Road songs

Subject: Road songs
From: theleveller
Date: 28 Apr 08 - 07:01 AM

I love 'road' movies, and also 'road' books, like those by Kerouac, Orwell, Priestley or H V Morton. Can you recommend any British/Irish 'road' songs. My favourite at the moment is Gypsy by Mr Fox because I know most of the places mentioned. I suppose Spencer the Rover and The Tinkerman's Daughter would be other obvious ones. Any others?

Subject: RE: Road songs
From: Leadfingers
Date: 28 Apr 08 - 07:27 AM

Most of MacColl's songs from The Travelling People , and Gurthrie's
Hard Travelling ?

Subject: RE: Road songs
From: GUEST,HughM
Date: 28 Apr 08 - 08:02 AM

The Road to the Isles
Sullivan's John
Champion at Keeping 'em Rolling
The Rocky Road to Dublin
Coshieville:
...the money moved from Ericht's loch
The Great Glen beckoned "On!"
At 'Moriston the hills grew pale
And we fought and drank through old Kintail
But the money soon was gone
Then I cursed Loch Awe side's autumn rain
And the winter whisky in Dunblane
'Til the west wind rose in the spring again
And my heart leapt at its song....

(About the construction of Scotland's hydro-electric plants in the 1950s.)

Subject: RE: Road songs
From: theleveller
Date: 28 Apr 08 - 08:18 AM

Hugh, haven't come across Coshieville before - love it!

Subject: RE: Road songs
From: Leadfingers
Date: 28 Apr 08 - 08:52 AM

For me , Maggie Holland does the definitive recording of Coshieville

Subject: RE: Road songs
From: GUEST,John from Elsie`s Band
Date: 28 Apr 08 - 09:01 AM

The Leveller
"T.I.R., T.I.R., T.I.T.I.R." This is my song of the international long distance lorry driver (TIR = Transport International Routier)
It is sung to the tune of "Hopping Down in Kent".
Give me an e-mail and I`ll send it by mp3.

Subject: RE: Road songs
From: Mark Ross
Date: 28 Apr 08 - 09:16 AM

CHAMPION AT KEEPIN' THEM ROLLING
TRAVELLING PEOPLE(?) Ewan MacColl
NEVER TIRED OF THE ROAD Andy Irvine

Those are the only songs from that side of the pond I can think of.


Mark Ross

Subject: RE: Road songs
From: quokka
Date: 28 Apr 08 - 10:27 AM

Tramps and Hawkers is a lovely road song. There is a wealth of info on this forum about this song.
Quokka

Subject: RE: Road songs
From: topical tom
Date: 28 Apr 08 - 04:38 PM

"Night Drive" by Garnet rogers in memory of his brother Stan.

    Night Drive
Yellowhead highway

How bright the stars
How dark the night
How long have I been sleeping?
Sleep overtook me on my westward flight
Held me in its keeping
I had a dream; it seemed so real
Its passing left me shaking
I saw you're here behind the wheel
On this very road I'm taking

Hurtling westward through the prairie night
Under the spell of motion
Your eyes were clear and bright in the dashboard light
Dreaming of the western ocean
The dusty towns left far behind
Mountains drawing ever nearer
Your face was then as it was tonight
Ever young
Ever clearer

I know this road
And its every curve
Where the hills commence their climbing
We rested here
If my memory serves
The northern lights were shining
You lit a smoke
We shared some wine
We watched the sky in wonder
Your laughter echoes after all this time
In that high and wild blue yonder

I don't know why I write these lines
It's not like I could send you the letter
It's that I love your more after all this time
It's that I wish I'd shown you better
Years have slipped
Beneath my wheels
Dwindling in my rear view mirror
As time has passed
Your life has seemed less real
But these night drives bring you nearer



So tonight I'll wish upon these stars
As they rise upward to guide me
That I'll see you here just as you are
Now, as then, beside me
Scares me how the years have flown
Like the leaves drift in September
They've lost sight of you as your legacy's grown
But this road and I
We remember

Subject: RE: Road songs
From: Uncle_DaveO
Date: 28 Apr 08 - 04:44 PM

Look up Rambles of Spring. It's in the DT, I think, and I know for a fact there are a couple threads about it.

