OK Solberg: 00:00

Wanna again welcome you to The 405 Coffee Break. Happy New Year. It's a new week. Also, get your cup of coffee, mug of hot cocoa, glass of iced tea, or a bottle of water. Let's see what's happening.

OK Solberg: 00:12

Spring wheat $5.48 a bushel. 550lb steer calf $4.11 on the top end. A butcher hog in Iowa 58¢ a pound and a lamb that's fat in Billings weighing a 100lbs at $2.44 kinda going up a bit, But guys, there's more, much more.

OK Solberg: 00:33

Yes, sir. It's Jay and Joe's Motor Monday, the day we look at horsepower one Monday at a time.

OK Solberg: 00:41

Okay. Now this slot here on Monday happened by simple circumstance. Jay Southwick listens with his friend Joe Peigneux on Mondays and both guys like to hear about automobiles. Jay had sent me a text once in a while and well, you know, the squeaky wheel gets the grease and this time the squeaky was something good. You know, I like to hear that someone's listening or I could just save ourselves a lot of time both you and I and I could do something other than this radio program.

OK Solberg: 01:18

But I love making them up. It's a treat for me. So I appreciate hearing from someone who's listening. Now since Jay sent me texts about enjoying the show, well, I thought I'd dedicate a day for him and Joe and the rest of us could just come along for the ride. Now with that being established, have to listen carefully.

OK Solberg: 01:41

Are you listening? You may have heard someone say, you aren't as smart as you think you are. Have you heard that? I bet you have. So listen up. Again, I'm not as smart as you think I am. I'm really not. On these episodes, I give you the truth and the whole truth, but it's because of these programs that even I learn so much new stuff. See guys, I'm a researcher. I love to do research.

OK Solberg: 02:15

Actually, you could call it my hobby. I actually, believe it or not, like research better than baseball, if you can believe that. So this program creates an area where I need to do research. And now I think about Abraham Lincoln, reading about him and how he worked, how many long hard hours just to get his hands on one book. Nowadays, research is so easy.

OK Solberg: 02:45

There is not another generation in existence of mankind that has had the ability to do research on nearly any topic as easy as we have it today. Have you heard of the Internet? Some people cuss it. Some people wish it would just never been developed, but it but it's because of the Internet that I can do all this research. I just want you to know I'm not as smart as you think I am.

OK Solberg: 03:15

Now sure, there's a lot of bogus stuff on the Internet but you check and you cross reference and you find multiple sources that give you the same answer. And then and only then do you have something that can be shared. So this Motor Monday has educated me as well.

OK Solberg: 03:33

Now today's episode, it'll be based upon the song titled Hot Rod Lincoln. Now commander Cody and his lost planet airman recorded that song that I knew from my growing up years. I was singing the lyrics to that song because I memorized them. Yes, I did. Before I had all my confirmation verses memorized. That's a true fact and I didn't need to look on the Internet for that. So I knew that song.

OK Solberg: 04:03

I knew it when I purchased the 1970 Buick GS with the 455 stage one from M and F Chevrolet Olds right here in Malta, Montana and I paid $1,400 for it. I kid you not. So as me and my buddies Steve Taylor, Brian Schuffelmeyer, Vincent Smockall, and Bruce Sunset cruise the dragon Malta. You know what they'd say? They'd ask me to sing that song and I'd tap out the beat on the dash of the Buick.

OK Solberg: 04:34

Well, papi said, son, you're gonna drive me to drinking if you don't stop driving that hot rod Lincoln. Have you heard the story of the hot rod race where the Fords and Lincoln were setting the pace? That story is true. I'm here to say I was driving that Model

OK Solberg: 04:47

A. Oh, yeah. I knew the song. I sang it myself. But do you know the history of that song? Well, neither did I until I did the research for this program. Fact of the matter is, Commander Cody was not the 1st one to record that song.

OK Solberg: 05:06

It was written and recorded by Charlie Ryan way back in 1955. I hope you pull up Charlie's original version. And what I didn't know was that Charlie Ryan's song was written as an answer to another fella's song. And that other fella was Arky Shibley. And he wrote a song way back in 1950 titled Hot Rod Race.

OK Solberg: 05:38

So this is where it all began way back in 1950. And in Arky's song it says, now me and my wife and my brother Joe took off in my Ford from San Pedro. We hadn't much gas and the tires was low, but doggone Ford could really go. Now along about the middle of the night, we were ripping along like white folks might when a burp mercury behind. He blinked his lights and he honked his horn and he flew outside.

OK Solberg: 06:07

We had twin pipes and a Columbia butt. You people may think that I'm in a rut, but to you folks who don't dig the jive, that's two carburetors and an overdrive. We made grease spots out of many good town and left the cops spinning round and round. They wouldn't chase. They'd run and hide, but me and that Mercury stayed side by side.

OK Solberg: 06:33

Now we were Ford men, and we likely knew that we'd race until some until something blew and we thought it over. Now wouldn't you? I looked down at my lovely bride. Her face was blue. I thought she died.

OK Solberg: 06:48

We left streaks through towns about 40 feet wide, but me and that Mercury stayed side by side. My brother was pale. He said he was sick. He said it was just a nervous wreck. But why should I worry for what the heck?

OK Solberg: 07:03

Me and that Mercury was still neck and neck. Now on through the desert we did glide of flying low and flying wide. Me and that Mercury was taking a ride and we stayed exactly side by side. Now I looked in my mirror and I saw something coming. I thought it was a plane by the way it was running.

OK Solberg: 07:23

It was a humming along at a terrible pace and I knew right then it was the end of the race. When it flew by us, I turned the other way. The guy in the Mercury had nothing to say for it was a kid in a hopped up Model A. What about that then? That there is the original and you see they were screaming through the night fast as all get out.

OK Solberg: 07:47

And even though they were fast, there was something faster, a hopped up Model A passed them. Now if you put two and two together, Charlie Ryan wrote a song to answer him. I was driving that Model A. So you have to realize that Arky Shibley wrote his song in 1950. Charlie Ryan came out with his in 1955, and seriously, he was driving that Model A.

OK Solberg: 08:18

Then commander Cody took the song, modified the lyrics just a bit, and had a big hit with Hot Rod Lincoln in 1971 and '72. And PS, yes, sir. Charlie Ryan, the original Hot Rod Lincoln rider did have a Ford Model A. It was a true Hot Rod. It was a Model A body on a shortened 1948 Lincoln chassis powered by the Lincoln's V12 flathead engine.

OK Solberg: 08:51

So the car described in the song was indeed a real physically built vehicle that perfectly embodied the spirit of 1950's hot rodding. And if and you're thinking that in the song it says, 8 cylinders and uses them all, well, commander Cody changed that part.

OK Solberg: 09:13

In Charlie Ryan's song it says, it's got a Lincoln motor and it's really souped up with a Model A body makes it look like a pup. It's got 12 cylinders and uses them all. It's got overdrive and it just won't stall.

OK Solberg: 09:28

I went overtime but I had to tell you, I'm not as smart as I sound. If it weren't for these episodes, I too wouldn't know this stuff.

OK Solberg: 09:40

Remember the days of old, consider the years of many generations, ask your father and he will show you your elders and they will tell you Deuteronomy 32:7

OK Solberg: 09:50

So until next time, as you go out there, remember now, don't be bitter.