Some Road Songs, D-F

John Denver: "Back Home Again"

There's a storm across the valley, clouds are rollin' in
The afternoon is heavy on your shoulders
There's a truck out on the four lane a mile or more away
The whinin' of his wheels just makes it colder
He's an hour away from ridin' on your prayers up in the sky
And ten days on the road are barely gone
There's a fire softly burnin', supper's on the stove
But it's the light in your eyes that makes him warm.]

John Denver: "Take Me Home, Country Roads"

I hear her voice
In the mornin' hour she calls me
The radio reminds me of my home far away
And drivin' down the road I get a feelin'
That I should have been home yesterday, yesterday
Country roads, take me home
To the place I belong
West Virginia, mountain momma
Take me home, country roads.

Clayton Denwood: "Down the Road and Gone"

She's the light that leads him on
Well he tried to tell her late that night
But she was down the road and gone.

Clayton Denwood: "Only Just Begun"

End of the road
End of the line
End of everything I thought was mine
End of the story of sadness and laughter
Time to get down to the happy ever after
Been looking down the road where all my dreams have come undone
Feels like the end of something but it's only just begun.

Neil Diamond: "Blue Highway"

Gonna take that blue highway
And leave this sorry town
Stayed too long, but now I'm gone
And I know where I'm bound
I don't wanna take the interstate
It represents all the things I hate
I'm rolling down that blue highway.

Dire Straits: "Telegraph Road"

A long time ago came a man on a track
Walking thirty miles with a sac on his back
And he put down his load where he thought it was the best
And he made a home in the wilderness
He built a cabin and a winter store
And he ploughed up the ground by the cold lake shore
And the other travellers came riding down the track
And they never went further and they never went back
Then came the churches then came the schools
Then came the lawyers then came the rules
Then came the trains and trucks with their loads
And the dirty old track was the telegraph road

Doobie Brothers: "Don't Stop to Watch the Wheels"

I was trashed, ridin' on my 74
Goin' out to even the score
She pulled the top down on her convertible
I've got a lot of miles to cover
But if you think you need a lover
All right
Climb on, hold tight, I got a long ride tonight.

Walter Egan: "Blonde in the Blue T-Bird"

The moonlight night, the highway shines.
A pair of beams approaches mine
And as she pulls up close we share a glance
My heart awoke
The blonde in the blue T-Bird

Walter Egan: "Surfin' & Drivin'"

500 miles to L.A.
500 Miles to my home
When I get back to L.A.
Never again will I roam
Surfin' and drivin' are the only things I know.

Walter Egan: "When I Get My Wheels"

When I get my wheels
Won't see me around
When I get my wheel
Gonna be freeway bound.

England Dan and John Ford Coley: "New Jersey"

Black skies above me
And the concrete down below my feet
At night I'm blinded by the headlights
And the mountain roads are steep.
Two thousand more miles to bear
And I'll be there.

Flying Burrito Brothers: "Wheels"

We've all got wheels to take ourselves away
We've got telephones to say what we can't say
We've all got higher and higher every day
Come on wheels take this boy away
We're not afraid to ride
We're not afraid to die
So come on wheels take me home today.

John Fogerty: "The Old Man Down the Road"

He got the voices speak in riddles, he got the eye as black as coal,
He got a suitcase covered with rattlesnake hide, and he stands right in the road.
You got to hidey-hide, you got to jump up run away;
You got to hidey-hidey-hide, the old man is down the road.

Fountains of Wayne: "Little Red Light"

Sitting in traffic on the Tappan Zee
Fifty million people out in front of me
Trying to cross the water but it just might be a while
Rain's coming down I can't see a thing
Radio's broken so I'm whistling
New York to Nyack feels like a hundred miles.

Fountains of Wayne: "Valley Winter Song"

Hey Sweet Annie
Don't take it so bad
You know the summer's coming soon
Though the interstate is choking under salt and dirty sand
And it seems the sun is hiding from the moon.

Aretha Franklin: "Freeway of Love"

Goin' ridin' on the freeway of love
Wind's against our back
Goin' ridin' on the freeway of love
In my pink Cadillac.

Free: "The Highway Song"

It was a long was for this high road
It was a far way from here
So we walked along the road
Just telling stories as we go.

Some Interesting Cars at the Beavercreek, Ohio Cruise-In, June 14, 2013:

I picked these three vehicles because they stood out as I walked the lot yesterday at the cruise-in. The truck and rod are really different, but I would not want to own them.  the 1954 Pontiac is overdone in my opinion for a Pontiac of that era. But to each his or her own!

Before there were stolen cars there were stolen horses and buggies: Use of post cards to disseminate information.

As some of you know, I am working on a book on stolen cars.  Very early on, insurance companies distributed information on stolen cars using the U.S. postal system. Note that in the above example specifics on a stolen team of horses and buggy is being sent out to police using the mail. Another example of continuity in history!

African American Auto Mechanics -- 1950s

Hi folks -- Kevin Borg has written the book on the history of  auto mechanics, but I can't remember what he said if anything, on black mechanics. Here is a photo of three mechanics, a late 1940s Oldsmobile, and late 1940s or early 1950s Ford.

Studebaker and Nash Automobiles in the Belgian Congo, 1953

Hi folks -- note the above image. The topic of the importation of Automobiles into Africa,perhaps outside of South Africa, remains a wide-open research topic.

Road Song Lyrics: Artists A-C

Aerosmith: "On The Road Again"

Look out pretty mama
I'm on the road again.

Bachman-Turner Overdrive: "Freeways"

Drivin' in a beat up car
The highway is long but we've come so far
Two thousand miles from home
We got to find someplace that we can belong
But, we know, the freeways in life
Are all pointing us home
Don't you know, nothing in this life means anymore
Freeways, freeways.