Dave Oesterreich

Subject: RE: Road songs
From: Herga Kitty
Date: 28 Apr 08 - 04:50 PM

When yellow's on the broom, Mick Ryan's Poppies (though that's about building the roads)

Kitty

Subject: RE: Road songs
From: GUEST,HughM
Date: 29 Apr 08 - 07:57 AM

Coshieville is in a book called "Folksongs of the Highlands" if I remember rightly, by Norman somebody. There was a thread about this song on the 3rd March, including all the words.

Subject: RE: Road songs
From: Susanne (skw)
Date: 30 Apr 08 - 12:42 AM

Yellow on the Broom by Adam McNaughtan

Subject: RE: Road songs
From: Richard Bridge
Date: 30 Apr 08 - 03:33 AM

The Hot Asphalt?

Subject: RE: Road songs
From: Richard Bridge
Date: 30 Apr 08 - 03:36 AM

PS, I haven't heard it sung since about 1975 and it's mildly interesting in that although it is plainly about the experience of the largely Irish road builders, it must be an English song because that is where the roads were being built - yet in recognition I imagine) of the heritage of the bulders and probably composer(s) it is Irish in style.

Subject: RE: Road songs
From: Richard Bridge
Date: 30 Apr 08 - 03:37 AM

PPS - not the song in the digitrad

Subject: RE: Road songs
From: theleveller
Date: 30 Apr 08 - 04:29 AM

Love the song, Richard. Bit along the lines of McAlpine's Fusilliers.

Subject: RE: Road songs
From: GUEST,HughM
Date: 30 Apr 08 - 08:05 AM

I remembered wrongly! It's "Folksongs FROM The Highlands", subtitled "Orain Thormaid" (Songs of Norman), compiled by Norman Stewart and published by Taigh na Teud (Harpstring House).
I should also have suggested The Road to Drumlemon, though I have heard it said that Drumlemon is fictitious.

Subject: RE: Road songs
From: goatfell
Date: 30 Apr 08 - 08:32 AM

a great Amreican song recoreded by Ferlon Husky called the Drunken Driver, typical American country song, Friends, my name is Ferlin Husky.
I'd like to tell you 'bout a man that let alcohol
destroy everything that God gave him

I saw an accident one day that would chill the heart of any man
It would teach them not to drink a drop
While the steering wheel's in their hand

This awfull accident occurred on the 20th day of May
And caused two little children to be sleepin' beneath the clay
These two little kids walked side by side along the state highway
Their poor old mother, she had died
And their daddy had ran away

As these two little children walked arm in arm
How sad their hearts did feel
When around the curb came a speeding car
With a drunk man at the wheel
The drunk man saw the little kids
And he hollered a drunked sound
"Get out of the road you little fools"
And the car, it brought them down

The bumper struck the little girl, takin' her life away
While the little boy, in a puddle of blood
In the ditch, lyin' there did lay
The drunk man staggered from his car
To see the damage that he had done
And then he let out a yell you could hear for miles
When he recognized his dyin' son

Such mournin' from a drunken man, I've never heard before
While kneeling down by his car he prayed to heavens door
Sayin', "Oh God, please forgive me for this awful crime I've done"
And his attention then was called away
By the words of his dyin' son
He said, "Daddy, why did you do this to us
How come you run us to the ground?
It was you and Mummy we were talkin' about,
When the car, it brought us down
And I was just tellin' little sister
That I knew we'd see you again someday
But, Daddy, why did it have to be like this
Why did it have to be this way
why daddy why?

great song isn't it?

Subject: RE: Road songs
From: GUEST,Suffolk Miracle
Date: 30 Apr 08 - 08:34 AM

I have wandered down Broadway, I've walked down the Strand,
I have travelled the highways of many's the land,
But in all your great cities, no street have I seen,
Like the road by the river that runs through Raheen.

I can see myself now as a gossoon of four,
How I climbed to look over the creaking half-door,
And watched the sun shine on the valley so green,
And the road by the river that runs through Raheen.

