I grew up a son of a gear head. As a child I could discern a passing classic as a '55 or '56 Chevy (the front end parking lights are the giveaway) at 60 plus miles per hour in the opposite direction. My early TV memories include sprinting to the tube every time I heard the growling sax riff that opened the Capital Raceway drag strip commercial... Sunday Sunday Sunday! The images funny cars spitting flames and lurching back onto the wheelie bars danced in my head.
So, many years later, I woke up one hungover Sunday morning with this tale of a small town racer done good (and bad) in my head. Nothing seems more rural than dirt track racing, and who doesn't love a story about someone selling their soul to the devil. I locked myself in our spare bedroom in the old apartment and banged out the chords 'till they went together. Add Billy McCoy to the ever-growing list of LAWNCHAIR songs that reference hookers... I have no clue why. Seriously.
Then, months later, I went to see the Drive By Truckers. The Stroker Ace himself Mike Cooley stepped to the mic to sing his first tune of the night- he slammed into "Daddy's Cup" a, then unreleased, song about small town auto racing. Damn! Ever since I've felt compelled to defend the fact that I wrote Billy McCoy months before I ever heard that song.
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2 comments:
Haha! When I was kid, we had "Sunday, Sunday, Sunday!" too, but that was for the New England Dragway in Epping, New Hampshire.
I just did a quick search on the internets and this person thinks it's from the Detroit Dragway, this one thinks it's from U.S. 30 Dragstrip in Lake County, Indiana, and this one thinks it's from the Lebanon Valley Speedway in West Lebanon, NY. I wonder how many other folks grew up thinking "Sunday Sunday Sunday" was unique to their area!
It was a hell of a jingle. No wonder everyone used it! I would get so fired up when those commercials would come on.
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