One of the many charms of an old car is its ability to transport us back in time, whether it’s in the way they drive, sound, or smell. To truly immerse yourself in the motoring experience that your classic offers, though, we’d argue that you should include a soundtrack befitting of your car’s age. Imagine if you had bought your JNC new. What would you be listening to on its factory deck? I’ll share my playlist in the comments below, but for the purposes of this QotW anything from your car’s model year or older is eligible.
What’s your playlist for the year your car was made?
The most entertaining comment by next Monday will receive a prize. Scroll down to see the winner of last week’s QotW, “How would you build your $10,000 JNC garage?”
With the intentionally low price cap, we wanted to force you to think outside the box, to pick something interesting that wasn’t your typical Z or Supra. You guys came through with flying colors, with answers ranging from Damian‘s Suzuki Cappuccino kei car to HotWheelsAndFriedChicken‘s Subaru SVX, Yuri‘s kei cars to MWC‘s Subaru Brat. Emuman was able to build a pretty respectable all-Mazda garage, while Lee L did the same with Nissans. Speedie had a particularly inspired choice in the Nissan NX2000. In the end, our favorite answer came from エーイダン, who built a particularly interesting budget garage:
1993 Asuna Sunfire (Canadian spec Isuzu Piazza/ Impulse) and a ’80s Toyota Pickup with a camper box. First because they’re cool and my mum had one before I was born. The second because I’d be slowly working towards the cash to turn said pickup into the real-life version of the Hot Wheels Minitrek camper from 1981.
Omedetou, your comment has earned you a set of decals from the JNC Shop!
I went full Music Supervisor on this one. I started by asking myself, “Under what circumstances would I have purchased a new Toyota Cargo Van in 1989?” And the obvious answer was, “Because I need to haul music gear around to gigs.” So, the nature of the Van itself then came into play. On one hand, it was futuristic and compact, giving it a slightly exotic feel. This to me said “DJ in the baggy era.” On the other hand, it’s also a plain white van, which says, “DIY indie band.” So, I made two playlists.
DJ PLAYLIST
Echo & the Bunnymen, “The Cutter”
Stone Roses, “She Bangs the Drums”
The Cure, “In Between Days”
The Jesus & Mary Chain, “April Skies”
The Lover Speaks, “No More I Love Yous”
Chameleons UK, “Swamp Thing”
Depeche Mode, “Never Let Me Down Again”
The The, “Infected”
The Primitives, “Crash”
Julian Cope, “Eve’s Volcano”
The Smiths, “The Headmaster Ritual”
New Order, “Age of Consent”
James, “Sit Down”
Mighty Lemon Drops, “Inside Out”
Wire, “Ahead”
INDIE BAND PLAYLIST
Television, “See No Evil”
Great Buildings, “Hold On To Something”
Violent Femmes, “Please Do Not Go”
Pixies, “Monkey’s Gone to Heaven”
Del Fuegos, “Sound of Our Town”
Long Ryders, “I Want You Bad”
dB’s, “Amplifier”
Big Star, “The Ballad of El Goodo”
Mission of Burma, “That’s When I Reach for My Revolver”
R.E.M., “Pretty Persuasion”
Husker Du, “Makes No Sense At All”
New York Dolls, “Trash”
Jason & the Scorchers, “Shop It Around”
Replacements, “Left of the Dial”
Talking Heads, “Life During Wartime (Stop Making Sense version)”
This is what I’d have been listening to while hauling ass (slowly) to gigs.
I have two JNCs, so it will be a double entry. 😉
1982 Toyota Carina TA60 (in a very deliberate order):
Dexys Midnight Runners Come On Eileen
Joe Cocker & Jennifer Warnes Up Where We Belong
Kool & The Gang Get Down On It
Hall & Oates I Can’t Go For That (No Can Do)
Yazoo Don’t Go
Billy Idol Hot in the City
Jon & Vangelis I’ll Find My Way Home
Joe Jackson Steppin’ Out
The Carina generally doesn’t like to drive faster than 50km/h anymore and really is due for some servicing.
