Has anyone ever really pulled their car off to the side of the road upon hearing a song on the radio...

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...or is this just some artistic license sobby critics employ? Because I've heard many many emotional, uplifting, extremely beautiful music while driving in my car, but have never had the urge to pull over and weep. Yet somehow I've read about this happening to the writer/listener many times....

― PB, Tuesday, 19 July 2005 16:47 (twenty years ago)

I've driven around the block to let a song finish before, that's as close as I get.

― miccio (miccio), Tuesday, 19 July 2005 16:49 (twenty years ago)

I did once, yeah. Well, technically, I wasn't the one driving -- my friend Rob was -- and we heard this song that we thought was rather, well, cool. Not only did we pull over, we actually called the radio station (who, for some reason, wasn't back reading what they'd been playing) to find out what the song was.

Turns out it was a song called "Bonecrusher" by a going-nowhere band with the highly unfortunate name of Soul Hat.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Tuesday, 19 July 2005 16:51 (twenty years ago)

lots of times I'll let the song finish while I'm parked in the parking lot before I get out and go to work....

― M@tt He1geson (Matt Helgeson), Tuesday, 19 July 2005 16:51 (twenty years ago)

this hoary old cliche has been trotted out not once but twice by that pompous idiot Bonio..not once but twice about the same artist..ie The Smiths..He said it on a documentary about Morrissey upon listening to Girlfriend iN a Coma..and then a year later he said he had to pull his car over when he first heard Panic...Whilst I adore these songs I feel he is lying and these events never took place

― mafism (Constance Gore-Booth), Tuesday, 19 July 2005 16:59 (twenty years ago)

I pulled over the first time I heard "Get Ur Freak On."

Not to cry, but to gawk.

― Whiney G. Weingarten (whineyg), Tuesday, 19 July 2005 17:01 (twenty years ago)

i did not pull over specifically to listen, but the first time i heard tortoise on WXRT's Local Anaesthetic show (the local music spotlight), before the first album came out, i was stopping at my friend's house to pick him up. i sat there with my mouth slack. had i been driving lord knows what sort of damage i would have done.

― teh Nü and Impröved john n chicago (frankE), Tuesday, 19 July 2005 17:04 (twenty years ago)

Yeah, but I was candyflipping, so it was proabably in the public's best interest.

― Tigerstyle Shamanic Vision Quester (sexyDancer), Tuesday, 19 July 2005 17:06 (twenty years ago)

I stopped my car on the side of the road waiting to hear the KXLU DJ say the same of the song I had just heard (had to pull over, because the KXLU signal is iffy around the part of L.A. I was in and I didn't want to miss it). Five songs later, I found out it was "Our Work Fills the Pews" by Hot Snakes and in the interim period I'd also become a KaitO fan.

― Gear! (Gear!), Tuesday, 19 July 2005 17:06 (twenty years ago)

on very much way too much hash, in the passenger seat of my best friend's mother's pontiac-- "sweet child o' mine", with the unedited super-long gtr. solo= almost fainted... (easy to forget that there was hardly any "rock" on ye olde "rock radio" stations when that song happened, and the length/heaviness of that solo and the whole "where do we go from here" part was aneuristic, like getting pounded in the head with fuzzy electric boulders...) pulled over and giggled/moaned like fucking retards and the guitar solo stretched all the way from jupiter to mars and we were HAPPYsoHAPPYsoHAPPY (for true & for real...)

― BLUE,bland,BoBby!!! (bland,BLUE,BoBby!!!), Tuesday, 19 July 2005 17:11 (twenty years ago)

also, i am seventy years old...

― BLUE,bland,BoBby!!! (bland,BLUE,BoBby!!!), Tuesday, 19 July 2005 17:12 (twenty years ago)

But why the need to pull one's car over to the shoulder and stop driving? Can't you hear the song well enough with the engine on? Or does the electric charge of a good guitar solo coursing through your veins so incapacitate you that you're a danger to other drivers?

― PB, Tuesday, 19 July 2005 17:15 (twenty years ago)

the first time I heard "Hey Ya!" my wife and I were driving w/one of my bandmates to this outdoor show we were doing that day and while we didn't pull over we totally did the "park the car and wait for the song to finish" once we got to the site.

