|
|
||
| Infrastructure | |
||
|
FHWA >
Infrastructure >
Library >
Highway History
|
|||
| |||
I'm on the highway to hell.
No stop signs, speed limit,
Nobody's gonna slow me down.
Like a wheel, gonna spin it.
Nobody's gonna mess me round.
Rollin' down a backwoods Tennessee byway,
one arm on the wheel, holdin' my
Lover with the other: a sweet, soft, southern thrill.
So there's no one left out there all alone
We're just brothers of the road
Casting shadows in the night
Big wheels rolling on and on
But everything's gonna be all right.
And I don't own the clothes I'm wearing,
And the road goes on forever,
And I've got one more silver dollar,
But I'm not gonna let them catch me, no
Not gonna let 'em catch the midnight rider.
Well my father was a gambler down in Georgia,
He wound up on the wrong end of a gun.
And I was born in the back seat of a Greyhound bus
Rollin' down Highway 41.
Ventura highway in the sunshine
Where the days are longer
The nights are stronger than moonshine
You're gonna go I know
'cause the free wind is blowin' through your hair
And the days surround your daylight there.
If you see a faded sign by the side of the road that says
15 miles to the... love shack! love shack yeah
I'm headin' down the Atlanta highway, lookin' for the love getaway
Heading for the love getaway, love getaway,
I got me a car, it's as bigas a whale and we're headin' on down
To the love shack.
Wake up on Sunday morning
Had a voice in my head
He's telling me lies...
Trying to take me back before I'm dead
Aw, down the Voodoo Highway
Aw, down that wicked road
Poor old son, gonna find out the hard way.
Good times down the road
Mama won't let me go
Sneaking off in my daddy's car
Park behind the B&B bar
Thinking I'll go crazy if I don't get out
I'm on a dead end street in a ten block town
Every day I say I'm gone and then
Every night I'm in a joints again
Down the road.
When I see a detour up ahead,
Well, I leave it far behind,
Who knows what you're apt to find there.
440 horses drive the wheels of this chrome and steel
Like a freight train through the night,
My foot is lead and my eyes blood red,
And my knuckles showing white,
My hair is slicked with oil,
and my breathe flows gasoline.
Well I'm a smoking' flamin' death machine
And the lonely lights of another lonely town
Lonely highway I keep rushing down
And there's a 100 miles till I sleep tonight
Well I've got to put the hammer down.
And 18 wheels running
Well, I'm never moving slow
I'm the interstate cannonballing
down the highway I roll.
Driving along 71
My eyelids waving down
I've been up all night
And I had to be up all day
I began to think I wouldn't make it
But I did.
Thank God for that little truckstop in LaGrange.
Honkin', Honkin' down the goshdarn highway
Trying, trying to get past them cars.
Gotta, gotta little date with an angel.
She's the one that said she'd go with me
To see a little movie tonight.
When I'm behind the wheel
Horses of gas and steel
The highway is my home
In fiberglass and chrome
Fantasy car shiny corvette
Let's take a ride you can't forget
Come on pretty lady ride with me.
Out on the road where the semi's howl
Baby hitch a ride on somethin' movin' fast
Where the rain and wind don't blow so cold
Yo! Butterbuns, we could build a life and make it last.
Hang on to your dreams
On that highway 2-18.
Live every day
Love it away
There's a whole world you've never seen.
Well, I found a road and off I sped
I met a man with no little toe and a real big head.
Though I did not speak somehow I said
Where are you from?
He said the modern age.
Out on the Eisenhower, well, I lost my speed
Just a little bit south of a town called Weed.
I heard her voice and I had to stop.
She called me on to that mountain top.
I was raised off of old Route 3
Out past where the blacktop ends . . . .
That's where I first saw Mary
On that roadside pickin' blackberries
That summer I turned a corner in my soul
Down that red dirt road.
Through red taillights and a cloud of dust,
We went flyin' through the night, it was all about us.
Sittin' on the seat right next to me,
we drove with a tank full of destiny.
Yeah now I'm rolling down California five,
Without laughter in my head.
Life's an open road, and time is flying by
We're headed out to where forever meets the sky?
On the highway of love.
Some coming fast, some coming slow
some coming high, some coming low
but remember, buddy,
whether high class or so low
remember, buddy,
don't try to rule the road.
Heading down Highway 28
don't slow me down
don't make me late
I got a gig in Woodstock
playing off of my shoes and socks now
people come from miles around
gather up in this little old town
come on down, don't be late
gonna have some fun today.
And it's first stop, Salt Lake City,
Big Springs, Laramie, lookin' mighty pretty
Ogalalla, North Platte, sun settin' in it,
Newton to Chicago in a New York minute.
Then it's Hobart, Elkhart, Maumee, Cayanoga,
Youngstown, Hazeltown, Dover, I'm a-flyin' over
Fairfax, Bloomfield, bless my soul:
Highway 80, she's a might good road.
She was driving out on highway 1
She felt the presence of something strange.
She could not tell if it was alien
She only knew her life would change.
It took two hours to drive out of post-quake L.A.
Where the freeway is sliced up like sheet cake.
I got new tires I'm not gonna worry.
Got three days to go so I'm not in a hurry.
Get into Tucson and what do I find
I'm having some trouble just keeping my mind
on the 10.
Out on the road
Late at night
The highway is so inviting
Since you said that we were through.
All I wanna do is have some fun
I got a feeling I'm not the only one
Until the sun comes up
over Santa Monica Boulevard.
When you're stumbling (on Diamond Road)
It's gonna take a little time
To make it to the other side
So don't miss the diamonds along the way.
Everyday is a winding road
I get a little bit closer
Everyday is a faded sign
I get a little bit closer to feeling fine.
