It’s the moment you’ve all been waiting for: the release of the lovingly curated soundtrack to this years Big Coq Racing expedition to Le Mans. As tradition dictates, it’s an eclectic mixture of tracks related to cars, racing, camping, or just banging tunes to sing along to while stuck in an interminable queue.
For those of you who are fully paid up participants in the 21st century, the soundtrack is available as a Spotify or Amazon Music Unlimited playlist. If not, then you’ll have to ask me nicely for some MP3s. No physical media; it wouldn’t cope with over two-and-a-half hours of musical awesomeness.
- Spotify playlist link
- Amazon Music Unlimited link (note, probably won’t work on the free Prime Music sub)
For those of you curious as to why the heck each track has been chosen, here are a few words of rambling rationale for what you’re listening to…
1 Song 2 – Blur
Woo hoo! And we’re off for 2019. Who can forget that Toyota Corolla advert, eh?
2 Drop Top – Keith Urban [feat. Kassi Ashton]
A concession to recent pop, but a perfect one to kick start your cruise to Le Mans. Unless you’ve inconveniently bought another car with a roof, that is…
3 She Drives Me Crazy – Fine Young Cannibals
I can’t believe we haven’t had this already, but every playlist needs some 80s classic cheese. From the album “The Raw & the Cooked”, a bit like a Big Coq barbecue.
4 Got To Keep On – The Chemical Brothers
There’s at least one great track on every new Chemical Brothers album, and this is the best on No Geography. It’s a damned sight better than the one they’ve used for the 2019 F1 coverage, fo’ sho’, as Crazy Dave would say.
5 Bellbottoms – The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion
The opening scene from Baby Driver. Best use of an Impreza WRX in popular culture since McRae and Burns. If you haven’t seen it, watch the first 6 minutes; remember to breathe.
6 Race Car Ya-Yas – Cake
We’ve already had “The Distance” from Cake’s most famous album Fashion Nugget, but there are a couple of other motoring related gems on there. This is one of them.
7 Catchy Song – Dillon Francis [feat. T-Pain & That Girl Lay Lay]
For no other reason than this song *will* get inside your head, and you’ll be humming it for literally weeks after the event.
8 Baby Driver – Simon & Garfunkel
A rich vein of great driving music to tap into from the heist movie of the same name. I thought it would be a fitting track for Freebie, who’ll always be our baby driver, regardless who else we bring along to Le Mans.
9 Paradise City – Guns N’ Roses
Not a great description of Camping Houx, unless your idea of paradise features cold showers, long queues for a sit-down toilet, and several years accretion of broken bottles and campfire detritus under your tent. Still, at least the girls are pretty…
10 99 Luftballons – Nena
Say no more, it’s Nina’s Nena’s Euro smash hit. Just as Nena couldn’t ever bring herself to play the English language version live, I couldn’t bear to put it on the playlist. It sounds so much better in German.
11 Cars – Gary Numan
Didn’t he once own a Cerbera? Now he’s gone electric. Say no more.
12 Pumped Up Kicks – Foster the People
There’s just something about this indie-pop hit about a teenage high school shooter that makes me think of summer. Also, “pumped up”, unlike Freebie’s tyres (see what I did there?)
13 Harlem Shuffle – Bob & Earl
Hey, it’s House of Pain… oh, not it isn’t. I chose this out of pure devilment; it surprises me every time I hear the opening fanfare even though I know what isn’t coming. The lyrics recall Anthony Davidson’s dodgy blocking moves in a Peugeot in 2011.
14 The Middle – Jimmy Eat World
Nothing car related on this, just a great tune with a beautifully crafted 16 bar guitar solo tucked in for good measure. There is a sort-of reference to fairground rides in there though, if you need some relevance to Le Mans.
15 Life in the Fast Lane – Eagles
Another “it wouldn’t be complete without a…” band, but a good illustration of what a great album Hotel California was. So many road trip essential tunes on one record.
16 Unsquare Dance – The Dave Brubeck Quartet
A spot of jazz from that master of the awkward time signature. Just try and dance to this one in 7/4 time, I dare you Simon. Must have been used for lots of film capers through the years.
17 Nowhere To Run – Martha Reeves & The Vandellas
One from the school of “we must have had this already, surely?”, harking back to the years of Dan on the Run, when hiding fugitive V8Ss from the police in farmyards was de riguer.
18 Four Seasons In One Day – Crowded House
If there’s a song title that better sums up the weather standing downhill from the Dunlop Bridge at 3pm on a Saturday afternoon, I can’t think of it.
19 Old Red Eyes Is Back – The Beautiful South
Originally suggested by Robin as a fitting theme tune for Ian, but there’s a great line in there about empty whisky bottles that makes it surprisingly relevant. Roll on the Sir Edward’s and Hanky Bannister.
20 Do You Want To – Franz Ferdinand
In case we don’t make it to the Saturday night set from these Glaswegian rockers, here’s what they sound like. But what is a “transmission party” – is it something to do with gearboxes?