I remember myself whenever it rained
With my little snub nose flattened up on the pane
Sadly watching the rain as it made little streams
On the road by the river that runs through Raheen.

So I grew older and so it went on:
I remember them well now - those days that are gone,
How I'd walk hand in hand with some pretty colleen
On the road by the river that runs through Raheen.

And when I grew older and started to roam,
It's little I thought that I'd miss my old home,
Miss the old folks, the chapel, the pub on the green,
And the road by the river that runs through Raheen.

And so I returned there expecting to find
The well beloved scenes that still ran in my mind
Forgetting the years that had passed since I'd been
On the road by the river that runs through Raheen.

For rows of new houses now stand on the green
And a factory's there where my cottage had been.
The river's still there, but no trace can be seen,
Of a road by the river that runs through Raheen.

Everything changes, and we change as well
And I'm sure that you too if the truth you would tell,
Wander back to some well beloved spot in your dreams,
Like the road by the river that runs through Raheen.

Subject: RE: Road songs
From: theleveller
Date: 01 May 08 - 03:32 AM

Arran, I think I've a recording of that on vinyl by the New Lost City Ramblers - on Songs of Moonshine and Prohibition - must be from around 1965.

Subject: RE: Road songs
From: nutty
Date: 01 May 08 - 04:05 AM

Another offering from me ......

WALKING THE LONG ROAD HOME
I was young when I left the dear land of my childhood
To seek for my fortune far over the sea
But the longer i travel the highways and byways
The dearer that homeland is seeming to be

Chorus
For I've walked the long road, lived the life of a rover
Walked the long road till I'm too old to roam
Too long on the road, now my journeying's over
I'm walking the long road home

Though I've searched for a lifetime, no fortune came my way
Just enough for my needs but I'd little to spare
Though the country was hard and the road it was harder
There's no way back home cos' I can't pay the fare

In my mind I see fields full of sweet meadow flowers
I smell the green grass and I feel the warm sun
Once again take the hands of my family and dear friends
And laugh, drink and sing till the long day is done

I've walked the long road, now I'm too old for walking
My shoes are worn down and my step is too slow
But I welcome the peace, for I know peace is coming
When my spirit goes walking the long road home

Subject: RE: Road songs
From: theleveller
Date: 01 May 08 - 04:15 AM

I love that, nutty.

Subject: RE: Road songs
From: GUEST
Date: 01 May 08 - 08:02 PM

"Coshieville" was by Stuart MacGregor and the earliest printed version I remember was in Chapbook, sometime in the 60s. And what about Roy Acuff's "Wreck on the Highway":

Who did you say it was brother,
Who was it fell by the way,
When whiskey and blood ran together
Did you hear anyone pray?

I didn't hear nobody pray dear brother,
I didn't hear nobody pray,
I heard the crash on the highway,
But I didn't hear nobody pray.

When I heard the crash on the highway
I knew what it was from the start,
I went to the scene of destruction
And the 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.

I wish I could change this sad story
That I am now telling you
But there is no way I can change it
For somebody's life is now through.
Their soul has been called by the master -
They died in a crash on the way,
I heard the groans of the dying
But I didn't hear nobody pray.

Subject: RE: Road songs
From: Bert
Date: 02 May 08 - 12:43 PM

FWIW, Ive. got some Here

There's Kiss for the Road, Headed for Nashville and Road to Nowhere.

Subject: RE: Road songs
From: GUEST,mg
Date: 02 May 08 - 02:41 PM

Thunder road
Road to Dundee
so many miles to Louisville or wherever
We're on the one road carrying the one load
Road to the Isles
When on the road to ____Cavan?? weary I sat down
Famine road

Subject: RE: Road songs
From: GUEST,mg
Date: 02 May 08 - 02:54 PM

all the Bing Crosby road songs???movies??? Road to Mandalay etc. mg

Subject: RE: Road songs
From: dick greenhaus
Date: 02 May 08 - 03:20 PM

for songs, add "One for My Baby (and One More For the Road"


There was an old New Yorker cartoon depicting the extremely inebriated man leaning on a bar and hoisting a glass. Caption was "And here's one for the road between Seattle and Vancouver!"

