Convoy (song)

"Convoy"
Single by C. W. McCall
from the album Black Bear Road
Released	November 1975
Format	7"
Recorded	1975
Genre	Country, truck-driving country
Length	3:49
Label	MGM
Writer(s)	Bill Fries Chip Davis Note: the original single explicitly credits authorship to "C.W.McCall - Bill Fries - Chip Davis", although Fries and McCall are the same person.
Producer(s)	Don Sears Chip Davis
Certification	Gold (RIAA)
C. W. McCall singles chronology
"Black Bear Road" (1975) "Convoy" (1975) "There Won't Be No Country Music (There Won't Be No Rock 'n' Roll)" (1976)

"Convoy" is a 1975 novelty song performed by C. W. McCall (pseudonym of Bill Fries) that became a number-one song on both the country and pop charts in the US. Written by McCall and Chip Davis, the song spent six weeks at number one on the country charts ^[1] and one week at number one on the pop charts. The song went to number one in Canada as well, hitting the top of the RPM Top Singles Chart on January 24, 1976.^[2] "Convoy" further peaked at number two in the UK. The song capitalized on the fad for citizens band (CB) radio. The song was the inspiration for the 1978 Sam Peckinpah film Convoy.

Song

The song consists of three types of interspersed dialog: a simulated CB conversation with CB slang, the narration of the story, and the chorus. It is about a fictitious trucker rebellion that drives from the west to the east coast of the United States without stopping. What they are protesting against (other than the 55 mph speed limit, then recently introduced in response to the 1973 oil crisis) is shown by lines such as "we tore up all of our swindle sheets" (CB slang for log sheets used to record driving hours; the term referenced the practice of falsifying entries to show that drivers were getting proper sleep when, in reality, the drivers were driving more than the prescribed number of hours before mandatory rest in order to shorten trip time) and "left 'em settin' on the scales" (CB slang for Department of Transportation weigh stations on Interstates and highways to verify the weight of the truck and the drivers' hours of working through log books). The song also refers to toll roads: "We just ain't a-gonna pay no toll." Also the "hammer" is the accelerator pedal; putting it down fed more diesel fuel to the engine, therefore breaking the speed limit. (An album compilation of "trucking songs" was entitled "Put the Hammer Down".)

The conversation is between "Rubber Duck", "Pig Pen" and "Sodbuster", primarily through Rubber Duck's side of the conversation. The narration and CB chatter are by Fries.

At the beginning of the song a "Kenworth pulling logs", being driven by Rubber Duck, is the "front door" (the leader) of three 18-wheelers (tractor and semi-trailer) when he realizes they have a convoy. Following the Rubber Duck is an unnamed trucker in a "cab-over Pete with a reefer on" (a refrigerated trailer, hauled by a Peterbilt truck configured with the cab over the engine), while Pig Pen brings up the rear (the "back door") in a "'Jimmy' (GMC truck) haulin' hogs".

The convoy begins toward "Flagtown" (Flagstaff, Arizona) at night on June 6 on "I-one-oh" (I-10) just outside "Shakeytown" (Los Angeles, California). By the time they get to "Tulsatown" (Tulsa, Oklahoma), there are 85 trucks and the "bears / Smokeys" (state police, specifically the highway patrol, who commonly wear the same campaign hats as the United States Forest Service mascot Smokey Bear) have set up a road block and have a "bear in the air" (police helicopter). By the time they get to "Chi-town" (Chicago, Illinois), the convoy includes a "suicide jockey" (truck hauling explosives), "Sodbuster" (another trucker in an unspecified make of truck, but the term typically refers to a truck hauling farm implements or "earth movers"), and "11 long-haired friends of Jesus (a reference to the then-current Jesus movement subset of Christianity) in a chartreuse microbus", and the police have called out "reinforcements from the 'Illi-noise' (Illinois) National Guard". The convoy crashes another road block when crossing a toll bridge into New Jersey, and by this time they have "a thousand screamin' trucks" in all.

The song's running gag has Rubber Duck complaining about the smell of the hogs that Pig Pen is hauling. He repeatedly asks the offending driver to "back off" (slow down). By the end, Pig Pen has fallen so far back, when Rubber Duck is in New Jersey, Pig Pen has only gotten as far as Omaha (a reference to the headquarters of American Gramaphone, which released the song, and also a reference to the slaughterhouses for which Omaha is famous). Also, Omaha was C.W. McCall's "home 20" (a reference to the ten-code for location). The use of "truckin'" could also be seen as rhyming slang for "fuckin'".