Six-lane highway running up to my back door.
But it won't take me where I want to be.
I took the I-95 down to Pensacola.
All I found was a bunch of hollyrollers.
The trouble with lovin' is the trouble with livin'.
You feel like you're givin' and you feel like it's gone
and you never know just which way to go
payin' no mind to stop signs or folks in the road.
Then I heard a wild world calling, saw a lone star falling.
Caught a song and set it free.
Many a long and lonesome highway lies before us as we go.
In the end I'll do it my way.
Look for me where the four winds blow.
I'm comin' home to quit ya
So don't let that back door hit ya when ya go.
I'm heading down the interstate
Taking back my real estate
I'm coming home.
Drivin' on a highway going nowhere
Desolation destination
Guess I'll find it somewhere.
I know if there's trouble,
I ain't takin' the blame.
That's why I keep movin'
So nobody knows my name.
I love it and I need it
I seed it
Eight cylinders all mine
Alright hold on tight
I'm a highway star
Sweet little girl
I prefer you behind the wheel
And me the passenger.
Drive, I'm yours to keep.
Do what you want,
I'm going cheap
Tonight
You're behind the wheel, tonight.
Why must we always ride a divided highway
Torn in two directions; speedin' outa sight
Divided highway stranded at the crossroads
Of what's wrong and who's right
Divided highway cuttin' through the darkness.
I was ridin' down that highway
Silver Harley by my side
When I thought I saw my lady
She was headed for the Berkley hill.
Got those highway blues, can't you hear my motor runnin'
Flyin' down the road with my foot on the floor
All the way in town they can hear me comin'.
I need another point of view
Someplace I've never seen
Keepin' my eyes wide open
Goin' where I've never been
So take me to the highway
Take me far from here.
I'm a travelin' man
Nothin' left behind me but the road
I'm a travelin' man
Won't you share the load.
The cars hiss by my window
Like the waves down on the beach.
Thoughts in time and out of season
The Hitchhiker
Stood by the side of the road
And leveled his thumb
In the calm calculus of reason.
Drivin' down your freeways
Midnite alleys roam
Cops in cars, the topless bars
Never saw a woman...
So alone, so alone.
She was a princess, queen of the highway.
Sign on the road said "Take us to Madre."
There's a killer on the road
His brain is squirmin' like a toad
Take a long holiday
Let your children play
If ya give this man a ride
Sweet memory will die
Killer on the road, yeah.
Keep your eyes on the road
Your hands upon the wheel.
Yeah, we're going to the roadhouse,
Gonna have a real good-time.
Ride the King's highway, baby
Weird scenes inside the gold mine
Ride the highway west, baby.
Mean old highway
Stuck to the ground in Mississippi
It's the one'll set me free
It's the same one that I see
Being ripped up off the ground and wrapped around me
Don't let it fool you this highway's mean.
But this night he banked the curve just a little too hard
and that 442 went airborne,
Hit a telephone pole and split in two.
My community service had me working for the county
Cutting grass on the off-ramps and medians and such.
Every quarter-mile or so, stands a brand new reminder
Another traffic death in town.
Something new to cut around.
Highway 51 runs right by my baby's door.
If I don't get the gal I'm loving,
Won't go down Highway 51 no more.
I been down this road just searchin' for the end
It don't go nowhere, it just brings you back again.
He was standing on the highway
Somewhere way out in the sticks,
Guitar across his shoulder like a 30 ought six.
He was staring in my head lights
When I came around the bend
Climbed up on my shotgun side
And told me with a grin I'm goin to New York City.
Everybody's rockin' out on Telephone Road.
Telephone Road is ten miles long
Fifty car lots and a hundred honky tonks
Jukebox blastin' and the beer bottles ring.
Well I headed south on 35 hellbent for vinyl
I hadn't never had been up past 55 before.
95 South from Portland Maine
When am I ever gonna see you again
95 South 95 South
95 South tryin' to whistle a tune
Potholes deeper than the craters on the moon.
So take it to the highway
Head back and open wide
Step right up and take a nowhere ride.
They won't make it home
But they really don't care
They wanted the highway
They're happy there today, today.
Ooh, let's go ridin'
Cruisin' down the open road.
We can put the top down
Listen to the radio.
Big ol' Buick and a big ol' sky,
Wheels on fire
And I'll tell you why
I got a hot rod heart.
Now what kind of woman
Take you for a ride
Down the Rattlesnake Highway
An' leave you busted up inside.
Smiles like a cobra
With her rattlesnake eyes
'n leave you for dead on the highway
Just mumblin' at the sky.
Two-lane
Shinin' in the July dust
Heat risin' off the road
Out in front of my truck
Pulled my pick-up over the hill
Down the slide gravel
Through the cat-tails
Give me those Swamp River days again.
Joy at the start
Fear in the journey
Joy in the coming home
A part of the heart
Gets lost in the learning
Somewhere along the road.
Well, I'm runnin' down this mountain pass at midnight;
Those truckers, they all flash their lights at me.
This highway ain't the very best companion,
'cause I know there's somewhere else I'd rather be.
Well, I'm going 75
Down 95
I know someday
I'm going to arrive.
Got the Baltimore skyline
In my view.
By the highwayside
There's no one left to take your place
As your engine burns
You stand alone and fan the flames.
You won't find no satisfaction,
Your heart's a roadside attraction,
You're gonna break down by the highwayside again.
New shoes, new shoes
Now upon my feet.
New road, new road ahead of me.
New day, new chance to sing my song.
New love, baby, won't be long.
Cars on the highway, planes in the air
Everyone else is going somewhere
But I'm going nowhere, getting there too
I might as well just sink down with you.
