The Best Albums for Road Trips

First off, let me say, there are two kinds of road trips I take: the ones I take with others (chiefly family) and the ones I take by myself. Since I take most of my trips alone, I am going to focus on that category.

Another reason for concentrating on the solo trips is that I and I alone get to decide what is going to play through my car speakers. When I go with my brother and his family to visit our many relatives and friends in Ohio, neither I nor he nor my sister-in-law get a vote. Our choice of music is entirely decided by theor royal majesties, my two nephews.

Now, that is not entirely a bad thing. They don't go in for that garbage that sounds like somebody setting himself on fire. Their favorite stuff to listen to is actually Gilbert and Sullivan. On any goven trip, both to and fro, we will certainly hear The Mikado, The Pirates of Penzance and The Yeomen of the Guard. This marks a vast improvement over when the boys were toddlers and our steady road fare featured Little Bunny Foo Foo and creatures if his ilk.

Now, let us get back to where I'm in the car by myself. For one thing, I will play the radio until it gets out of range of the Washington, DC listening area and save the prepared stuff for the stretches of open road, where the reception is iffy to nil.

On a trip to Philadelphia (about 150 miles), that will typically mean two CDs worth for the open areas between Washington and Philadelphia (which kicks in about 20 miles north of the Pennsylvania state line. About half the time, I'll stop to fill one takk or drain another, but the other half, I'll drive straight through. I always start on the assumption that I am not going to stop, and I do not do distracted driving of any kind. That includes changing the disc in my single-disc CD player. So the first criterion is that it has to be an album I don't mind hearing twice in a row.

As some of you who follow my stuff know, I like to sing, so another (but optional) one is that I should get to sing along with at least part of it.

The most important thing, though, is that I should enjoy it. Keeping all those things in mind, here are my favorites.+

Forbidden Broadway 2

Actually, any of the first three Forbidden Broadway albums will do just fine, but the second one happens to be the best by a slight margin. If there are other FB albums since the third one, I do not know about them, let alone own them.

The concept of the albums is to lampoon the best-known Broadway shows and stars, both new (like Kiss of the Spider Woman) and old (like Hello Dolly). There is even a hilarious selection of songs spoofing a recent revival of The Pirates of Penzance. I have not seen every single show these albums lampoon, but I have seen enough of them that the albums are always very entertaining

Time Out of Mind, Bob Dylan

This is the second-best album Dylan ever put out. I go into some detail about it in an earlier essay,(July 21, 2009), but, to recap, it was a brilliant piece of work that Dylan suddenly put out, even as his artistry seemed to be somewhat in decline. As I said in that earlier essay, New Morning is the best album he ever put out, but it is not as long as the one I have list

Bad Love, Randy Newman

Pretty much any Randy Newman album is good for a listen while you are on the way from here to there, but, for some reason, I like this one the best. Songs like "Big Hat, No Cattle" and "I'm Dead but I Don't Know It" are very entertaining, and the other stuff is almost as good.

In closing, let me add, that, unlike my nephews, who are fairly sophisticcated for a couple of boys 10 and 7 years old, I do not play the same albums again and again and again. I always bring a different mix, so a representative from the three I listed above, excellent as they are, will only come into play from time to time.

Even so, maybe you should think about playing them on your next trip.