Subject: RE: Road songs
From: GUEST,Dave MacKenzie
Date: 02 May 08 - 06:09 PM

Has anyone mentioned "Western Highway"? Try playing it on the A55 from Bangor at 3am.

Then again there's "On the Road Again" (Willie Nelson), "On the Road Again" (Mark Spoelstra), "On the Road Again" (Canned Heat) and "On the Road Again" (Bob Dylan) and I'm sure there are a few more.

And I haven't mentioned Tommy Johnson's "Big Road Blues", Charlie Patton's "Down the Dirt Road", on to "Route 66", Guthrie wrote quite a few.

And I've just remembered Runrig's "Summer Walkers"!

Subject: RE: Road songs
From: John MacKenzie
Date: 03 May 08 - 04:46 AM

Alex Campbell's 'So Long' was the first song that sprang to mind when I saw the thread title. Surprised it hasn't been mentioned.
Don't tell me I'm the only one still doing it?


G

Subject: RE: Road songs
From: quokka
Date: 03 May 08 - 05:12 AM

What about Hank Williams 'Lost Highway'?

Subject: RE: Road songs
From: mg
Date: 03 May 08 - 09:37 AM

going down the road feeling bad

Subject: RE: Road songs
From: Padre
Date: 03 May 08 - 09:42 PM

Jonathan Eberhart used to sing a song called "Chicken Road" -

The chorus was (I think)

Honey, that's Missouri,
Land where the sky overflowed;
One little town there,
Chicken Road

Subject: RE: Road songs
From: Andy, Port Erin, I-O-M
Date: 04 May 08 - 03:30 AM

Six Days On The Road (Dave Dudley)

Subject: RE: Road songs
From: GUEST,Dave MacKenzie
Date: 06 May 08 - 06:57 PM

Subject: RE: Road songs
From: GUEST,Dave MacKenzie
Date: 06 May 08 - 07:05 PM

I've just looked at the original question, and we've been way off on a transatlantic tangent.

Howabout "The Wife of the Bold Tenant Farmer", and "The Pontyprydd Collier in Search of his Wife" and I suppose, although it's not about a road, and the locations come in random order, "Sweet Thames Flow Softly" (which I once heard described as the A-Z set to music).

Has anybody mentioned "Edinburgh Bus Strike Blues"?

Subject: RE: Road songs
From: oldhippie
Date: 06 May 08 - 09:36 PM

How about:
"The Road Goes On Forever And The Party Never Ends" - Robert Earl Keen

Subject: RE: Road songs
From: Santa
Date: 07 May 08 - 08:59 AM

I'm not sure I can add any songs but there was a group called "Hatfield and the North".

For our US members, this was on the first major roadsign on the A1 heading out of London. It rather sums up the Southern English approach to those outside the Great Wen.

Subject: RE: Road songs
From: GUEST,HughM
Date: 07 May 08 - 10:34 AM

When on the road to Killeshandra weary I sat down.

Subject: RE: Road songs
From: GUEST,mg
Date: 07 May 08 - 02:10 PM

Have we said Raglan Road?

Loch Lomand

Subject: RE: Road songs
From: GUEST,mg
Date: 07 May 08 - 02:11 PM

seven bridges road

Subject: RE: Road songs
From: Effsee
Date: 07 May 08 - 03:33 PM

Fause Knight upon the road.

Subject: RE: Road songs
From: GUEST,The Mole Catcher's unplugged Apprentice
Date: 07 May 08 - 03:42 PM

He Ran Out Of Road - from Street Cries - Ashley Hutchings and Friends. As sung by Judy Dunlop and John Tams

Charlotte R

Subject: RE: Road songs
From: irishenglish
Date: 07 May 08 - 03:45 PM

Ninety Miles An Hour Down A Dead End Street, as performed by Mr. Hutchings and Clive Gregson a few times. Thread drift alert*** If this was for American songs my ultimate road song is Falling In And Out Of Love/Amie by Pure Prairie League.