Richard "Dickie" Betts: "Back On The Road Again"

Back on the road again
Right back where we really always been
Same old hotel rooms
Back on the road again.

Richard "Dickie" Betts: "Highway Call"

Sometimes I feel so all alone
That ain't no place to be
I wish I had my feet under the table
A little child on my knee
Highway call
There's something in your song
Highway call
You keep me rollin' on.

Rory Block: "Gone Again"

Man, will you look at that sweet two wheeler.
Gotta keep moving on open road
Gotta keep moving on open road
All I see is open road
Miles and miles of open road
Keep moving on open road.
Gotta keep moving on open road
Gone, gone.

Brewer and Shipley: "Blue Highway"

People don't pick you up on the blue highway
Oh the blue highway is a road you travel alone
People sure ain't gonna look you up on the blue highway
On the blue highway just keeps leadin' you on.

David Bromberg: "New Lee Highway Blues"

You know that goddam road seemed like it went on forever
Exhaust fumes made our eyes turn red and swell.
With our clothes stuck to the seat and to our bodies
It was a stinking summer trip through southern hell.

Jackson Browne: "Nothing But Time"

Rolling down 295 out of Portland, Maine
Still high from the people up there and feeling no pain
Gonna make it to New Jersey, gonna set it up and do it again.

Jackson Browne: "The Pretender"

I'm going to rent myself a house
In the shade of the freeway.
I'm going to pack my lunch in the morning
And go to work each day.
And when the evening rolls around
I'll go on home and lay my body down.

Jackson Browne: "The Road"

Highways and dancehalls
A good song takes you far
You write about the moon
And you dream about the stars
Blues in old motel rooms
Girls in daddy's car
You sing about the nights
And you laugh about the scars.

Jackson Browne: "The Road and the Sky"

I'm just rolling away from yesterday
Behind the wheel of a stolen Chevrolet
I'm going to get a little higher
And see if I can hot-wire reality.

Jackson Browne: "Running on Empty"

Looking out at the road rushing under my wheels
Looking back at the years gone by like so many summer fields
In sixty-five I was seventeen and running up one-o-one
I don't know where I'm running now, I'm just running on.

]

Jackson Browne: "Shaky Town"

And I've followed those highway signs
And I've run down those thin white lines
Like those drivers this old road is all I call my own
That's a big ten-four
From your back door
Just put that hammer down
This young man feels
Those eighteen wheels
That keep turning 'round to take me down to shaky town.

The Byrds: "B. B. Class Road"

We're driving down the highway
Seven days a week
Looking for a number 1
Looking rather bleak.
Well, I'm a roadie
What a job being a roadie.

Canned Heat: "On The Road Again"

Take a hint from your mama, please don't cry no more.
Cause it's soon one morning down the road I'm gone
But I ain't goin' down that long ol' lonesome road all by myself
If I can't carry you, baby, going to carry somebody else.

Tony Carey: "Blue Highway"

I had a wife, she wouldn't keep me
Left a job, a living, and family
There was nothing to keep me, no reason to stay
Went looking for nothing down the blue highway.

Mary Chapin Carpenter: "Down at the Twist and Shout"

Well I never have wandered down to New Orleans
Never have drifted down a bayou stream
But I heard that music on the radio
And I swore some day I was gonna go
Down highway 10 past Lafayette
To Baton Rouge and I won't forget
To send you a card with my regrets
'cause I'm never gonna come back home.

Mary Chapin Carpenter: "Read My Lips"

A few more cigarettes now honey
One more jolt of joe
A couple hours past New York City
A few more turnpike tolls
One more minute away from you
Is a minute that lasts too long.

Mary Chapin Carpenter: "A Road is Just a Road"

A road is only dust and dirt.
On a lonely interchange
The signs all look the same
'cause a road is just a road
and a feeling's just a feeling.

No matter where you go,
from Waterloo to Wichita
A road is just a road
that the one you love is leaving on.

Mary Chapin Carpenter: "Stones in the Road"

And the stones in the road fly out from beneath our wheels
Another day, another deal, before we get back home
And the stones in the road leave a mark from whence they came
A thousand points of light or shame, baby, I don't know.

Marshall Chapman: "Leaving Loachapoka"

Going 90 miles an hour with her hair on fire
Running on a tank full of burning desire
She's heading out on highway number 29
Leaving Loachapoka, Alabama, behind.

The Collins Kids: "Hot Rod"

I found a real cute baby
she's a real swinging baby
And she says we'll go steady
just as soon as I get me a hot rod.
I'm going to take her for a moonlight drive
Across Mulholland Drive
Man I will be really alive
As soon as I get me a hot rod.

Don Conley: "Blue Highway"

Another highway, another heartache
Traveling man routine eight days from home
And all alone in the whining time machine . . .
On this blue highway
Between love and me
Nothing but blue highway
As far as my heart can see

Continental Drifters: "Highway of the Saints"

I'm driving down the Highway of the Saints
Keepin' an eye on a friend of mine
Who wishes no complaints
When all her strength had left her
And hope it become thin.

Alice Cooper: "Slick Black Limousine"

We're gonna fly ya ya yeah
Ninety miles an hour
Swervin' all over the road
Hundred miles an hour
My hand's on the radio
Baby's in the back seat
Bompin' all over the road.

Creedence Clearwater Revival: "Sweet Hitch-hiker"

Was ridin' along side the highway,
Rollin' up the country side.
Thinkin' I'm the devil's heatwave,
What you burn in your crazy mind?
Saw a slight distraction standin' by the road;
She was smilin' there, yellow in her hair;
Do you wanna, I was thinkin', would you care.