Don't you wanna ride in my
Survival car?
We can take the long way home
Through Central Park.
I got it made
I got it down
I am the king of this island town
I'm on my own
I'm on my way
Down Utopia Parkway
It's bumper touching bumper on the motorway
The sun is in the sky just now
But the road is grey.
There's only one route you have to know
Get to fishtown avoid all that jive
I suggest that you drive on I-95
Wanna get downtown but feeling in a fix
Get on the route they call 676,
The most expensive expansive
Piece of interstate they ever made.
Now we were southbound 35
We were headed down the road
Hit the border by the morning
To let Texas fill my soul.
I like to hear the highway sounds
Sometime I wonder if I'll ever settle down
And I can't change and it's a sing
I hope St. Peter's gonna let me in.
I guess you must of heard the highway calling
You packed up your things and headed out east for the coast.
I had to fight the urge to follow.
I guess some time away from me is all you've ever really needed most.
The cafes and bars are closed
the Christmas lights are veiled in snow.
Tell me, where are you going?
My brave companion of the road.
She drove west from Salt Lake City to the California coastline
She hit the San Diego Freeway doing sixty miles an hour
She had a husband on her bumper
She had five restless children
She was singing sweet as a mockingbird in that Ford Econoline.
Highway 90
The jobs are gone
We tend our garden
We set the sun
This is the only place on earth
blue bonnets grow
Once a year they come and go
At this old house here by the road.
From Boston to Southshore in the back of the bus.
It's the last winter storm of the season and such
And I am lost to the fiction of the book in my lap
the snow makes me drowsy while the dreams roll and tumble.
Feeling the blues in the bottom of my shoes.
Didn't I know this old rambling's good news.
An' I go reelin' down that old highway,
Reelin' down cause reelin's my way.
Why we're going slow I'll never know, never know.
And as a rule I would not worry, but I got someplace to go now.
North, south, east and west
Spin the wheel and hope for the best
Many miles oh I may roam
Put it in drive and set the cruise control.
Every day, every night
Something's going on, something's going on
Down the road over yonder
Any place, any time when I'm fading
My love lies waiting
Down the road tonight.
While no one was lookin' on the old plantation
He showed her what they do down the long valley road
She came back around like nothing really happened
And left him standing on the old valley road.
I'm gonna get up in the morning
Hit Highway 49.
Somewhere out on Highway 10
Is a sign that will lead her home.
She's trying to find the courage inside
To go out there all alone.
She flicks another ash
And rolls through the rain.
Yeah, Mama knows the highway now by heart
She can see the rain before it starts.
Looking clear through
A windshield full of stars
Mama knows the highway by heart.
Bumper to bumper in the traffic jam.
Clench your jaw, getting all up tight
Breathing fumes, stuck in a tin can,
Trapped, trapped.
Hate, frustration, no escape.
Drop all your work
Leave it behind
Forget all your problems
And get in my car
And take a drive with me.
And I'm livin' the life that I chose.
Livin' my life on the road.
I said life on the road.
I want life on the road.
Life on the road.
Oh, that motorway livin',
Ain't it a thrill to be so free, yeh.
Riding down the motorway,
Got to charge up my batteries,
Rest my seat, rest my eyes,
So tired, tired of livin',
Tired of livin' this motorway livin'.
See johnny thunder sitting on his motorbike
Riding along the highway,
Rock and roll songs from the nineteen-fifties
Buzzing around in his brain.
Well, the road's been rocky along the way
It's been a long, hard haul on the motorway
But if it gets too smooth it's time to call it a day.
Rock 'n' roll cities, look out here we come
90 miles on highway 61
Rock 'n' roll ladies, watch out here we come
Does anybody know the way to Madison?
A quick cup of coffee and a slice of
Toast and the star (or should we say,
Norman?) is off to do battle with the
Rush hour queues and traffic jams.
There's a road to heaven for every soul on earth.
Lord, I believe that for what it's worth.
So, Lord, if you're listening,
I'm east of Mobile rolling down Highway 10
But the Devil's behind the wheel.
Looking back, I knew he'd get me in trouble.
But I didn't have too many friends
Running up and down that Dixie Highway
We thought the good times would never end.
Me and this road we ain't been nowhere.
As far as I know this whole world's just a country fair.
But somewhere there's a bridge that'll take us out of here
Free as a river flows
Me and this road.
I've never drove two days through the pouring rain
Just stopping for coffee and gas.
Never out run the law on the Interstate.
Didn't know this thing would go that fast.
Stretch the road
beneath my treads
I got a tap in my toes
from a song in my head.
Lafayette boomed 'till they capped offshore.
Then the oil families couldn't take it no more.
A two-step too fast with one foot slower
I lost my partner when we hit the floor
Allons danser, Allons danser
Co on let's dance, come on let's dance
South of I-10 we really had it made.
Now many a country mile
I'm poundin' under my van
yeah many a country mile
I'm poundin' under my van
so I don't break my word
I'm bound for the promise land.
Drive into the sun
sinkin' down the road
feel our wheels in motion
that's when I know
that the road to freedom
is the road we're on.
I'm drivin' through the darkness, down highway 61
Heading for the crossroads like the ones before me done.
Yes you drivin' me crazy with your boom box automobile.
I'd love to see you lose the keys to that menace on four wheels.
It's so amplified . . . ain't no wonder why your paint's begun to peel.
Roll down the window
The freeway is clear
Suddenly all my passions re-appear.
Rolling down Highway 95
sailin' thru her hometown country side.
Move on over stand aside
My cruise control's in overdrive
need to take my baby for a ride.