Subject: RE: Road songs
From: FreddyHeadey
Date: 12 Dec 18 - 04:15 PM

Shouldn't there be a song about the A38?
Mr Red, it's your patch isn't it?
The road runs from Bodmin in Cornwall to Mansfield in Nottinghamshire. It is 292 miles (470 km) long, making it the longest 2-digit A road in England.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/A38_road 

Subject: RE: Road songs
From: Stewie
Date: 12 Dec 18 - 06:19 PM

Here is one of my favourites:

The Texas Kid's Retirement Run

--Stewie

Subject: RE: Road songs
From: GUEST,Roger
Date: 13 Dec 18 - 04:11 AM

As an ex driver I love Bill Caddicks 'One Hand on the Radio'.
Bill captured the atmosphere of those late night on the road exactly.
Roger.

Subject: RE: Road songs
From: GUEST,Warwick Slade
Date: 13 Dec 18 - 12:02 PM

Tom Paxton wrote a few as in ‘ I can’t help but wonder where I bound’ etc

Subject: RE: Road songs
From: Tattie Bogle
Date: 13 Dec 18 - 08:04 PM

Ian McCalman wrote "The 8-3-0", all about the trials of driving this road which was then largely single track with passing places. Most of this road is now double track.
Then there's the A83, by Alison McMorland and Geordie McIntyre, a bit further south in Scotland.
And John Eaglesham's "Inveroran" spells out the route to get there in the chorus.

Subject: RE: Road songs
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 14 Dec 18 - 10:14 PM

Here are some songs with “Road” in the title that have already been posted at Mudcat. If you want to find them, I recommend you plug the title into the “Search Forum By Subject” field on this page.

