Why El Camino?
Asked by
Garebo (
3190
)
December 30th, 2011
If they are all Plymouth Voyagers on the cover of their new album, why do the Black Keys call it El Camino?
Is it because the Mini Van evolved from the El Camino much like today’s music evolved from the late 60–70’s to today. Maybe someone, especially in the music business has an answer-with these guys, it may just be an open question, or I am over-thinking, as usual. I haven’t researched the question, so why not just ask here.
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9 Answers
The album was named for the Chevrolet El Camino, a coupé utility car, after the duo saw it on tour and thought it would be a “cool” title. Despite the album title, the vehicle on the cover is not an El Camino but rather a Chrysler Town & Country van that the band toured in at the beginning of their career. “El camino” is Spanish for “the road” or “the path”. The band found out the phrase’s meaning after selecting it as an album title, and they joked about the record taking on deeper meaning afterwards.
On October 9, 2011, the band placed an ad in the Akron Beacon Journal advertising the van as a “1994 El Camino” for sale with the description at the bottom reading:
“Priced to sell –
Grab the Keys and go!
Contact Pat or Dan at
(330) 510–1206”
The phone number led callers to a recorded message of Carney describing the car and asking for the caller to leave a message. On October 10, 2011, the band posted a trailer on YouTube which spoofs a used car commercial. At the end of the trailer, a small blurb appears that reads the band’s name and the words “El Camino”, followed by the release date of December 6. The actor in the video is comedian and actor Bob Odenkirk. The band launched a website called WannaBuyAVan.com to support the video and the faux newspaper advertisement.
Wiki(The_Black_Keys_album)
thanks both of you-so funny!
This is hilarious. I grew up with those guys. I am going to direct them to this thread.
RU shttn me? I know its possible, I have celebrities I know. These guys to me are the best thing ever. They’re the balls!
Yeah, seriously. Akron may sound big but it’s not.
I know it was, sorry (Akron) is an armpit. I had some fun there once-no problem with OH. Some great bands from OH-The Pretenders come to mind, along with some real great people I met from the state,
@judochop Love their music. It would be awesome to have them chime in personally.
Yeah, if Dan Auerbach or Patrick Carney piped in, I would….!!
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