― Shakey Mo Collier, Tuesday, 19 July 2005 17:18 (twenty years ago)

Whilst I adore these songs I feel he is lying and these events never took place

That's how I feel whenever I read or hear anyone say they've actually done this.........what a load of crap. Don't lie to me to prove how good a song is.

The only time I ever believed it when someone said they pulled their car over was John Peel's old "Teenage Kicks" story.

― PB, Tuesday, 19 July 2005 17:21 (twenty years ago)

Those moments of inspiration give me an uncontrollable lead foot which is quite the opposite of these stories. I can't imagine getting the sudden urge to pull over. It would be like dancing until that really killer track comes on and oh, my god, I suddenly just have to sit down and pay attention!

― walter kranz (walterkranz), Tuesday, 19 July 2005 17:24 (twenty years ago)

Brian Wilson's story about By My Baby is the one that seems believable because I can't imagine him doing more than one thing at a time.

― walter kranz (walterkranz), Tuesday, 19 July 2005 17:25 (twenty years ago)

I did this once during MBV's "To Here Knows When." I didn't weep though, just sort of sat there with my mouth open.

― sleep (sleep), Tuesday, 19 July 2005 17:26 (twenty years ago)

Admittedly drugs may have been involved.

― sleep (sleep), Tuesday, 19 July 2005 17:27 (twenty years ago)

adolescence = goofy
drugs = drugs
unexpected long gtr. solo = surprising
surprising + drugs = happy anxiety attack
happy anxiety attack + downtown traffic = panic attack
panic attack = harshed mellow
"the electric charge of a good guitar solo" = you are funny

― BLUE,bland,BoBby!!! (bland,BLUE,BoBby!!!), Tuesday, 19 July 2005 17:27 (twenty years ago)

( x-post )

― BLUE,bland,BoBby!!! (bland,BLUE,BoBby!!!), Tuesday, 19 July 2005 17:28 (twenty years ago)

I did this fairly recently when the oldies station played Rod Stewart's "Young Turks" and the Stones' "Fool To Cry."

― Alfred Soto (Alfred Soto), Tuesday, 19 July 2005 17:29 (twenty years ago)

Imogen Heap: "Hide and Seek"
genre: indie pop

Hearing "Hide and Seek" at the climax of The O.C.'s second season finale was one of those pull-over-to-the-side-of-the-road moments where space and time collapse and the world holds its breath. We're programmed to think that things like teensploitation TV shows and B-list alt-pop divas couldn't possibly be capable of such tremendous beauty. That stuff exists only to sell cars and soft drinks, right? Wrong. This is shock and awe. [Amy Phillips]
(4 stars)

― PB, Tuesday, 19 July 2005 17:29 (twenty years ago)

I only found two specifics instances in the ILM archives!

I heard El Debarge's "Who's Johnny?" on the radio the other night. I pulled over on the side of the road and chanted the lyrics.

-- Alfred Soto (sotoal...), March 24th, 2005.

Sugarcubes - "Birthday" C / D

The first time I heard this song, I had to pull the car over to the side of the road to keep from crashing it. Utter classic.
-- Colin Meeder (amisrau...), June 24th, 2002.

― Gear! (Gear!), Tuesday, 19 July 2005 17:42 (twenty years ago)

verdict: ilm filled with easily distracted madmen!

― Gear! (Gear!), Tuesday, 19 July 2005 17:42 (twenty years ago)

Everytime "Desperado" comes on.

― pinder (pinder), Tuesday, 19 July 2005 18:42 (twenty years ago)

lots of times I'll let the song finish while I'm parked in the parking lot before I get out and go to work....

I did this yesterday. Never parked a car just to listen to a song though.

― Billy Dods (Billy Dods), Tuesday, 19 July 2005 19:15 (twenty years ago)

didn't pull over to the side of the road, but during a road trip we heard Tweet's "Oops (Oh My)" many times without the DJ ever telling us who it was by (prolly record company/Clear Channel collusion, since the song wasn't out yet). more than once did we sit in fast food parking lots for long stretches of generic R&B waiting to be enlightened. only damage to any personal property involved is that i smashed a Mary J Blige promo when i got back, out of sublimated rage.

