'Life On the Road' songs

Subject: 'Life On the Road' songs
From: Bee-dubya-ell
Date: 11 Nov 03 - 11:58 AM

As a general rule, I don't like "life on the road" songs. I think they're a bit pretentious. I know that writers are admonished to "write about what you know" and one thing that professional musicians know about is traveling from town to town making music. But does that mean that everybody has to write a song or two about the experience?

It's like novelists who cast writers as main characters in their books. Again, it's the "write about what you know" thing and writers know about being writers. But Stephen King's "Misery" and John Irving's "A Widow for One Year" are the only two novels that I can recall reading where it worked well - where the protagonist couldn't have just as easily been something else.

Anyway, of the "life on the road" songs with which I'm familiar, Simon & Garfunkle's "Homeward Bound" is the only one that I think is a great song. I can abide Willie Nelson's "On the Road Again", Waylon Jennings' "I Don't Think Hank Done 'Em This Way", Bob Seeger's "Turn the Page" and Jackson Browne's "Stay". Everything else just makes me want to take the songwriter aside and say, "Yeah, life on the road's tough. So go back to school and become a stockbroker."

Any others?

Bruce

Subject: RE: 'Life On the Road' songs
From: greg stephens
Date: 11 Nov 03 - 12:01 PM

"Been on the road" by Alex Campbell I always used to enjoy. Havent heard it for years( but I suppose you wouldnt expect to, it was quite personal to him as far as I remember)

Subject: RE: 'Life On the Road' songs
From: Larkin
Date: 11 Nov 03 - 12:23 PM

Lish Young Buy a broom and Richard Thompson's Beeswing do it for me !
Martin

Subject: RE: 'Life On the Road' songs
From: Leadfingers
Date: 11 Nov 03 - 12:29 PM

Bert Jansch did a good job with the Hitch Hikers song 'National Seven'
Hitching South across France to St Tropez.

Subject: RE: 'Life On the Road' songs
From: Wolfgang
Date: 11 Nov 03 - 12:33 PM

"One more city one more town" (Colin Wilkie)

Wolfgang

Subject: Lyr Add: BEEN ON THE ROAD SO LONG (Alex Campbell)
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 11 Nov 03 - 01:25 PM

Here's Alex Campbell's "Been on the Road (so long)"

I've been on the road, so long
Been tired and broke, so long
I've been to the south where the winds they were born
Travelling the road of no return, so long

I've seen what was war, so long
The ruins and the scars, so long
The mansions of mud, the wounds and the blood
Seen the dying of all that was good, so long.

Seen the world in the shadow, so long
Is its mushrooming cloud, so long
And the lies and the greed of the leaders of men
Those cheats who will take us to war again, so long.

Yet hope is in me, so long
For it's love that I see, so long
The courage and strength of the young men's smile
The faith that's in a little child, so long

I've travelled the road, so long
Have been tired and broke, so long
I've been to the south where the winds they were born
Travelling the road of no return, so long.

Subject: RE: 'Life On the Road' songs
From: Wesley S
Date: 11 Nov 03 - 01:32 PM

Every time our group sings Tom Paxton's "Ramblin' Boy" I want to remind the audience that everyone in the band will be driving our minivans to our three bedroom homes at the end of the show.

Subject: RE: 'Life On the Road' songs
From: voyager
Date: 11 Nov 03 - 01:38 PM

I recommend Steve Key's "Charles Kuralt" tune

Scroll down page 1/2 way and find the 3Mb mp3 tune.

voyager

Subject: RE: 'Life On the Road' songs
From: voyager
Date: 11 Nov 03 - 01:40 PM

2nd attempt -

http://mp3.washingtonpost.com/bands/steve_key.shtml

Subject: RE: 'Life On the Road' songs
From: Clinton Hammond
Date: 11 Nov 03 - 02:43 PM

"Never Tire Of The Road" is one of my favs...

"Night Drive" by Garnet Roges as well...

Stan Rogers cover of Mary McCaslins "Down The Road"

Stephen Fearings "The Life"

James Keelaghans "Love What A Road"

"Rocks On The Road" by Jethro Tull (A folk song, and they didn't even know it!)

Anything that's not a "Gods I'm so lonely in this hotel room" kinda thing....

Subject: RE: 'Life On the Road' songs
From: John Robinson (aka Cittern)
Date: 11 Nov 03 - 02:54 PM

I recommend "Life on the road" - how on topic is that? - by Howden Jones (http://www.howdenjones.co.uk/)

In fact Paul Jones is amongst my top 10 song writers.

