Scene from the movie “Convoy”You can be forgiven if you missed this story if NPR is not be one of your truck radio’s presets.
On All Things Considered Tuesday afternoon, Merideth Ochs delivered an interesting story on that truck driver anthem, C.W. McCall’s Convoy, and how it went from being a protest song to a genuine media phenomenon.
Ochs explained the story behind the song and the movie it inspired, closing her report with this:
“Even though Convoy is sung by a fictional character and its story is fantastic, (Bill) Fries’ (singing as C.W. McCall) use of trucker lingo resonated throughout popular culture — by the end of the 1970s, millions of Americans had used a CB radio. Sure, Convoy is a novelty song, but it topped the pop and country charts and became a phenomenon, inspiring movies and TV shows. It’s also an improbable protest song — an asphalt fable of workers pushing back at a system that always seems to lean on them the hardest.”
