5. The Allman Brothers Band - Midnight Rider
Ah, but running can be a rebellious joy, as well. The narrator of this song is giddily defiant: "I'm not gon' let 'em catch me, no." And why should he? "The road goes on forever." The dark tone of "State Trooper" is reversed here, and running from the law is elevated to a thing of beauty, thanks to the always shimmering guitar work of Dickie Betts and Duane Allman, and the deeply soulful intonations of Gregg Allman. The narrator is broke and at the end of his rope, but not scared, and the song is one of the finest examples of highway-as-cathedral. He puts his faith in the Road as another man would put his faith in Jesus. This isn't Southern rock, it's gospel music.
6. Simon and Garfunkel - America
A song as necessary to this list as it is obvious. If you want America, there's only one place to look: the New Jersey Turnpike. Or if you live on the opposite coast, perhaps Highway 1 would suit you better. Or down south, I-10. America is always there, on any highway you want to take. The sense of being lost expressed so well in the song is an integral part of the experience, but so is wonder and grandiosity. And being out of cigarettes, a problem that "America" shares with Roger Miller's "King of the Road."
7. Creedence Clearwater Revival - Lodi
Sometimes the worst punishment is not being on the road. Lodi, California is situated uneasily east of San Francisco and south of Sacramento, in a place that is really no place at all, but a brief stop that, for the narrator this song, turns into a curse. The road is full of these places. If he thinks Lodi is bad, he should try El Campo, Texas sometime. It's a song about being poor as much as anything else – he's "stuck in Lodi" because he's flat fucking broke — but the Road has always been full of the poor and dispossessed. For every success story or gloriously romanticized account of the joys of traveling or running, there's one poor sucker who just can't seem to hack it in the big, mean world. This song is his story.
Article comments
1 - Uncle H
Great list of road songs! But I must add the best of the whole bad bunch: the Triffids "Wide Open Road" (from their 1986 album "Born Sandy Devotional"). Triffids were not an American band, but they do have roads in Australia too you know.
(Posted by someone who doesn't even have a drivers licence...)
2 - BJ
Great topic. God, I hope it's not a lost art just yet.
Don't forget:
I'm a Lonesome Fugitive (Merle Haggard)
Diamonds on my Windshield (Tom Waits)
Six Days on the Road (any version except Sawyer Brown's - personally, I'd take Gram & Emmylou)
Anything by Friends of Dean Martinez (more road songs without lyrics ... specifically, road songs for mojave desert)
BJ
3 - Elsa Grassy
Wow! I thought I was the only one on this earth to be obsessed with road songs! I'm actually writing a pre-doctorate thesis on them (any kind - truck songs, hobo songs, train songs...).
So if you happen to have anything to say about this subject, if you're willing to share information about the art of singing the road, or even if you just have a comment to make, please SEND ME A MESSAGE!!!
vivelsa@yahoo.fr
Thanks!
4 - Mike
link for downloads doesn't work. seems to have been hijacked by meds dealer.