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June 6 is the fictional anniversary of the convoy in the beloved C.W. McCall song, rolled out as a protest on important issues in trucking. “Convoy,” published in 1976, tells the story of truckers driving cross-country to fight against an imposed speed limit and paper logs.
While the group and their pilgrimage are fictional, the story is based on real issues and protests from that time. And although it might sound like something ripped from today’s headlines, in 1976, truckers faced challenges similar to those truckers face today.
The song topped both country and pop charts in the next year and sold more than 2 million copies, according to Rolling Stone. While the artist credited with the song is known as C.W. McCall, that is actually a character made up by William Dale Fries Jr. The character was created during Fries’ tenure at an advertising agency in Omaha, Nebraska, for jingles that had a country twang. The first C.W. McCall jingle, “Old Home Filler-Up an’ Keep on a-Truckin’ Café,” became so popular that Fries teamed up with another musician, Chip Davis, to create a full album.
“Convoy” was the second song released on C.W. McCall’s debut album, “Wolf Creek Pass.” It spent six weeks at No. 1 on the country charts, according to Rolling Stone. The magazine even put it on its list of 100 Greatest Country Songs of All-Time at No. 98. A total of 10 C.W. McCall albums were published from 1975 to 2003, but none was as popular as “Convoy.” The song was even inspiration for the 1978 film, “Convoy.”
Bill Fries Jr. died last year on April 1, at the age of 93.
While the song was popular with truck drivers because of the issues it addressed — issues still relevant today — they also gravitated toward the song because it’s filled with CB radio jargon that truckers of yesteryear often love. The lyrics of “Convoy” from start to finish are filled with terminology that non-CB users would need a glossary to understand.
The song is mostly spoken word, with drivers communicating with one another on CB to organize their protest.
Here are some of our favorite lyrics and the meaning behind them:
“Ah, breaker one-nine, this here’s the Rubber Duck/You gotta copy on me, Pig Pen, c’mon?/Ah, yeah, 10-4, Pig Pen, for sure, for sure/By golly, it’s clean clear to Flag Town, c’mon/Yeah, that’s a big 10-4 there, Pig Pen/Yeah, we definitely got the front door, good buddy/Mercy sake’s alive, looks like we got us a convoy.”
“Breaker one-nine” is a common way for radio users to start speaking on Channel 19, which is known as the channel for truckers on CB radio. In this case, Rubber Duck and Pig Pen are the call names of two of the drivers in the fictional convoy, which makes it that much more fun.
While these terms are the better-known phrases in the song, there are plenty of others that pop culture doesn’t tap quite as much.
“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-O/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.’”
“The dark of the moon” is meant literally, describing the night of a new moon, when light reflecting off the moon is not visible. “Cab-over Pete” describes a specific type of truck cab that is flat and lays directly over the engine.
The term “bear” appears in the song quite a bit and is a name for police officers. More specifically, highway patrol is referred to as “smokey” or “smokey bear” as their hats resemble that of Smokey the Bear, the mascot meant to promote fire prevention who wears a similar hat.
“Well, we rolled up Interstate 44/Like a rocket-sled on rails/We tore up all of our swindle sheets/And left ’em sitting 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 every size/Yeah, them chicken coops was full of bears/And choppers filled the skies/Well, we shot the line and we went for broke/With a thousand screamin’ trucks/And eleven long-haired Friends a’ Jesus in a chartreuse microbus.”
C.W. McCall goes on to describe how members of the convoy tore up their paper logs, known as “swindle sheets” and left them at weigh-in stations, or “chicken coops.” It also seems at this point, the convoy was joined by a group of Christian hippies in a small bus.
The song mentions a “suicide jockey,” meaning a truck hauling a dangerous substance or an explosive. The protest tale ends with the convoy breaking through tolls without paying and making it to their final destination.
It certainly is a fun tune that truckers and nontruckers alike have appreciated, and one that shows that history often repeats itself.
FreightWaves Classics articles look at various aspects of the transportation industry’s history. Click here to subscribe to our newsletter!
