Banana Truck Chuck (single) – Sidney Stephens

Banana Truck Chuck was written as a tribute to my friend, Chuck in Lubbock, Texas.

Growing up and living in Lubbock for a few years was a lot like living in the movie American Graffiti. I had a hot rod 1958 Chevrolet and later a 1961 Karmann Ghia. (Chuck referred to the little red Volkswagen as the “Armageddi”). I cruised the main drag, raced from light to light, and earned a long list of misdemeanor tickets from the rookie cops forced to monitor the kids. We were on the streets just about every Friday and Saturday night. We even mostly listened to the oldies radio station, playing Ricky Nelson, Buddy Holly, and Dion’s, Runaround Sue. There was drama and hilarity, love and fights, trouble and temptation.

I was arguably a little crazier than most of my friends,although they didn’t always know about the things I did when we weren’t hanging out. I lived a secret life at times. But I had some great friends that helped me to survive my own crazy. Carter would often show up and we’d go out and do random stuff. He always seemed to have an agenda. But it got me out of my dysfunctional home, wherever I was living at the time, and helped me keep my feet on the ground.

Chuck is a good friend of Carter’s and that’s how I know him, but we were never really close friends in the old days. He was often a rare sight but it was always special when he popped up. Chuck is one of the funniest people I know. He’s also an incredible mechanic and always had multiple projects, which is why he had better things to do than just drive up and down 34th Street all night. I was always happy to see him, we all were. He would light up any room just with his presence. He was always, always entertaining and still is.

Chuck has had a hard time with his health for as long as I’ve known him. Diabetes has taken its harsh toll and it’s a struggle for him to get out much nowadays. I wanted to give him this song to let him know how much I enjoy knowing him. He’s been an inspiration for me in a lot of ways. When we were young, he showed me what we were capable of with the right tools. His knowledge and almost magical abilities with mechanical things amazed me. His humor was quick and sharp, and a lot more intellectual than he ever led on. He’s a simple guy, but there’s a lot of complexity at the same time. He reminds me of what I assume Will Rogers would’ve been like.

His strength and optimism is beyond colossal, especially now, dealing with strenuous daily Insulin and self dialysis routines. I wish he could get healthy and live a long happy life. The world needs Chuck.

The stories in the song are absolutely true. They are my own personal memories of the stories I heard and the few times I was around. Some of it is not perfectly accurate due to twenty five years of memory challenges. I did edit some from the original draft to get it closer to fact with the help of Chuck himself, and my main American Graffiti friends, Carter, Bryan, and Brett.

I left the inaccuracies on purpose to give some of my friends something to talk about when I get back. What year was that truck again? What’s a knee knocker? Didn’t his dad have a 65’? Was that a Volvo or Mercedes Benz? Who was the girl in the loose tank top? I thought that car was a Mercedes. John Deere yellow? What’s a Chevrolet Spyder Monza-ratti? Did Chuck call it that? Yep… Etc.

I’m grateful for my friends in every town I lived in, but especially Lubbock. They kept me mostly sane and made me feel at home. They still do. That’s another reason I call Lubbock my home town. It was tough living for me, but I’ll always have my good memories and my great friends. Chuck is a big part of that and we’ll all live together forever inside the algorithmic musical frequencies of the internet.

It was a 1966 Chevrolet
A 400 small block built to play
And the pickup truck was as much a legend as the man

And it changed colors from time to time
But one day the right one came to mind
And it stayed a shade of yellow from that day on

A John Deere made it with a Corvette
And Carter said that was the better bet
But one day a girl in a loose tank top hollered out the name

Although that truck belonged to Chuck
They became synonymous when that name stuck
And they were now a legend in that Texas town

And they’d live on in infamy
Whenever those tires lit up the street
(People everywhere would stop and holler and wave)

(chorus)
Here he comes, there he goes
Yellow streak down the road
Flying down the alley testing luck
Watch out for that dumpster, Bryan
Stay away from that pole
It’s that rat racing, banana truck Chuck

With a three thousand stall converter
It might as well have had an afterburner
Hold on and watch your knees when you’re hopping in or out

Buddy Holly’s on the radio
But it ain’t no normal stereo
Ol’ Chuck has modified the box to play FM as well

And I’ve seen things in his garage
That made my brain deep dislodge
Like a motor running missing half the carburetor

And a hopped up Spyder Monzaratti
That would’ve stumped the Illuminati
Cause it was built more like a running Quarter Horse

And like that knee knocker Chevrolet
It was a legend that would not fade
(And it could only have been piloted by the engineer himself)

(solo)
(bridge)
And the full moon was rising In a church parking lot
In the back of a Volvo station wagon
A Preacher was hoping to see a miracle that night
But it was just Chuck’s full moon rising again

(chorus 2 times)
Here he comes, there he goes
Yellow streak down the road
Flying down the alley testing luck
Watch out for that dumpster, Bryan
Stay away from that pole
It’s that rat racing, banana truck Chuck

It’s that rat racing banana truck Chuck
It’s that rat racing banana truck Chuck
It’s that rat racing banana truck Chuck