I was introduced to Route 66 by the Rolling Stones on their debut album in 1964, which also had songs by Bo Diddley and Rufus Thomas. Later I'd get my kicks for real
Well if you ever plan to motor west were the first words of the first song on the Rolling Stones first album, which came out in 1964. I was more of a Beatles fan but my school friends raved about this Stones album, which was the one which turned me into a Stones fan too.
The Stones first album was a great album, still one of their best. They covered songs by Rufus Thomas, Chuck Berry, Bo Diddley, Willie Dixon, Jimmy Reed and that great songwriting team of Holland-Dozier-Holland. There was one original Jagger-Richards song too, Tell Me (You're Coming Back), the first Jagger-Richards song ever released, and a great song it is.
In fact the Stones first album was heavily into brackets in song titles. Apart from Tell Me (You're Coming Back) there was the Bo Diddley song I Need You Baby (Mona), an instrumental jam called Now I've Got a Witness (Like Uncle Phil and Uncle Gene) and the opening track (Get Your Kicks On) Route 66.
Route 66 was made into a magical, almost mythical road trip for me by that Rolling Stones cover version of the Bobby Troup song, that I played over and over. It winds from Chicago to LA – wow, what a road that must be! More than 2000 miles all the way. Amazing! I lived 200 miles from London and that seemed another planet.
The America that was created for us teenage Brits by rock music lyrics was a place of myth and legend, back in the 1960s before cheap transatlantic flights and mass tourism. Would we ever get to see any California girls, or visit Memphis, Tennessee? And what about Flagstaff, Arizona, or Gallup, New Mexico? And don't forget Winona!
Little do we know what fate has lying in wait for us. I become something I never planned to be – a travel writer. I get to go to America. I see a statue of Rufus Thomas in Memphis, visit Graceland, see Hank Williams' childhood home, go way down yonder to New Orleans and on one unforgettable occasion picked up a hire car and really did find myself 90 miles out of Atlanta by sundown.
And Route 66? I recently got my kicks at last by seeing the signs and driving along some of the Mother Road in the SW USA with my American wife. Who has now written about Route 66. Click here!
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