Cars are our vehicle to freedom. When you get your first one, you can take off in any direction and just go wherever any highway, road or interstate can take you. What could be more liberating?On the flipside, cars become our prison, ushering us from one obligation to the next while getting us stuck in traffic with other poor souls just like us. They require maintenance and insurance ... and we won't even go into the state of gas prices.This week the hosts of "How We Heard It" explore songs with car themes ... and it's a little shocking just how pervasive they are in the music world. In the early days of cars and popular music, these songs often romanticized the role of the automobile in racing and as a status symbol and a thing of beauty.Yet as the role of the car became intertwined with our very existence, songs about them branched out. They became linked to romance and heartbreak alike. They became symbols of sex and disaster and escape and futility.We drive to clear our minds, we drive for a tryst, we drive in remembrance of an old flame. Wherever we go, we always seem to be driving. From Point A to Point B and back again, over and over. We're driving our lives away and it's driving us crazy.But at least try to enjoy the view.