999,892: Emmylou Harris — Luxury Liner

Luxury Liner - Emmylou Harris

I’ve seen Smokey and The Bandit about a hundred times, and it’s a damn fine movie. I hope that, one day, our mathematicians write an algorithm that puts it firmly in the pantheon of greats with The Godfather, Citizen Kane, Taxi Driver, and Smokey and the Bandit Part II.

In my personal favorite scene, The Bandit gets himself in a bit of a pickle (Oh, that Bandit!), with Sheriff Buford T. Justice hot at his heels, and a convoy of eighteen-wheelers helps him evade the long arm of the law. There’s a cute truck-drivin’ lady, going by the handle Little Beaver, who gets all winkity-wink on the CB with The Bandit, while guiding him out of the convoy.

I guess most guys are supposed to get hung up on Frog (Sally Field), but I’m a Little Beaver man, all the way. I like the thought of that little thing commandeering 40 tons of steel, out on her own, without anyone to tell her about her business. I wouldn’t mind her jammin’ my gears, and runnin’ me rough down the road, all night long, ‘til I deliver the load.

If you know what I mean.

That’s probably about 90% of the reason that I like Emmylou Harris’ “Luxury Liner” better than the version by its writer, the great Gram Parsons. The other ten percent is that this version completely smokes the original, what with Emmylou hiring on the best of Nashville to run tight bluegrass circles around this tale of a gal searching the country for someone to make her a little less lonesome. Maybe even that last fella who left her so alone.

If I ever find myself lonesome again, I’m might just buy myself a Trans Am with a CB and cruise around the highways, blasting this track, waiting for Little Beaver to cut through the static. I’ll let her know that someone in this whole wide world knows the ways she feels.

If you know what I mean.