My heart, which is so full to overflowing, has often been solaced and refreshed by music when sick and weary. Martin Luther(1483 - 1546)

Jenny, Hellcat to the stars, sent me this little treasure...

Your Birthday Song(s)

Put in your birthday and find out what the No. 1 song was on that day. It'll show you in both the US and UK charts. Plug in and share the wealth. Go on, everyone’s doing it. Also put in your 18th birthday to see what your theme song is. Mine was "Hero" by Mariah Carey, so I am not so sure of the validation of this one. But the rest is really cool...

In England, I would have been rocking out to "Bohemian Rhapsody" by Queen as I slipped onto this mortal coil. Here in the good old US of A, the number one song on the day I was born, a cold and blustery Jan. 10th in the year of our Lord 1976, was "Convoy" by C. W. McCall. I'm so happy I could spit!

For those who do not remember "Convoy," it was a novelty song inspired by the CB craze of the mid 1970's sung by made-up character C.W. McCall (C= Country, W= Western). Most people think Johnny Cash did the tune, but despite the similarity in the voices, C.W. McCall was actually Bill Fries, an Omaha graphic designer who created the truckin' legend for a local bakery. God love Nebraskans, a trucker selling rolls (Get it, GET IT!). Fries put out a few albums but left music in 1977 to champion environmental rights and become mayor of the small Colorado town of Ouray. In 1978, Sam Peckinpah made a movie based on the song with Kris Kristofferson and Ally McGraw. It has been harold as an athem for the plight of truckers and there troubles with the oppresive Hyway Patrol. Brings up images of Smokey and The Bandit, huh? "Hold on to your ass, Fred!"

I love this song, and now people in my office think I am extremely weird. When I saw my result I squealed like some sort of man-child on crack. All morning I have been singing the chorus over and over again. I am usually very quiet and reserved here in the land of working people. This is the first time they've seen me get onto one of my silly tangents that keep me giggling like the Joker. They'll have to get to used to it, though, because now I am officially part of the great big convoy...

Convoy
CW McCall

[On the CB]
Ah, breaker one-nine, this here's the Rubber Duck. You gotta copy on me, Pig
Pen, c'mon? Ah, yeah, 10-4, Pig Pen, fer shure, fer shure. By golly, it's clean
clear to Flag Town, c'mon. Yeah, that's a big 10-4 there, Pig Pen, yeah, we
definitely got the front door, good buddy. Mercy sakes alive, looks like we got
us a convoy...

Was the dark of the moon on the sixth of June
In a Kenworth pullin' logs
Cab-over Pete with a reefer on
And a Jimmy haulin' hogs
We is headin' for bear on I-one-oh
'Bout a mile outta Shaky Town
I says, "Pig Pen, this here's the Rubber Duck.
"And I'm about to put the hammer down."

[Chorus]
'Cause we got a little convoy
Rockin' through the night.
Yeah, we got a little convoy,
Ain't she a beautiful sight?
Come on and join our convoy
Ain't nothin' gonna get in our way.
We gonna roll this truckin' convoy
'Cross the U-S-A.
Convoy!


[On the CB]
Ah, breaker, Pig Pen, this here's the Duck. And, you wanna back off them hogs?
Yeah, 10-4, 'bout five mile or so. Ten, roger. Them hogs is gettin' in-tense up
here.

By the time we got into Tulsa Town,
We had eighty-five trucks in all.
But they's a roadblock up on the cloverleaf,
And them bears was wall-to-wall.
Yeah, them smokies is thick as bugs on a bumper;
They even had a bear in the air!
I says, "Callin' all trucks, this here's the Duck.
"We about to go a-huntin' bear."

[Chorus]
'Cause we got a great big convoy
Rockin' through the night.
Yeah, we got a great big convoy,
Ain't she a beautiful sight?
Come on and join our convoy
Ain't nothin' gonna get in our way.
We gonna roll this truckin' convoy
'Cross the U-S-A.
Convoy!


[On the CB]
Ah, you wanna give me a 10-9 on that, Pig Pen? Negatory, Pig Pen; you're still
too close. Yeah, them hogs is startin' to close up my sinuses. Mercy sakes, you
better back off another ten.

Well, we rolled up Interstate 44
Like a rocket sled on rails.
We tore up all of our swindle sheets,
And left 'em settin' on the scales.
By the time we hit that Chi-town,
Them bears was a-gettin' smart:
They'd brought up some reinforcements
From the Illinoise National Guard.
There's armored cars, and tanks, and jeeps,
And rigs of ev'ry size.
Yeah, them chicken coops was full'a bears
And choppers filled the skies.
Well, we shot the line and we went for broke
With a thousand screamin' trucks
An' eleven long-haired Friends a' Jesus
In a chartreuse micra-bus.


[On the CB]
Ah, Rubber Duck to Sodbuster, come over. Yeah, 10-4, Sodbuster? Lissen, you
wanna put that micra-bus right behind that suicide jockey? Yeah, he's haulin'
dynamite, and he needs all the help he can get.

Well, we laid a strip for the Jersey shore
And prepared to cross the line
I could see the bridge was lined with bears
But I didn't have a dog-goned dime.
I says, "Pig Pen, this here's the Rubber Duck.
"We just ain't a-gonna pay no toll."
So we crashed the gate doing ninety-eight
I says "Let them truckers roll, 10-4."

[Chorus]
'Cause we got a mighty convoy
Rockin' through the night.
Yeah, we got a mighty convoy,
Ain't she a beautiful sight?
Come on and join our convoy
Ain't nothin' gonna get in our way.
We gonna roll this truckin' convoy
'Cross the U-S-A.


Convoy! Ah, 10-4, Pig Pen, what's your twenty?
Convoy! OMAHA? Well, they oughta know what to do with them hogs out there fer
shure. Well, mercy
Convoy! sakes, good buddy, we gonna back on outta here, so keep the bugs off
your glass and the bears off your...
Convoy! tail. We'll catch you on the flip-flop. This here's the Rubber Duck on
the side.
Convoy! We gone. 'Bye,'bye.