Six Days on the Road ... the trucker anthem

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uKcYRkUI0Dk

"Six Days on the Road"
Single by Dave Dudley
from the album 'Songs About the Working Man'
Released	May 1963 (U.S.)
Format	7"
Recorded	March 1963 Kay Bank Studios, Minneapolis, Minnesota
Genre	Country
Length	2:24
Label	Golden Wing Records 3020
Writer(s)	Earl Green and Carl Montgomery
Dave Dudley singles chronology
"Under the Cover of the Night" (1962) "Six Days on the Road" (1963) "Cowboy Boots" (1963)

"Six Days on the Road" is an American song written by Muscle Shoals Sound Studio songwriter Carl Montgomery and Earl Green, made famous originally by country music singer Dave Dudley. First released in 1963, the song became a major hit that year and is often hailed as the definitive celebration of the American truck driver.^[1][2]
In 1997, the song was covered by country music band Sawyer Brown, who took the song into the Top 15 of the Billboard Hot Country Singles & Tracks chart.
According to country music historian Bill Malone, "Six Days on the Road" was not the first truck driving song; Malone credits "Truck Driver's Blues" by Cliff Bruner, released in 1940, with that distinction. "Nor is it necessarily the best," said Malone, citing songs such as "Truck Drivin' Man" by Terry Fell and "White Line Fever" by Merle Haggard and the Strangers as songs that "would certainly rival it".^[3]
However, "Six Days," Malone continued, "set off a vogue for such songs" that continued for many years. "The trucking songs coincided with country music's growing identification as working man's music in the 1960s," he said.^[4] Many country music artists and bands—including Alabama, Dick Curless, Merle Haggard, Kathy Mattea, Ronnie Milsap, Jerry Reed, Del Reeves, Dan Seals, Red Simpson, Red Sovine, Joe Stampley, C.W. McCall, Steve Earle, among many others—recorded successful truck driving songs during the next 25 years. Several of those artists—Dudley included—became almost exclusively associated with songs about truck drivers and life on the road.
Dudley "strikingly captures the sense of boredom, danger and swaggering masculinity that often accompanies long-distance truck driving. His macho interpretation, with its rock-and-roll overtones, is perfect for the song."^[5]
Allmusic writer Bill Dahl, called "Six Days" the "ultimate overworked rig driver's lament;"^[6] indeed, the song's lyrics bemoan highway patrolmen, scale weigh-ins and loneliness for the narrator's girlfriend, and speak of using "little white pills" to keep him awake. Like Malone, Dahl also cited Dudley's voice as perfect for the song, as "his bottomless pipes were certainly the ultimate vehicle for its delivery, reeking of too much turgid coffee and too many non-filtered cigarettes."Dudley's version was also played during the STS-3 mission as a wake-up callReleased in mid-May 1963, "Six Days on the Road" became Dudley's first major hit, reaching No. 2 on the Billboard Hot Country Singles chart that summer. The record spent 21 weeks on this chart, and it also became a minor hit on Top 40 radio stations, peaking at No. 32 on the Billboard Hot 100. It was also listed at number 13 on their easy listening survey.
Many truck-driving themed hits followed for Dudley, including "Last Day in the Mines," "Truck Drivin' Son-of-a-Gun" and "Truck Driver's Prayer."

Chart (1963)	Peak position
U.S. Billboard Hot Country Singles	2
U.S. Billboard Easy Listening	13
U.S. Billboard Hot 100	32

Many cover versions of "Six Days on the Road" have been recorded, with three of them also being chart hits for other artists. Johnny Rivers took a cover to No. 58 on the country charts and No. 105 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1974. Steve Earle recorded the song for the 1987 movie Planes, Trains and Automobiles, and his version reached No. 29 on the Billboard Hot Country Singles chart in early 1988. Another version was recorded by the band Sawyer Brown on their 1997 album Six Days on the Road, peaking at No. 13 on the country charts that year. Sawyer Brown's version also changed the line "I'm taking little white pills" to "I'm passing little white lines", thus omitting the drug reference.
Others who have recorded "Six Days" include Del Reeves, George Jones, Red Simpson, Nev Nicholls, Ferlin Husky, Boxcar Willie, Red Sovine, Jim Croce, George Thorogood, the Flying Burrito Brothers, who are shown performing the song live in the movie, "Gimme Shelter", as well as Gram Parsons and the Fallen Angels, aka The Turkeys, blues guitarist Popa Chubby (for his 2008 album Vicious Country), New Riders of the Purple Sage and Tom Petty's band Mudcrutch. According to Dahl, one of the best versions was a blues-rocking rendition recorded in 1969 by Taj Mahal.^[8]
The Youngbloods covered it during a 1971 concert in San Francisco.

Dave Dudley ~ Six Days On The Road

I pulled out of Pittsburgh rolling down the Eastern seaboard
I've got my diesel wound up and she's running like never before
There's a speed zone ahead on right and I ain't see a cop all night
Six days on the road and now I'm gonna make it home tonight

I got a ten forward gears and a Georgia overdrive
I take little white pills and my eyes are open wide
I just passed a "Gimmy" and a "White"
I've been smokin' everything in sight
Six days on the road and now I'm gonna make it home tonight

Well it seems like a month since I kissed my baby goodbye
And I can have a lot of women but I'm not like some other guys
I can find one to hold me tight
But I could never make believe it's alright
Six days on the road and now I'm gonna make it home tonight

Now the ICC's been a-checkin' on down the line
I'm a little overweight and my log book's way behind
Nothing bothers me tonight
I can dodge all them scales all right
Six days on the road and now I'm gonna make it home tonight

Well my rig's a little low, but that don't mean she's slow
got the stacks blowin' fire and the smoke's blowing black as coal
My hometown's coming in sight
If you think I'm happy, you're right
Six days on the road and now I'm gonna make it home tonight