21 Flat Tire Blues – Steve Johnson
A low blow, but I couldn’t resist. They haven’t even tried to make this into some sort of metaphor. It’s a straightforward riff on the trials of low tyre pressure and lack of a spare when far from home.
22 I’m In Love With My Car – Queen
I confess I’d never heard this before Bohemian Rhapsody encouraged me to seek it out. The lyrics are suggestive verging on creepy, but massive kudos for getting a rhyme out of carburettor.
23 Get Outta My Dreams, Get Into My Car – Billy Ocean
So much synth brass in one place that it must be illegal. It’s like watching anything with Keith Lemon in it: you shouldn’t like it, but you just can’t help yourself.
24 Brand New Cadillac – The Clash
There are a lot of Cadillacs in popular music, unlike on the Le Mans grid. This one has been covered many times, but the Clash’s version is the best.
25 Lemon to a Knife Fight – The Wombats
Plenty of driving references in this track from the latest Wombats album. A much more mature sound from the Liverpudlian band behind 2007’s smash hit “Moving to New York”. They’ll be familiar to anyone who watched The Inbetweeners.
26 Camaro – Kings Of Leon
Plundering the Kings of Leon back catalogue before they became stadium filling stars revealed this gem.
27 Oh Yeah (From “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off”) – Yello
Before you say it, yes, I know it wasn’t a real Ferrari California Spyder, but you can’t argue with one of the greatest films of the 1980s.
28 Kickstart My Heart – Mötley Crüe
Surely some prize is deserved for gratuitous and inappropriate use of the umlaut, as well as many cries of “whoah” in the chorus. I fear it’s about drugs (just say no, kids), but prefer to think it’s relevant to any bikers on the crüe.
29 Stickshifts and Safetybelts – Cake
Not what I was expecting, a track bemoaning a lack of bench seats and awkwardly placed gear levers in modern cars, while praising the Japanese auto industry. Someone in Cake is a massive petrolhead.
30 Let Me Ride – Dr. Dre
Whoah, this one is a bit sweary! Definitely the track to skip if you’re listening to this in the car with your kids, and not one to sing along with if you’re a white guy in a convertible. (NB: regrettably not available in original form on Spotify since Apple bought Beats, so you get a cover)
31 Highway Star – Deep Purple
Not smoke on the water, although we could have that too, if you parked an old 911 arse-downhill next to the Houx Annex lake, then revved it from cold.
32 Red Barchetta – Rush
Rush, the most famous band you’ve never heard of. A tale about a dystopian future where cars have been banned, and you can only drive them furtively at night. So quite a lot like the Ultra Low Emission Zone in London, then.
33 The Boys Of Summer – Don Henley
Yes, we’ve had the DJ Sammy version of this (opening track in 2006) but I thought the original deserved an airing for the beautiful sense of space and evocation of a Malibu clifftop drive in a convertible. Well that’s what it makes me think of anyway.
34 I Can’t Get Started – Carmen McRae
This one is included for all those TVR owners out there with a dodgy starter solenoid. I wanted to include the Billie Holliday version of this big band classic, but I couldn’t bear the terrible recording quality.
35 Drop The Pilot – Joan Armatrading
You’ll have to ask Robin why he recommended this one, but it is a catchy tune. Just listen to the lyrics though. WTAF?
36 The Power Of Love (From “Back To The Future”) – Huey Lewis and the News
Turn your amp up to 1.21 gigawatts and imagine you’re trying to hit 88mph in a car park while running away from some Iranian Libyan terrorists. Thank god the Delorean accelerated slowly enough to imbue that scene with some tension.
37 Highway to Hell – AC/DC
No recent Le Mans playlist would be complete without a bit of AC/DC. A homage to Tony Stark and the Iron Man soundtrack.
38 Mini, mini, mini – Jacques Dutronc
Oh dear. Tenuous title and French lyrics aside, this has nothing to commend it. Robin, you’re an idiot.
39 Bad Love – Eric Clapton
No car relevance in this one I’m afraid, but you have to admit it’s a blindingly good tune. Just don’t go mad with the air guitar unless you’re in slow moving traffic. Trivia: Phil Collins is on drums and backing vocals. And… COWBELL!
40 Under the Bridge – Red Hot Chili Peppers
You can’t actually get under the Dunlop bridge, but I couldn’t find one called “Under the pit exit”, so this track will suffice. I’ll be humming it while queueing in choking fumes to cross under the circuit on Saturday night.
41 Speeding Cars – Walking on Cars
The power of Amazon Music’s suggestions. I created a playlist full of tunes with car references, and it suggested this track by Irish indie band Walking on Cars. Generic complaint rock filler.
42 In the Heat of the Moment – Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds
A track that reinforces the belief that Noel was the talented one in Oasis. Very fitting at an event where many decisions are made in the heat of the moment, or sometimes the torrential rain of the moment.
43 She Sells Sanctuary – The Cult
It wouldn’t be Le Mans without this classic from The Cult. The only valid exception to the “no repetition from previous years” rule, and a fitting end to this year’s playlist. Over and out (sic), as they’d say in Convoy…