The Kinks also toured in support of The Road in 1988. I remember seeing them at the Orpheum Theater in Boston in early 1988, w/Tonio K, probably the best of the opening acts that I saw. What I remember is that the band was tight and loud in that relative small theatre where I later saw Ray solo in 2006.
It all started here for me: Various - Atlantic Rhythm And Blues 1947-1974 That scene in Pretty in Pink where Jon Cryer jumped around the record store to "Try a Little Tenderness" - I hate to say, it was a revelation. I was raised and so immersed in 60s and 70s rock that R&B and soul music was mostly a mystery to me. I knew key Motown tracks, but that was about it. I subsequently found that Atlantic R&B series all over that section of every record store I walked into at college and went to town, starting with Volumes 5 and 6, the most well-known stuff. We've all had those times in life where we become obsessed with discovering something from the past, and suddenly realize that little stream we had gazed on admiringly flowed into a much large ocean. I learned a lot in college, but the things I started learning about recent music history were life-altering and created tastes I still have now. I drove my friends nuts who took the two-hour car ride back home with me from college, stereo blasting either The Velvet Underground or Otis Redding, with nothing in between! These days, I'd just tell them to turn on the classic rock station, and let's hang out. Not then.
Killing Time I only just listened to this song for the first time like 6 minutes ago and I knew within the first 10 seconds that I would really dig this song. This may be my favorite song off this album. As Mark said, this song has a great melody and feel. Ray's vocals are wonderful. The lyrics have to be the best on Think Visual. Maybe? And I feel like we're looking into the future to solo Ray Davies in listening to this song. Two thumbs up!
The movie that turned me on to soul/Motown was Cooley High, which I saw on TV in 1977, just as I started getting into music. I was buying Otis Redding and Smokey Robinson and the Miracles albums along w/the Kinks, Stones and Elvis Costello albums. I still feel that the Four Tops Greatest Hits album is the most perfect one. Reading Sweet Soul Music put things on another level. I also remember listening to a soul music radio show hosted by James Issacs on Saturday nights from the Boston University station which remains my favorite radio show ever.
Last Saturday our cat got under my wife’s feet in our tiled entryway as she headed to answer the front door. Fast forward: a fracture in a bone in her forearm and she’s in a splint for 8 weeks. Fortunately she didn't have other injuries. So I’ve fallen behind in posting but I’ve been reading yours and there have been some outstanding posts that I would love to acknowledge if I had time. Welcome home to @Wondergirl and @Fortuleo! Think Visual – This is a mixed bag: some solid songs and some must-skips. For me it’s in the same ballpark as 2/3 of the Arista albums, around the 50% mark (albeit with more Smiler edits), even if I don’t hear any classics. Ray pursues his recurring themes and tries to fit in with the times yet still usually manages to put his own spin on it. Dave has backed off somewhat from his 80s Arena Guitar God tone on his leads, so that’s an improvement to my mind. I have to admire Ray’s chutzpah in making his first songs for his new employer undisguised complaints about how they’re making him work in a factory and flash that smile! I only had one distracted listen to all of Dave’s Fragile songs on YouTube, but they didn’t grab me enough to want to spend more time with them. The one that did attract my interest was “Violet Dreams,” then I realized I'd heard it before when we already covered that one. That's download-worthy, so yay Dave! The Road - I prefer the March 1987 Chicago live concert recording from this tour, but this is growing on me with repeat listens. But I’d say few of these renditions improve on their studio counterparts. I know there’s a lot of hate for this cover, but it’s good enough, and better than many, including the albums immediately before and after. Regarding a Kinks reunion: yes, that is just what they say when they have something to promote. Their touring ship has passed, and are they even up to live performances? As @mark winstanley suggested, maybe one last farewell recording would be nice. What sentimental me would love to hear would be one last classic Kinks song, an uplifting (but not sappy) 2022 "Better Days"-type song about reconciliation and unity that he and Dave would share vocals on and that the world needs right now. Oh well, I can dream... This picture of Ray that Avid @pyrrhicvictory posted is unlike any I've ever seen. He seems relaxed, happy, unguarded, unsmirking. If it weren't on a Kinks thread, I never would have recognized him. It makes me smile to see him this way.
Thanks, I will. She already knows who the "Headmaster" is, so I won't have to explain it to her. She's been incredibly supportive of the time I spend on here; she's glad I've found a community of folks I have common interests with. I'm a lucky man!
