East Bound and Down

"East Bound and Down" wasn't only the theme song from the 1977 smash Smokey and the Bandit, it was also proof that Jerry Reed (who was well into his second career as a comic actor by now and at times stole the entire movie from Burt Reynolds and Sally Field) hadn't lost his knack for writing good-timey country-pop tunes. It's also a handy précis of the movie's plot ("The boys are thirsty in Atlanta/But there's beer in Texarkana/And we'll bring it back no matter what it takes") for those who've never seen it, although it's a rare U.S. male who didn't catch at least one of the seemingly hourly screenings on basic cable throughout the '80s. Although this banjo-driven country-rocker is of limited utility outside of its role in the film, it's become enough of a trucker's anthem that Dave Dudley, Mr. "Six Days on the Road" himself, covered it.