Investigation

From James Brown to The Jam, Guns N' Roses to Sparks… Steve Sutherland brings you a playlist packed with planes, trains and punchy refrains as he picks 20 tunes to move you

Okay, travelling isn't always fun. Flights get cancelled, roads snarl up, bicycle tyres run flat. But that doesn't mean there isn't a treasure trove of music devoted to the magic of being on the move.

Not all the songs celebrating trains, boats, planes, cars, buses and more should be taken literally, of course. Many of them are metaphorical. Kraftwerk's 'Trans-Europe Express', though? That really is about the boundary-hopping train network that revolutionised Western/central European life in the 20th century, so easily claims a spot in this month's roundup.

Let's go

As for the other tracks, once again Steve Sutherland (editor of HFN's sister magazine Hi-Fi Choice and ex-NME boss) has chosen an eclectic mix to get your motor running. With all due respect to The Beatles' 'Drive My Car', Gary Numan's 'Cars', Madness's 'Driving In My Car', Deep Purple's 'Highway Star', Steppenwolf's 'Born To Be Wild', Chuck Berry's 'No Particular Place To Go' and Dionne Warwick's 'Do You Know The Way To San Jose?' you know all of them inside out, anyway.

As usual, you can sample the list and play along as you read by checking out our playlist on Qobuz.

We've plumped for the best-quality version (eg, the 192kHz/24-bit streams of Joni Mitchell's Hejira album) where available.

So buckle up, stow your bags in the overhead locker and enjoy the journey...

'Black Star Liners'
Fred Locks
Black Star Liners; VP Records

The Black Star Line was a shipping concern established by Marcus Garvey in 1919 to transport African Americans and their goods throughout the African global economy. Garvey's endeavour only lasted three years but has come to symbolise black freedom and power. Over 50 years later it was celebrated in music by Jamaican roots reggae artist Fred Locks on his 1976 Black Star Liners release. Featuring rich, bouncy rhythms and choppy guitar lines, the album's insanely catchy opening track (also issued as a single by the Jahmikmusik label) portrays Garvey as a Moses-like prophet leading his people home.

'Fast Car'
Tracy Chapman
Tracy Chapman; Elektra Records

The track about trying to escape poverty and abuse that everyone remembers – alongside 'Baby Can I Hold You' and 'Talkin' 'Bout A Revolution' – from Tracy Chapman's eponymous debut LP, which seemed to come out of nowhere to grace the charts and airwaves in 1988. Chapman's later material (she released a further seven albums before retiring from recording in 2008) never carried the same emotional insight, but sometimes it just takes one classic LP to cement a reputation. And to this day you'll still hear her beautiful 'Fast Car' echoing along the halls of hi-fi shows.

'Night Train'
James Brown
James Brown Presents His Band; King Records

This song has been on quite the journey! It first left the station via Johnny Hodges' 'That's The Blues, Old Man' in 1940, before influencing Duke Ellington's 'Happy-Go-Lucky Local' in 1946. Tenor saxophonist Jimmy Forrest jumped onboard and changed its name to 'Night Train' in 1951, then, a decade on, James Brown arrived with his Famous Flames singers to record a version for inclusion on the album James Brown Presents His Band. A rockin' and rollin' journey through East Coast US cities – 'and don't forget New Orleans, the home of the blues' – and there's also a humdinger version on 1963's Live At The Apollo.

'National Express'
The Divine Comedy
Fin De Siècle; Divine Comedy Records

Apart from The Who's splendid 1968 psych-pop classic 'Magic Bus', there aren't that many musical tributes to that most humble stalwart of public transport, the bus. Divine Comedy mainman Neil Hannon set out to put that right with this jaunty little number, which featured on the band's 1998 album Fin De Siècle. A Top 10 single in the UK, and so good it really should have been used as a commercial by the travel company in question.

'Amelia'
Joni Mitchell
Hejira; Rhino Elektra

This dreamy second song on Joni Mitchell's masterful 1976 album Hejira is a hymn to Amelia Earhart, the American aviator and pioneer who mysteriously disappeared over the Pacific Ocean in 1937 never to be seen or heard from again. That might seem an odd choice of subject matter, but the rest of the set also has a focus on travelling songs, culminating in the equally lush-sounding 'Refuge Of The Roads', which benefits from Jaco Pastorius on fretless bass.

