Tracy's eclectic playlists help his passengers do more than get from Point A to Point B.
Weekday mornings on any city bus will bring a load of people, heads down, earbuds in or headphones on. But if you find yourself aboard The Climb, you might want to take out the Airpods and tune into whatever is wafting from the Bluetooth speaker resting on the bus’ dashboard.
“Every time I got passengers on,” says the driver, Tracy, “I switch on the music.”
For five years, Tracy has been behind the wheel of the free shuttle, operated by Boulder nonprofit Via Mobility Services and paid for by Boulder County, federal grants and donations. Running twice a day from Boulder to Gold Hill and back, the mountainous route makes for unreliable radio. So Tracy began playing music from his phone.
His playlist now totals 143 songs — enough to cover two days of daily trips up and down Fourmile Canyon. There’s no real theme to the collection: “I just go with whatever I like,” he says.
There’s Beethoven, Beach Boys, The Carpenters, and Elvis Presley, but also Josh Turner, Rascal Flatts. There’s lots to sing along to, but the mainstream hits are interspersed with instrumentals. American ensemble The Piano Guys feature frequently. A rider recommended them back when Tracy drove Boulder’s HOP bus.
The bus was silent and empty of everyone but Tracy when I hopped on near the end of its Friday morning route. But the moment I mentioned music, Tracy turned it on. The first thing he played me was a score from the 2013 film Pacific Rim.
“I've got a real eclectic taste in music,” Tracy says. “When I hear something I like, then it goes on my list.”
Listen long enough, and you’ll pick up on Tracy’s interests. The rock-heavy list is perhaps not surprising for an American man who came of age in the 1970s and says Eddie Van Halen is the second-best guitarist of all time. (The first, in case you’re curious, is Jimi Hendrix: “He played with his teeth,” Tracy says. “You're gonna have a real hard time beating that one.”)
But it’s the music of television and movies that plays most prominently. At least two songs from the Top Gun soundtrack are on the list. The Lord of the Rings film trilogy makes numerous appearances, as does Japanese band Seatbelts, who Tracy discovered by watching the anime Cowboy Bebop. (The transportation theme is unintentional, but shows up not infrequently: “Life is a Highway,” “Low Rider.”)
One of his favorites is “Believe It or Not,” the theme for ’80s comedy-drama series The Greatest American Hero: Tracy calls it “one of the top songs in music history.”
Tracy also has thoughtful and informed opinions on musical episodes of television shows. The two best, he says, are from Supergirl (2016-2021, CBS and CW) and Buffy the Vampire Slayer (2001-2003, WB and UPN).
The shows “really had a sense of what a musical was supposed to do with music; they actually fit in with the story that was going on,” he says. “TV shows almost never can do anything even halfway decent 'cause they don't even understand the concept of a musical.”
Tracy knows his shit, though he wouldn’t put it that way. He keeps the selection of songs wholesome.
“We're driving the public around,” he says. “You can't just play whatever you feel like.”
As we sit there chatting and perusing his playlist, he deletes a song he deems too sexually suggestive. “Urgent” by Foreigner. (The most suggestive of the lyrics: “But I know, yes I know, how to treat you right. That's why you call me in the middle of the night.”)
“I go with the advice my grandmother gave,” Tracy says. “There ain't a kid alive who isn't going to grow up to be an adult. They got their entire lives to get all manner of corrupt. You don't need to be helping 'em along.”
