The Road, Again: Willie Nelson + Cormac McCarthy = New Music

The long and short of this post is that I recorded a new song. Here it is:

And here is the story behind the music . . .

A few weeks ago, I was strumming Willie Nelson's "On the Road Again" on my back porch, as is my right as an American citizen. I got to this portion:

Like a band of gypsies we go down the highway;

we're the best of friends,

insisting that the world keep turning our way . . .

and our way, is on the road again

Willie Nelson

These lyrics struck me as an incredibly upbeat, romanticized, and optimistic description of the road. What could be more fun than going on tour with Willie Nelson? You'd hang out with his band of gypsies, getting drunk and stoned. You might invent the Willie Nelson joke. Perhaps you'd even get so fucked up that you'd miss a show. No worries. Just be cool to the fans. Normally the road can be a tough place for a touring musician. Rock and pop stars really do die younger than other folks. Willie Nelson (85 years young) is a pickled anomaly.

And so as I was sitting on my back porch, singing about Willie Nelson's yellow-bricked road to good times, I remembered Cormac McCarthy's take on this. His brutal father/son novel The Road. And I wondered if I could combine the two. If I could write a moderately upbeat song about a dystopian journey on a road both real and allegorical, a road symbolic of the difficulty of escape in our technological surveillance society, but with the possibility of outlaw friendship and salvation.

No zany band of gypsies on this road . . .

I knew I wasn't breaking new ground. The road is one of the most common metaphors for life's journey. It's been used variously: Frost's two roads that diverge in a yellow wood. Tom Cochrane's hackneyed "Life is a Highway." Jack Kerouac's rambling adventures of infinite possibility. Steinbeck's more mundane Travels with Charley. And Ray Midge's absurd and existential road trip in The Dog of the South.

I hope my Willie Nelson/Cormac McCarthy-inspired-mash-up twists and turns differently than those roads that have come before, but in the end it doesn't matter. I enjoyed the journey of recording the song (despite the fact my studio is a bit of a mess right now . . . we're preparing for a massive garage sale, but after we clean things out I'm really going to get organized down there).

This is where the magic happens:

Abbey Road it's not . . .

I was also inspired by my buddy John, who just finished recording an entire album. If he could record all that, I figured I could get one song done, despite the mess. Here's one of his Aloha Salvation tunes. His music is in stark contrast to mine (and not just because it's good).

The Road, Again . . . Lyrics

When you run don’t look behind you,
We will be hot on your trail.

You can hide but the flies will find you.
We have spies in the atmosphere.

And you can cut the ties that bind you,
But you can never prepare for the road . . .
On the road, you will grow lonely and old.

On the road again, on the road . . .
No band of gypsies to help shoulder the load,
On the road.

Go rogue, but let me remind you:
Our eyes are everywhere.

Parallel the life you once knew
Cultivate a dead eyed stare

And you can break the chains that confine you,
Annihilate the traits that define you,
Eliminate the things that remind you,
But you better prepare for the road

On the road, you will abandon your code
On the road again, on the road . . .
Some kindly soul could take you into the fold on the road.

Park the Bus