“I became acutely self-conscious about what I was doing. Was I now a “spokesman” for the hippies or what? I had no idea how to handle my new position in society! … Take Keep on Truckin’… For example. Keep on Truckin’… Is the curse of my life. This stupid little cartoon caught on hugely. There was a D.J. On the radio in the seventies who would yell out every ten minutes: “And don’t forget to KEEP ON TR-R-RUCKIN’!” Boy, was that obnoxious! Big feet equals collective optimism. You’re a walkin’ boy! You’re movin’ on down the line! It’s proletarian. It’s populist. I was thrown off track! I didn’t want to turn into a greeting card artist for the counter-culture! I didn’t want to do ‘shtick’—the thing Lenny Bruce warned against. That’s when I started to let out all of my perverse sex fantasies. It was the only way out of being “America’s Best Loved Hippy Cartoonist.”
-Robert Crumb
“Keep on Truckin” R. Crumb – Zap Comix #1 1968
Just Keep Truckin’ On
In 1968 Robert Crumb penned the second issue of Zap Comix, issue #1. While listening to a Blind Boy Fuller album he doodle a masterpiece.
The song “Truckin’ My Blues Away” would forever be inked into history as the audial muse to a generation.
Blind Boy Fuller “Truckin’ My Blues Away”
Keep on Truckin guy R. Crumb
The single page comic would become a hippie icon, gaining a sloth walking cult following of arm dangling layed back youth…
“Trucking,” the expression for an exaggerated let-it-all-hang-out style of walking, is catching on.
The walk, which emphasizes a long forward step with the body tilted backward and the arms flapping in a Jackie Gleason and-away-we-go style, represent something similar to the Negro spirituals’ “we shall overcome.”
The walk says: “regardless how much we may be put down, we’ll keep on trucking.”
The expression originates in a blues song played by Duke Ellington in the 1930s. The lyrics say,
“keep on trucking, truck your troubles away.”
Kids say trucking around in school halls and outside makes you forget about frustrating classes.
The movement was popularized by the underground press. A cartoon strip which I believe originated in the Los Angeles Free Press and was printed locally about a year or so ago showed a grotesque person “trucking.”
– the Winnipeg Free Press (Oct 19, 1970)
1970 issue of The Student Life showing the ‘Truckin’ walk
“We took our experiences on the road and made it poetry”
-Phil Lesh on the writing of Truckin
In 1970 the Grateful Dead would bring the visual muse back to the audial world…
Garcia, Weir, Lesh, and Hunter all gathered, would put pen to paper on all their traveling emotions and experiences into flowing poetry.
With a nod to the muse, the anthem ‘Truckin’ was born… Again…
Grateful Dead Concert Poster by R Crumb- February 11, 1970 Fillmore East New York
“The last chorus defines the band itself.”
– Phil Lesh
Grateful Dead – Truckin’ – 12/31/77 – Winterland
‘Truckin’
Grateful Dead
Arrows of neon and flashing marquees out on Main Street
Chicago, New York, Detroit and it’s all on the same street
Your typical city involved in a typical daydream
Hang it up and see what tomorrow brings
Dallas, got a soft machine Houston, too close to New Orleans
New York’s got the ways and means and just won’t let you be
Most of the cats that you meet on the streets speak of true love
Most of the time they’re sittin’ and cryin’ at home
One of these days they know they better get goin’
Out of the door and down on the streets all alone
Truckin’, like the do-dah man. Once told me you’ve got to play your hand
Sometimes your cards ain’t worth a dime, if you don’t lay’em down
Sometimes the light’s all shinin’ on me
Other times I can barely see
Lately it occurs to me what a long, strange trip it’s been
What in the world ever became of sweet Jane?
She lost her sparkle, you know she isn’t the same
Livin’ on reds, vitamin C, and cocaine,
All a friend can say is ain’t it a shame?
Truckin’, up to Buffalo. Been thinkin’, you got to mellow slow
Takes time, you pick a place to go, and just keep truckin’ on
Sittin’ and starin’ out of the hotel window
Got a tip they’re gonna kick the door in again
I’d like to get some sleep before I travel
But if you got a warrant, I guess you’re gonna come in
Busted, down on Bourbon Street, set up, like a bowlin’ pin
Knocked down, it get’s to wearin’ thin. They just won’t let you be
You’re sick of hangin’ around and you’d like to travel
Get tired of travelin’ and you want to settle down
I guess they can’t revoke your soul for tryin’
Get out of the door and light out and look all around
Sometimes the light’s all shinin’ on me
Other times I can barely see
Lately it occurs to me what a long, strange trip it’s been
Truckin’, I’m a goin’ home. Whoa whoa baby, back where I belong
Back home, sit down and patch my bones, and get back truckin’ on
In 1997 Grateful Dead’s ‘Truckin’ was recognized by the United States Library of Congress as a ‘National Treasure’…
Sargent Gym, Boston University: Jerry Garcia smoking a joint, November 21, 1970
In 2004 Robert Crumb was offered $100,000 by Toyota to reproduce the image for a Keep On Truckin’ advertising campaign…
Crumb refused…