Every night, every night,
You can ride shotgun
And count the red tail lights.
Every night, every night,
You can roll the dice, take your chances,
Hit the highway, and roll your troubles away.
When the Feat are on the box, the speed just slips my mind
I start to sing along,
Tap my toe, slap the dash in time.
But the Ranger said to me
As he handed me the fine,
Son those Feat done steered you wrong this time.
But you know we all feel better
And it makes it worth our time
To know our bus is rollin' towards
That Mason-Dixon line.
Ridin' on a Greyhound, countin' those white lines
Destination I don't know and I'm feelin' like I'm dyin'
Well ten years on this road, my its took its toll
But the man with the plan says the band has got to go
I said roll gypsy roll.
He's got roadmaps in his hand
Lord, drivin' just as hard as he can
Trying to dodge them scales and the man
Well I'm talkin' about
Truck drivin' man
Yea he'll always give ya, the best that he can.
It's 500 miles from Dallas to New Orleans.
I'm gonna let her roll as fast as she'll go
Got a sweet thing waiting for me.
This time I'll be highway flying
No way I'm gonna take it slow.
From the dark end of the street
To the bright side of the road
Where we'll be lovers once again
On the bright side of the road.
She could hear the cars toll by
Out on 441 like waves crashin' on the beach.
Driving down the Dixie Highway
Doin' my best to hold the road.
All night long on the Dixie Highway,
Bring my Florida baby a heavy load.
He was goin' to Dallas, Texas in a semi truck
Called from that big McDonald's
You know the one that's built up on that
Great big ol' bridge across the Will Rogers Turnpike.
The asphalt 'neath the tires
makes a hollow whining sound
and it stretches on forever.
Light me a candle, light me a fire
Come sit by the window with the shade drawn
To the best of intentions and the worst of desires
Leave by the Gulf Road in the grey dawn.
Light snow falling
on the muffler shops and the lumberyards.
The streets are slick as glass,
ditches lined with stranded cars
and the tow trucks are busy.
Flying on the Papago Wind
Half way to Gila Bend
No helmet or a care in the world
Being such a bad little girl
On the Valley Road.
I am on a lonely road and I'm traveling, traveling, traveling, traveling.
Looking for something, what can it be.
I've got road maps
From two dozen states.
I've got coast to coast just to contemplate
Will you still love me.
"Heart and humor and humility,"
He said, "will lighten up your heavy load."
I left him then for the refuge of the roads.
There ain't nothing like rain on a two-lane
Drivin' fast with the radio on
Passing small towns in the middle of nowhere
Feeling alive without a care
Oh ho, 59 Cadillac
Oh ho, I ain't never going back.
A gang of angels in a red Corvette
Moving faster than a saber jet...
Caught 'em in a radar trap
Pulled 'em over to the shoulder
Passed 'em in my Pontiac.
Let's ride.
Yeah we were desperate then
to have each other to hold.
But love is a long, long road.
I rolled on as the sky grew dark,
I put the pedal down to make some time.
There's something good waitin' down this road,
I'm pickin' up whatever's mine.
We stood on the motorway shoulder
As the sun rose over the lowland hills,
and my heart broke down, when I looked at you.
I think it's time we cleared the air
Take a long drive far away somewhere
Tell me everything you feel inside
We got nothin' but time.
I gave you all the love I had
And all I got was the blues.
You're gonna know you reap what you sow
So hitch up your highway shoes.
"Son this road is your freedom
The highway to your dreams ...
This road that you leave on
Can always bring you home."
With Teslin blocked there's nowhere else to go,
But he hit the four-wheel-drive in Johnson's Crossing,
Now he's thirty-eight miles up the Canol road.
He's thirty-eight miles up the Canol road,
In the Salmon Range at forty-eight below.
And we talk too slow, drive too fast
We're high on life and we're low on gas
Tryin' to make the way things are
The way things used to be
The boys and me.
Drive away you and me
We'll blow this town and we'll find our dream
Where we' stop it's hard to say
We'll leave a trail smokin' when we drive away.
Well I've been too long on a heartbreak highway
On the wings of love there's a heavy load.
I still remember it was autumn and the moon was shining
Our 60 Cadillac was roaring through Nebraska whining,
Doing 120 man the fields was bending over.
She took his hand and she led him along that golden beach.
They watched the waves tumble over the sand.
They drove for miles and miles
Up those twisting turning roads
Higher and higher and higher they climbed.
And sometimes even now, when I'm feeling lonely and beat
I drift back in time and I find my feet
Down on Main Street.
There's a church house, gin house, school house, outhouse.
On U.S. 19,
Hey, the people keep the city clean.
They call it nutbush, nutbush,
Nutbush city, nutbush city limits.
25 is the speed limit,
Motorcycles not allowed in it.
We rolled across the high plains
Deep into the mountains
Felt so good to me
Finally feelin' free
On a long and lonesome highway, east of Omaha.
You can listen to the engine moaning out it's one lone song.
You can think about woman, or the girl you knew the night before,
But your thoughts will soon be wandering, the way they always do.
Shattered dreams, my mind is numb.
Money's gone, stick out my thumb.
My eyes are filled with bitter tears.
Lord, I ain't been home in years.
Got the Highway 40 blues.
And we can see around the bend
We never know where the road might end.
Flying by Winnemucca
Doing 'bout 95.
Automatic cruise control
Good to be Alive
Got the radio up
Got the top rolled down
Gonna carve my name
In the hammer lane.
Gonna fly on a blacktop sky.
Oh, wheels on the line...
Doing double nickel double time.
Someday all this will be a road
Where will it take us?
It's got 17 lanes.
Where will it run?
It's an interstate parkway.
