ROAD SONGS FROM HERE TO THERE

Road songs define generations.

Baby boomer road songs?

Still the best?

Let’s take a drive around the block and find out.

Driving that train, high on cocaine.

No one is driving a train, and let that cocaine be.

But it’s got a good beat and easy to ride to.

And who doesn’t like a good train song for the road?

One toke over the line, sweet Jesus
One toke over the line
Sitting downtown in a railway station
One toke over the line

Did baby boomers all have to get loaded to hit the road?

What was that packing list?

Socks, undies, shirts, pants, gram of hash, canteen of whiskey, an envelope of window pane acid.

What could go wrong?

 If you see me walking all alone
Don’t look back, I’m just on my way back home
There’s a train leaves here this morning, and
I don’t know, what I might be on

What Boomers Might Be On Today

Skip the Thai-stick, the micro-dot, the reds, and whites.

What are ya, nuts? Come on.

Boomers on the road today pack a supply of statins, diabetic meds, benzos, oxy, and flomax.

Who’s ready for that party?

Well, I’m a-standing on a corner
In Winslow, Arizona
Such a fine sight to see
It’s a girl, my Lord
In a flat-bed Ford
Slowin’ down to take a look at me

Take A Look At That Road Songs List

Better look fast.

Get your motor runnin’
Head out on the highway
Looking for adventure
In whatever comes our way

If you look for the soul of America, you’ll find it.

When I was twelve years old my family took a drive from North Bend, Oregon to Dallas, Texas to meet my Mom’s relatives.

We traveled some of the same roads Stu and I hitch-hiked five years later.

The first time through I figured in my boy-brain that I’d never pass that way again.

The second time I was sure of it.

What about a third time with life-time travel companions?

Dog and I for three days, pick up wife in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and then, THEN, search out the soul of America in the earliest cities.

It might be in Moab, Arches, or Monument Valley?

Will The Soul Of America Surprise You?

Yes, it will.

So hang on.

One moment you’re in the cafeteria of One Battery Park Plaza eating lunch by the windows overlooking Hudson Bay, Ellis Island, Statue of Liberty.

You’re thinking about your work buddies warning about getting friendly with the girls they knew all speaking Italian at another table.

Then one of them floats over to your table asking what you’re doing this weekend and your buddies start waving red flags.

The next moment you’re on a stage under a rain-cover in Sandy, Oregon dressed in the same morning coat Prince Charles wore at his wedding.

You are there with your bride, the two of you just married.

It was a glorious muddy mess and 101% all American soul.

Whatever has gone wrong, getting married went right.

If you’re the right kind of traveler you take time to look around.

Here’s what I’ve found so far:

The soul of America is movement.

From the Oregon Trail to I-80, things have speeded up.

But it’s the slow times in road songs that sink in the deepest.

Busted flat in Baton Rouge, headin’ for the trains,
Feelin’ nearly faded as my jeans.
Bobby thumbed a diesel down just before it rained,
Took us all the way to New Orleans.

Or all the way to Santa Fe.

Do you know the way?

Here you go.