That would be the first tour I caught as well. Then every subsequent Kinks tour until Ray went solo and of course I’d catch him at least once per tour then as well. It’s interesting to look back and see shows with nothing from VGPS evolve into Ray nearly performing the whole album based on its critical reassessment. Man do I miss seeing him perform
The Road. stereo mix, album edit (6:07), recorded Sep 1987 at Konk Studios, Hornsey, London Sitting alone in my hotel Looking in the mirror wondering, "well, after all this time you never thought you'd still be out on the road?" Like a gypsy I was born to roam Like a wanderer with no fixed abode I think about the friends I've left behind on the road Well, the road's been rocky along the way It's been a long, hard haul on the motorway But if it gets too smooth it's time to call it a day (On the road) The bed and breakfasts and the greasy spoons (The road) The loser bars and the noisy rooms (The road) The casualties who did too many lines (The road) Wasted talent on women and wine I think of all the friends I've left behind Whenever it's time to get back out on the road Started playing blues in a coffee bar I took a trip down Charing Cross Road With my imitation Gretsch guitar And my head full of songs and my eyes full of stars I saw a band called the Rolling Stones I thought, "that's it, I'll get a band, I'm leaving home, I'm out on the road." The motorways all over this land (The road) Far away places like Wigan and Birmingham (The road) Didn't have no name, didn't have any fans (The road) Didn't have no money so we slept in the van All those early gigs we ever played Sometimes we were lucky if we even got paid On the road Pete played on the bass guitar Liked to get around, mixing with all the stars But Mrs. Avory's child was all fingers and thumbs But solid as a rock, setting time on the drums While Dave the Rave hit the rock 'n' roll riffs Yours truly strummed away with a slightly limp wrist On the road Everyday is when I can't get used to it Everyday is when I can't get away Another day, another freeway to face That's the road Well, life is a road, it's a motorway And the road gets rocky along the way But if it gets too smooth it's time to call it a day (On the road) Jimi Hendrix, The Who, the Led Zeppelin and Free They took the road so it's alright by me Some are survivors, some are debris If you play in a band that's the road that you take Living in it, eating in it, sleeping in it You wake up in the morning, what do you see? The road Life is a road, it's a motorway Lost a lot of good friends along the way All the families and homes that I've left behind To the wives and the lovers and friends who had their time I say, "you take your road and I'll take mine." (You take your road and I'll take mine) You take your road and I'll take mine (You take your road and I'll take mine) Life is a road, it's a motorway And the road gets rocky along the way But if it gets too smooth it's time to call it a day (On the road) Observed all the various phases from Flower power, heavy metal and acid rock And still all the critics keep saying "Are they still around? When they gonna stop?" It's just the dedicated followers of fashion who like putting down All the well respected men who came dancing and are still on the road Sometime I get suicidal Now everyone is a rival Different cars, different bars and hotels Corporations, big business and egos When it all gets too bad I think back When we were all each other had When we started out on the road And there's gas in my tank and I've still got a way to go Another hotel, it's time to check out soon As I look around the room I think of all the friends I've left behind On the road Written by: Ray Davies Published by: Davray Music Ltd. This track was released as a single in the UK (12" and 7") a week before the album ... but it failed to bother the scorers. The song did however chart at 14, on the US mainstream rock chart (for radio play) I actually really like this track.... but I get the feeling many won't... We have spoken of some of Ray's songs starting to get that middle aged, reflective looking back through life kind of vibe about them, and this track could be the ultimate expression of that, up to this stage of the Kinks output. This song has an autobiographical feel and lyric about it, that is very appealing to me. It is somewhat similar to Pete's Long Live Rock, but from the eyes of an older man, who has more mileage on the clock, and he is focusing in, but also casting a wide net to view the whole scene. I don't see this as a "Highway Whinge Song" ... it seems to be a very genuine, and dare I say sentimental, heartfelt look back across the years at the idea of the Kinks, and their contemporaries as they stormed through the world in Kombi's, buses, trains and airplanes, taking their music to the masses as best they could at any given point in time. Dare I also say, that to some degree, the song gives me the feeling that Ray was starting to see the writing on the wall... and I think, to some degree also, they're some of the things that really appeal to me about this track..... again, it's Ray the human being, casting a glance over a long and successful career, and all the reminisces that make the heart smile, and glaze over slightly with a sense of loss at times too. The first verse sets up the mood. Ray is sitting in his hotel and thinking about the years of touring, but more significantly "about the friends I've left behind on the road" .... and I say more significantly, because he bookends the song with this line, which I think gives us context as to where his head is at here. Also, I think it's significant that he is essentially stating that the rocky road, and highs and lows are important, he isn't complaining about it, he is stating its importance in the context of what touring is, and reinforces it with "if it gets too smooth it's time to call it a day" I think that first chorus is significant in terms of the context too, because it seems to give some context of what Ray really means by "friends, left behind on the road" (On the road) The bed and breakfasts and the greasy spoons (The road) The loser bars and the noisy rooms (The road) The casualties who did too many lines (The road) Wasted talent on women and wine It seems like it is accentuating the excitement of the bed and breakfasts and the bars and clubs. Although he says loser bars, I don't think that's a judgement call, but more how the world sees these places... The noisy rooms aren't a bad thing in the context either... I think to some degree noisy rooms are a great place for someone with an overactive mind... working somewhat as a damper .... But more significantly, in light of all those places where interesting times can be had, and ideas for songs can manifest, it is the casualties, and those