Where will it go?
It's a blueprint of progress.
Where will it take us?
It's gonna be a road.
We drove eight-hundred miles without seeing a cop
We got rock and roll music blasting off the t-top.
Working on the highway,
laying down the blacktop.
Working on the highway,
all day long I don't stop.
Working on the highway,
blasting through the bed rock.
Working on the highway
Working on the highway.
And I've got to roll, roll, roll brother trucker
Sure enough a shame 'bout the shape I'm in
Roll, roll, roll brother trucker
I'm back on my wheels again.
Take to the highway won't you lend me your name
Your way and my way seem to be one and the same, child.
Now one of these days that highway song will lose its appeal to me
I'm gonna settle on down like a natural born man.
Hand me down my golden crown and let me ride
Don't deny the highway in my soul
Jump and sing that silver thing that I feel inside
Hallelujah let that big wheel roll.
Want you to roll down the road
Roll down the road roll down the
Roll down the road with me.
Nevermind the wind
Nevermind the rain
Nevermind the road leading home again.
Well I'm-a going back down maybe one more time
Deep down home, October Road.
Now the first of December was covered with snow
And so was the turnpike from Stockbridge to Boston
Me and t-bone on the road to town
It's like I'm walking with a talking machine.
Walk down that lonesome road all by yourself
Don't turn your head back over your shoulder
And only stop to rest yourself when the silver moon
Is shining high above the trees.
Well I left my job about 5 o'clock
It took fifteen minutes go three blocks
Just in time to stand in line
With a freeway looking like a parking lot.
It's such a long highway
To roll along all alone.
Find some good company
And we'll be tearin' up that road.
Life sure ain't changed at forty-two
Still got my hand out the window my hair's blowin' back
Still trying to catch them white lines on the road.
I'm goin' out on the highway
Listen to them big trucks whine
White freight liner
Won't you steal away my mind.
I'm living in the left hand lane of my city
Slow down so I can walk this highway with you.
And if you're ever out this way
And you still recall my name
I'm not that hard to find
I live on Highway 1, 12 hour drive.
Driving out of Nashville and the clock says 12 am
We've got a five hour drive to Jackson
And no map to get us there.
We got lost somewhere off the parkway.
I'm so glad I'm alive
Yeah yeah yeah yeah
I'm so glad I can drive
Burning down I-95
It's a simple song of freedom.
You ought to come along with me to the land of dreams.
Just take Route 90 down to New Orleans.
The highway's coming, get out of the way, the highway's coming
When the highway comes, get out of the way, the people are coming
When the people come, get out of the way, trouble's coming.
She was rising up 65
Sucking up a Papst Blue Ribbon.
Lonesome roads are the only kind I ever travel,
Empty rooms are the only place I ever stay.
I'm just a face out in the crowd that looks like trouble,
Poor ol' worthless me is the only friend I ever made.
Headlights shine
Highway fades to black
It's my last ride
Sitting in the back
Of a long white Cadillac.
They learned readin', rightin', route 23
To the jobs that lay waiting in those cities' factories.
They didn't know that old highway
Could lead them to a world of misery.
All I need is the open road
and some Johnny Cash on the stereo
and things ain't as bad as they seem.
Wind it up, accelerate it
another 100 miles in a dead man's shoes.
Gasoline, I smell it burning
while line fever
and the Interstate blues.
Gotta move, move on down the road.
Gotta move, move on down the road.
On the Clearwater Highway
Through the driving rain
Gonna strike like lightening
Be a while till I'm back again
This wheel's on fire, rolling down the road
Best notify my next of kin
This wheel shall explode!
Big ugly wheels
Rolling on down the line
Big Ugly wheels
Dragging that gal of mine.
When I went on vacation
Out on Interstate 10
The heat's getting' to you,
So's the wife and kids.
If you'll buy what I need,
With some style and some speed
I'll save all my cash
To spend it on gas . . . .
Buy me a new car
Don't talk to me
Buy me a car
It's the least you can do for me.
But still they lead me back
To the long winding road.
You left me standing here
A long long time ago.
Don't leave me waiting here
Lead me to your door.
Why don't we do it in the road?
No one will be watching us.
You & me & the highway
That's the way it's always been.
Intricate patterns through the souls of small towns
Like long red ribbons
And broken strands of pearls.
Did I miss the skyscrapers, did I miss the long freeway?
From the coast of California to the shores of Delaware Bay.
You can bet your life I did, till I got back to the U. S. A.
As I was motivatin' over the hill
I saw Maybellene in a coup de ville.
A Cadillac a-rollin' on the open road,
Nothin' will outrun my V8 Ford.
The Cadillac doin' 'bout ninety-five,
She's bumper to bumper rollin' side by side.
Riding along in my automobile
My baby beside me at the wheel
I stole a kiss at the turn of a mile
my curiosity running wild
crusin' and playin' the radio
with no particular place to go.
I left my home in Norfolk Virginia,
California on my mind.
Straddled that Greyhound, rode him past Raleigh,
On across Caroline.
New Jersey Turnpike in the wee wee hours
I was rollin' slow because of drizzlin' showers
Here come a flat-top, he was movin' up with me
Then come wavin' goodbye a little' old souped-up jitney
I put my foot in my tank and I began to roll.
The sky was bright, a traffic light, now and then a truck
And they hadn't seen a cop around all day.
It's all the same, only the names will change
Everyday it seems we're wasting away
Another place where the faces are so cold
I'd drive all night just to get back home.
Don't look back
A new day is breakin'
It's been too long since I felt this way.
I don't mind where I get taken
The road is callin'
Today is the day.
