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Highway History
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Early in the morning
I can see the rising sun
Gonna pack my suitcase
Gone for a long, long run
Got to catch a Greyhound
Drive through the night and day.
I ain't got no blood veins
I just got them four lanes
of hard Amarillo Highway.
Yeah the truck drivin' man . . .
He gonna slam the door
And let the diesel road
Down the dark highway
But he has no fears
While he's shiftin' gears
To that next night café.
I work for a trucking company
And my forearms big as beef
If it wasn't for the highway
My family'd be on relief.
I am not your rolling wheels
I am a highway
I am not your carpet ride
I am the sky.
I was one tough cookie 'til I crumbed in your hand
Since that day I'm half a man
I drive my old nine-wheeler down I-two-and-a-half
The other truckers pity me so they try not to laugh
I pull off in Yreka and check into Motel Three
They always got a little room for me.
We're a wild and rowdy bunch
When you pass us by.
Bobby's buggin' baby sister
And making her cry.
If I have to pull over,
someone's gonna pay
And it was fun, fun, fun
Till Bobby took her teether away.
Rocky Byways
Those were my ways
Drivin' all night
Down the one-lane highways
Playin' bluegrass, livin' too fast
Those were the days, best I can recall.
Long promised road
Trail starts at dawn
Carries on to the season's ending
Long promised road
Flows to the source, gentle
force, never ending.
Oh, it's a hard road
Carry your own load
Why make the hard road?
Why can't we be friends?
No need to hurry
We'll meet in the end.
Hey there, you in the hot rod car
Telling you, babe, you ain't got nothing on me
Just four wheels and a great big smile
Ain't nothing between us but a great long stretch of road
C'mon put your foot down
Drive away.
Now I remember on graduation day
You drove by in your daddy's Chevrolet
Said you were chasing your dreams
All around the world
Yes, and I'm still chasin' that little girl
Justine, just keep a rockin' down the road
Justine, we come a long way
But we still gotta lotta
Still gotta long way to go.
Thumbin' out of Austin
Headin' for L.A.
With nothin' in my pockets
But this red hot summer day
When I see this vision comin'
And much to my surprise
The driver of this dream come true
Stopped and looked me in the eye
Said "I know where you're goin' boy
Why don't you hop inside"-
Thanks for the ride.
But there ain't no train to Memphis anymore
You've got to take the highway when you go
Them rusty tracks from Nashville lay
Beside that stretch of road
But there ain't no train to Memphis any more.
We used to be so happy, we used to be so true
We used to think there wasn't anything we couldn't do
But they could see right through us, we didn't seem to care
We were on a highway that ain't going anywhere
They told us we were wrong a thousand times
We rode out to the country and got tangled in the pines.
We've been sitting here too long
We gotta move
And I know the way to shake these blues
Why don't we go for a drive
While we got these wheels in motion
Keep our engines alive
We're runnin'on emotion
Let's take a drive.
They put you on a road that you know
Is leading you to nowhere . . .
Dancing on the highway
Knowing what you're doing is serious fun
Dancing on the highway
But you don't realize what you've just begun.
Let's leave town on a permanent vacation
Lock up the house, pack up the station wagon
Make paradise our final destination
As long as we're outta here
There ain't no time like the present day, say,
Let's cruise all the way down A1A
Put the top down and catch a few rays
Baby, we'll be outta here.
Life is a road that you travel on
When there's one day here and the next day gone
Sometimes you bend, sometimes you stand
Sometimes you turn your back to the wind . . .
Life is a highway
I want to ride it all long
If you're going my way
I want to drive it all night long.
Riding north on Interstate 75
With a nervous fading beauty sitting by his side
And a pistol that he used to pave the way
Down the long black stretches of a dark highway.
'Cause there may be times
When you think you lost your mind
And the steps you're takin'
Leave you three, four steps behind.
But the road you're walking
Might be long sometimes
You just keep on steppin'
And you'll be just fine, yeah.
I've got a dream, I've got a dream
Oh, I know I could share it if you want me to
If you're going my way, I'll go with you
Movin' me down the highway
Rollin' me down the highway
Movin' ahead so life won't pass me by.
Highway man, always on the go
Highway man, yeah, always on the go
Well, I tell all you friends
Don't worry about me,
I was born to be on the go.
