Music of the Day, 24 October 2024

i requested bread, and i got ...

Our air conditioning has been shut off for the year at long last, and the nights are cool enough that mornings are slightly chilly—just the way I like it. As I started making some bread this morning, it occurred to me that I haven’t featured any of that great band’s songs yet. Having planted that seed for the radio station in my mind, I decided to be content with whatever song it served up.

It gave me this:

My first thought was, “What the hell?! That isn’t Bread!” But “Chevy Van” has the same easy, soft rock sound and was a big hit for Sammy Johns when Bread was also very popular. That’s the only explanation I have for why it came to mind and wouldn’t yield.

Wikipedia informed me that “Chevy Van” was originally released in 1973. My memories of hearing it all come from my 1975 summer in Minnesota, after it had been rereleased earlier that year; it seemed like it got played every hour. Barely in my teens, the song intrigued me. Did girls really accept rides from anyone when hitchhiking? And were they really so nonchalant about having sex with them? I don’t think I was a prude back then¹; the whole thing just seemed so unlikely, probably because I couldn’t imagine myself doing any of it.

“Chevy Van” is perhaps the most innocent song possible about a one-night stand. Its timing strikes me now as rather weird, since it came after the hippies made significant advances in the free love movement, and several ‘60s hits reflected those changes. Compared to some of the hard rock, metal, and rap songs from the ‘80s, it’s extremely tame. Could “Chevy Van” have had success² in any other decade? It’s hard to see how.

I can’t say I like the song, but can’t really identify why. It just doesn’t add up to something that resonates with me, which is part of why its appearance today is such a surprise. If you have a weird earworm like this—a song you don’t care for but cannot exorcise from your mind—I’d like to hear about it. Maybe with more data we can start to understand the phenomenon.

1. definitely sexually inexperienced, but interested in learning more under the right circumstances

2. the single was RIAA certified gold (1 million sales) in 1975