It's been such a long time
I think I should be goin', yeah
And time doesn't wait for me, it keeps on rollin'
Sail on, on a distant highway
I've got to keep on chasin' a dream.
I didn't have to move to this big city.
You know I stayed right in my country home
They built it around me.
I used to love the hills made flat for that
Highway four lanes wide
Making a Manhattan out of my countryside.
Gonna make some inroads
Drivin' home a payload
Truckin' down the highway
Like you never seen.
Drop what you're doing and whoever you are
Throw the Fender and Gibson in the back seat
Listen what the trucker dudes know . . .
Is it precipitating on the plateau
And right around the 210 yardstick
Where 65 hits 40 West.
Hey Juanica it's just you and me,
Let's cross Alabama and see Tennessee,
Let's just keep on driving the land of the free.
Yeah we can drive all night
Till the morning light.
Let's go west
A place that we can go
Where the tall dreams grow.
Let's go west
And we'll find a place to call our own
There's somewhere out there we belong
Let's go west.
I was a white line Casanova
A love bandit of the road
I got the one I can't get over
I miss her more with every load
I got these eighteen wheels
Singin' home sweet home
I been too long gone
Oh I'm comin' home to ya.
They call me the breeze,
I keep blowing down the road
I ain't got me nobody,
I ain't carrying me no load.
This was armed robbery 1957 and mostly our getaways were clean.
I'd pay off the boys and bury my bread out on Highway 17 . . .
But six long years and a lot can change many miles beyond your wildest dreams.
But a six-lane wide modern interstate ride out on Highway 17.
Lord they sunk my ship 'neath a concrete strip out on Highway 17.
Lord they broke my back they built a concrete track out on Highway 17.
Well, you know it ain't funny but they buried my money out on Highway 17.
Sunset on the highway
Sky a painted gray
I'm going back to my home town
Where somebody knows my name.
Black crows in the meadow
Across a broad highway.
Though it's funny, honey,
I just don't feel much like a
Scarecrow today.
Gonna walk down that dirt road
'Til someone will let me ride
If I can't find my baby
I'm gonna run away and hide.
I'm walkin' down that long, lonesome road, babe
Where I'm bound, I can't tell,
But goodbye's too good a word, gal,
So I'll just say fare thee well
So, I'm a-walkin' down your highway
Just as far as my poor eyes can see.
Yes, I'm a-walkin' down your highway
Just as far as my eyes can see.
From the Golden Gate Bridge
All the way to the Statue of Liberty.
You're gonna walk that endless highway,
Walk that highway till you die.
All you children goin' my way,
Better tell your home-life sweet goodbye.
I've stumbled on the side of twelve misty mountains,
I've walked and I've crawled on six crooked highways,
You can't open up your mind, boys, to every conceivable point of view
They got charles darwin trapped out there on highway 5
Judge says to the high sheriff, I want them dead or alive
Either one, I don't care
Highwater everywhere.
He asked poor Howard where can I go
Howard said there's only one place I know
Sam said tell me quick man I got to run
0l' Howard just pointed with his gun
And said that way down on highway 61.
Well, I'm a-walkin' down the road
With my head in my hand,
I'm lookin' for a woman
Needs a worried man.
Just-a one kind favor I ask you,
'low me just-a one more chance.
Senor, senor, do you know where we're headin'?
Lincoln county road or armageddon?
Seems like I been down this way before.
Is there any truth in that, senor?
Sugar baby get on down the road, you ain't got no brains nohow
You went years without me, might as well keep goin' now.
And I was standin' on the side of the road
Rain fallin' on my shoes
Heading out for the east coast.
Lord knows I've paid some dues gettin' through,
Tangled up in blue.
If today was not an endless highway,
If tonight was not a crooked trail,
If tomorrow wasn't such a long time,
Then lonesome would mean nothing to you at all.
Sister's on the highway with that steel-drivin' crew,
Papa's in the big house, his workin' days are through.
Tough mama
Can I blow a little smoke on you?
The truth was obscure, too profound and too pure,
to live it you have to explode.
In that last hour of need, we entirely agreed,
sacrifice was the code of the road.
One of these days when my mind's made up
And I'm sick and tired of hangin' around
I'll be down that road in a cloud of dust
On the way to another town.
Now I've heard all the songs about the endless highway
Sung a couple of them myself.
But the road ain't nothin' but a place to go
When you ain't got anyplace else.
Well rollin' out for Houston, man we're finally rollin' now.
Try to get some sleep and listen to that highway sound.
I guess we must have stopped in every single little town.
Everybody knew that he made moonshine.
Now the revenue man wanted grandaddy bad.
He headed up the holler with everything he had.
It's before my time but I've been told
He never came back from Copperhead Road.
Though the miles lay long behind you
You have still got miles to go.
How's love ever gonna find you?
If it ain't here, it's down the road.
Hey pretty baby don't you know it ain't my fault.
I love to hear the steel belts hummin' on the asphalt,
Wake up in the middle of the night in a truck stop.
Stumble in the restaurant wonderin' why I don't stop.
Grandmama cried when she waved goodbye,
Never heard such a lonesome sound.
Pretty soon the dirt road turned into blacktop,
Detroit city bound
Down that hillbilly highway.
Now he's out on the highway
He's got the key and the right of way
His tank is full and his toll's paid
Hellbound and determined
He run a dangerous payload.
So he headed for the West Coast thought he could not lose
Rollin' down the highway with the dustbowl blues.
It's a thousand miles from Broken Bow to Bakersfield
And the highway's paved with heartaches all the way.
Hey little guy, I can't believe you answered the phone.
I guess I didn't know you could do that, god help me,
have I been gone that long?
I'm in a truck stop somewhere on the Arkansas line.
