For most, the phrase “Grand Theft Auto,” conjures up the image of a violent, yet fun filled, free roaming, and certainly third person gaming experience. There are those of us, however, that remember the original “Grand Theft Auto,” when it was a violent, yet fun filled, free roaming, top down gaming experience. Yes, in the days before “Grand Theft Auto III,” the violence what toned down, the view was top down, and the soundtrack was, well, I guess you could say watered down. These were not the full on “GTA” soundtrack experiences that we have today (and actually, really started more with “Vice City,” and not “GTA III.”) These were collections of unknown songs thrown together by Rockstar North, then DMA Design. Not only were these songs unknown, but you couldn’t change the station like you can now. The PC version had a few different stations per car, and the PlayStation version had only one set station for each different type of car. While each song was supposed to be appropriately tied to the type of vehicle you were in, the only one I really remember was the song for the truck.

Let me take a moment to say this, I am from the south, and I hate most country music. If you don’t like it, it definitely does not grow on you, it just annoys you more and more. So, when I was forced to, uh…commandeer a truck for the first time and the stereotypical country music came on, I jumped out of my moving vehicle to stop that shit. But, then came some mission where I was forced to use the truck, and something happened. I’m sure it started with these funny lyrics, but somehow this song grew on me. I don’t know what it was, but by the time I was done with the mission, I found myself looking for slow, shitty driving trucks to steal whenever the situation didn’t demand something better. It was the only song from the game that I remembered the title. It’s been ten years since that truck mission, and finally, thanks to a YouTube user that shares my passion for great music, I was able to take a joyous trip down memory lane with Sideway Hank O’Malley (and the Alabama Bottle Boys.) Ladies and Gentlemen, “The Ballad of Chapped Lip Calquhoun.”