Terraplane Blues

Infobox Song
Name = Terraplane Blues


Cover size =
Border = yes
Caption =
Artist = Robert Johnson
Album =
A-side = Terraplane Blues
B-side = Kind Hearted Woman Blues
Released = Start date|1937|03
Format = 78 rpm
Recorded = San Antonio, Texas. Monday, November 23, 1936
Genre = Blues
Length =
Label = Vocalion
Writer = Robert Johnson
Producer =
Audio sample? =
Certification =
Last single =
This single =
Next single =
Misc =

"Terraplane Blues" is a blues song recorded in 1936 in San Antonio, Texas by legendary bluesman Robert Johnson. The car model Terraplane becomes a metaphor for sex. "Terraplane Blues" is among only a handful of songs that were released during Johnson's lifetime, and it became a moderate regional hit, selling 5,000 copies.

In the lyrical narrative, the car will not start and Johnson suspects that his girlfriend let another man drive it when he was gone. In describing the various mechanical problems with his Terraplane, Johnson creates a setting of thinly-veiled sexual innuendo.

Like many of Johnson's songs, "Terraplane Blues" is a staple in the repertoires of many blues musicians and has been recorded by dozens of traditional and contemporary blues figures and bands, including Mickey Baker, Rory Block, Canned Heat, Eric Clapton, Foghat, Peter Green, John Hammond, Jr., John Lee Hooker, Robert Lockwood, Jr., Tony McPhee, Elliott Murphy, Lonnie Pitchford, Roy Rogers.

The Led Zeppelin song "Trampled Under Foot" is regarded as a tribute to Johnson's "Terraplane Blues", with Robert Plant using car parts as sexual metaphors.

References

* [http://allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=17:1529547] "Terraplane Blues" at All-Music Guide