'Willin''
Little Feat
Sailin' Shoes (Deluxe Edition); Rhino/Warner

There are plenty of truck-driver country songs, and few better than Gram Parsons' 'Drug Store Truck Drivin' Man', yet Little Feat's 'Willin'' is a heartbreaker that tops even band leader Lowell George's earlier Byrds anthem 'Truck Stop Girl'. Our protagonist has been warped by the rain, driven by the snow and had his head stoved in, but driving back and forth across the Mexican border, smuggling smoke and folks, he's still standing. A road warrior reverie from 1976's Sailin' Shoes.

'The Letter'
The Box Tops
The Letter/Neon Rainbow; Arista/Legacy

Written by country musician Wayne Carson, this was the smash hit debut single for Memphis band The Box Tops, fronted by teenage vocalist Alex Chilton (who would later go on to form the astonishing Big Star). Classic blue-eyed soul running short of two minutes, 'The Letter' topped the US charts in 1967, helped no end by the gimmick of having aeroplane noise added to the mix. Arista/Legacy's release of the associated album includes both mono and stereo versions.

'Jet Boy'
New York Dolls
New York Dolls; Mercury Records

What this song is all about is anyone's guess, but it's got 'Jet' in the title and any excuse to queue up some New York Dolls is fine with us. Penned by vocalist David Johansen and guitarist Johnny Thunders, its lyrics suggest some kind of magical entity flying around New York and stealing someone's baby – Rolling Stone called it 'Marvel Comics meets the Lower East Side'. It features on the Dolls' self-titled 1973 debut LP, alongside the more straightforward 'Subway Train'.

'Pull Up To The Bumper'
Grace Jones
Nightclubbing; Island

Autos are handy metaphors for matters of intimacy but few have ever sizzled with so much sauce as this chic, Grace Jones number, aided and abetted by the slinky rhythm section skills of Sly and Robbie, on her landmark 1981 album, Nightclubbing. Although a Top 20 UK hit when re-released as a single five years later, 'Pull Up To The Bumper' attracted plenty of criticism for its lascivious lyrics, despite AC/DC having made an entire career out of the same sort of thing.

'1952 Vincent Black Lightning'
Richard Thompson
Rumor And Sigh; Capitol Nashville

This heart-wrenchingly tragic romantic tale tells the story of a UK biker outlaw called James and the girl (Red Molly) who he wows with his classic motorbike – before things go a bit pear-shaped. Featuring just Thompson and his acoustic guitar, it's a fan favourite from the ex-Fairport Convention member's exquisite 1991 LP, Rumor And Sigh, his 13th since leaving the Cotswold folk rock legends to wend his own weird and wonderful way.

'Let The Monkey Drive'
Sparks
Exotic Creatures Of The Deep (Deluxe Ed.); BMG

Car songs come and car songs go, but none is surely weirder than this track from Sparks' 2008 album Exotic Creatures Of The Deep, where a couple canoodling in the back of a swanky automobile while travelling down the California coast are chauffeured by... yeah, a monkey. Simultaneously a bit creepy and a whole lot of fun, it's exactly what fans now expect from musical brothers Russ and Ron Mael, whose playful surrealism still feels fresh and unexpected.

'Down In The Tube Station At Midnight'
The Jam
All Mod Cons; Polydor Records

The second single from Paul Weller and co's third LP, All Mod Cons, this was released in 1978 but still sounds prescient today as the protagonist is set upon by a gang of men who 'smell like pubs and Wormwood Scrubs'. One of the group's finest compositions, it kicks off with the clanking sounds of a tube train leaving the station, before slipping into a groove of tuneful bass, rat-a-tat percussion and Weller's distinctive vocals.

