The Convoy Rolls On
While some of the other states I have covered in this series have been a bit out of my comfort zone, Illinois is a state that I am quite familiar with. A long long time ago my sister and her family used to live in Quincy, IL which is a average size town on the banks of the Mississippi River. I had the opportunity to visit there a few times while they lived there. I'd also ridden through the state a couple of times heading out to Colorado, as well as doing some work in some small towns across the state early in my career.
You would think that finding songs with Illinois in the title or lyrics of the song would be quite easy for my #threetunetuesday post sponsored by @ablaze, but you have to remember the guidelines I put in place for these posts. While Chicago is likely mentioned in a obscene number of songs, that doesn't count unless they actually use the word Illinois.
On our five year anniversary, my wife and I made a trip to Chicago to spend a long weekend. It was an amazing trip and my first time ever visiting that city in particular. Since we were only there for a couple of days, there is so much that I missed, but we still made the most of it. I got some amazing deep dish pizza, and a sandwich from Portillo's, plus I got to visit the aquarium and ride on the ferris wheel. Pretty cool right?
The funny thing is, like New York City in New York, Chicago is just a very small part of a much larger state. There is a lot that Illinois has to offer. I hope to one day do a bit more exploring as we travel with our camper across the US.
As I said, it was a bit harder to find songs with Illinois in the title or lyrics than I thought it would be, but I have three that I am going to share with you today. I hope you enjoy them.
While this might not be the most obvious song to pick for this post, "Looking Out My Back Door" definitely references Illinois. If you don't listen closely enough, you might miss it. I decided to use a newer performance of the song because I wanted to capture John singing it live versus the older version set to a montage of images. There seem to be a lot of people who enjoy making those sorts of things and sharing them on YouTube. Which is cool, to each his own, but I prefer to see a live performance if I am watching a video.
That's just me.
This is probably one of my favorite CCR songs though if you ever take the time to listen to their stuff, they have a lot of great songs. The greatest hits album is probably one of the best spins you will find.
A few years ago my wife and I got the chance to see Brett Eldredge live at a town near us. I don't recall if he sang this song "Illinois", but it is a pretty good one and it highlights the gravely voice that really drew my wife and I to Brett early on. He's actually a really great performer and if you ever get the chance to see him live, I highly encourage it. Unfortunately, it seems he has been only doing a lot of Christmas themed shows lately, but you might get lucky and find him somewhere in the summer.
If you like this song that I shared, I have a feeling you will like a lot of his other stuff if you have never heard it before.
Finally, I've got a pretty obscure song for you with a really obscure reference to Illinois, but it's in there if you listen really closely. We used to listen to this song all the time when I was a kid. My dad had a big Citizen Band radio set up in the house with a thirty foot antenna. Each of the vehicles we owned at the time also had a CB radio in them. We grew up about fifteen minutes outside of town and this was way before cellular phones were a thing.
My parents wanted a way to keep in touch with my sister and I while they were in town if an emergency happened. I don't quite remember this song being so sing songy in the chorus, but it still brings back a lot of really good memories.
If you missed the reference to Illinois, there is a line in one of the last verses of the song where they talk about the Illinois National Guard.
In case you haven't guessed, they made a movie about it back in the day as well. I'm sure it's goofy and pretty typical for the time, I don't know as though I have ever seen it, but if you get a chance to watch it, you should check it out.
That's all I've got for this week. I hope you enjoyed this trip to the Land of Lincoln!
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Chicago usually sucks all the oxygen out of the room when it comes to lyrics. Your connection to Quincy and those Mississippi River banks gives a much better perspective on what the state actually feels like once you get outside the skyscrapers.
Thank you! I'm glad you enjoyed it!
I've actually seen the movie Convoy. It was a little quirky, but it was typical of the time it was made. I still remember the Rubber Duck and the big Mack truck.
Ernest Borgnine was enough to grab my attention!
He was a good actor.
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Never been to Chicago, that is one of the places in USA I would like to visit...
Illinois... I've driven through there once, and once was enough... Chicago was a nightmare to drive through and this was back in 2002. I've been to Chicago itself several times for conferences over the years, I always had fun on those instances. So not all bad!
Awesome song to kick off, a CCR classic. It was a shame the band couldn't stay together but John Fogerty has kept it alive over the years. Great choice! Nice catch on Illinois from a band from California!
Brett Eldredge was a good choice too, no a song I know that well. Then again I haven't been all that into country for many years now...
The last one I had never heard of, completely obscure to say the least. A mention of the Illinois National Guard most certainly counts!
Well done, not an easy state to pick songs for, that much is certain!
Thanks! I actually really enjoyed this one more than I thought I would. I think next week should be pretty fun too. I already have at least one song picked out.