1963
HITCH HIKE * MARVIN GAYE * TAMLA 54075 * USA
Was it a dance or a petition to get out and travel, even if you didn't have the fare, could well have been both. The authors of the song might have been influenced, like thousands of others at the time, by Jack Kerouac's On The Road the best selling novel published only six years earlier. The novel was based on the spontaneous road trips of Kerouac and his friends across mid-century America and was a central part of the 'Beat Generation' who's core group consisted of writers Kerouac, and William Burroughs and poet Alan Ginsburg; the cultural phenomenon became known as Beatniks in the UK. Although there were a few who did it, hitch-hiking, or thumbing-a-ride, was a totally different proposition in America during the 1950s and 60s than it was in the UK at the same time, firstly there was a lot more ground to cover with much bigger and better roads, but the main difference was the amount of cars, cars? did I say cars? what I meant was fabulous dream machines, that transported people from one place to another in luxury and unbelievable style and with the facility to listen to R&B and Soul music wafting over the airwaves.
See also:
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| Can I Get A Witness |
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| You’re a Wonderful One | Stubborn Kind Of Fellow | I’ll Be Doggone | Little Darling | Ain’t That Peculiar |
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| Inner City Blues | Save The Children | What’s Going On | When I Had Your Love | One More Heartache |