Wheels symbolise change and progression, speed, luxury and the free-spirited need for escape.
With the array of leather-clad, smoked-stained biker connotations entwined within rock music history, it’s hardly a surprise that the most famous songs about wheels derive from this wild hearted, high-speed genre.
We’ve collected the best of classic rock and heavy metal, from songs about feeling crushed beneath chaos, to tracks about embracing the wheel of the seasons and the changing tides of life.
Songs About Wheels
1. Alice Cooper- Under My Wheels
Alice Cooper’s 1971 rock hit, Under My Wheels, illustrates the desire to escape your dominating partner and find power over them for yourself; “The telephone is ringing, you got me on the run, I’m driving in my car now, I got you under my wheels.”
Detailed with retro brass sections and classic, unkempt rock ‘n’ roll distortions, Under My Wheels is an uptempo piece for anyone fighting to keep control in a relationship and stay in action, whilst harbouring a macabre message of vengeance upon an ex;
“I’m driving right up to you babe, I guess that you couldn’t see, yeah, yeah, but you were under my wheels honey, why don’t you let me be.”
2. Journey – Wheel In The Sky
Journey’s classic rock release, Wheel In The Sky, is centred around a metaphor for seasonal change and the inescapable cycles of life.
Journey’s lyrics are artfully vague, allowing the listener to place their own perception and story within them, whilst illustrating the feeling of hopeless stagnation as all around you continues to move forwards, leaving you behind;
“I’m stranded in the sleet and rain, don’t think I’m ever gonna make it home again, the morning sun is rising, it’s kissing the day. Wheel in the sky keeps on turning, I don’t tell where I’ll be tomorrow.”
Backlighting this track are prominent themes of unexpected movement and change, an ingenious contrast to Earth’s fixed and predictable seasonal shifts; “Winter is here again, oh Lord, I haven’t been home in a year or more, well I hope she holds on a little longer.”
3. Rush – Between The Wheels
Appearing on their Top 10 1984 album, Grace Under Pressure, Rush’s synth-centred rock track Between The Wheels captures the feeling of freedom and flight inherent to the band’s discography, made evermore eminent by this track’s lyrical message.
Between The Wheels is crafted around a striking metaphor for living in peacetime, between moments of personal and planet-wide disaster, their ‘wheels’ in question being the tragic events one is narrowly avoiding from all angles;
“To live between the wars in our time, living in real time, holding the good time, holding on to yesterdays … Wheels can take you around, wheels can cut you down, we can go from boom to bust, from dreams to a bowl of dust.”
4. Saxon – Wheels Of Steal
This title track from Saxon’s UK gold status heavy metal record, Wheels Of Steel, gains its fierce, vintage driving force from a high-energy blend of crushed distortions and soaring falsettos, padded by the gritty, motorbike atmosphere of old-school, leather-stained metal.
Wheels Of Steel derives its lyrical theme from a literal passion for cars and driving alongside its natural, sleazy rock ‘n’ roll connotations, forming an anthem for any motorist mesmerised by luxury;
“When my foot’s on the throttle there’s no looking back, I leave the motor ticking over when she’s back on the track, I’ve got a ’68 Chevy with pipes on the side, you know she’s my idea of beauty, that’s what I drive, she’s got wheels, wheels of steel.”
5. Foo Fighters – Wheels
Foo Fighters’ 2009 single, Wheels, captures a blue-skied approach more comparable to country rock than the more retro heavy metal tracks featured on our playlist.
This track hosts a metaphor for a life-shattering event which roots you firmly back in reality, layered with a double meaning of taking a new opportunity to step into your stride;
“When the wheels come down, when the wheels touch ground, and you feel like it’s all over, there’s another round for you, when the wheels come down.”
Foo Fighters pad their empowering message of perseverance with anecdotes of love, loss and misery, shaping a song for anyone navigating their way out of the haze before them;
“And everyone I’ve loved before flashed before my eyes, and nothing mattered any more, I looked into the sky, I wanted something better man, I wished for something new, and I wanted something beautiful and wish for something true.”
6. Wheel – Wheel
Wheel’s 2019 album track, Wheel, is a 10 minute prog-metal masterpiece anchored in a hypnotic bass line which carries the track through a series of strange musical movements, each as compelling as the last.
Woven with a clean, dream-stained ambience, cut-throat distortions and partial bongo accompaniments, Wheel makes no direct reference to its title, instead implying a grander metaphor of societal disharmony and population control; “We’re all just cogs in a grand machine.”
Wheel’s lyrics are plunged in political disgust, their vague yet compelling lyrics transferring to an array of timeless instances surrounding war and elitism;
“Is it any surprise we’re losing patience while you chase another elusive enemy? While our fear is amplified, another culture demonised, it only serves to catalyse, this burning desire for isolation, or is that what you wanted from the start?”
7. John Lennon – Watching The Wheels
This rosy John Lennon track, taken from his 1980 record, Double Fantasy, comes from the perspective of a dreamer being advised to ground his mindset in reality by those misunderstanding of his free-spirited lifestyle;
“People asking questions lost in confusion, well I tell them there’s no problem, only solutions, well they shake their heads and they look at me as if I’ve lost my mind, I tell them there’s no hurry, I’m just sitting here doing time.”
Watching The Wheels is crafted around a metaphor for accepting life’s changing tides with an open heart, whilst finding a natural sense of peace upon the planet despite the world rashly evolving around you;
“I’m just sitting here watching the wheels go round and round, I really love to watch them roll, no longer riding on the merry-go-round, I just had to let it go.”