They got all the big trucks here, boy, you ought to hear the big diesels whine.
No little guy, your daddy won't be home for a while
It's gonna be another couple weeks and another couple thousand miles.
A thousand miles between us now
And still some how
These blues'll track me down
Down that long, lonesome highway just as far as I can go
Until I outrun your memory.
We'll meet again on some bright highway
Songs to sing and tales to tell
But I am just a pilgrim on this road, boys
Until I see you fare thee well.
I got me a '67 Chevy,
she's low and sleek and black.
Someday I'll put her on that interstate
and never look back.
I'm thinkin' 'bout givin' up this ramblin' round
Hangin' up my highway shoes.
Lately when I walk they make a hollow sound
And they carry me away from you.
Now she ain't too good on gasoline, she burns a little oil
But she was built by union labor on American soil
Sweet little '66
So when your Subaru is over and your Honda's history
I'll be blastin' down some back road with my baby next to me
In my sweet little 66.
You see it used to be I was really free
I didn't need no gasoline to run.
Before you could say Jack Kerouac you'd turn
your back and I'd be gone.
Yeah nowadays I got me two good wheels and I
seek refuge in aluminum and steel.
Aw, it takes me out there for just a little while
And the years fall away with every mile.
These days I'm just running
Tryin' to make this highway bleed.
Sometimes the only difference tween me and this machine
is I run on desperation
She runs on gasoline
I'm the Roadmaster
The Asphalt Blaster.
If I had it my way, everything would change
Out here on this highway the rules are still the same
Back roads never carry you where you want 'em to
They leave you standin' there with them ol' transcendental blues.
We're not afraid to ride
We're not afraid to die
So come on, wheels, take me home today
Come on, wheels, take this boy away.
Swing out
To Lake Nostalgia
Route 5 to Laughing Pines
Get off at Funway West
Drive into Springtime.
Steamin' up
That Trans-Island Skyway
Tryin' to make that final deadline.
And if the lanes are clear
We're gonna drive a little harder
We'll be deep in the Zone by cryin' time.
You better stop and set your road map
You're heading straight on to the blue highway.
Running down the blue highway
Smoking down the blue highway
We could end up divided
Back in the single lane.
It's Chevy Impala, mint green
A long, cool, smokin' machine
A 64, New Jersey plates
Finest looking thing on the interstate.
My free bird generation's
Come and gone, what's left behind
But a young girl on the highway,
The last berry on the vine.
So let me welcome you on this bright and sunny day.
You can use the carpool lane
There's nothing more you have to pay
to get on the highway,
The Transcendental Highway.
Out on the road today I saw a Deadhead sticker
On a Cadillac.
A little voice inside my head said, "don't
Look back. You can never look back."
Take me down those hot dusty roads.
Yellow moon making me feel so old
And the clouds turning silver and gold
I'm running too scared to know
That I'm going down slow.
Like a thief in the night
There's no turning back
Running down the highway
You know I'm ahead of the pack ...
I'm running the roadblocks
To get back home to you.
Here I am
I'm in a gaseous haze
Ten lanes and tall boys
Going both ways.
After the first time we kissed,
I drove for an hour the wrong direction.
At the end of the highway
You still were holding
The endless promise of what could've been
Where the roads meets the skyway
It was unfolding
The empty promise of what should've been.
Crosstown, under the freeway, late at night
Crosstown, over the river shining bright
I reach my destination
And I find her arms waiting to hold me.
It's a mighty hard road that my poor hands have hoed,
My poor feet have traveled this hot dusty road.
On the edge of your cities you'll see me and then,
I come with the dust and I'm gone with the wind.
Hundred cups of coffee, five hundred cigarettes.
A thousand miles of highway and I ain't forgot her yet . . .
But them big wheels of rubber are gonna rub her off my mind
I'm a highway junkie, I need that old white line.
He was the kind of man
do all he could
above all he had integrity
but he was so young
and on a ten city run
in love with a truck stop girl.
I been from Tucson to Tucumcari
Tehachapi to Tonapah
Driven every kind of rig that's ever been made
and I've driven the back roads so I won't get weighed.
I open up my doors
and let the light in.
I'm not afraid to go
where my heart tells me to go.
I'm just a rider on this rodeo.
let go of the reins
if you want control
Down the glory road.
I pulled out of Pittsburgh rolling down the eastern seaboard
I've got my diesel wound up and she's running like never before
There's a speed zone ahead on right and I ain't see a cop all night
Six days on the road and now I'm gonna make it home tonight.
Yeah!! we're travelin' down that lonesome road.
Feel like I'm dragging a heavy load.
Don't try to turn my head away,
I'm flirtin' with disaster every day.
Meet me on Highway 69
Baby, meet me on Highway 69 ...
Meet me at the same cheap motel.
You know the one that we love so well.
Rollin' down the Imperial Highway
With a big nasty redhead at my side.
Santa Ana wind blowin' hot from the north
And we was born to ride.
Late in the evening
About this time of night
51 phantom
Gets to feeling right.
Memphis to New Orleans
51 I ride
White lightning
Flashing across the Mississippi sky
Marching on the freedom highway
Marching each and every day.
I made up my mind
And I won't turn around.
I-94 full of holes
I seem to hit every one of them.
Well there's a place you really get your kicks
It's open every night about twelve to six
Now if you wanna hear some boogie you can get your fill
And shove and sting like an old steam drill
Come on along you can lose your lead
Down the road, down the road, down the road apiece.
I need open spaces to clear my head
Need a clearer view on the road ahead
Need to fill my tank, check the oil
Fix the air conditioner or I'm gonna boil
I'm gonna drive
I'm gonna drive
To the edge of this world.
