Six Days on the Road

Infobox Single
Name = Six Days on the Road


Artist = Dave Dudley
from Album =
A-side =
B-side =
Released = May 1963 (U.S.)
Format = 7"
Recorded = March 1963
Kay Bank Studios, Minneapolis, Minnesota
Genre = Country, truck-driving country
Length = 2:24
Label = Golden Wing Records 3020
Writer = Earl Green and Carl Montgomery
Producer =
Last single = "Under the Cover of the Night"
(1962)
This single = "Six Days on the Road"
(1963)
Next single = "Cowboy Boots"
(1963)Infobox Single
Name = Six Days on the Road


Artist = Sawyer Brown
from Album = Six Days on the Road
A-side =
B-side =
Released = February 1997 (U.S.)
Format =
Recorded = 1996
Genre = Country, truck-driving country
Length = 2:53
Label = Curb Records
Writer = Earl Green and Carl Montgomery
Producer =
Last single = "Treat Her Right"
(1996)
This single = "Six Days on the Road"
(1997)
Next single = "This Night Won't Last Forever"
(1997)

"Six Days on the Road" is an American song written by Muscle Shoals songwriter Carl Montgomery and Earl Green made originally famous by country music singer Dave Dudley. Originally released in 1963, the song became a major hit that year and is often hailed as the definitive celebration of the American truck driver. [ [http://wc10.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=33:hjfuxzegldfe] Dahl, Bill, "Six Days on the Road" at Allmusic] [Malone, Bill, "The Smithsonian Collection of Classic Country Music" ((booklet included with "The Smithsonian Collection of Classic Country Music" 8-volume set). Smithsonian Institution, 1981).]

In 1997, the song was successfully covered by country music band Sawyer Brown, who took the song into the Top 15 of the "Billboard" Hot Country Singles & Tracks chart.

Dave Dudley version

According to country music historian Bill Malone, "Six Days on the Road" was not the first truck driving song; Malone credits "Truck Driver's Blues" by Cliff Barnes, released in 1940, with that distinction. "Nor is it necessarily the best," said Malone, citing songs such as "Truck Driving Man" by Terry Fell and "White Line Fever" by Merle Haggard and the Strangers as songs that "would certainly rival it." [ibid.]

However, "Six Days," Malone continued, "set off a vogue for such songs" that continued for many years. "The trucking songs coincided with country music's growing identification as working man's music in the 1960s," he said. [ibid.] Many country music artists and bands — including Alabama, Dick Curless, Haggard, Kathy Mattea, Ronnie Milsap, Jerry Reed, Del Reeves, Dan Seals, Red Simpson, Red Sovine, Joe Stampley, C.W. McCall and many others — recorded successful truck driving songs during the next 25 years. Several of those artists — Dudley included — became almost exclusively associated with songs about truck drivers and life on the road.

Dudley, stated Malone, "strikingly captures the sense of boredom, danger and swaggering masculinity that often accompanies long-distance truck driving. His macho interpretation, with its rock and roll overtones, is perfect for the song." [ibid.]

Allmusic writer Bill Dahl, called "Six Days" the "ultimate overworked rig driver's lament;" [Dahl.] indeed, the song's lyrics bemoan highway patrolmen, scale weigh-ins and loneliness for the main protagonist's main squeeze, and speak of using "little white pills" to keep him awake. Like Malone, Dahl also cited Dudley's voice as perfect for the song, as "his bottomless pipes were certainly the ultimate vehicle for its delivery, reeking of too much turgid coffee and too many non-filtered cigarettes (those little white pills that he sings of were doubtless only a fictional contrivance)." [ibid.]

Chart performance

Released in mid-May 1963, "Six Days on the Road" became Dudley's first major hit, reaching No. 2 on the "Billboard" Hot Country Singles chart that summer. It also became a minor hit on Top 40 radio stations, peaking at No. 32 on the Billboard Hot 100. It was also listed at number 13 on their easy listening survey.

Many truck-driving themed hits followed for Dudley, including "Last Day in the Mines," "Truck Drivin' Son-of-a-Gun" and "Truck Driver's Prayer."

Cover versions

Many cover versions of "Six Days on the Road" have been recorded, with two of them becoming country hits. Steve Earle recorded the song for the 1987 movie "Planes, Trains and Automobiles"; his version reached No. 29 on the "Billboard" Hot Country Singles chart in early 1988.

The most successful country remake was by Sawyer Brown, whose version from their 1997 album "Six Days on the Road" was a #13 country hit that year. Sawyer Brown's version also changed the line "I'm taking little white pills" to "I'm passing little white lines", thus omitting the drug reference.

Others who have recorded "Six Days" include Boxcar Willie, George Thorogood, the Flying Burrito Brothers, and Tom Petty's band Mudcrutch. According to Dahl, one of the best versions was a blues-rocking rendition recorded in 1969 by Taj Mahal. [ibid]

References and sources

ources

Other references

*Whitburn, Joel, "Top Country Songs: 1944-2005," 2006.