Car hire on the radio: 6 songs about renting a car

Putting together a playlist for a road trip? Join us as we run down 6 great songs on the topic of car rental.

First up is Beck's "Rental Car" – a song from the American singer-songwriter's 2005 album Guero.

This is a song that takes you on a journey – from what sounds like a car radio to a grungy riff, and from insouciant yeah, yeah, yeahs to chirpy, intricate la, la, las.

It's a musical journey befitting a song that talks about travelling "far as a rental car can go". But there's a twist in the tail – it seems that the rental car is life itself, with the Grim Reaper waiting: "At the end of the night / There's a road we'll be on". But while the journey lasts, it's one heck of a ride, "Straight as a razor, kicking the dust".

Like many artists, Beck has a thing for cars. Take a look at the cover of his 2019 album Hyperspace, where he stands in front of a candy-red Toyota Celica.

"It was a cheap car," he reminisced in an interview with Beatroute. "But at the same time, it was this sort of spaceship: if you had the right song on the stereo, it could transport you to another dimension and transcend the everyday."

The right song on the right car radio: it's the stuff that unforgettable road trips are made of.

2. The Fall: Mountain Energei

Starting with a beat not a million miles from Iggy Pop's "The Passenger", Manchester art-rockers The Fall tell a tale of a life spoiled by admin on their menacing number "Mountain Energei".

Nothing, it seems, is simple: "Went to the car rental / They said to me / You need a log book and licence, son". But this is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to singer Mark E Smith's life of paperwork. He can't get a mortgage, either, and when he goes fishing he gets "a note from a fish" saying "If you wanna catch us / You need a rod and a line".

All of this leads him to the poetic thought that "Water's flowing down the mountain / But a tree is blocking the water coming". He can't catch a break – and it seems that the administrative burden of renting a car is partly to blame. He should have come to MVH Rental…

3. Jimmy Buffett: Ringling, Ringling

American singer-songwriter Jimmy Buffett was famous for his songs of "island escapism": celebrations of the easy life, cheeseburgers, cocktails and Hawaiian shorts. But in 1974's "Ringling, Ringling", he describes the kind of place he's trying to get away from.

Ringling, Montana, is "a dyin' little town", he sings, where "the streets are dusty and the bank had been torn down". But it's not just the town that's "slippin' away" – Jimmy is, too: "So we hopped back in the rental car / And we hit the cruise control / Pretty soon the town was out of sight".

It's a jaunty country singalong that's all about getting away and moving on. Where would life's escapists be without rental cars and road trips?

4. Taylor Swift: The Smallest Man Who Ever Lived [clean version]

In this kiss-off to a toxic ex, Taylor Swift enumerates the many ways that "the smallest man who ever lived" did her wrong, culminating in the declaration that "I'll forget you, but I'll never forgive".

Yet it seems that Taylor's old flame wasn't just a waste of space – he was also a terrible driver. "You crashed my party," she sings, "and your rental car".

Taylor, you're better off without him.

5. Gordon Lightfoot: Somewhere USA

Canadian singer-songwriter Gordon Lightfoot was an artist once described as "synonymous with songs about trains and shipwrecks, rivers and highways, lovers and loneliness". In "Somewhere USA", he's "out on the road like a low-down Joe", meeting a woman in a hotel and uttering the terrifying words: "Let me fetch my guitar, there's a song I'd like to play".

There's a palpable melancholy hanging over the song; a sense of drift, not adventure. "This rental car," he sings, "never went so far / But with each passing mile, one more dream has turned to clay."

One dreads to think how many dreams have died on his way to this hotel where, it seems, things haven't got very far: at the end of the song, he's still insisting "I would gladly offer you my love", but there's no indication that she's taking it.

6. Wilco: Hotel Arizona

In this song by American rock band Wilco, something's troubling lead singer Jeff Tweedy. The song begins at the titular hotel in Arizona that "made us all want to feel like stars". On the street are "rental cars with tinted windows" – sounds like a pretty classy joint.

But Tweedy is morose, cryptically moaning about "something I have to get used to" and concluding "That's all there is / That's all there is". Frankly, it sounds like he didn't get to take a ride in that fancy rental car…

Are you looking to rent a car in Gateshead or Newcastle? Check out our range of hire vehicles today or get in touch with our friendly, knowledgeable team. We can talk you through your options and have you on the road in no time.