Ooh, child, you got me walkin' down the
Broad highway
Uh, huh, huh, huh.
Now the ICC's been a-checkin' on down the line.
I'm a little overweight and my log book's way behind
Nothing bothers me tonight
I can dodge all them scales all right
Six days on the road and now I'm gonna make it home tonight
In the day we sweat it out in the streets of a runaway American dream
At night we ride through mansions of glory in suicide machines
Sprung from cages out on highway 9,
Chrome wheeled, fuel injected and steppin' out over the line.
Cadillac, Cadillac
Long and dark shiny and black
Open up your engines let 'em roar
Tearing up the highway like a big old dinosaur.
Further on up the road
where the way is dark
and the night is cold
but one sunny morning we'll rise, I know
and I'll meet you further on up the road.
It was a small town bank it was a mess
Well I had a gun you know the rest
Money on the floorboards, shirt was covered in blood
And she was cryin', her and me we headed south
On highway 29.
Well I chased him through them county roads
Till a sign said "Canadian border five miles from here"
I pulled over the side of the highway
and watched his tail-lights disappear.
I'm proud New Jersey is my home
Yeah said I'm proud now New Jersey is my home.
Well they're breaking out the tractors to build more interstates
They're moving out my neighbors all across the Garden State.
As you jockey your way through the cars
And sit at the light, as it changes to green
With your faith in your machine off you scream into the night
And you're in love with all the wonder it brings
And every muscle in your body sings as the highway ignites
This turnpike sure is spooky at night when you're all alone.
Gotta hit the gas, baby, I'm running late.
This New Jersey in the mornin' like a lunar landscape
I love you for your pink Cadillac
Crushed velvet seats
Riding in the back, oozing down the street
Waving to the girls
Feeling out of sight
Spending all my money on a Saturday night.
We take all the action we can meet
And we cover all the northeast state
When the strip shuts down we run 'em in the street
From the fire roads to the interstate.
Billy slammed on his coaster brakes
and said anybody wanna go on up to greasy lake
It's about a mile down on the dark side of route 88.
Jersey Turnpike, ridin' on a wet night
'neath the refin'ry's glow
Out where the great black rivers flow
License, registration: I ain't got none
But I got a clear conscience
'bout the things that I done.
Riding out tonight to case the promised land
Oh-oh thunder road, oh thunder road oh thunder road
Lying out there like a killer in the sun
Hey i know it's late we can make it if we run
Oh thunder road,sit tight take hold
Thunder road.
Last night I was out driving
Coming home at the end of the working day.
I was riding alone through the drizzling rain
On a deserted stretch of a county two-lane
When I came upon a wreck on the highway.
So I rolled on down to Memphis
I had nothing left to lose.
I wanted to hear some rock and roll,
But all they played was blues
I'm going to keep on moving
As far as I can get.
Don't know my destination
Cause I still ain't been there yet.
I just want to keep on riding
I just got to keep riding
I got to keep riding
I want to ride until I'm satisfied.
I want to run
I want to hide
I want to tear down the walls
That hold me inside.
I want to reach out
And touch the flame
Where the streets have no name.
Straight ahead right down the highway
Out across New Mexico
I'm passin' trucks
With Haggard singin' on the radio.
There's gotta be someplace I can go to
Help me forget about how much I love you.
Maybe Dallas, San Antone,
Two-lane highway all alone.
I pulled to the side of the Interstate,
I just couldn't go on.
I'd been chasing the morning
Like some young fool living out an old song.
How on earth could I love you like this.
Now you're with heaven knows who and
I'm halfway to Georgia with memories of you.
On city streets, down country roads
Like a stream the people flow.
There's bread to win and tolls to pay
On life's highway.
That bus pulled away in a roaring black cloud
I stood in the road, honey, I hollered right out loud
"Hey, darling, I love you. Hey, bus driver, whoa."
But you can't stop a woman when she's out of control
She's crazy for leaving, I told her so.
The boys at the bus stop just said, "Man, let her go."
The highway is for heroes
The outlaws and the dreamers
Who believe in luck
And some who just pretend.
Down on the coastline, highway one
People headin' out for the sun
That's where I found you, long time ago.
Think I'll get back on the highway
I hope I'll see you soon.
When I was a young boy, it weren't too late
I had me a Buick, was a '48
Yeah, tons and tons of rollin' steel
With a long black hood and four big wheels.
I come down from the misty mountain
I got lost on the human highway
Take my head refreshing fountain
Take my eyes from what they've seen.
Yeah, I'm runnin', I'm runnin', I'm runnin'
Down the proud highway
And as long as I keep movin'
Darlin', you'll always be mine
I'll never treat you unkind
But a haunting melody
Keeps comin' back to me
Where is the highway tonight?
That old white line is a friend of mine
And it's good time we've been making
Right now I'm rollin' down the open road
And the daylight will soon be breaking.
I'm going to rent myself a house
In the shade of the freeway.
I'm going to pack my lunch in the morning
And go to work each day.
And when the evening rolls around
I'll go on home and lay my body down
A long time ago came a man on a track
Walking thirty miles with a sac on his back
And he put down his load where he thought it was the best
And he made a home in the wilderness
He built a cabin and a winter store
And he ploughed up the ground by the cold lake shore
And the other travellers came riding down the track
And they never went further and they never went back
Then came the churches then came the schools
Then came the lawyers then came the rules
Then came the trains and trucks with their loads
And the dirty old track was the telegraph road
We're gonna fly ya ya yeah
Ninety miles an hour
Swervin' all over the road
Hundred miles an hour
My hand's on the radio
Baby's in the back seat
Bompin' all over the road.