Me and my -ah- mother and father - and a
Grandmother and a grandfather - were driving through
The desert, at dawn, and a truck load of Indian
Workers had either hit another car, or just - I don't
Know what happened - but there were Indians scattered
All over the highway, bleeding to death.
Now when you needed me
I was always around
Now I need you, baby
You're nowhere to be found.
Got my money, now you're gone
Down the road.
So put me on a highway
And show me a sign
And take it to the limit one more time.
Take me there, Bandera Highway
To the places where I grew
Beneath the Mesquite and the warm summer breeze
You gotta savor all your childhood memories.
Driving slow with the window down
By the river I could see
Déjà vu knocking at my door
Something remembers me.
Thumbin' a ride to Geneva
Standing in the falling rain.
Your friends said, "Why did you leave her?"
I had to make it on my own
Now I'm standing on the highway
Tryin' to find my way alone.
Come on pretty mama
Let's get on the road again.
Arrows of neon and flashing marquees out on Main Street,
Chicag, New York, Detroit, and it's all on the same street.
Your typical city involved in a typical daydream
Hang it up and see what tomorrow brings.
Baby's just a little bit tired of the city
Billboards and bull*** got her down
Seems like you need a little hill country
A little back roads drivin'
A bit of that old top down.
Ninty miles an hour, girl, is the speed I drive
You tell me it's alright, you don't mind a little pain
You say you just want me to take you for a ride
You're just like crosstown traffic
So hard to get through to you
Crosstown traffic
I don't need to run over you
Crosstown traffic
All you do is slow me down
And I'm tryin' to get on the other side of town.
His old guitar slung across his back
His dusty books it his Cadillac.
Flamin' hair just a-blowin' in the wind
Ain't seen a bed in so long it's a sin
Now you may call him a tramp,
But I know it goes a little deeper than that
He's a Highway Chile.
I'm goin' to get up early in the morning
Driving down Highway 13
Drivin' so hard this morning
I could hardly see the road.
The wind was blowing and the rain was falling
I could hardly hold my Ford on the road.
I was traveling fast one of these days,
Talking 'bout I was on my way down to the Highway 80
That's when I know'd I'm going to meet that lady.
I'm going to take my girl, have some fun
If my money don't spend, I can shoot my gun
I'm going, yes, I'm going on that highway.
Ain't no need of walking
When the riding is all in style
Come on, sweetheart,
Let's drive it for a country mile
Ride with me, baby,
In my brand new Cadillac.
And it's all over now
Don't you worry no more
Gonna go west to the sea
The Greyhound is swaying
And the radio is playing
Some blues for baby and me
And the highway looks like it never did
Lord it looks so sweet and so free
And i can't forget that trip to the west
Singing blues for baby and me.
So goodbye yellow brick road
Where the dogs of society howl
You can't plant me in your penthouse
I'm going back to my plough.
Down around the spirit gate
the crow's tale is told
River gods and holy alters
Midnight rain and bones
There's a lonely meeting place
On Fortune Teller Road.
It was windy, it was cold
I was about 14 years old
When I first heard the Wolfman howl.
He snuck me through the door
There was whiskey on the floor
And the fuzz was on the prowl.
Yes, it seems so long ago
And I'm living on the highway now.
It was me and that train
When I drove into the canyon
It was coming up the river
Like a long lost companion.
Drop me at the corner of 5th and bonvivant
With the radio playing you can't always get what you want
I watch you drive away like it's no big deal
You won't see my wave and you never will.
It was on a summer's evening
The air was still and calm.
I drove out to the highway
Where a traveler's soul belongs.
I could hear the highway crying
That lonesome road did wail.
When I look down that road,
I see the world inside this town.
I weave the threads of my life
That lead me to where I stand now.
When you're out on the road playing every night
Towns all run together, something don't seem right
It's what you've got to do
Because you know you love the music . . .
It's double edge sword
Burning inside your soul
Songs will make you free
But the road can leave a hole.
Well I've been driving for days
Stopping at truck stops along the way
Sleeping in my car outside a roadside bar
All along the way.
Headed north on 95
I was feeling very much alive
And if I don't come back
Read a little Kerouac
It would be good for you, yeah.
There is a young man drivin' an old man's car
Down the Pennsylvania Turnpike where the treetops meet the stars.
There is a warm wind blowin' down the lost highway
And he don't know where he's goin'
And it don't matter anyway.
