January #4 - Kicking Up Gravel

4. Lucinda Williams - Car Wheels On A Gravel Road

When I do get around to do a Top Ten Songs Featuring Slamming Screen Doors, I'm going to have a hell of a time cutting it down to just ten. No prizes for guessing what the Number One will be, but Bruce gets more than his fair share of attention round these parts so here's Lucinda from the 1998 album which really put her on the map. Curiously, I was reminded of this song recently while reading Bruce's recent autobiography (my thoughts on that will follow at some point, I'm sure). There's something about the tone of Car Wheels that reminds me very much of the way Bruce describes his youth and the relationship with his father...

Can't find a damn thing in this place
Nothing's where I left it before
Set of keys and a dusty suitcase
Car wheels on a gravel road

There goes the screen door slamming shut
You better do what you're told
When I get back this room better be picked-up
Car wheels on a gravel road

I bought this album when it came out in 1998 on the back of glowing reviews. Beyond the title track which hammers its way into your memory through its powerful imagery and the repetition of that one line chorus, it didn't make a whole lot of impact at the time. I sold my copy in one of my great "I'm really skint" music purges and was horrified to discover a few years later I hadn't even burned a copy to my pc. So I had to go out and buy it all over again... at which point, I think I was properly ready for the riches it holds. Story of my life though: many of my favourites songs / artists / records are ones that I was initially ambivalent to... some of them I even outright hated. Actually, I think that may well lead to another Top Ten. But doesn't everything?