Best songs about traffic
Imagine being stuck in L. Traffic, where Tupac resided, inching closer and closer to your exit and not being able to change your lane unless someone makes a move first.
The frustration arises from the limited control one has over their life and having to wait patiently. Having good people and music at your side during such times makes the time go by better. This is why we have put together a list of songs bout traffic jams listening to these songs while being stuck in traffic can help you ease out the frustration you feel.
1. London Traffic by The Jam
London Traffic ranks frist in our list of the best songs about traffic. Going by the lyrics the song talks about the traffic problems of the older cities in London. One of the main problems of older cities in this world is that they weren’t designed and built to accommodate automobile traffic.
When London was founded in ancient Roman times, they could never have imagined the car. In the TV series “The Good Life” (a.k.a. Good Neighbors) which comes from just before this song was released, they occasionally refer to spending over an hour crossing the London bridge. I’ve heard since then that it’s only gotten worse. It’s a hideously complicated problem and there doesn’t seem to be a solution to it.
2. Traffic Jam by Stephen Marley
In this song, Marley sings about being caught in traffic and finally getting pulled over by the police for smoking pot or marijuana. Towards the end of the song, it appears that he was let go by the cops.
3. Traffic Jam by Sailor
The band’s first song, “Traffic Jam,” which was composed by Georg Kajanus and published on the Epic label in 1974 with “Josephine Baker” as the B-side, was the band’s first single. In the same year, Sashay Music obtained copyright protection for sheet music.
This mildly offbeat song is a kind of the condensed history of land transportation from the time of the horse, which spans the majority of human history, to the gridlock that faces modern cities. It suggests that we are not progressing very quickly and that we may even be regressing.
It is like a lot of other songs about traffic jams in that it allows the listener to figure out what the real meaning is if there even is one.
4. Traffic Jam by James Taylor
Here is another song about a traffic jam, James in this song describes how he detests getting stuck in traffic. He states how it affects him in every aspect. James complains that it takes him Fifteen minutes just to go past five blocks just in time to join the long queue. He says that the traffic makes him go late to work and eat his dinner when it’s already cold.
On the 10th of December, 2007, James Taylor made an appearance on a BBC TV program. During the program, one of the presenters shared with Taylor that “Traffic Jam” was one of his all-time favorite songs.
Taylor responded that the precise traffic jam that sparked the idea for the song happened on the Pacific Coast Highway in Los Angeles when he was questioned as to If the song was inspired by a specific incident.
Since the song is only 1 minute and 58 seconds long, it has naturally evolved into a jingle for use in radio traffic reports.
5. Life is a Traffic Jam by Eight Mile Road
Proceeding in our list of songs about traffic jams is this song by Eight Mile Road, titled ” Life is a Traffic Jam”. The first few lyrics of this song are “Land of the Free… home of the enslaved*
This is used to depict what the US traffic looked like because the USA was one of the first countries to have civil liberties and rights.
In this song, they criticize that mantra by saying home of the enslaved instead of brave because of many racial issues and of course America’s horrific slavery history. The narrator in the song goes on to say that the city’s traffic is so bad on a daily, that you can tell what time it is by how much traffic there is.
This song refers to traffic as gridlock, this is due to the fact many major cities have been designed in a grid shape for efficiency. He complains about the traffic situation of the major lanes and how noisy they are daily.
6. Traffic Jam by “Weird Al” Yankovic
This song by Weird Al” Yankovic was released in 1993 as a part of the album Alapalooza. This is one of the songs about traffic wherein the narrative expressed regret about going to get a package only to get stuck in traffic while returning.
This song is about a man who gets stuffed in traffic, after going to get a bag of bran muffins for himself. He wished he never had to go get the snack and so he sees it as a big mistake.
Towards the end of the song, the character is viewed as a jerk for opening his door into a moving motorcycle, but if the traffic isn’t moving, it isn’t a stretch that the motorcycle is either trying to squeeze between the lanes or is using a lane not meant for traffic.
7. 59th Street Bridge by Simon and Garfunkel
This is one of the very different songs about traffic released in 1968 because the narrator sees the traffic jam as a blessing.
This song, like the majority of those written by Simon & Garfunkel, is about a communication breakdown. In this case, it takes place during a queue of traffic on the 59th Street Bridge in Manhattan, that most commonly occurs during the morning rush hour as people are heading to work.
During a traffic jam, drivers will attempt to drive quickly even though it is physically impossible to move anywhere; moreover, during a jam, no one will speak, even though nothing is happening.
The main character is pleading with the audience to take pleasure in the pause — more or less “We can not get out of here! Let us Have a Conversation!,” while comparing the quiet listener to a “Lamp Post.”
The traffic prevents any commitments from needing to be fulfilled (“I’ve got no actions to do, no promises to keep”) and even provides the opportunity to take a nap. The main character is stressing that a traffic delay should be regarded as a gift rather than a hindrance and should be relished as such.
