Song of the Week – 2-4-6-8 Motorway, Tom Robinson Band

Ignored           Obscured            Restored

This weekend marks the end of LGBT Pride Month.  June was selected as Pride Month to recognize the landmark Stonewall riot, 50 years ago yesterday, on June 28th, 1969, in Greenwich Village, New York.  This incident is often cited as one of the most significant events that triggered the modern gay rights movement in the US.

Today’s SotW celebrates gay lib in song – “2-4-6-8 Motorway” by the Tom Robinson Band.

“2-4-6-8 Motorway” was released in 1977 and reached #5 on the UK charts.  Though it didn’t make the pop charts in the US, it did receive significant airplay on FM Rock radio.

The song has two sides to it.  On the one hand, it is about driving a “lorry” through the night to the early morning.

And it’s two four six eight, never too late
Me and my radio trucking on through the night
Three five seven nine, on a little white line
Motorway sun coming up with the morning light.

The tie into the gay liberation movement comes to those enlightened with a familiarity of the popular gay lib chant “2,4,6,8, Gay is twice as good as straight… 3,5,7,9, Lesbians are mighty fine”.

Robinson also recorded the much more obvious “Glad to be Gay” that was included on his 1978 album, Rising Free.

We’ve come a long way since Stonewall and Robinson’s anthems, but we have further to go to ensure the rights of the LGBT community – especially for transgender individuals.  That’s why Pride Month remains relevant today.

Enjoy… until next week.

One thought on “Song of the Week – 2-4-6-8 Motorway, Tom Robinson Band

  1. Big fan of this album and this song. Hard to believe it was 40 years ago this was radical and it still isn’t fixed.

    I think all of this goes on and persists because actual equality means a lot of folks who have outrageous stuff will have to give some of it up. And they’ll have to act better, which maybe they can’t do.

    But it never hurts to, 1) create your own authority, and 2) exercise the fuck out of it.

    Tom Robinson did.

    Here’s Tom’s pub song about being gay: https://youtu.be/Ojnv3fegkfM. For me, eye opening.

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