This month, I’m jumping into the #APlaceInTheSong challenge from @JukeboxJohnny2. Great songs have that special ability to describe places in a way that makes us feel like we’re right there. Each day, I’ll pick a track that I think accomplishes that feat.

This cover is absolute perfection. It was the right cover song at the time and for the right place. Thematically, it coincided perfectly with Depeche Mode’s North American tour which culminated in L.A. and was chronicled famously in the documentary 101. It also worked perfectly as the b-side to the single, “Behind The Wheel”, incorporating a driving theme and instrumental elements from “Behind The Wheel” in between verses that made the b-side in lock step with the a-side.

I still remember the day I first heard “Route 66”. It was on the radio – and, for me, the preeminent station was WDRE/WLIR in Long Island. I was struck by how Depeche Mode it sounded. The band took an Americana original and truly made it their own. The synth hooks, drum machine, and guitar riff are all unmistakably DM. It made a resolutely American-as-American-as-it-gets song feel like it came from a band from Essex. Because it did.

“Well if you ever plan to motor west, Travel my way. take the highway that's the best. Get your kicks on Route 66.”