tl;dr;
The highway is your girlfriend as you go by quick
Suburban trees, suburban speed
And it smells like heaven (thunder)
And I say roadrunner once
Roadrunner twice
I’m in love with rock & roll and I’ll be out all night
Roadrunner
That’s right
Jonathan Richman, front man for The Modern Lovers, wrote Roadrunner in 1970. It recounts the ritual and tradition of cruising the suburbs of Boston in the 1970’s, “going faster miles an hour”, “with the radio on”. This song speaks of driving your car, with the windows down, “past the Stop & Shop”, “down 128”.
For 50 years, I lived in the town of Wakefield, MA, which has two on-ramps onto route 128. I often drove along 128, smoking a joint with my girl, or my pals, with the radio on. Likely 104.1 FM, WBCN.
In 2013, a bill was introduced to make Roadrunner the official rock song of Massachusetts. Richman however came out against this saying, “I don’t think the song is good enough to be a Massachusetts song of any kind.”
The video for this song shows footage along all the roads mentioned in the song. I see the Citgo sign, and Fenway Park, Storrow Drive. In Richard Bachman’s book, Jonathan Livingston Seagull the other says that “perfect speed is being there”. I like to think that “faster miles an hour” is a similar measurement.
I wouldn’t get my chance to go “faster miles an hour” until 1978, when I received my driver’s license but it was nice to know that that was waiting for me when I’d get there.
I hope you enjoy today’s “song of the day”: Roadrunner.
wondering aloud 