Somewhere inside of me
There was something she took a liking to
And I asked her to marry me
And she said she really want to
Down the road
See what life's gonna hold, down the road.
Ooh baby, going down that road tonight
Getting tooooooo crazy
Need to hold each other tight.
Well my baby lives a-way 'cross town
Until things change I'm blacktop bound
It makes me feel alive
To rev it up and ride
I'll be keepin' the road hot
I'm on the move, ain't gonna stop
Hearts on fire and we're miles apart
So I'll be keepin' the road hot.
The other night as I was drivin'
Up the highway through the pass
I was torn between the future
And the memories of the past
Fell in Love for the wrong reasons
Gave our hearts then lost control
So I eased it up past sixty
Turned away and let it roll.
Now I'm beatin' down an ol' blacktop road
Sleepin' in a sack
Livin' in my memories all in vain ...
But I just kept on dreamin'
That a song that I was singin'
Takes me down the road
To where my name is known
Now I'm gone
And it's a long hard road.
Now boys don't start all your ramblin' around
On this road of sin or you're sorrow bound
Take my advice or you'll curse the day
You started rollin' down that lost highway.
When I heard the crash on the highway
I knew what it was from the start
I went to the scene of destruction
And a picture was stamped on my heart
There was whiskey and blood all together
Mixed with glass where they lay
Death laid her hand in destruction
But I didn't hear nobody pray.
When the day has passed and gone
And that road you've been traveling on
Just doesn't seem to be going anywhere
Turn around and I'll be there
Like a road leading home.
Her daddy was a long-haul driver
Her mama was a short-order queen
She was born at the rest stop 235
Outside of Abilene
Learned to talk on the CB radio
Learned to read by the highway signs
Take you own the back roads anywhere
Drive you out of your mind.
Days last forever, nights never end
Two-lane blacktop is my only friend
Thinking about the future, dreading what's ahead
But all things considered, at least I'm not dead
Out on the road again, out on the road again.
Crazy as a mad dog in the pouring rain
Out on the road again.
Got out really early from the factory
Drivin' like a nut in the rain
Don't think I was acting so hysterically
But I didn't see a thing until it came . . .
Crawlin' from the wreckage
You'd think by now at least
A half my brain would get the message
Crawlin' from the wreckage and into a brand new car.
How long must I walk down this long long road
There's nothin' at the end of it and I'm carrying this load
And you don't lift a finger now you just stand there and gloat
How long must I walk down this long long road.
We'd work them rigs till subdown
Clean up and head on into town
Get a trunk full of Lone Star iced down
Then we'd blast off down the road.
Out on the endless highway with my fun loving friends
We took a lot of dangerous curves
And raced down some dark dead ends.
I remember the chilling sounds of screams and crushing steel
It's a miracle I woke up alive behind the wheel.
Must be a guardian angel watchin' over me
Must be a higher power that I never see.
I know I'm moving in the right direction
When the sunsets starin' me down
I'll ride all night and all next day
Just to get to that little hill country town.
Well I've been up north been back east
Dang near all the rest
You hit Oklahoma City and hang a hard left
South by Southwest.
Well I thought my life over when she walked right out on me.
And I watched the world around me just explode
That's when I hit the highway, that how I came to be
Morning Rider on the road.
Under a big ol' sky
Out in a field of green
There's gotta be something left for us to believe
Oh, I await the day
Good fortune comes our way
And we ride down the Kings Highway.
I'll be good, as good as gold
To the next or maybe better
Wait for me down the road
Keep one eye open for my letter.
Your way
No way
Do it my way
Or hit the highway.
We stand there and we don't say a word
It's like the whole town disappears.
Next thing I know, it's raining, we're in his car,
I watch his hands while he shifts the gears.
We drive for miles without conversation
What's left to talk about?
I want to touch him so bad it hurts
It's like my heart in the back of my mind.
Then he turns and looks at me, I kind of lose control
We're repeating history going down that road
Here we go again.
We lost our way back there
I must have missed the sign
When you were taking a nap
Get back in the car
You can't be walking out there alone
When we're riding together
We're at least a little closer to home
Get back in the car
This indecision is getting old
We're going to keep on driving
Till the wheels fall off the road.
And you try to find a love that'll see you through your darkest days
And her soft brown hair is as long as the Canadian highway
And the sun dies until it's reborn
But there's no road that ain't a hard road to travel on.
