"Convoy" is a 1975 novelty song performed by C. W. McCall that became a number-one song on both the country and pop charts in the US and is listed 98th among Rolling Stone magazine's 100 GreatestCountry Songs of All Time. Written by McCall and Chip Davis, the song spent six weeks at number one on the country charts and one week at number one on the pop charts. The song went to number one in Canada as well, hitting the top of the RPM Top Singles Chart on January 24, 1976. "Convoy" also peaked at number two in the UK. The song capitalized on the fad for citizens band radio. The song was the inspiration for the 1978 Sam Peckinpah film Convoy.
Content
The song consists of three types of interspersed dialogue: a simulated CB conversation with CB slang, the narration of the story, and the chorus. It is about a fictional trucker rebellion that drives from the West Coast to the East Coast of the United States without stopping. What they are protesting is shown by lines such as "we tore up all of our swindle sheets" and "left 'em sittin' on the scales". The song also refers to toll roads: "We just ain't a-gonna pay no toll." Also putting the "hammer" or accelerator pedal down means speeding up and breaking the speed limit. The conversation is between "Rubber Duck", "Pig Pen", and "Sodbuster", primarily through Rubber Duck's side of the conversation. The narration and CB chatter are by McCall. At the beginning of the song, a "Kenworth pulling logs", driven by Rubber Duck, is the "front door" of three semi-trailer trucks when he realizes they have a convoy. Following the Rubber Duck is an unnamed trucker in a "cab-over Pete with a reefer on", while Pig Pen brings up the rear in a "'Jimmy' haulin' hogs". The convoy begins toward "Flagtown" at night on June 6 on "I-one-oh" just outside "Shakeytown". By the time they get to "Tulsatown", there are 85 trucks and the "bears / Smokeys" have set up a road block and have a "bear in the air". By the time they get to "Chi-town", the convoy includes a driver with the handle "Sodbuster", a "suicide jockey", and "11 long-haired friends of Jesus" in a "chartreuse microbus". Meanwhile, the police have called out "reinforcements from the 'Illi-noise' National Guard" and have filled the "chicken coops". The convoy crashes another road block when crossing a toll bridge into New Jersey, and by this time they have "a thousand screamin' trucks" in all. The song's running gag has Rubber Duck complaining about the smell of the hogs that Pig Pen is hauling. He repeatedly asks the offending driver to "back off". By the end, Pig Pen has fallen so far back, when Rubber Duck is in New Jersey, Pig Pen has only reached Omaha, Nebraska. Also, Omaha was C.W. McCall's "home 20".
Chart history
Weekly charts
Year-end charts
Sequel
McCall's "'Round the World with the Rubber Duck" is the sequel to "Convoy". In this continuation, the convoy leaves the U.S. and travels around the world, through Britain, France, West and East Germany, the USSR, Japan, and Australia.
Remakes and covers
In 1976, a parody by Laurie Lingo & The Dipsticks entitled "Convoy GB" made #4 on the UK singles chart. The name "Laurie Lingo" is a pun; in the UK, a large truck is known as a "lorry", and thus "lorry lingo" would be "truck slang". The act actually consisted of BBC Radio 1 DJs Dave Lee Travis and Paul Burnett with "The Dipsticks" being the Top of the Pops vocalists The Ladybirds. The parody used the same tune, but altered the song's lyrics to take place in the UK, with dialogue featuring Travis and Burnett as truckers "Superscouse" and "Plastic Chicken".
McCall himself recorded a new version of the song with saltier lyrics for the soundtrack of the 1978 film Convoy. McCall also made two additional re-recordings of the original song, one for his 1990 album , and the other for the 2003 Mannheim Steamroller album American Spirit.
Another parody, "Chat Room", was produced by Bob Rivers.
In 1981, rap artistBlowfly recorded a dirty rap version of the song on his album Rappin Dancing and Laughin. This seven-minute version, describes an all-black convoy of strikebreakers delivering Blowfly's album to New York City, concludes with a list of vulgar slang terms arranged in alphabetical order and a dialogue between Blowfly and his alter ego, Clarence Reid.
In 1990, Karen and Wade Sheeler recorded a parody called "Car Phone", which later appeared on the Dr. Demento 25th Anniversary Collection.
In 2010, country-rap artist Colt Ford recorded the song for his 2010 album Chicken & Biscuits.
The Spanish group Mocedades did the song with the translated title Aire in their 1982 studio album Amor de Hombre. The Spanish lyrics for this song were written by Fernando De Diego.
