MORGANTOWN — Chuck Berry provided the soundtrack at one area gas station Sunday, as people were motoring in to top their tanks for the week.
He came by way of “Little Steven’s Underground Garage,” which was blaring from the sound system of one particular SUV.
Before the canopy cut the SiriusXM signal, people at nearby pumps could hear 12-bar snatches of “No Particular Place to Go” — Berry’s slice-of-tale of cruising and crushes.
“ … Ridin’ along in my automobile
My baby beside me at the wheel
I stole a kiss at the turn of a mile
My curiosity runnin’ wild
Cruisin’ and playin’ the radio
With no particular place to go … ”
In May 1964, when that song hit the radio, gas was around 30 cents a gallon.
You could cruise all you wanted, even if, as Berry sang, you weren’t in possession of a particular itinerary.
A quick look around Morgantown, meanwhile, showed an average price of $2.39 a gallon on this particular Sunday afternoon.
That was down a few cents from last week’s University City average of $2.42 a gallon, according to AAA East Central, a pump-watching nonprofit that charts gas prices across West Virginia, Kentucky, Ohio, Pennsylvania and New York.
Other gas prices in the state averaged from $2.26 a gallon in Wheeling to $2.05 a gallon in Huntington.
On average, people paid $2.32 and $2.29 a gallon in Bridgeport and Clarksburg, respectively.
It was $2.38 a gallon in stations in Martinsburg. The pumps in Parkersburg averaged $2.10 a gallon.
Nationally, Missouri averaged the cheapest gas prices at $1.83 a gallon, with Hawaii bringing the highest, at $3.34 a gallon.
Gas prices mean the world to America, said Patrick DeHaan, a senior petroleum analyst with the online watchdog group, GasBuddy.com — and he isn’t going for high-test hyperbole.
Ongoing trade tensions between the U.S. and America are casting global shadows over petroleum prices, he said.
If talks between the two economic superpowers can steady, DeHaan said, so too will prices at the pump.
Berry, meanwhile, wrote “No Particular Place to Go” in the midst of an invasion.
The British Invasion.
American kids were wowed by the first live appearances here of The Beatles on The Ed Sullivan show.
These days, the United Kingdom has a particular place to go: Its ongoing departure from the European Union known as “Brexit.”
An orderly exit could “Soothe frayed market nerves,” DeHaan said, particularly related to the crude oil market worldwide.
