Shut Down

Last evening, I'm stopped at a traffic light with my foot on the brake, when suddenly the car decided it wanted to accelerate to full throttle.  Shades of Stephen King's Christine.   I calmly turned off the ignition, waited about 30 seconds and turned the car back on.  Back to full throttle again.   When the light turned green I tried again.  The car was now functioning normally.

I never thought this could happen to me.....

I had just experienced the notorious Toyota Unintended Acceleration first hand.

It made me want to post something about fast car music.

Various Artists - Shut Down  (Capitol 1963)

At the time, Capitol was the only California based major label.  Warner Brothers was still in its infancy.  Other labels had yet to relocate from the east.  As a result, Capitol was the only major on top of California teen culture - surfing and hot rods.

The Beach Boys were their biggest.  Other Capitol artist tried, but only managed to get one or two singles out.  Capitol compiled them on this collection and included two previously released Beach Boys tracks to make it sell.


As the back cover claims 'You Can Almost Smell The Rubber Burn!'

The highlight for me on this compilation is The Ballad of Thunder Road by Robert Mitchum.   This would be the title track for the film Thunder Road where he starred, produced, co-wrote the screenplay, wrote the title song, sang the title song and fathered the second male lead.