Labour & Pop Culture: Convoy

This week’s installment of Labour & Pop Culture is “Convoy” by C.W. McCall. The 1975 song follows a group of truckers as they drive non-stop from the west to eats coast of the United States in a fictitious rebellion. It isn’t clear what they are rebelling against (maybe the 55mph speed limit?) but “the man” (embodied in police and the national guard) seem to be the target.

Independent owner-operators historically played an important role in the trucking industry. These operators get paid by the trip thus, the faster they make their run, the more runs they can make, and the more they earn. Governments sought to limits such behaviour for safety reasons by mandating rest periods. This comes up in the song:

We tore up all of our swindle sheets,
And left 'em settin' on the scales.

Swindle sheets were logs that truckers sometimes falsified in order to drive longer than allowed. They were verified at state-operated weigh scales. It is easy to blame workers for avoiding this safety system. But it is worthwhile considering why truckers felt pressured to drive long hours. The answer is that companies had set up the employment arrangement so as to minimize labour costs. The result is that the true cost of transport is externalized onto truckers and the public in the form of less safe roads and resulting injuries.

In a related note, there is a fascinating US subculture on driving and evading the cops (e.g., Smoky and the Bandit, BJ and the Bear, Sheriff Lobo, Duel). I picked the Paul Brandt cover of this song for the video as it is a bit of a more contemporary arrangement (shot in Alberta our at CFB Wainwright).



Was the dark of the moon on the sixth of June
In a Kenworth pullin' logs
Cab-over Pete with a reefer on
And a Jimmy haulin' hogs
We is headin' for bear on I-one-oh
'Bout a mile outta Shaky Town
I says, "Pig Pen, this here's the Rubber Duck.
"And I'm about to put the hammer down."

'Cause we got a little ol' convoy
Rockin' through the night.
Yeah, we got a little ol' convoy,
Ain't she a beautiful sight?
Come on and join our convoy
Ain't nothin' gonna get in our way.
We gonna roll this truckin' convoy
'Cross the U-S-A.
Convoy!

By the time we got into Tulsa Town,
We had eighty-five trucks in all.
But they's a roadblock up on the cloverleaf,
And them bears was wall-to-wall.
Yeah, them smokies is thick as bugs on a bumper;
They even had a bear in the air!
I says, "Callin' all trucks, this here's the Duck.
"We about to go a-huntin' bear."

'Cause we got a great big convoy
Rockin' through the night.
Yeah, we got a great big convoy,
Ain't she a beautiful sight?
Come on and join our convoy
Ain't nothin' gonna get in our way.
We gonna roll this truckin' convoy
'Cross the U-S-A.
Convoy!

Well, we rolled up Interstate 44
Like a rocket sled on rails.
We tore up all of our swindle sheets,
And left 'em settin' on the scales.
By the time we hit that Chi-town,
Them bears was a-gettin' smart:
They'd brought up some reinforcements
From the Illinois National Guard.

There's armored cars, and tanks, and jeeps,
And rigs of ev'ry size.
Yeah, them chicken coops was full'a bears
And choppers filled the skies.
Well, we shot the line and we went for broke
With a thousand screamin' trucks
An' eleven long-haired Friends a' Jesus
In a chartreuse micra-bus.

Well, we laid a strip for the Jersey shore
Prepared to cross the line
I could see the bridge was lined with bears
But I didn't have a dog-goned dime.
I says, "Pig Pen, this here's the Rubber Duck.
"We just ain't a-gonna pay no toll."
So we crashed the gate doing ninety-eight
I says "Let them truckers roll, 10-4."

'Cause we got a mighty convoy

Rockin' through the night.
Yeah, we got a mighty convoy,
Ain't she a beautiful sight?
Come on and join our convoy
Ain't nothin' gonna get in our way.
We gonna roll this truckin' convoy
'Cross the U-S-A.
Convoy! Convoy! Convoy! Convoy!

-- Bob Barnetson