The WELL: deadsongs.vue.229: Down the Road

#13: Marked from the Day That I was Born (ssol) Sat 2 Oct 04 15:01

Sat, 02 Oct 2004 15:01:00 PDT

#12: David Dodd (ddodd) Sat 2 Oct 04 10:02

Sat, 02 Oct 2004 10:02:00 PDT

#11: neil (nlg) Fri 1 Oct 04 14:07

Fri, 01 Oct 2004 14:07:00 PDT

David, here are Coe's lyrics:

The Ride, David Allen Coe

I was thumbin' back from Montgomery with a guitar on my back When a stranger pulled up beside me in an antique Cadillac. Well, he was dressed like 1950, half drunk and hallow eyed It's a long walk to Nashville, would you like a ride, son. He sat down in the front seat, and turned on the radio and them sad old songs comin' outta them speakers was solid country gold. Then I noticed the stranger was ghost white pale when he asked me for a light. And knew there was somethin' strange about this ride.

CHORUS: He said: Mister can you make folks cry when you play and sang. Can you pay your dues, can you moan the blues Can you bend them guitar strangs. He said: Boy, can you make folks feel what you feel inside, Cause if your big star bound let me warn you its a long hard ride.

Well, he cried just south of Nashville, and he turned that car around.

he said: (spoken) this is where you get off, boy, cause I'm going back to Alabam'. I stepped out of that ole Cadillac and I said Mister, many thanks. he said you don't have to call me mister, Mister. The whole world calls me Hank.

Repeat Chorus [Read entire topic]

#10: David Dodd (ddodd) Tue 24 Aug 04 13:11

Tue, 24 Aug 2004 13:11:00 PDT

Joe Hill: A Biographical Novel. Originally published as The Preacher and the Slave. [Read entire topic]

#9: Christian Crumlish (xian) Tue 24 Aug 04 08:43

Tue, 24 Aug 2004 08:43:00 PDT

The song also brings to mind "I dreamed I saw St. Augustine alive as you and me" which itself alludes to

I dreamed I saw Joe Hill last night, Alive as you and me Says I "But Joe, you're ten years dead" |: "I never died" says he. :|

"In Salt Lake, Joe, by God" says I, Him standing by my bed "They framed you on a murder charge" |: Says Joe "But I ain't dead." :|

"The copper bosses killed you Joe, They shot you Joe" says I "Takes more than guns to kill a man" |: Says Joe "I didn't die." :| And standing there as big as life, And smiling with his eyes Joe says "What they forgot to kill |: Went on to organise." :|

"Joe Hill ain't dead" he says to me, "Joe Hill ain't never died Where workingmen are out on strike |: Joe Hill is at their side." :|

From San Diego up to Maine, In every mine and mill, Where workers strike and organise, |: Says he "You'll find Joe Hill." :|

At the time Down the Road came out Hunter told me in email correspondence that he'd been reading I think it was Wallace Stegner's novelization of Joe Hill's life. I'd better look up that title. [Read entire topic]

#8: David Dodd (ddodd) Mon 23 Aug 04 15:38

Mon, 23 Aug 2004 15:38:00 PDT

Thanks, Alex. Great to hear that story. [Read entire topic]

#7: Alex Allan (alexallan) Mon 23 Aug 04 14:05

Mon, 23 Aug 2004 14:05:00 PDT

I've only just come across a 1996 David Gans interview with Mickey Hart in which Mickey explains that the song was originally written before Jerry died, with a fourth verse that instead refered to Martin Luther King.

Hunter performed this verse in a solo performance on 1 March 1997. A reader of my site sent me the following transcription (with a few unclear phrases):

Driving down the road all night, the sun is rising red [Reciting] old stories, and conversing with the dead I rode into [Sullen/Sullivan], low on gasoline Been so long on empty, I been ridin' on a dream

The fellow at the station looked like Martin Luther King "You're low on oil," he said, with an old familiar ring "How far to the mountain, friend," I asked him face to face "You're standing on it now," he said, "You just don't know the place"

Mickey Hart's account of how the Garcia verse got written is great:

DG: [Down The Road] must have been one of the last ones that got written?

MH: Oh, yeah, well, it got written, but then Hunter came in and changed the last verse. He said, "You know the fourth verse? I've got a better verse."

DG: Who was it before?

MH: The fourth verse? It was a Martin Luther King verse, you know.

DG: Uh-huh.

MH: I said, "Okay, write it down, let me see it." He said, "No." He said, "Let me sing it." I go, "Okay, man -- go in there, and you know, the mic's set up, go ahead. Let's hear it." And as soon as he was halfway through it, you know, I just looked at him. I realized what he had just done, you know. It was just right on, I mean you can imagine what the control room was like at that very moment.

DG: Yeah.

MH: You know, just Hunter -- he just went outside, you know, [and] lightning struck. It came to him like it usually does, and he just poured it right out. I think he was still writing while he was singing. It's like one of those kind of magical moments, just "shoop" -- "oh, boy, this is exactly perfect." My sentiments exactly, and you know, it couldn't have been -- it was exactly how we were feeling, and of course we were all grieving and everything at this time, it happened right after Jerry went. So this was a like, real spontaneous act on Hunter's part. I mean, I would have never asked him to do it -- it entered my mind, but I couldn't imagine anything that wouldn't be corny, you know, and he managed to do it *very* well. Great sentiment. [Read entire topic]

#6: David Dodd (ddodd) Fri 20 Aug 04 08:45

Fri, 20 Aug 2004 08:45:00 PDT

I'll have to find that! [Read entire topic]

#5: neil (nlg) Thu 19 Aug 04 12:32

Thu, 19 Aug 2004 12:32:00 PDT

still gives me shivers every single time.

Several of the verses have always reminded me of that David Allen Coe song, The Ride, another one that tends to give me shivers whenever I hear it. Same kind of theme: a drifter/traveller encountering ghosts of musical heros of the past. [Read entire topic]

#4: Marked from the Day That I was Born (ssol) Fri 2 Jul 04 17:14

Fri, 02 Jul 2004 17:14:00 PDT

Before I ever heard it, I read the lyric notes from the album box. I was sitting at a bar in a mall.I started to weep and smile, and asked the guy behind the bar to put it on the laserola.

He did.I smiled. I supressed my tears, A couple other folks in the joint fell into the groove and also wiped away those tears. We are everywhere.

Good tiiming, Hart! [Read entire topic]