All the best
John Robinson
http://www.JulieEllison.co.uk

Subject: RE: 'Life On the Road' songs
From: Alaska Mike
Date: 11 Nov 03 - 03:27 PM

I tend to agree with you Bruce. All of us songwriter types eventually write the "wish I was home instead of on the road" song. Mine is called "Rainy Day Blues". But I think these songs have a ring of truth that anyone can identify with. Who among us, musician or not, has not found ourselves far from home and missing the ones we love.

A couple I like that haven't been mentioned yet are Stan Rogers "Love Letter" and Eric Bogle's "Always Back to You".

Best wishes,
Mike

Subject: RE: 'Life On the Road' songs
From: GUEST, GEST
Date: 11 Nov 03 - 03:43 PM

From Newfoundland: Bob Porter's The Road Home.

Subject: RE: 'Life On the Road' songs
From: GUEST, GEST
Date: 11 Nov 03 - 03:56 PM

A real life on the road song, Ode To Trappers. I'd like to have some provenance on this one for my own database. :-)

Subject: RE: 'Life On the Road' songs
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 11 Nov 03 - 04:34 PM

All of us songwriter types eventually write the "wish I was home instead of on the road" song.

That's the diffeence with the Alex Campbell song I posted, because that's not where it is at all.

Subject: RE: 'Life On the Road' songs
From: GUEST
Date: 11 Nov 03 - 08:05 PM

Joni Mitchells 'Refuge of the Roads'....?

Subject: RE: 'Life On the Road' songs
From: Stewie
Date: 11 Nov 03 - 08:56 PM

For me, the best will always be 'Stoney' - Jerry Jeff's finest creation. I posted the lyrics here: Stoney

--Stewie.

Subject: RE: 'Life On the Road' songs
From: Glen Reid
Date: 11 Nov 03 - 09:54 PM

I wrote a song years ago about "being on the road" It was from my own prospective, but written about my best friend, Blind Freddie McKenna.

Blind from birth, Fred shared stories with me, of his early days in Canadian country music, eaking out a living as a single, "one man band" hitchhiking from town to town, singing his songs and paying his dues.
Except in Canada, he was never that famous and sadly he died pennyless,but he was a true musical pioneer and wealthy beyond compare, in his short but colourful life.

My old pal,Rick Fielding recorded it "That old Man's Song" on his Lifeline CD a few years ago.
Needless to say,one of the best versions ever.

Cheers,Glen

Subject: RE: 'Life On the Road' songs
From: PapaWhiskey
Date: 11 Nov 03 - 09:56 PM

I was thinking 'One More Town' or maybe 'He Was a Friend of Mine', but it would be hard to top 'Stoney'. Good song, that.

Subject: RE: 'Life On the Road' songs
From: Amos
Date: 11 Nov 03 - 09:58 PM

Well, remember, if you will that when Paxton's Rambling Boy was on its way to becoming a best beloved American Road song, everyone still hitchhiked all over the country, pretty much safely. Especially those who thought road-songs were cool -- they were on the road not because they were down and out bums, but because they were wild-oats teenagers escaping from highschools. But the song was just about right.

I thought Simon's Homeward Bound was pretentious and wussy and Woody-wannabe when I first heard it. I have grown to tolerate it, since, as with so much else.

A

Subject: RE: 'Life On the Road' songs
From: GUEST,reggie miles
Date: 11 Nov 03 - 10:52 PM

Writing what you know about doesn't necessarily mean that others will be able to relate to it. There are, however, so many things that we have all shared in common. I'd have to agree with Alaska Mike that, among the many thousands who travel far and wide across the planet each day for business or pleasure, there are longings to return home safely to their own homes and families, especially if you have to get around in a beast like mine.

The '65 Newport Ragtop Blues Reggie Miles © 2003

Flyin' down the highway
Loaded for a gig
My radio is rappin'
My ragtop is flappin'
To pieces in the wind

People stare but I don't care
At my midlife Chrysler sled
Yeah she's a long, low, lean
Mean American machine
And she loves to burn lead

These one night stands are goin' nowhere
But what's a poor boy got to lose?
My radiator's got a leak
I'm burnin' oil like a sheik
I've got the '65 Newport ragtop blues

Traffic is a jammin'
In the gray overcast      
My 383 is puffin' smoke
My odometer is broke
I'm goin' nowhere fast

The rain starts to fallin'
My wiper's givin' up the ghost
The steerin' pump is squeelin'
I gotta bad feelin'
She won't make the next post

People say, "Don't play your life away
Spinnin' yer wheels in those same ol' grooves
I'm just usin' what I got because it's all I've got to use
I got the '65 Newport ragtop blues

People say, cut your hair and get a real job
But then, who's gonna pay my dues?
I just wave, so long, as I pass them by
With the '65 Newport ragtop blues


One of my favorite writers, my friend One-Man, has a great ability to capture a unique perspective.


