

[Rich Venza]

Is that a Lincoln Cosmopolitan grill in the first Merc?

[lanny haas]

Now me and my wife and my brother Joe,
took off in my Ford from San Pedro.
We hadn't much gas 'n' the tires was low,
but the doggone Ford could really go.

Now along about the middle of the night,
we were rippin' along like white folks might,
when a Mercury behind he blinked his lights,
and he honked his horn and he flew outside.

We had twin pipes and a Columbia butt,
you people may think that I'm in a rut,
but to you folks who don't dig the jive,
that's two carburetors and an overdrive.

We made grease spots outta many good town,
and left the cops heads spinnin' round 'n' round.
They wouldn't chase, they'd run and hide,
but me and that Mercury stayed side by side.

Now we were Ford men and we likely knew,
that we would race until somethin' blew,
and we thought it over,
now, wouldn't you?

I looked down at my lovely bride,
her face was blue, I thought she'd died.
We left streaks through towns about forty feet wide,
but me and that Mercury stayed side by side.

My brother was pale, he said he was sick,
he said he was just a nervous wreck.
But why should I worry, for what the heck,
me and that Mercury was still neck-and-neck.

Now on through the deserts we did glide,
a-flyin' low and a-flyin' wide,
me an' that Mercury was a-takin' a ride,
and we stayed exactly side by side.

Now I looked in my mirror and I saw somethin' comin',
I thought it was a plane by the way it was a-runnin'.
It was a-hummin' along at a terrible pace,
and I knew right then it was the end of the race.

When it flew by us, I turned the other way,
the guy in the Mercury had nothin' to say,
for it was a kid, in a hopped up Model-A.

[lanny haas]

for the the rest of the story this is good reading
http://webcache.googleusercontent.co...&ct=clnk&gl=us

[thaugen]

Regarding the pronunciation of San Pedro, my wife was born there and we lived there over 20 years, and most locals say it like Arkie: San Peedro, not Sahn Paydro. We used to joke that all the big cities' names in Cali were anglicized from the Spanish: Los Angeles, San Francisco, San Diego and San Pedro.

Been over the old Lewiston Grade back in the 50s and parts of the old Grapevine, and there were a lot more wrecks laying in the canyon bottoms out of Lewiston.

[ffr1222k]

I have to give Arthur Smith my vote. He is a local boy.

[Mark H]

Here's the follow-up,Hot rod Race #2

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=egkxeAfcSBQ

[thaugen]

Hot Rod Lincoln song lyrics: What are safety tubes? As a kid I always thought they were some sort of low-hanging nerf bars sticking out the sides to keep the rod from rolling. Now a search only shows tire tubes: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uwpuNYtsvmM

[Junior Stock]

Never heard those versions before.
This is the one I grew up listening to.

[fenderless]

Very Cool, really gets me in the mood
Here is antother one,
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5-Lt-Q1wKWc

............................
Taildragger&fenderless

[GOONZ]

The punk band "ALL" does a great cover of Hot Rod Lincoln, bought the CD for that song.

[propwash]

as with previous poster Rotten Leonard, I too am from Idaho. I have talked to Charlie Ryan and seen 'the car'. The whole story is pretty much exactly what Rotten Leonard relates. The Lewiston Grade is known as the 'grapevine hill' in them there parts, and the wrecks that have littered both sides of that treacherous route (cars and big rigs) count up in the hundreds I would suppose. I played in a C&W/R&R band in the early 60s (in HS) and met Charlie Ryan at some honky-tonk in Lewiston. I had a 29AV8 roadster at the time, so it was a good chat. I had the piano sheet music for "Hot Rod Race" for many years, but I've misplaced it somewhere.

dj

[zgears]

Got that one on 78', good to read some history.