The story behind WAGON WHEEL
Best known in Ireland as Nathan Carter’s 2012 hit, the song Wagon Wheel has a storied history. RSVP Country tracks the song’s creation to its chart-topping rise
Nathan Carter first released Wagon Wheel in Ireland back in 2012, ahead of US singer and frontman of Hootie & the Blowfish, Darius Rucker, who released his version stateside six months later. Nathan says he was grabbed by the song the first time he heard it. He told RSVP Country: “A friend of mine gave it to me and said that all of the students in Belfast were listening to the Old Crow Medicine Show version of it, which was bluegrass. So I took it into the studio and beefed it up and made it sound a bit more fresh and released it.” Darius, on the other hand, “didn’t quite get it” until he heard a high school band play it in a talent show. He turned to his wife and said “Wow, I gotta record this song.” He went on to sell over 11 million copies of the song and scooped a haul of American country music awards.
The history of Wagon Wheel goes way back, even further than 1973 when Bob Dylan wrote the chorus and then left the song unfinished. Bizarrely, Dylan’s career had hit the skids in 1973 and he took a part in the Sam Peckinpah movie Pat Garret and Billy the Kid, a film well worth seeing, even if only for Dylan’s soundtrack. It included the song
Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door. That’s where
Wagon Wheel’s chorus was born, somebody got their hands on a bootleg recording of the chorus and the rest is history.
Way back then it was known as Rock Me, Mama and remained that for another 25 years until American band Old Crow Medicine Show picked up a bootleg copy. Ketch Secor from the band added verses to Dylan’s chorus and released the song in 2004, splitting the royalties and co-writing rights with Dylan.
While the music industry has a reputation of being competitive and cutthroat, this deal was a refreshing dose of honesty and fairness. Dylan’s honesty went even further when he revealed that he got the line “rock me Mama” from the bluesman Arthur Crudup who recorded it in 1944. Crudup in turn got it from Big Bill Broonzy in 1939 when he recorded “roll me Mama, just like I’m a wagon wheel.” So, the roots of this song go way back to its blues birth.
Wagon Wheel tells the story of a man hitchhiking his way from New England in the north east of America all the way down to Raleigh, North Carolina, to meet up with his girlfriend. However, the man would be lucky to get there because in the song, the trucker who offers him a lift says he’s heading “west from the Cumberland Gap to Johnson city, Tennessee.” However, to get to Raleigh, you’d need to travel east, in the opposite direction. Ketch Secor, who wrote the lyrics, refused to correct the geographical error, saying “west has got more power than east” and it sure does in country music.
So, back to Darius Rucker from Hootie & the Blowfish. As soon as he records Wagon Wheel, a radio DJ tells him that country music lovers won’t like a black man singing country (go tell Charley Pride that!). Proving him wrong, Rucker went on to win a Grammy at the 56th annual Grammy awards for his cover of Wagon Wheel.
Nathan Carter took his version of Wagon Wheel from the country charts straight into the pop charts and the song launched his career overnight. He spent 52 weeks in the charts in total, peaking at number one in the Irish charts. Wagon Wheel was voted Ireland’s favourite country song of all time and Nathan’s version has been streamed over nine million times on Spotify.
Yet Wagon Wheel can be a bit of a poisoned chalice. Lots of bands cover it live, so much so that it is banned at some music festivals, country music bars and I’ve heard of festivals selling t-shirts with the slogan “Wagon Wheel free zone” emblazoned on the front! That’s music for you! To some, Wagon Wheel is a cheesy song that wrecks their head, to others it is an infectious, happy clappy tune that raises the spirits, with a killer chorus. For me it’s a good ‘un, if only for the fact that one day I will travel across those southern states, from east to west .... not sure about the hitchhiking though!
The history of Wagon Wheel goes way back, even further than 1973