Time to hit the highway
Move on down the road
Time to hit the highway
Move on down that road
Gonna get my motor running
Light my heavy load.
So take whatever road you want to
Careful of the ice and the snow
I ain't got time to change my mind
I got forty-five miles to go.
I asked directions back at the station
I had a feeling I could trust that guy
I was mistaken, now I got a feeling
That'll be driving down this highway
Till the day that I die.
I went to New York City
To find what could be found
Just for kicks down sixty six,
Stopped in L.A. Town
Yes I went to California
Just to see what I could see
Well nobody knew just where I was
And that's alright with me.
My mama 'n' papa told me son that you're just a fool
When I told 'em I was leaving home I was leaving school
So then in a couple of hours I found myself
Heading down that southbound road
With everything I owned on my back
I carried such a heavy load.
Get on the highway, roll out the way
One more city, one more day
we've all got problems, we've all got fears
I got the answer and it's worked for years
I'll drive, you know I'll drive to survive.
"Shotgun blast hit his chest, left nothing inside.
Oh, come down, Red Molly, to his dying bedside."
When she came to the hospital, there wasn't much left
He was runnin' out of road. He was runnin' out of breath.
But he smiled, to see her cry.
And he said, "I'll give you my Vincent. To ride."
Run run Rudolph
Santa's got to make it to town
Santa make him hurry
Tell him he can take the freeway down.
Big wheels keep rollin', feel the rumble 'neath my feet,
Big wheels keep rollin', the feelin's grown a part of me.
The white lines look the same no matter where you are,
Even where they drive on the other side.
Now let's get the kids and pack up the car
Take that vacation we've been waiting for
Drive across this country leave our worries far behind
Singin' four-part harmony to "Sweet Adeline."
I was drivin' home
On the black top tar
Up and down this road
Like a cartoon car
Mason-Dixon line
Slips behind me now
Golden fields go by
Golden sun goes down.
How can there be trouble in this world?
With the color in these hills, the blue October sky,
This little road that winds along the river.
Dusty barns and tractors in the fields
And families sit in front yards, or stand outside the churches
Kids are throwing footballs and pulling carts of pumpkins
And the morning sun is sparkling on the water.
On a starry old summer evenin'
Hummin' warm and sweet
I hit the road believin' I was bound to leave.
Rainy road into Atlanta, time is truly crawlin' by
Drops of rain on my side window, nothin', nothin' on my mind
Driving through the old horizon though it never seems that way
Clouds are rolling through these skies in fifty thousand shades of grey.
When I'm drivin' free, the world's my home
When I'm mobile
Play the tape machine
Make the toast and tea
When I'm mobile
Well I can lay in bed
With only highway ahead
When I'm mobile
Keep me movin'
Man, if I'm lucky I'll catch a ride
But you can never tell
I'd rather be here with the buzzing flies
Than back there hearing your alibis
Heard all that I'm gonna hear you say
I'm going to take my pride and go the other way.
87 southbound for San Antone.
I've got a souped up '65 GTO
Blow the doors offa anything on this road
I'm burnin' rubber and shiftin' gears
And I ain't gonna stop until you're back here.
I'm gonna hunt you down.
Well, I was driving down the freeway
When my car ran out of gas.
Pulled over to the station
But I was afraid to ask.
The servicemen were yellow
And the gasoline was green.
Although I knew I couldn't
I thought that I was gonna scream.
That was on my last trip to Tulsa
Just before the snow.
If you ever need a ride there,
Be sure to let me know.
I'm on the road to Alaska, nowhere near Nebraska,
But I'm sure if I asked her she'll know.
I ain't got no Honey, I'm so short of money.
I really really wanna go home.
In my heart a voice says "go"
I'm hittin' the road
I just can't take anymore
Headin' for home, I'm headin' for home
I was young and wild and barely 16
When I took off down the road
Everything I owned in a suitcase
20 dollars in my old billfold.
I can still see my momma with her head in her hands
Crying as I rode away
Leaving it all behind me
In a '55 Chevrolet
Heading down that Heart Break Highway.
There's somethin' about this Sunday
It's a most peculiar gray
Strollin' down the avenue that's, known as A1A
Feelin' tired, then I got inspired
I knew that it wouldn't last long
So all alone I walked back home
Sat on my beach and then I made up this song.
