This song is written from a truck driver's point-of-view, and incorporates jargon and situations gleaned from pro drivers in my extended family. Most terms are fairly well-known or can be deduced from context:
Hammer Lane= Left Lane
Keeping America Moving= industry slogan
Channel 19= CB radio frequency for hailing drivers
Driving by Braille= eyes shut, nodding off
11 Hours=legal limit of on-duty hours before an 8-hour break
Gators= pieces of tire tread
Lyrics
BEHIND THE WHEEL
INTRO:
Whoa, oh, oh, oh, oh, daddy, daddy when you coming home
Whoa, oh, oh, oh, oh, daddy, daddy when you coming home
VERSE 1:
Driving I-65 in the hammer lane
Pulling a load out of Tennessee
I’m “Keeping America Moving”
As America rolls past me
My granddaddy worked in a coalmine
His granddad worked in the fields
Ever since Cain struck Able down
We've set our shoulders to the wheel
But channel 1-9’s gone quiet now
The pay ain’t what it used to be
Tired of breaking my back to make the rich man richer
But I got a kid back home to feed
CHORUS:
I got to get behind the wheel (mmm,mmm)
Get behind the wheel and drive
I got to get behind the wheel (mmm,mmm)
Get behind the wheel and drive
“Whoa, oh, oh, oh, oh, daddy, daddy when you coming home”
My boy says, “Whoa, oh, oh, oh, oh, daddy, daddy when you coming home”
VERSE 2:
Driving by Braille on the rumble strip
Chugging coffee more bitter than beer
The logbook says I got to pull over
But the sign says “you can’t sleep here”
My dispatch tells me to push on
All the way to the Alamo
“But you never worked a lick past 11 hours
If you’re asked by the highway patrol”
My back tire hisses like a rattlesnake
The jake brake croaks like a toad
Sirens go off when the rubber flies
Laying down gators in the road
CHORUS:
I got to get behind the wheel (mmm,mmm)
Get behind the wheel and drive
I got to get behind the wheel (mmm,mmm)
Get behind the wheel and drive
“Whoa, oh, oh, oh, oh, daddy, daddy when you coming home”
My boy says, “Whoa, oh, oh, oh, oh, daddy, daddy when you coming home”
INTERLUDE:
Got to get behind the wheel (mmm,mmm)
Got to get behind the wheel (mmm,mmm)
VERSE 3:
One day the robots will rule the road
One day they’ll pump the good earth dry
So don’t follow in my footsteps, son
If you want to get a piece of the pie
When I die don’t spring for a tombstone
Just carve my name in a tree
I’ll be five miles short of kingdom come
Wherever I happen to be
CHORUS:
Don’t you get behind the wheel, son, no
Don’t get behind the wheel and drive
Don’t you get behind the wheel, child, no
Don’t get behind the wheel and drive
“Whoa, oh, oh, oh, oh, daddy, daddy when you coming home”
“Whoa, oh, oh, oh, oh, daddy, daddy when you coming home”
Don’t you get behind the wheel, no
Don’t get behind the wheel and drive
Don’t you get behind the wheel, son, no
Don’t get behind the wheel and drive