Soft Shoulders and Dangerous Curves © 1982 Robert 'One-Man' Johnson

Chorus: Soft shoulders and dangerous curves
Eatin' on my mind workin' at my nerves
All those highway signs remind me of her
Thinkin 'bout those soft shoulders and dangerous curves

All alone and lonesome rollin' down the road
Back home in Wisconsin, I know it's freezin' cold
Here in Luzianna, my rig is runnin' right
Lord I'd love to lay with her tonight

Thinkin' 'bout those
Chorus:

Just passed a driver in a no passin' zone
My mind so disconnected from these hours all alone
If baby was here with me, she could set me straight
Two more days, boys I can hardly wait

Thinkin' 'bout those
Chorus:

Wipers slappin' almost nappin' tryin' to stay awake
Think I better exit here and have a coffee break
Flashin' yellow indicates a detour up ahead
Wish I was home a-sleepin' in my bed

Next to those
Chorus:

Lights are flashin' horns are honkin' like a stock car race
In my mind my memory is fixed upon her face
Traffic on this interstate about to make me cry
A northbound sign's reflecting in my eye

Chorus

Subject: RE: 'Life On the Road' songs
From: open mike
Date: 12 Nov 03 - 12:07 AM

it this a thread about our Marion?

Subject: RE: 'Life On the Road' songs
From: Strupag
Date: 12 Nov 03 - 04:54 AM

I've been trying to get a hold of a song. I think it was composed by Archie Fisher and it says it all (in some cases) "The Band Broke Up When The Van Broke Down". I don't think that he ever recorded it but his sister Cilla Fisher used to sing it.
Anyone know it!

Subject: RE: 'Life On the Road' songs
From: Sam L
Date: 12 Nov 03 - 10:33 AM

I very much like The Jolly Wagoner, and The Thirty Foot Trailer. They aren't about musicians, but if you hope others will relate to your experience, a generous way to start is to try relating it to other people's experiences somehow. If you're picking ragtime tunes to pay the bills, maybe you can relate to someone who's picking rags to pay the bills. So what if that's a blues song instead. All that said, I also like the Cowboy Junkies' 200 More Miles, which is straight up about travelling musicians.

I was leading a writing workshop once that someone decided to derail into a Write What You Know symposium, merely because I was doing an observational exercise without any first-person commentary. Writing what you know makes sense as long as it isn't taken as an invitation to be a self-absorbed windbag. I think we write to discover what we know, which puts the reader and writer into a shared experience (or at least the illusion of it) rather than a tidy presentation.

For better examples of books and stories, a lot of Nabokov's stuff is from the point of view of a writer--one he has invented for the purpose of making his boring personal concerns more striking and strange. Not everyone can cast their concerns in such disturbing tales as he does, or would want to, but I find it great fun. Borges went so far as to write fictional reviews of books nobody had actually written. What did Shakespeare know about being a maddened King with three daughters? He knew about the problem of proportion in representing things, so he wrote about that. I really believe it comes through somehow if the writing is a process of discovery for the writer, whether or not the names, situations, and props change much.

   Sorry--I'm still a little miffed about having my little workshop ambushed!

Subject: RE: 'Life On the Road' songs
From: Sam L
Date: 12 Nov 03 - 10:43 AM

I can't agree about Bob Seeger's Turn The Page. The line about "You walk into a restaurant" makes me want to deflate the ponderous atmosphere with Dylan's "looking for the cook/told him I was the editor of a famous etiquete book/the waiter he was handsome he wore aq powder blue cape/I ordered some susette I said can you please make that crepe?

The sweat rolls off yo' body like the music that you play? Bleah.

Subject: RE: 'Life On the Road' songs
From: VIN
Date: 12 Nov 03 - 11:12 AM

Speaking of Alex Campbell, Bert Jansch does a nice version of 'Been On The Road' and Alex wrote another great song called 'My Old Gibson Guitar' e.g of the lyrics:

Well I've worked all over this country
An i've even worked in the bars
But i like best to sing ye ma folk songs
And play my old gibson guitar

John Renbourne does a splendid job of 'National Seven' on one of his early LP's too and then there's Berties great vesion of 'Strollin Down The Highway'.

