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"Only" 24 hours from Tulsa.

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    #32
    ScumLord
    Registered Users Posts: 28,789 ✭✭✭✭ScumLord


    SafeSurfer wrote: »
    At a speed of 60 mph this is 1440 miles away.
    60mph would be very, very fast to an American, they have speed limits like 35mph on some roads. Plus this song was probably written before their interstates were made meaning he was probably traveling on smaller roads.

    Once he would have come to a corner we would probably have to stop the car and read a manual on how to turn the steering wheel on his car. He then would have crashed the car trying to go around the corner. If he was in farming country he could get spare parts from a horse cart. All these factors mean it takes an American weeks to drive across country.


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    #33
    BrensBenz
    Registered Users Posts: 1,292 ✭✭✭BrensBenz


    ScumLord wrote: »
    60mph would be very, very fast to an American, they have speed limits like 35mph on some roads. Plus this song was probably written before their interstates were made meaning he was probably traveling on smaller roads.

    Once he would have come to a corner we would probably have to stop the car and read a manual on how to turn the steering wheel on his car. He then would have crashed the car trying to go around the corner. If he was in farming country he could get spare parts from a horse cart. All these factors mean it takes an American weeks to drive across country.

    I think there may some some miniscule flaws in your historical sequence and perhaps some microscopic exaggeration.........but I like that.

    However, let's not be unfair to the US. After all, they did pay their German scientists to get them to the moon first while the Russians offered IOUs to their own German scientists. And they made it to the Moon despite yoodilizing the oddest set of measurements known to Man.

    Well, maybe on second thoughts, how did a Roman calculate the number of tiles he needed for a mosaic in a room measuring XXIV by XVIII? Is it possible that if the Romans had used the "available" numbers instead of their new-fangled numerals, natural progress would have enabled us to be sitting on Mars now, sippling libations, and content knowing how many miles Gene Pitney actually was from Tulsa?


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    #34
    Lingua Franca
    Registered Users Posts: 2,800 ✭✭✭Lingua Franca


    SafeSurfer wrote: »
    Good tune but ridiculous lyrics. The guy is driving home and says he is "only" 24 hours from Tulsa. At a speed of 60 mph this is 1440 miles away. This is just a thousand miles short of a coast to coast New York to LA drive. Unless this guy started his journey in Patagonia or the tip of northern Alaska he has no business using the world "only".

    ...or Seattle.

    http://goo.gl/maps/iHb8v


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    #35
    666irishguy
    Closed Accounts Posts: 469 ✭✭666irishguy


    It's obvious he was already almost home and another's day driving would get him back to the wife. But the thing I can't help but think when I hear the lyrics in the song are that he stopped at one of those large truck stop/rest area type petrol stations dotted along all major routes in the states and he has inadvertently picked up a hooker and is too naive to see it. Probably wigged out from the amphetamines he has been chewing on his epic cross country dash and is not in his right mind.


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    #36
    Latchy
    Closed Accounts Posts: 21,191 ✭✭✭✭Latchy


    He laments '' I saw a welcoming light and stopped to rest for the night '' .

    It could have been worse , he might have stopped further on down the road at the Bates Motel and met Norman and his mother ....phew


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    #37
    castletownman
    Registered Users Posts: 11,109 ✭✭✭✭castletownman


    I wouldn't mind 24 hours in Tulisa


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    #38
    Capt'n Midnight
    Moderators, Recreation & Hobbies Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators, Technology & Internet Moderators Posts: 90,889 Mod ✭✭✭✭Capt'n Midnight


    Dude the song was written in 1963. State of the roads back then. And I saw a welcoming light and stopped to rest for the night


    http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/70/Interstate_Highway_status_unknown_date.jpg

    http://isddc.dot.gov/OLPFiles/FHWA/012899.pdf


    Also Dearest darlin was better off without that cheating low life.
    I saw a welcoming light and stopped to rest for the night
    Bet it was dark and the narrator isn't going to like what's seen in the cold light of dawn


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    #39
    Capt'n Midnight
    Moderators, Recreation & Hobbies Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators, Technology & Internet Moderators Posts: 90,889 Mod ✭✭✭✭Capt'n Midnight


    according to google maps both LA and New York are over 20 hours away from Tulsa.

