Hot Rod Lincoln

Album

Lost in the Ozone

Label

Paramount Records

Genre

Rock & Roll

Composer(s)

Charlie Ryan

Entered Chart

Mar 25, 1972

Peak Date

Jun 3, 1972

Released

March 1972

Recorded

Unknown

Catalog #

Paramount 0146

B-Side

My Home In My Hand

As given by the band's now-defunct official site, "Hot Rod Lincoln" was originally written by Charlie Ryan. It was first recorded and released by Charlie Ryan and The Livingston Brothers in 1955. It tells the second half of the story started by the song "Hot Rod Race," recorded in 1951 by Arkie Shibley and his Mountain Dew Boys, as referenced by the opening: "Have you heard this story of the Hot Rod Race, when Fords and Lincolns was settin' the pace? That story is true, I'm here to say; I was drivin' that Model A." While the song tells of a race between a Lincoln and a Cadillac on the Grapevine grade in California, the actual location was on the Lewiston grade in Idaho. The most iconic line from the song is: "Son, you're gonna drive me to drinkin' if you don't stop drivin' that Hot Rod Lincoln!" Was there really a "hot-rod Lincoln?" Yes and no. Actually, it was a rebuilt car with the body of a Model "A" coupe set into the frame of a 1941 Lincoln, along with a "hopped-up" Lincoln engine block. However, at the time of this song's writing, Ryan built a second car, this time with a chop-shop melding of a 1930 Model "A" Ford coupe and a wrecked 1948 Lincoln. It is this second restored car with which has Ryan toured. Both the songs "Hot Rod Lincoln" and "Hot Rod Race" are defining anthems of the hot rod community and 1950s car song culture. "Hot Rod Lincoln" has appeared in the soundtracks to The Beverly Hillbillies and MTV's Beavis and Butthead. This was the only hit for Commander Cody and His Lost Planet Airmen, who were a county-rock group formed at the University of Michigan. Commander Cody is lead singer and piano player George Frayne.

My pappy said, "Son, you're gonna' drive me to drinkin'
If you don't stop drivin' that Hot Rod Lincoln"

Have you heard this story of the Hot Rod race
When Fords and Lincolns was settin' the pace
That story is true, I'm here to say
I was drivin' that Model A

It's got a Lincoln motor and it's really souped up
That Model A Vitimix makes it look like a pup
It's got eight cylinders, uses them all
It's got overdrive, just won't stall

With a 4-barrel carb and a dual exhaust
With 4.11 gears you can really get lost
It's got safety tubes, but I ain't scared
The brakes are good, tires fair

Pulled out of San Pedro late one night
The moon and the stars was shinin' bright
We was drivin' up Grapevine Hill
Passing cars like they was standing still

All of a sudden in a wink of an eye
A Cadillac sedan passed us by
I said, "Boys, that's a mark for me!"
By then the taillight was all you could see

Now the fellas was ribbin' me for bein' behind
So I thought I'd make the Lincoln unwind
Took my foot off the gas and man alive
I shoved it on down into overdrive

Wound it up to a hundred-and-ten
My speedometer said that I hit top end
My foot was blue, like lead to the floor
That's all there is and there ain't no more

Now the boys all thought I'd lost my sense
And telephone poles looked like a picket fence
They said, "Slow down! I see spots!
The lines on the road just look like dots"

Took a corner; sideswiped a truck
Crossed my fingers just for luck
My fenders was clickin' the guardrail posts
The guy beside me was white as a ghost

Smoke was comin' from out of the back
When I started to gain on that Cadillac
Knew I could catch him, I thought I could pass
Don't you know by then we'd be low on gas?

We had flames comin' from out of the side
Feel the tension. Man! What a ride!
I said, "Look out, boys, I've got a license to fly!"
And that Caddy pulled over and let us by

Now all of a sudden she started to knockin'
And down in the dips she started to rockin'
I looked in my mirror; a red light was blinkin'
The cops was after my Hot Rod Lincoln!

They arrested me and they put me in jail
And called my pappy to throw my bail
And he said, "Son, you're gonna' drive me to drinkin'
If you don't stop drivin' that Hot Rod Lincoln!"