A Road to Anywhere – Linville Ridge Band
Along the Road – Dan Fogelberg
Along the Road to Gundagai – Jack O’Hagan
Along the Rocky Road to Dublin – Joe Young, Bert Grant, 1915.
Back on the Road Again – Sands Family
Ballad of Thunder Road – Robert Mitchum
Bayswater Road – Marty Feldman
Been on the Road So Long – Alex Campbell
Big Rock in the Road – Doug Gates
Bless the Road – Steve Cooney
Blowin’ Down This Road – Woody Guthrie
Blue Tar Road – Liam Weldon
Brookland Road – Rudyard Kipling
Child on the Road – Archie Fisher
Coaltown Road – Allister MacGillivray
Corduroy Road – Carolyn Leigh
Cumberland Road – Original Irish Boys
Dirt Road Shoes – Ken Whitfield
Down the Road – Bill Staines
Down the Road – Gus Elen
Down the Road – McCaslin
Down the Road a Piece – Don Raye
False Knight Upon the Road – Steeleye Span
Follow That Road – Anne Hills
Freedom Road – Josh White
Friendly Road – Trad. New Zealand
Get Out on the Road and Beg
Goin’ Down (On the Road to L.A.)
Going Down the Road – Bruce Cockburn
Going Down This Road Feeling Bad
Good Road – Heidi Muller
Hessle Road – Keith Marsden
Hit the Road, Jack – Ray Charles
Horseferry Road
I’m Using My Bible for a Road Map – Reno & Smiley
I’ve Been on the Road – Bodie Wagner
Irish Blessing / May the Road Rise to Meet You
It’s a Lonesome Road – Hal Reeves
It’s a Long Long Road to Travel Alone – Carter Family
It’s a Long Road to Freedom – Miriam Therese Winter
Jordan Am a Hard Road to Travel – Uncle Dave Macon
Just a Country Road from You – Ronnie Parker
Knight of the Road – Men of Worth
Letter from Down the Road – Hedy West
Little Road and a Stone to Roll – John Stewart
Little Road to Bethlehem – Shawn Colvin
Lonesome Road – Carl Sandburg
Long Dusty Road – Terry Morrison
Long Lonesome Road – Ian & Sylvia
Long Road Home – C Fox Smith
Military Road – Jez Lowe
My Friend Upon the Road – Richard Digance
Never Tire of the Road – Andy Irvine
New Cut Road – Guy Clark
On the Jericho Road – Don McCrossan
On the One Road – Frank O’Donovan
On the Road – Carl Franzen
On the Road Again – Memphis Jug Band
On the Road Amanda Lay – parody of Kipling
On the Road from Aldermaston – Matt McGinn
On the Road from Killorglin to Cahercivee – McCarthy & Diggin
On the Road from Srebrenica – Tom Paxton
On the Road to Anywhere – Scott Sanders
On the Road to California
On the Road to Dongolay – parody of Kipling
On the Road to Freedom – John Kirkpatrick
On the Road to Mandalay – Kipling and Speaks
On the Road to Passchendaele – Brydon & Stoddart
On the Road to Santiago – Oysterband
Orphan of the Road – Johnny Cash
Over the Road I’m Bound to Go – Uncle Dave Macon
Paddy on the Road – Dominic Behan
Portobello Road – Stevens and Fowley
Raglan Road – Patrick Kavanagh
Rail Road Trabbeler – Christy’s Minstrels
Redemption Road – Tom Paxton
Rhythm of the Road – Dan McCoy
Rhythm of the Road – Larry Goddard
Rhythm of the Road – Murphey/Quarto
Richmond Is a Hard Road to Travel – Thompson
Ridge Road Gravel – Norman Blake
River Road – Sylvia Tyson
Road Agent – Kenny Rogers
Road Kill Cafe – John Flynn
Road Not Taken – Kevin Evans
Road to Aberdeen – Nanci Griffith
Road to Anywhere – Smoky Dawson
Road to Berlin – Russ
Road to Drumleman – Tony Cuffe
Road to Dundee a.k.a. The Road and the Miles to Dundee
Road to Dunmore – Robbie O’Connell
Road to Gundagai
Road to Sligo
Road to the Isles
Road to Youghal
Rocky Road – from The Sacred Harp
Rocky Road Cindy
Rocky Road to Dublin
Seven Bridges Road – Steve Young/Eagles
Somewhere Along the Road – Rick Kemp/Steeleye Span
Song of the Iron Road – Ewan MacColl
Sunny Road – Bill Staines
That Lonesome Road – James Taylor
That Wrong Road Again – Charles Kratz
The Aughagallon Road – J Creaney
The End of the Road – Harry Lauder
The Girls Along the Road – J B Geohegan
The Girls Up the Road
The Highland Road – Ian McCalman
The Highland Road – Stewart Ross
The Kilburn High Road – Flogging Molly
The Long Road – Nick Keir
The Long Road Is Taking Us Home – Tom Paxton
The Long Road West – Don Edwards
The Longest Road – Stephen Fearing
The Mother Road – Kevin Welch & Alan Rhody
The Mountain Road – The Outside Track
The Old Bog Road – Teresa Brayton
The Old Cross Road – Bill Monroe
The Open Road – Steve Parkes
The Pacific Rail Road – George F Root
The Road – Danny O’Keefe
The Road by the River – Frank O’Donovan
The Road Goes Ever On – J. R. R. Tolkien
The Road Goes On Forever – David Mallett
The Road Goes On Forever – Robert Earl Keen
The Road I Took to You – Barbara Keith
The Road It Gives, the Road It Takes
The Road of Good Intentions – John Gorka
The Road Through the Woods – Kipling
The Road to Anywhere – Reg Stoneham
The Road to Clady
The Road to Dorchester – G Moore/M Ryan
The Road to Malinmore – Dermot O’Brien
The Rocky Road to Dublin
The Sky Road – Frances Black
The Turn of the Road – Barker
Thunder Road – Bruce Springsteen
To Pad the Road wi’ Me – Ord’s Bothy Songs and Ballads
Tobacco Road – John D Loudermilk
Walk the Road – Kate Rusby
Waterloo Road – Jason Crest
Way Down the Old Plank Road – Uncle Dave Macon
Way Down the Road – Craig Johnson
Will You Travel Down This Road with Me
Wreck on the Mountain Road – Red Fox Chasers