    If you figure out X hours stopover at night and factor in Y as the average speed realative to 1963 you could spend lots of time figuring it out


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    #40
    Lingua Franca
    Registered Users Posts: 2,800 ✭✭✭Lingua Franca


    Seattle is 29 hours from Tulsa.


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    #41
    dr.bollocko
    Moderators, Music Moderators Posts: 35,943 Mod ✭✭✭✭dr.bollocko


    The Kessel Run was one of the most heavily used smuggling routes in the Galactic Empire.
    Han Solo claimed that his Millennium Falcon "made the Kessel Run in less than twelve parsecs".
    A parsec was a unit of distance, not time. Solo was not referring directly to his ship's speed when he made this claim. Instead, he was referring to the shorter route he was able to travel by skirting the nearby Maw black hole cluster, thus making the run in under the standard distance.

    By moving closer to the black holes, Solo managed to cut the distance down to about 11.5 parsecs.The smuggler, BoShek, actually beat Solo's record in his ship, Infinity, but without cargo to weigh him down. A few months later, Han Solo beat both his own and BoShek's records in a run he made with Luke Skywalker.


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    #42
    ScumLord
    Registered Users Posts: 28,789 ✭✭✭✭ScumLord


    dr.bollocko wrote: »
    By moving closer to the black holes,
    Is that between Seattle and Tulsa?


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    #43
    blade1
    Registered Users Posts: 12,201 ✭✭✭✭blade1


    Lisa Stansfield 'been around the world and i ain't found my baby'
    well you obviously didn't look everywhere because he didn't just disappear into thin air.


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    #44
    Capt'n Midnight
    Moderators, Recreation & Hobbies Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators, Technology & Internet Moderators Posts: 90,889 Mod ✭✭✭✭Capt'n Midnight


    dr.bollocko wrote: »
    Han Solo claimed that his Millennium Falcon "made the Kessel Run in less than twelve parsecs".
    A parsec was a unit of distance, not time.
    1 Parsec = 3.26163344 light years


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    #45
    Lingua Franca
    Registered Users Posts: 2,800 ✭✭✭Lingua Franca


    blade1 wrote: »
    Lisa Stansfield 'been around the world and i ain't found my baby'
    well you obviously didn't look everywhere because he didn't just disappear into thin air.

    He could just run faster than she could.


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    #46
    Latchy
    Closed Accounts Posts: 21,191 ✭✭✭✭Latchy


    A-Ha '' Maybe Maybe ''

    '' maybe it was over when you chucked me out the rover at full speed ''

    ^ you can be pretty sure that if some bird kicks you out of a rover at full speed , it's defiantly over .


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    #47
    Gorilla Rising
    Closed Accounts Posts: 381 ✭✭Gorilla Rising


    The construction of the interstates and to improve roads throughout the US began in 1916.

    It would be common for musicians to tour (as it still is today) via bus/carpool etc...

    Coast to coast, the USA is roughly 3,000 miles distance.

    It's fathomable that he could've written this song while touring. How long was he away? Weeks? Months?

    I don't think '24 hours from Tulsa' is to be taken quite so literally - it may well have been the fact that he would be home in 24 hours having completed a tour or a concert somewhere.


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    #48
    TheUsual
    Closed Accounts Posts: 2,288 ✭✭✭TheUsual


    By the beard of Odin, this thread is attracting nerds like fat girls like KFC chicken.

    Right 24 hours from Tulsa was written before G.P.S. was invented, and as men don't have the correct DNA to ask for directions for Tulsa, the songwriter was just driving around Tulsa's famous ring-rounds.

    Eventually he gets lucky after 24 hours and gets the right exit.


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    #49
    Rented Mule
    Registered Users Posts: 5,153 ✭✭✭Rented Mule


    fortune wookiee wrote: »
    The construction of the interstates and to improve roads throughout the US began in 1916.

