The thing about garage rock is that it wasn’t named that until a decade later so adolescents wanting to get together and bash out songs could do so without worrying about genre. Some retrospective assessment has it that these teens cranked out simple ‘she done me wrong’ lyrics but I think we can adhere to the broader directive to keep the song simple and easy to sing.

Our roots rock merely had to be authentic so I told the story of my father leaving the farmhouse he’d lived in for twenty-five years. In the process, the blues is evident in both the mournful tone and, well you can’t get more blues than have to leave my happy home                                                                                                                                     The folk feel is evident in the plain speaking, in the unvarnished setting and the gathering of family.                                                                                                                   Country? It’s a rural setting and populated with machinery, with rust and dust.

Roots rock can still facilitate that line in the chorus which is both long and a bit of a tongue twister. It’s also confronting for the narrator to make declarations about their ‘frail familiar frame’ whether they have one or not. So it’s not as though it’s not challenging for a fellow with a semi-acoustic but does fit the classification. This is where, when we move over to the garage, we’d need to either break up the line or dispense with it altogether.

There’s a Hitch

I saw you on the side of the road
I said do you want a ride
You nodded and you climbed inside
You smiled as you climbed inside
CHORUS: Oh there's a hitch there's a hitch
          There's always a hitch
f
I was the driving force
arriving in due course
at the hop at the shop at the stop
keep this from the cops
(C)
I clutch this close to me
Brake for the sake of repartee
The gear to appear carefree

My reverse and my rearview 
I can't get enough of you 
How mad the mode a lad with his load
(C)