Subject: RE: 'Life On the Road' songs
From: Chris in Wheaton
Date: 12 Nov 03 - 11:56 AM

A really great song - "Gypsy" - by Hamilton Camp - may be on his re-released cd.
Hamilton was "Bob" Camp when with Bob Gibson - hope he and his family are doing fine.
Chris in Wheaton, IL

Subject: RE: 'Life On the Road' songs
From: SueB
Date: 12 Nov 03 - 12:25 PM

I love road songs, Bee-dubya-ell, but then again I'm not a professional musician and I never get to go anywhere. The Tom Paxton song, Can't help but wonder where I'm bound, describes people like me in one of the verses -

If you see me passin' by
And you sit and you wonder why
And you wish that you were a rambler too
Nail your shoes to the kitchen floor
Lace them up and bar the door
And thank your stars for the roof that's over you

That's me, sitting in the kitchen with a restless heart, listening to music from far away places, reading travel writers and holding the roof up over my children with both shoulders.

What makes a good road song for me is a sense conveyed of freedom, adventure, experience, rootlessness, restlessness - with just the right touch of wistfulness and melancholy, some small sense of loss or regret, however slight. My list includes Guthrie's Hard Travellin', Little Feat's Willin', and 500 Miles.

Subject: RE: 'Life On the Road' songs
From: katlaughing
Date: 12 Nov 03 - 04:31 PM

I love Roy book Binder's lighthearted "plan" to go on the road. He sings it on his Bookeroo! tape and I think he said it was written by Merle Haggard? It is "I'm Gonna Buy Myself A Motorhome." You can listen to a bit of it at Amazon, just click HERE.

Speaking of our Maid Marion, she wrote one before going on her trip, American Pilgrim: clickety. She sang it for us Sunday last. Well done!

Subject: RE: 'Life On the Road' songs
From: Stewie
Date: 12 Nov 03 - 06:16 PM

Kat, according to the note to the Book Binder motorhome song, it was written by Tom Moore whom Book Binder met in Alaska and took on a motorhome trip. Book Binder must have had some input - probably the tune - as he shares the composition credit.

--Stewie.

Subject: RE: 'Life On the Road' songs
From: Celtaddict
Date: 12 Nov 03 - 07:35 PM

I love putting together "sets" of songs that have something in common, at least to me, and my musician-on-the-road compilation gets a lot of listening. Eric Bogle's "Somewhere in America" is a favorite. Gordon Bok singing "Wild Birds" is probably my personal #1.

Subject: RE: 'Life On the Road' songs
From: Celtaddict
Date: 12 Nov 03 - 07:47 PM

"Wild Birds" is by Jan Harmon. Gordon Bok recorded it on the BTM album "And So Will We Yet" from Folk Legacy, and it is covered on a thread I can't make a clicky to but can be found by putting "wild birds" into a forum search.

Subject: RE: 'Life On the Road' songs
From: freightdawg
Date: 12 Nov 03 - 08:49 PM

From what I have read in posts long ago, I gather that John Denver is not hugely popular with several members, but one of my all time favorites is "Back Home Again" which deals with being on the road, but more important, being back in a place where the heart stays. Also, I was just introduced to his "All Of My Memories" which sort of deals with the same theme, but is a little more melancholy. Being a mountain goat myself, I love the connection with coming home to something as solid as a mountain - whether it is a love or a homestead or a collection of memories or whatever. However, I must admit that "Leaving On a Jet Plane" leaves me on the tarmac. Much better to sing of coming home to something that to sing of leaving it.

Freightdawg

Subject: RE: 'Life On the Road' songs
From: katlaughing
Date: 12 Nov 03 - 11:01 PM

Stewie, thanks. I remembered after I posted that, that he mentions Merle in the song!*bg* Appreciate the clarification.

kat

Subject: RE: 'Life On the Road' songs
From: Steve-o
Date: 13 Nov 03 - 01:08 PM

On the Bluegrass-style front, Herb Pedersen wrote a very good one called "Wait A Minute" that was made somewhat 'famous' by the Seldom Scene. One of the few "it's tough being on the road" songs I like.

Subject: RE: 'Life On the Road' songs
From: Susanne (skw)
Date: 13 Nov 03 - 05:24 PM

Out on the Road (Loudon Wainwright III)
and the antidote to all 'Poor Boy on the Road' songs,
Poor Boy on the Road (Bob Gibson)