Chart performance

Chart (1975–1976)	Peak position
U.S. Billboard Hot Country Singles	1
U.S. Billboard Hot 100	1
U.S. Billboard Hot Adult Contemporary Singles	19
Canadian RPM Country Tracks	4
Canadian RPM Top Singles	1
Canadian RPM Adult Contemporary Tracks	13
New Zealand Singles Chart	1
Australian Singles Chart	1
UK Singles Chart	2
Irish Singles Chart	2
Austrian Top 40	19
German Singles Chart	43
French Singles Chart	76

Sequel

McCall's "'Round the World with the Rubber Duck" is the sequel to "Convoy." In this continuation, the convoy leaves the United States and travels around the world, through Britain, France, West and East Germany, the USSR, Japan, and Australia.

Remakes and covers

• In 1976, a parody by Laurie Lingo & The Dipsticks entitled Convoy GB made #4 on the UK singles chart. The name "Laurie Lingo" is a pun; in the UK, a large truck is known as "lorry", and thus "lorry lingo" would be "truck slang". The act actually consisted of BBC Radio 1 DJs Dave Lee Travis and Paul Burnett with "The Dispticks" being the Top of the Pops vocalists The Ladybirds. The parody used the same tune, but altered the song's lyrics to take place in the UK, with dialogue featuring Travis and Burnett as truckers "Superscouse" and "Plastic Chicken".
• McCall himself recorded a new version of the song with saltier lyrics for the soundtrack of the 1978 film Convoy. McCall also made two additional re-recordings of the original song, one for his 1990 album The Real McCall: An American Storyteller, and the other for the 2003 Mannheim Steamroller album American Spirit.
• Another parody, Chat Room, was produced by Bob Rivers.^[3]
• In 1981, rap artist Blowfly recorded a dirty rap version of the song on his album Rappin Dancing and Laughin. The seven-minute Blowfly version, describing an all-black convoy of strikebreakers delivering Blowfly's album to New York City, concludes with a list of vulgar slang terms arranged in alphabetical order and a dialogue between Blowfly and his alter ego, Clarence Reid.
• In 2000, Priceline aired a television commercial featuring actor William Shatner performing the song with altered lyrics about the company's services.
• In 2010, country-rap artist Colt Ford recorded the song for his 2010 album Chicken & Biscuits.
• The Spanish group Mocedades did the song with the translated title Aire in their 1982 studio album Amor de Hombre.^[4] The Spanish lyrics for this song were written by Fernando De Diego.^[5]
• In 2014, CBeebies began to air a new cartoon, Boj,^[6] whose theme tune, penned by Mike Cooke (formerly of Belle and Sebastian) which appears to have many (unattributed) similarities to the chorus of the song.

Paul Brandt version

The song was covered in 2004 by Paul Brandt.^[7] The video features Brandt and fellow country singers Jason McCoy and Aaron Lines as well as then Calgary Flames defencemen Mike Commodore and Rhett Warrener as truckers and George Canyon, of Nashville Star fame, as the highway patrol officer. The video was seen on CMT in both Canada and the United States. It was filmed at CFB/ASU Wainwright on Airfield 21. The song appears on the 2004 album This Time Around.

Brandt also recorded a Christmas version called "Christmas Convoy", which appears on the 2006 holiday album A Gift. In this version, the convoy helps Santa deliver his toys after a bad storm.

References

1. Whitburn, Joel (2004). The Billboard Book Of Top 40 Country Hits: 1944-2006, Second edition. Record Research. p. 220.
2. "Item Display – RPM – Library and Archives Canada". Collectionscanada.gc.ca. Retrieved 2011-09-17.
3. Chat Room Twisted Tunes
4. "Albumes originales de Mocedades: Amor de hombre"
5. "Album: Amor de Hombre de Mocedades en Los40.com"
7. Erlewine, Stephen Thomas. "This Time Around – Paul Brandt". Allmusic. Retrieved August 17, 2011.

External links

• C.W. McCall: An American Legend
• www.ConvoyTM.com (Home of the 1976 Song and 1978 Movie)