― yuengling participle (rotten03), Tuesday, 19 July 2005 19:16 (twenty years ago)

Scout's honor, I did this the first time I heard "P-Funk" on the radio, summer of 1975. I was driving on a multi-lane major city street, it was so wonderful I was transfixed, and there was no way I could pay the attention I wanted to the song and drive at the same time. Plus, I was afraid that I would miss the information about what song, artist it was if I was, say, swerving to avoid an oncoming truck. I didn't know it was a cliche at the time, but even if I had known I would have pulled over.

Once, previously, I had been listening to Roberta Flack's "Killing Me Softly" on the car radio and got pulled over by a cop in a totally obvious speed trap. Maybe that should count, too. But I've hated the song ever since.

― Vornado, Tuesday, 19 July 2005 19:16 (twenty years ago)

haha.

But you shouldn't need this negative memory to hate the song...the music should be enough.

― PB, Tuesday, 19 July 2005 19:43 (twenty years ago)

i have done this. it also needs to be taken into account how old your car is/how noisy the engine/bad the suspension is.

― Susan Douglas (Susan Douglas), Tuesday, 19 July 2005 20:46 (twenty years ago)

I totally remember the first time I heard "Hey Ya!," too. I was driving home from work and Radiohead was doing a guest DJ spot on the alternative rock station. They said they'd just gotten a promo of the new OutKast and were excited about it. I didn't pull over or anything, but I grinned and hit the steering wheel a couple times, I think.

― jaymc (jaymc), Tuesday, 19 July 2005 20:51 (twenty years ago)

I think I saved the Debarge episode for the "Who's Johnny?" thread.

― Alfred Soto (Alfred Soto), Tuesday, 19 July 2005 20:55 (twenty years ago)

I dont know how to drive.

― elgolfo (elgolfo), Wednesday, 20 July 2005 12:42 (twenty years ago)

eight years pass...

only skimmed the anthony lane profile of ScarJo+review of this in latest New Yorker and threw the magazine across the room.
― espring (amateurist), Friday, March 21, 2014 6:46 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

― every moser (wins), Saturday, 22 March 2014 09:43 (eleven years ago)

I've done this twice. Once was with Morrissey's We Hate It When Our Friends Become Successful. It was the first play of his new single and I didn't want to be distracted. I was 21 or so, that's my excuse. The 2nd was hearing the Floaters - Float On at 2 or 3 in the morning in New Orleans. Was perhaps a bit stoned at the time and the song was enhancing my buzz to such a degree that it was safer to just pull over and enjoy the song.

― brotherlovesdub, Saturday, 22 March 2014 13:15 (eleven years ago)

When I worked at Tower, we used to put on 'Float On' and announce ourselves over the store intercom between the band member introductions.

Yes, making fun of the song a little.

So, that story is entirely hilarious to me because that's such a. . . I don't know of any delicate way to put this. . . it's such a cheesy song.

― austinato (Austin), Saturday, 22 March 2014 14:50 (eleven years ago)

For me, it was Tim and Mollie O'Brien's recording of Gillian Welch's "Orphan Girl".

― banjoboy, Saturday, 22 March 2014 15:27 (eleven years ago)

To be honest they're both a little embarrassing to me now. I stand by the Floaters though. Unexpectedly played in the middle of the night while I was stoned and it definitely had an effect on me that caused me to stop the car. Probably shouldn't have been driving anyway.

― brotherlovesdub, Saturday, 22 March 2014 16:37 (eleven years ago)

Don't know if I have ever actually stopped but I have lingered in the parked car to hear the end of the tune now and then, including "Float On."

― Redd Scharlach Sometimes (James Redd and the Blecchs), Saturday, 22 March 2014 16:49 (eleven years ago)

Me too. Gotta hear the end of "Float On"

― curmudgeon, Saturday, 22 March 2014 16:59 (eleven years ago)

Didn't know this thread existed. I'm going to think of it as the "Really, Greil?" thread.

― clemenza, Saturday, 22 March 2014 17:01 (eleven years ago)

this is the sort of question that ought to have been raised in ask sissymanwhore (NSFW)

― in my day this was all feels (DJ Mencap), Saturday, 22 March 2014 17:02 (eleven years ago)

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