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R.M.Ellsworth
It came as a surprise to learn that the actual CB call for the ‘trucker’s channel’ 19 was actually ‘break one-niner’– my guess is that Fries knew trucking better than FCC Citizen’s Band.
Of course we were ALWAYS supposed to use our FCC-assigned station callsign, which was some ham-like combination of letters and numbers that I and, I suspect, everyone else actually using CB never bothered to learn: there was some sort of penalty if you failed to do that but I couldn’t imagine then as I can’t imagine now how they’d enforce it.
In those days before radar and lidar detectors, you almost felt naked taking any long road trip without calling those coming in the other direction and asking ‘how’s it look over your shoulder’ every few miles.
Rev Den
“Cab over Pete” does not refer to a person, but a cab over style Peterbilt.
Old truckers never die, they just get a new Peterbilt.
Lawrence Scism
Songs like this including phantom 409 and movies like Moven on with Sonny and will and Smokie and the bandit the last of the outlaw truckers made me wanting to be a Trucker. Ever sense I first saw a big rig going down the road in the 1970s up to when the 2017 ELD mandates kicked in I than gave up my passion for trucking no thanks to President Jimmy carter putting the screws to the industry making it harder to make a decent living as a Trucker with all of those stupid laws put in place. And people talking on the CB radio and there fowl language and putting a rubber band around the Mike playing stupid music for hours on end turned every thing up side down.
Dave "The Moose"
I started in CB radio in 1970 at age 15. It was the “social media” of the 1960s and 1970s. Before the 1973 Arab oil embargo truckers used it primarily for conversation on the Interstates and directions around town. Once President Nixon imposed the 55 mph speed limits the radio became instrumental in organizing blockades of cities with beltways in protest of higher fuel prices, lowered speed limits, and the proliferation of radar speed enforcement. All cops were “bears” but because the hats worn by State Police and Highway Patrolmen resembles that of Smokey the Bear, there you have it. By the time “Convoy” hit the air the CB craze of the 1970s was well under way. There’s another song to include, “Me an’ Ole CB”, “Made damn good time, didn’t pay one fine, me an’ Ole CB!”
Mark Salem
I was 13 years old when Covoy was released,I begged my mom to buy the record.I played that record so much it finally wouldn’t play the whole song without a penny on the needle arm.After high school I did 23 years in the USMC and after retirement from the military I bought a 379 and went trucking…..thanks C.W.Mcall for a brilliant song at the right time
Bill Jackson
First off Freight Waves “hogs” in the song doesn’t refer to state police. Hogs are what the “JIMMY” GMC tractor is hauling. But it is a great song and an anthem for all of us that were concrete cowboys in the 70’s, when the HOS were a suggestion and a vague one at that. Keep the dirty side down and the clean side up. The wheels between the ditches and that other thing in your britches. Were headed to the home 20. Bye bye!
Rodney G Patton Sr
I was just a kid when this song came out and my Dad, being a trucker, liked the tune and we had the pleasure of listening to the 8 track, Wolf Creek pass, often while going down the road.
Then Sam Peckinpah directed the movie Convoy with Kris Kristofferson played the park of the Rubber Duck. Ernest Borgnine as Dirty Lyle the corrupt Sheriff. This is when I knew I was going to drive a truck for a living. In real life I came to understand why the driver’s hated the unnecessary laws that we had to follow but I also seen the necessity of the good Laws as well.
I welcome the truck inspections because I remember the junk that was running down the road in my younger years.
But I think the ELD is unsafe. They would be okay if some of the Laws were to be changed and DOT got real truckers in to help the Law makers critique the ELD to make it better for the industry and safer for the public.
Autonomous trucks! Someone is going to kill a few people/families with these things. A computer can not make the right decision to avoid an incident on the road. You could just pay the driver what their worth and we would have the safety highways in the World and the driver shortage would be over.
All this because of the song Convoy. Remember everything you see around you came on a truck and that’s what makes America the Greatest Country in the World!
Bradley McWilliams
I know it’s said all too often, but truly was a different world back then…