SDCC 2013: Road Trip! Songs to Play While On Your Way to Comic-Con

Bring and early Friday morning I point the car south and head for San Diego. As someone who lives in Los Angeles, the trip to San Diego isn’t a particularly arduous one. Just about three hours depending on traffic. But those three hours can seem like an eternity without the right music to keep things moving. Here are some tunes to consider when putting together the soundtrack for your trek to the con. These aren’t songs about superheroes or comics necessarily (though there’s some of that), but instead I like to imagine them as a sort of movie soundtrack for a journey to the belly of the beast that is SDCC. Like they say, sometimes it’s about the journey…

 

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10. THEME FROM “CHEERS” – by Gary Portnoy

“Where everybody knows your name…” Okay, so maybe everyone at the con won’t know your name, but this tune will help you get in the mood to be around people who dig the same stuff as you do.

 

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9. RAMBLE ON by Led Zeppelin

“T’was in the darkest depths of Mordor, I met a girl so fair…” A great driving tune and Tolkien references. Nuff said.

 

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8. CAN YOU READ MY MIND? (the Shirley Bassey version)

“You can fly. You belong to the sky.” – I like to imagine singing this at the top of my lungs with my co-pilot Steve K as we cruise through Oceanside toward SDCC in our sensible sedan.

 

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7. SPIDER-MAN THEME by Michael Buble

“Like a streak of light he arrives just in time…”- Love or hate the Buble, I defy anyone to not snap your fingers along with this jazzy theme from the ’67 Spidey TV show.

 

 

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6. “(Believe It Or Not) THE GREATEST AMERICAN HERO THEME” by Joey Scarbury

“I’m walking on air!” –  Let this song serve as a reminder to wear comfortable shoes while walking the con floor.

 

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5. CHEWBACCA by Supernova

“What a wookie!” – From the Clerks soundtrack. Arguably the best ever song about wookies. World’s greatest Star Wars ear-worm. Guaranteed to pop into your brain every time you see a cosplayer dressed as Chewy.

 

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4. SUPERMAN by REM

“I can do anything!”- This is probably about Nietzche or existential angst or something uber-deep, but for the purposes of a road trip to SDCC, it’s a solid upbeat Man of Steel tune that’ll have your breaking all kinds of rules of the road.

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3. GET DOWN WITH THE SICKNESS by Disturbed

“Can you feel that?” – I sure can. It feels like a sore throat and the beginnings of “con flu.” Let the voice of Disturbed’s David Draiman be your friendly reminder to use your Purell liberally while glad-handing your favorite comic creators.

 

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2. IN THE GARAGE by Weezer

“I’ve got Kitty Pryde and Nightcrawler, too.” Geek cred and power pop make for a dynamic duo worth cranking at level eleven.

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1. SAN DIEGO SERENADE by Tom Waits.

“I never saw the morning ‘til I stayed up all night.” Got to have a love song in there. Waits reminds us not to take the things we love (like massive gatherings of likeminded individuals) for granted. I recommend putting this one on as downtown San Diego comes into view from the freeway.

If you’re already in San Diego when you read this, feel free to play them in reverse order as your make your way back home. What songs do you think are essential for good old fashioned comic convention road trip?


Gabe Roth does in fact see the irony that there are no actual Journey songs on this list. Follow him @gaberoth on Twitter.

Comments

  1. Fun list , can’t say I’ve listened to more that 2-3 of these songs. Could I suggest “The Ballad of Barry Allen (Seems So Slow)”- Jim’s Big Ego, “Baby, Can You Dig Your Man?”-sEFL, and the Spider-Man theme song from “Spider-Man 2 the Game” by the Remixers I think. All of those are some of my favorite songs. Not all rock but geeky fun nonetheless.

  2. 1. “Boba Fett” by MC Chris.

    2. “Turtle Power” by Partners In Kryme.

    3. “Iron Man” by Black Sabbath.

    4. “Stuck in the Middle with You” by Steeler’s Wheel.

  3. Great List!

  4. I know ther aren’t any comic references but any road trip demands Iron Maiden.

  5. I love me some Buble.

  6. Great list, Gabe.

    Always nice to see some Waits love.

    I think of Kitty every time I hear “In The Garage”. There are really a number of Weezer songs that apply to nerd pride.

    Maybe I also humbly suggest:
    1. “Waiting For a Superman” – The Flaming Lips
    2. “Business” – Eminem
    3. “Catch Me Now, I’m Falling” – The Kinks
    4. “Ninja Rap” – Vanilla Ice
    5. “I Am the Law – Anthrax
    6. “Batdance” and/or “Party Man” – Prince
    7. “Flash” – Queen

  7. A couple more of my favorite geek friendly songs would be

    “A New Hope” by Blink 182.
    “Superman” by Goldfinger
    “Kryptonite” by 3 Doors Down
    “It’s the end of the world as we know it” by R.E.M.
    “Kingdom Come” by Jay Z
    Pretty much anything by I Fight Dragons

  8. I would Definately reccomend catch me now I’m falling by the kinks it’s got a captain america reference.

  9. No Beastie Boys? Happy to see Tom at the top spot though!

    • Also I am pretty sure half of Weslie Willis catalog is about fighting comic book characters. One or two of those would be on my list.

  10. Awesome list, Gabe Roth! I’d never heard Buble’s SPIDER-MAN and just dloaded it after reading your article. Jazzy, indeed! Sweet.

    And a clap on the back to WheelHands, as Queen’s FLASH’S THEME is a perfect addition to the list.

    But I guess I’m needing at least one Kirby Krackle song here, damn the rule against comic book songs… thus, I choose GREAT LAKES AVENGERS or DUSTY CARTRIDGES & LONGBOXES.

  11. Just thought of another one!

    If you listen to The Who’s “Behind Blue Eyes” and simply replace “bad man” with “Batman”, the lyrics apply in an eery way.

    Seriously. Try it the next time you really listen to the song. Just for funsies.

  12. “Going Home” by Kirby Krackle

    The song is literally about packing up & going to Comic Con

    Really just about anything by Kirby Krackle would be good Road Trip songs for going to SDCC, the vast majority of their music is about comics & whatnot

    • haha. I was definitely going to say they were missing Kirby Krackle’s Going Home… we’ve listened to that while waiting in the (massive, unending, ever-expanding) line to get in to comiccon 🙂 …on repeat.. for longer than I care to admit….

    • Kicking myself – you are totally right about GOING HOME!!
      justinsayne for the win

  13. May I humbly suggest…

    Owl City – Metropolis (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z3gstWVGnSM)

    Ramones – Spider-Man (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i5P8lrgBtcU)
    You can have your pop-jazz version all you want. Me, I’m sticking with the Ramones.

    and finally, the best comics song no one’s ever heard of…

    Furthermore – Melted Vinyl (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZvToFedvRns)

  14. @thinsafetypin – I love Owl City but never heard that song! And the video’s great, very 80s-like old school kind of music video that tells its own little story. “I left my heart in Metropolis” 🙂