Song Of The Day 5/16/2016: Red Simpson – “I’m a Truck”

To Trucker With Love – I'm sure I don't have to regale you with the poetry of the road. You know how romantic the U.S. trucker's life is. Eighteen wheels. Merle Haggard (R.I.P.) tapes. The scenic beauty of I-80 as it cascades through Kearney, Nebraska. The sexy danger of non-divisible loads. The spiritual purity of trucking pigs. Chimerical CB jargon like "10-4," "pleated diaper," "an unassuming Grenache" and "the Enya solution." A truck stop patty melt. Motel room TVs with all four networks. Clerical errors on the pension plans. And, of course, amphetamine abuse. I'm sure you're ready to sign up right now. (I almost did.) (I'm not kidding. Mainly to get out of town.) (Don't tempt me.)

But why take my word for it -- let's have us a convoy of songs this week about the trucking industry. Dave Dudley and Red Sovine might have been the best-known names in the interstate trucking songwriting game, but Red Simpson -- who passed away in January, less than three months before his friend Merle Haggard -- might have been the purest. He was a huge factor in creating the Bakersfield sound along with Haggard and Buck Owens. His biggest hit, "I'm A Truck," is a product of the Pacific Northwest, written by Bob Stanton of Yakima, Washington. It tells the story of a trucker's inconvenience-laden life told from the point of view of the truck. You think consignors are withering pains in the ass? This'll learn you.