EX, drugs and rock ’n’ roll. Add fast cars and you have completed the essential rocker’s list.

Cars have quite significantly fascinated musicians of the west who have sung praises for some of the vehicles they love. There are a clutch of bands across genres that have gone full throttle down this road. An American band from the 70s even named themselves The Cars. It’s another story that few wanted to ride them. What is interesting though is that many people even attribute the defining sound of rock ’n’ roll (the distorted sound of the guitar) to an Oldsmobile 88.

The song Rocket 88 was first launched as a tribute to GM’s Oldsmobile. The car was introduced as the fastest one on the road during early 50s. It was a peppy blues song but today many consider it to be the first rock ’n’ roll prototype. This is because the song featured for the time the fuzz guitar. Unlike now, there was no foot pedal used to get the sound.

In fact, it was a result of an accident. Legend has it that the guitarist’s amplifier was damaged when the band was driving to a concert. The broken amp created a distorted sound. Who knew that the sound would define rock.

The American car craze is obvious in the popular movie Grease. In the song Grease Lightning, John Travolta brags about his car, “it’s automatic, systematic, hydromatic”. He dances about his car’s duel muffler, tail fins, palomino dashboard and what makes a fast car. The garage lingo (hot rods) provides plenty of sexual connotations and the soundtrack album is one of the bestselling in Hollywood history.

Another reason why cars appear often in lyrics is that it can be a very good veil for an on-the-face sexual suggestion. ‘I have a hot rod, wanna drive?’ ‘ let’s burn some rubber’. Think about it, what other machine could suggest more kinky imagery? Even the Beatles could not afford not to use a car as cover.

Drive My Car from their album Rubber Soul is one hell of a song. Beep, beep, beep! Or if you want to play dirty you can tune into Bruce Springsteen’s Pink Cadillac. “I love you for your pink Cadillac.” Music is a mirror to a culture and the American’s romance with automobiles is pretty obvious. In fact, if one is observing closely, the Hollywood movie Transformer is based on a childish belief that cars are living creatures from another world protecting us from total annihilation. Americans loved this fantastical take on their fascination for cars.

Last month, Chevrolet’s VP (marketing) sent a memo to employees instructing them to stop using the word Chevy for Chevrolet. His logic: the word Chevy dilutes the Chevrolet brand. Someone suggested the lyrics of Don Mclean’s American Pie will also have to be changed with this new order.

Next day, a clarification from the company read, “We love Chevy. In no way are we discouraging customers or fans from using the name.”