'Ride Wit Me'
Nelly
Country Grammar; Universal/Fo' Reel Entertainment

Rapper Nelly arrived in 2000 as an antidote to the tedious East Coast/West Coast hip-hop rivalry of the 1990s, by virtue of hailing from the midwestern city of St Louis, Missouri. His debut LP, Country Grammar, is packed with fresh-sounding, twangy beats and inventive rhymes, and spawned a number of hit singles, 'Ride Wit Me' being the third of them, released in February 2001 and reaching No 3 in both the US and the UK. What's it about? Basically, our Nell is the coolest guy in the world and has all manner of goodies in the back seat of his Benz to seduce the ladies; plus, of course, he's about to fly first class to a party in NYC.

'Low Rider'
War
Why Can't We Be Friends?; Avenue Records

Cooler than cool, chiller than chill, this is the very acme of laid-back courtesy of the Long Beach-based band's seventh LP, Why Can't We Be Friends?. Drawing from Chicano culture and the practice of hydraulically pimping up and hot-rodding classic cars to parade through the 'hood, it boasts a killer bass riff that's been more prolifically sampled than just about any other soul classic, and percussion you just can't help but nod along to.

'The Midnight Special'
Creedence Clearwater Revival
Willy And The Poor Boys; Fantasy Records

This song of longing for escape brought on by witnessing the lights of a passenger train is credited to prisoners in the 1900s. Blues legend Lead Belly recorded it in the Louisiana State Penitentiary in 1934, and many have taken it up since – Harry Belafonte's 1962 recording features Bob Dylan's first appearance on record, playing harmonica. However, the one we're playing comes from Willy And The Poor Boys, Creedence Clearwater Revival's fourth LP and – impressively – the third one they released in 1969 alone. As enjoyable as the same album's hit single 'Fortunate Son', and that's saying something.

'Be Thankful For What You Got'
William DeVaughn
Be Thankful For What You Got; Edsel

There are very few songs more sumptuously perfect than William DeVaughn's slow-mo soul celebration of bright-side optimism and not moaning that you don't have a car. A seven-minute jam session beauty guaranteed to lift your mood whatever the circumstances, it was a Top 10 hit in the US in 1974 when released by Roxbury Records, and more than gives the mighty Curtis Mayfield a run for his money.

'Eight Miles High'
The Byrds
Fifth Dimension; Columbia

Taking onboard influences from the likes of Ravi Shankar and John Coltrane, Roger McGuinn guided The Byrds into stellar regions never before attempted by pop. Released in 1966 and included on the Fifth Dimension LP, 'Eight Miles High' features an astonishing guitar solo, ecstatically soaring harmonies and purports to be about a flight from LA to London. Suspicions of psychedelic undertones, however, meant the song found itself banned a fair bit from the airwaves.

'Locomotive (Complicity)'
Guns N' Roses
Use Your Illusion II; Geffen

When Guns N' Roses released two 75-minute albums on the same day in 1991, some tracks were bound to get overlooked. The eight-minute 'Locomotive' is one of them, not helped by the rock group only playing it live a handful of times on the subsequent monster world tour. But this is a real beauty – a funky, riff-laden giant of a track finding lead singer Axl Rose and guitarist Slash at the peak of their powers, and ending in a spooky coda with the repeated lyric 'love's so strange'.

'Days Of Graduation'
Drive-By Truckers
Southern Rock Opera; Lost Highway

There are zillions of great songs about driving mishaps – we were sorely tempted to include The Scud Mountain Boys' 'In A Ditch' or Jan & Dean's 'Dead Man's Curve'. Yet ultimately Drive-By Truckers' sorry tale of a car-load of college kids crashing on a night out, from their 2001 Southern Rock Opera album, makes the cut, if only for the fact that when the ambulance arrives, Lynyrd Skynyrd's 'Free Bird' is still blasting out of the wrecked car's stereo – 'It's a very long song'.

'Trans-Europe Express'
Kraftwerk
Trans-Europe Express; Parlophone

Time to get moving with the brilliant title track of Kraftwerk's sixth long-player. Recorded at the group's Kling Klang studio in Düsseldorf during 1976, this pays tribute to the continental rail system – we could have also included their 22-minute 'Autobahn' from 1974, or 2002's multi-part epic 'Tour de France'. All are of equal splendour, courtesy of the guvnors of the motorik beat, whose pioneering sound still fuels generations of electronic adventurers.