Place Names in Rock Lyrics: Truckin’

For this feature we’ve previously done Sweet Little Sixteen, Dancing in the Streets, Night Train, Rock’n Me, Pop Muzik, Girls, Girls, Girls, and Fire Down Below.

Tonight’s song is Truckin’ by the Grateful Dead. It was released in 1970 and only reached 64 on the US charts, though its a well-known song. In fact, I expect a lot people thought this would be one of the first songs I did for this feature. Its lyrics describe the misfortunes that befell the band during their extensive touring in the late 1960s. And for our purposes, they reference a number of cities, including some cities we don’t otherwise have on our list.

Here are the first verse and chorus:

Arrows of neon and flashing marquees out on Main Street.
Chicago, New York, Detroit and it’s all on the same street.
Your typical city involved in a typical daydream
Hang it up and see what tomorrow brings.

Dallas, got a soft machine; Houston, too close to New Orleans;
New York’s got the ways and means; but just won’t let you be, oh no.