1983 Toyota Sprinter Trueno (also in a very deliberate order):
David Bowie Let’s Dance
Irene Cara Flashdance… What a Feeling
Pat Benatar Love is a Battlefield
Culture Club Do You Really Want to Hurt Me?
Bananarama Cruel Summer
Michael Jackson Beat It
Elton John I’m Still Standing
David Bowie Modern Love
Madness Our House
Peter Schilling Major Tom (Coming Home)
The Eurythmics Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)
I have a love/hate relationship with my Trueno. I love the thrill of driving it, heel-to-toe-ing on every corner (with a size 12 I suck at heel-to-toe-ing), sometimes with a little oversteer and then almost every time I feel guilty driving it fast knowing breaking it can decrease it’s value instantly. So I drive it carefully back to the lockup and keep dreaming of driving it hard next time.
Well, I’ll just dream of a playlist. My Celica’s playlist was a series of several buttons along the dial and a knob that turns too. And only on the AM band. See my ’72 Celica only has the original factory mono AM radio. Just keepin’ it stock. Always liked zoning to the whine of the transmission. Yeah, I know. :o) But if I could play tunes, it would be Bowie, Elton and any Prog Rock of the era.
Playlist? Why? You get your car to sound so sweet by installing a set of sidedrafts and an Ansa or HKS exhaust or turbo mufflers and then you’re going to mask it and ruin it with noise from the radio??
The only “song” on my playlist is the traffic report “every 10minutes on the fives”…
Playlist Mix Tape Side A for my 1988 Toyota Celica ST165
1-Where Is My Mind? the Pixies
2- The Mercy Seat. Nick Cave
3- Everyay is like Sunday.. Morrissey
4- Stand. R.E.M.
5- Teenage Riot. sonic Youth
6- Jane Says. Jane’s Addiction
Side B for my 1979 Toyota Hiace diesel
1- Highway to Hell. AC/dc
2- London Calling. The Clash
3- Bad case of loving you. Robert Plant
4- My Sharona. The knack
5- Sultans of swing. dire Straits
6- Shadowplay. Joy division
Here is the playlist for my 1973 Datsun 240Z “Eliza”
Black Sabbath’s title album
Disraeli Gears by Cream
The Dubliners by The Dubliners
Stand up by Jethro Tull
Aqualung by Jethro Tull
Led Zeppelin III by Led Zeppelin
Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band by the Beatles
Revolver by the Beatles
Can’t buy a thrill by Steely Dan (an album I grew up singing to in the backseat)
And I’d have a few tracks from the musical My Fair Lady (the namesake of my car). I read the book (Pygmalion) in high school and absolutely loved it
All of these albums would play start to finish, in order, as the bands intended. None of this shuffle nonsense. Albums tell a story, but to get it, you need to read the chapters in order.
1984 Toyota Van (we bought it new when I was 3). It may not have been that exact year, but I recall my dad’s playlists from when I was a little kid. My brother is really into music and still has the 2 large TDK zipper cases with like 15 cassettes that my dad would painstakingly dub and mix from LPs (and later CDs) for our trips to see family (Cleveland to Baltimore) or vacation:
Beatles (Rubber Soul through Abbey Road) and Stones (Beggars Banquet through Some Girls)
A good amount of Paul McCartney solo and/or Wings
Best of Jethro Tull [the full 40 mins of Thick as as Brick always impressed me, but annoyed the heck out of my mom]
Best of the Moody Blues
A sprinkling of some of the other usual suspects of the time: Simon and Garfunkel, Steely Dan, The Who, Creedence Clearwater, Crosby, Stills, and Nash, etc.
I brought some Led Zeppelin, Foghat, Allman Brothers, Jimi Hendrix, and the Black Crowes to the mix as well once I started to drive it in high school. I firmly believe the Van is just happier playing classic rock 🙂