Vehicle
1970
Ides
of March
If
you were a teen in the early Seventies, you heard Jim Peterik
belting
out the opening lines of The Ides of March's One Hit Wonder 'Vehicle'
until the words and the melody were indelibly etched into your mind.
Trust me, say the words 'I'm
The Friendly Stranger In
the
black sedan...'
to anyone who grew up in that era, and they can finish the first line
you...and probably keep on going for the next several lines while
they're at it.
'Vehicle'
hit number two on May 23rd,
1970 after Jim Peterik
exclaimed 'You know, I'm just your vehicle' in good natured
semi-frustration to a former girlfriend turned platonic friend who
hit him up for rides all of the time...and the idea for the song
clicked. The idea for the iconic first line came from an antidrug
pamphlet that a friend of his showed him. (The line as originally
written was 'I got a set of pretty wheels won't you hop inside my
car') It not only hit #2, it became Warner Bros fastest selling
single...but it had a rough road getting there.
The
first hurdle was a near game ender...during an overdub session a
sound tech accidentally erased thirteen seconds of the song...keep in
mind this was in 1970, long before digital recording and Pro-Tools
and the like. The saving grace was the 'Take One' tape, and the
members of Ides oif March waited while the techs sweated out splicing
the missing 13 seconds into Take Two's multitrack, hoping that the
tempo, attitude, tuning, and feel were, as Jim Peterik
put
it, 'Even in the same zip code as take two'. They got real
lucky because it was almost perfect...you have to know to listen for
it and listen extremely closely to hear the splice. You can find it
starting at the second 'Great God
in Heaven' all the way up to the first note of the guitar solo. All
Peterik had to redo was the vocals. Had the erasure lasted another
few seconds...into the guitar solo...Peterik's not sure he could have
reproduced it because he wasnt even real sure how he played it.
SO they
breathed a sigh of relief, added it to their playlist, and decided it
was an awesome live song, but didn't think it would go over well as a
single. It was the forth of four songs that were on a demo tape sent
to Warner Brothers. Warner Bros ditched the first three songs, and
went absolutely giddy over 'Vehicle'...they declared it a potential
hit, but wanted the group to add the answers...the background
vocals...to the 'Love ya...Need ya's So Ides of March went
back into the studio and wild tracked the background vocals in. The
stereo and mono versions are different for this very reason...they
were recorded separately, the background vocals aren't on the master.
As an interesting note, when the song was used in 'Lock Up', with
Sly Stallone in 1990, the background vocals weren't there because
they used the master.
'Vehicle'
was released in May 1970, and reached number 2 on the 23rd
of that month.
What of the
young lady who inspired the song? Her name was Karen, and Peterik
got back together with her shortly after the song charted. He's been
with her ever since, and they;'ve been married for thirty-plus years.
She hates it when she's in the audience and he tells the story of hw
the song came about!
Here's the Songfacts page
for 'Vehicle' http://www.songfacts.com/detail.php?id=3940
So enjoy! Vehicle, by Ides of March
And as a bonus, a live
performance form 2007.... 'Vehicle'
became a horn classic, and it's real easy to see why here. They still
got it!!
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