Fifty Years of Road Trippin'

[Bob Boze Bell]

June 11, 2012

In the summer of 1963 we were on our annual trip to the family farm in Iowa and I remember my mother had relieved my father at the steering wheel, which was a rare event because my father loved to drive. I was in the shotgun seat trying to find a rock station in the middle of Kansas. They were all pretty hazy and the roar of static was the main sound, but I finally managed to tune into a distant station that, if I remember correctly, was playing Leslie Gore's "It's My Party (And I'll Cry If I Want To)". It sounded so good to be out in the middle of nowhere and there, beaming down out of the atmosphere, came this magic music for teenagers like me, which came right into our car!

 

Yesterday, as we drove from Sioux City, Iowa, down across the middle of Nebraska, my son asked me if I'd like to see the documentary "Nevermind" on the making of the classic, breakthrough album by Nirvana. I said I would love to rent it some time since I am a big fan of the band. From the back seat, Pattarapan asked for my cell phone and within a couple minutes she had signed me up for Netlfix Streaming and there I was in the shotgun position of the Flex, east of Medicine Bow, watching the documentary on my flippin' phone! It magically came down out of the cloud and into our car!

 

"You would cry too, if it happened to you."

—Leslie Gore

[Daniel Buck]

Bob,

Next, have your son zap you the Elvis documentary (below), on the making of his first album, which Netflix recently added.  The DJ Fontana & Scotty Moore anecdotes are great; the clear impression is given that Elvis was very much in charge during the making of the album.  Dan

Classic Albums: Elvis Presley

(2001)

This documentary chronicles the unique story of what went into making Elvis Presley's first hit album for RCA Records in 1956. Sun Records founder Sam Phillips reminisces about how he auditioned and befriended Elvis.

Cast:

• Elvis Presley,
• Scotty Moore,
• D.J. Fontana,
• Sam Phillips,
• Dixie Locke,
• Ernst Jorgensen,
• Peter Guralnick,
• B.B. King,
• Keith Richards

[Nicholas Narog]

I bet you still watch VHS Tapes and listen to cassettes (or even 8 Tracks perhaps...?). Records?

[Sue Cauhape]

What's really weird, BBB, is that over the past sixty some-odd years, it doesn't seem like things changed all that fast or that much. Then you come up with something like Net-Flix on your phone. I'm such a luddite, my cellphone is just that, a phone. (Of course, it's a Jitterbug! What does that tell ya.)  Keep having great times with your family. I'm enjoying your road trip.