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Chapter 192: Running On Empty

Springsteen & Springsteen-inspired rock

What makes a good driving song? It’s not just a propulsive rhythm or big, open-sky chords; the songs that make me want to really let fly on an empty road are optimistic, filled with the sense that anything could lie ahead. Bruce Springsteen is the master of the driving song, proven on gasping anthems like “Born To Run,” and his many proteges have picked up that torch. The War On Drugs, for example, steals a motorik beat from the equally transportation-obsessed Kraftwerk for “An Ocean In Between The Waves,” then pairs it with guitar solos designed to blare from an open sunroof.
1. The Hold Steady

Stuck Between Stations

2. Bruce Springsteen

Born to Run

3. The War on Drugs

An Ocean in Between the Waves

4. Jackson Browne

Running On Empty

5. Bruce Springsteen

Hungry Heart

6. Eddie Money

Two Tickets to Paradise

7. Manfred Mann's Earth Band

Blinded By the Light

8. The Hold Steady

Constructive Summer

9. The War on Drugs

Holding On

10. Jeff Tweedy

Having Been Is No Way to Be