The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #7036   Message #42021
Posted By: BSeed
17-Oct-98 - 12:41 AM
Thread Name: How to write a country song --TIPS PLEASE?
Subject: Lyr Add: YOU'RE A DETOUR ON THE HIGHWAY TO HEAVEN
Here's another greatest country song, even greater than Wild Side of Life (but to the same tune): I have no idea who wrote it.

YOU'RE A DETOUR ON THE HIGHWAY TO HEAVEN

When Mama lay a-dyin' on the flatbed,
She told me not to truck with girls like you;
But I was blinded by the glare of your headlights,
And went joy-ridin' just for the view.

(chorus)
You're a detour on the highway to heaven,
I am lost on the back roads of sin.
I have got to get back to the four-lane,
So that I can see Mama again.

Your curves made me lose my direction,
My hands from the steering wheel strayed;
But you were just one more roadside attraction--
It's been ten thousand miles since I've prayed.

If I ever get out of the fast lane,
And get back to that highway above,
I'll be waiting for you at the tollbooth,
In that land where all roads end in love.

BTW, I don't know if he wrote "Wild Side of Life," but I think Hank Snow first recorded it. There's a woman's response to the song called "It Wasn't God Who Made Honky-tonk Angels."

--seed