    It would be common for musicians to tour (as it still is today) via bus/carpool etc...

    Coast to coast, the USA is roughly 3,000 miles distance.

    It's fathomable that he could've written this song while touring. How long was he away? Weeks? Months?

    I don't think '24 hours from Tulsa' is to be taken quite so literally - it may well have been the fact that he would be home in 24 hours having completed a tour or a concert somewhere.

    Began in 1916, but they wasn't a proper effort to get them moving until 1956 under Eisenhower. This plan actually finished in 1992.

    He also played many small backwater towns across the USA and Canada while touring on a bus. There is a good chance that he was 24 hours away from Tulsa.


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    #50
    Gorilla Rising
    Closed Accounts Posts: 381 ✭✭Gorilla Rising


    Rented Mule wrote: »
    Began in 1916, but they wasn't a proper effort to get them moving until 1956 under Eisenhower. This plan actually finished in 1992.

    He also played many small backwater towns across the USA and Canada while touring on a bus. There is a good chance that he was 24 hours away from Tulsa.

    Yes, but as stated, I think he was speaking in terms as in 'I'll be home in a day' not that he's literally 24hrs from home distance wise.

    Also - the song was released in 1964 - 8 years into construction which could've allowed for faster travel in parts.


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    #51
    General General
    Registered Users Posts: 1,900 ✭✭✭General General


    Fuel consumption something else, lots of stops for petrol.. or 'gas' as the Yank calls it.

    Gene Pitney also had a weak bladder, iirc.


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    #52
    Joe10000
    Registered Users Posts: 1,295 ✭✭✭Joe10000


    fortune wookiee wrote: »
    Yes, but a stated, I think he was speaking in terms as in 'I'll be home in a day' not that he's literally 24hrs from being home distance wise.
    .

    This is what I think, you can all rest easy now.


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    #53
    Latchy
    Closed Accounts Posts: 21,191 ✭✭✭✭Latchy


    He had a good run with broken heart themed love songs .

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=anim5cYK37I


    ^ great female backing vocals on this one ;)


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    #54
    Joe10000
    Registered Users Posts: 1,295 ✭✭✭Joe10000


    24 Hours From Tulsa Lyrics
    by Gene Pitney

    Dearest darlin I had to write to say that I won't be home anymore
    cos somethin happend to me while I was driving home
    and I'm not the same anymore

    Oh I was only 24 hours from Tulsa
    ah only one day away from your arms

    I saw a welcoming light and stopped to rest for the night
    and that is when I saw her
    as I pulled in outside of a small motel
    she was there and so I walked up to her
    asked where I could get something to eat and she showed me where

    Oh I was only 24 hours from Tulsa
    ah only one day away from your arms

    She took me to a cafe I asked her if she would stay
    She said okay

    Oh I was only 24 hours from Tulsa
    ah only one day away from your arms

    Oh the jukebox started to play
    and nightime turned into day as we were dancing closely
    all of a sudden I lost control as I held her charms
    and I caressed her, kissed her
    told her I'd die before I let her out of my arms

    Oh I was only 24 hours from Tulsa
    ah only one day away from your arms

    I hate to do this to you
    but I love somebody new
    what can I do
    and I can never never never go home again.


    A bit of a player our Gene.


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    #55
    Faolchu
    Registered Users Posts: 1,740 ✭✭✭Faolchu


    The question needs to be asked, why the hell was he going to tulsa in the first place? Its a hole and people from tulsa get confused when those lucky enough to not be from tulsa frequent it. The only good thing about tulsa is krespie kreme doughnuts. Their airport is called tulsa international airport and not a single flight in to the originates from outside the US its a dump I tell you


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    #56
    Duckworth_Luas
    Registered Users Posts: 5,733 ✭✭✭Duckworth_Luas


    Maybe he was going to stop off to meet his old friend Marc Almond and sample one of his famous "cocktails". Would have to spend at least a few hours getting his stomach pumped after that!

    Almond you daft bugger!


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