I'm back on board that '49 Ford in 1956.
Long before the sun came up way out in the sticks
The headlights showed a two-rutroad way back up in the pines
First time I heard Johnny Cashsing "I Walk The Line
I got my thrill behind the wheelupon my daddy's lap
Grandpa rode co-pilot with aflashlight and a map..
Out on the highway I'm on my own
Every night's a new beginning
Every day the world keeps spinning
Sawdust spread out on a dance hall floor
Jukebox ripping at an all out roar
Barmaid smiling at a ten-cent tip
Living is a trip on Telephone Road.
Nothin' shakin' on Shakedown Street
Used to be the heart of town
Don't tell me this town ain't got no heart
You just gotta poke around.
I don't want a pickle
Just want to ride on my motorsickle
And I don't want a tickle
'Cause I'd rather ride on mymotorsickle
And I don't want to die
Just want to ride on my motorcycle.
Look through any window, yeah
Any time of day
See the drivers on the roads
Button down their heavy loads
Where do they go,
Moving on their way
A driving down the highways, and the byways.
Home can be the Pennsylvania Turnpike
Indiana's early morning dew
High up in the hills of California
Home is just another word for you.
Driving home for Christmas
It's gonna take some time
But I'll get there
Top to toe in tailbacks
Oh, I got red lights on the run
But soon there'll be a freeway
Get my feet on holy ground.
You must learn this lesson fast
And learn it well.
This ain't no upwardly mobile freeway
Oh no, this is the road to Hell.
Me and Katie
We go dancing down the stony road
See her laughing through the pain,
Two different lifetimes
We just happened to meet
Traded some good time
On the corner of the street
We were no more than strangers
Attracted to one and the same sense of freedom
But we'll always be on two roads.
Mile marker 203
The gas gauge leanin' on theedge of E
I'd sure hate to breakdown here
Nothing up ahead or in the rearview mirror
Out in the middle of nowhere knowin'
I'm in trouble if these wheelsstop rollin'.
I strip away the old debris
That hides a shining car
A brilliant red Barchetta
From a better vanished time.
I fire up the willing engine
Responding with a roar
Tires spitting gravel.
Another mile, one more mile
We can make it down this roadgirl, you and I
Love grows strong just hole on
And you'll find that we've gone another mile.
Don't go burnin' bridges ona rocky road
It seems it all hinges on how we carry your load.
I have lived life in the fast lane
You gotta watch your back and look both ways...
I'll take the dirt road-it's all I know
I've been walking it for years
It's gone where I need to go.
Well in the fast lane on a Sunday drive
Anywhere we go I'll be fine
Just as long as I'm with you.
I've been down some lonely highways
But I knew one day you'd comemy way
I kept my motor runnin' babyjust for you.
The midnight gang's assembled
And picked a rendezvous for the night
They'll meet 'neat that giant Exxon sign
That brings this fair city light
Man there's an opera out onthe Turnpike.
It's one for the money and one for the show.
I got one kiss for you honeyso come on let's go
I didn't see it coming but girl now I know
It takes one for the running but two for the road.
And she rolls, she's a river
Where she goes, time will tell
Heaven knows, he can't go with her
And she rolls, all by herself
And he rolls, he's a highway
Where he goes, time will tell
Heaven knows, she can't go with him
And he rolls, all by himself.
He got the high sign so he jumped a bus
And along the roads that wind on through
The hot Mojave and the jericho
He'd start his whole life a new
And what he'd left behind hehadn't valued
Half as much as some things
He never knew
Driving out of Vegas in their automobile
She was in the backseat while he was at the wheel
With the windows wide open
All the money from the store they'd gambled away
He said, "...the best laid plans often go astray."
She took the page of her book and turned it down
She lit a cigarette...she didn't make a sound.
It winds from Chicago to L.A.
More than 2,000 miles all the way.
Get your kicks on Route 66.
Now you go thru St. Looey, Joplin, Missouri
And Oklahoma City looks might pretty.
You'll see Amarillo, Gallup, New Mexico,
Flagstaff, Arizona, don't forget Winona,
Kingman, Barstow, San Bernardino.
Won't you get hip to this timely tip
When you make that California trip
Get your kicks on Route 66.
If you ever plan to motor west,
Travel my way, take the highway that's the best.
Get your kicks on Route 66
