Safe choices in the CD player, on the road

A friend of mine almost crashed her car Tuesday because she was singing along to a Van Morrison song, and the magic of Van the Man put her into a world of her own to the extent that she couldn’t focus on the world of the road.

If you are the one driving, never play a song that makes you lose control. It’s incredibly hard to drive while you are hard-core grooving.

I learned that lesson at the age of 16 when my friend Anthony and I almost got in a wreck because we were blasting “Born to Run.”

It was one of those songs in one of those moments where everything fit; school was out for the weekend, it was a beautiful day, we were singing along at the top of our lungs to one of the greatest rock ’n’ roll anthems of all time and it was just a moment of total bliss. 

“We’ve got to get out while we’re young, because tramps like us, baby we were born to ruuuuuuuuuun!” And then the car next to us honked and Anthony slammed on the breaks. Miraculously we skidded to a stop about 6 inches behind the car in front of us.

We were so lost in the Boss’ anthem of working class escapism that we hadn’t realized that we were going 10 miles higher than the speed limit, or that a line of three cars were stopped at a red light in front of us.

It’s kind of ridiculous that we missed hitting that Volvo by so little. Had the man in the car next to us not honked his horn we would’ve been in serious trouble, but I guess the gods of car music take care of those who appreciate the art form.

Car music is tricky business.

You can’t listen to your favorite pumped-up, crazy jams, but you also can’t listen to your mellow, auditory pillow music. Another lesson learned through experience.
Last winter I was driving from Columbus, Ind. to beautiful and sunny Cleveland when I learned this firsthand. It was an incredibly snowy five-hour drive, and southern Ohio is horrible at clearing roads, so it was a slow journey.

I decided to listen to two CDs I had recently acquired, “Reunion Tour” by the Weakerthans and “Cold as Clay” by Greg Graffin. The Weakerthans album was nice and relaxing. John K. Samson’s beautiful songs meshed well with the heavy falling snow on that early January day. I was put into a calm daze, driving a safe 45 mph on the snow-covered road.

When “Reunion Tour” ran out I put in “Cold as Clay.” The roots-folk-country album was a nice follow-up to the Weakerthans, especially considering the backing band was comprised of members of the Weakerthans. The first song picked up the pace as it went from a relaxing lo-fi beginning to a guitar-heavy ending. As the energy increased, so did my speed.

Slowly but steadily I went from traversing the snowy roads at a safe and respectable 45 mph to traveling at a ridiculous 70 mph. The snow kept coming down on the road with fat, feather-like wisps.

The second song was a very simple song, a rendition of “Omie Wise” featuring merely Greg and his guitar. The low-energy rendition of an old American murder ballad, combined with the fat wisps of snow placed me into a surreal, dream-like state as I drove along 71 North at 70 mph.

Because I was too relaxed I didn’t notice that the condition of the lane I was in was worsening, and before I realized it, I had begun to spin out.

Spinning out on a snow covered freeway at 70 mph is not good, especially when you nearly end up in the next lane where a semi-truck is truckin’ along.

I ended up stopping in the shoulder, facing the opposite direction after spinning quite a bit. When my car finally came to a stop, I remember that the first thing I did was turn the radio off. Before I had taken the time to make sure I was okay or that my car would be able to make the remaining four hours of the journey home, I turned the radio off.  
Greg Graffin had gotten me into this mess, so Greg Graffin had to go.

Both of these moments could be blamed on the drivers not paying attention to the road, or they could be blamed on the drivers choosing the wrong music for the journey. I put the blame on the latter.

Learn from my mistakes so that you don’t make your own. Safe choices in the CD player equal safe choices on the road.