who wasted all their talent on women and wine who seem to be the most relevant here, as it seems they would be these friends that were left behind on the road. "I think of all the friends I've left behind Whenever it's time to get back out on the road" This is an interesting line, because I'm not sure of the context here, and it could be a sort of reverse situation... where when he goes out on the road he misses the friends he leaves behind also, or it could be that he goes on the road to see those folks he left behind last time..... or it could even be a case of pondering whether he may end up on the casualty list this time around.... part of the excitement is the blind spots that we don't see.... the unexpected is often the thing that really gets the adrenaline junkies heart racing... The next section is really interesting, because it reads like a quick run through how he got started... how the band got started ... however we want to read that... but the really interesting part to me is the idea that they were inspired by a band called The Rolling Stones ... that is interesting to me because the bands seem to have gotten together, and released their first material at roughly about the same time... It could also be that while The Kinks were getting their thing together they were inspired by some local buzz about the Stones, I'm not sure, it's time for a historian to step in and fill in the blanks there. "my head full of songs and my eyes full of stars" I love this line. It sums up the rock and roll dream so well and so succinctly. I can still feel that buzz of excitement that had me trying to write songs, but having no idea how to go about doing this whole thing, and then the excitement of a mate from school calling me a few years after school and asking me to go to a jam..... the excitement of first gigs, first time recording, first time in a real studio.... It would be hard to explain to someone what a thrill that all is to a music junky, and wannabe rock star/music professional. That line sums it all up perfectly, and even though in a traditional sense I blew my life up by following that path, and I suppose failing, when I could really have been a successful anything at that point in life, I wouldn't trade it.... In spite of stagefright, discomfort and inconvenience, I got to experience life in a way that many don't. Down in the seedy side, on the fringes I guess, and many of my opinions are now based in experience rather than books, and as good as theory is, the practical experience always usurps the contemplative theory ... but anyway I wander again..... That is a great line and sums the reasons all up perfectly. The second incarnation of the chorus is cool to me, because it mentions my birthplace... and I get the impression that the only people who even know it exists are hardcore rugby fans, or people who live in Wigan. "Didn't have no money so we slept in the van" there's a certain romanticism about it all ... I've slept on many a floor in my time. Sometimes because that was the place to sleep, and sometimes because that's where I passed out. I wouldn't recommend it to everyone, there are much safer ways to live life, and looking back it is amazing I am even still breathing, though the comparatively dull life I lead now has its bonuses also lol The next verse comes across as a tip of the hat to his brothers in arms. The original band, and I am sure in many ways, he reminisces that it would be cool if they were all still together, as the original band, in spite of all the water under the bridge by this time. It is pure reminiscence of everything that those years meant, and were, and nothing can dampen that. Sometimes looking back in time it is the hard ugly things that you remember that let you know you actually lived a life. You actually have a story to tell that someone may actually want to hear. Fiscal policies and board meetings are all fine and dandy, but there aren't that many people that will snap to attention when you start talking about them. The time you set yourself on fire for a photo shoot, or the time you collapsed on stage due to lack of oxygen, tend to get more interest from folks. It's an interesting verse that I'm sure many may have something to say about. I just love that he gives each of the lads a suitable nod and it emphasises all their importance to me, in the way it is presented. "Everyday is when I can't get used to it Everyday is when I can't get away Another day, another freeway to face That's the road" I suppose someone could read this as a complaining type lyric, but I don't really hear it that way. To me it seems just straight up logical. It is hard to get used to being on the road all the time, whether you're in a band or a travelling sales rep for a company. It doesn't mean you don't like it, it is just unusual to wake up to a new place every morning. You can't get away, but obviously you don't really want to, otherwise you would. Hammering down the freeway to the next gig, and the next set of circumstances to inspire or challenge. Then the zoom comes back out and we get a nod of the head to some contemporaries ... The attitude seems to be that if this life was good enough for these guys, then it's good enough for me. The great leveler. I respect these folks, and they were big bands, and if this is good enough for them, then it's good enough for me. We return to the idea put forth in the first verse, but it is shown in a different way. I think of the friends I left out there on the road Some are survivors and some are debris But in context it's followed up with If you play in a band that's the road/chance/life you take.... you eat, sleep and breathe the life... it's the only way to do it..... and the law of averages suggests that some of you will end up splattered as debris across the highway of life. Put the pedal to the metal and ride, because the only way to play this game is with your whole body, heart and mind. We get back to the life is a road it's a motorway.... and we see the cost Lost friends on that road Lost family Lost wives and lovers Paying the cost to follow the dream.... It is understandable that many wouldn't want to follow the driven musician along their path. It isn't a comfortable life when lived in the classic sense presented in the music book of myths and bizarre realities. There is a cost. In the next section Ray speaks to the different phases and genres that have come and gone. In this section I love how Ray directly addresses his critics, and I assume by default the Rolling Stones critics, because they were getting the same around this time, and they are still Rolling. "And still all the critics keep saying "Are they still around? When they gonna stop?" It's just the dedicated followers of fashion who like putting down All the well respected men who came dancing and are still on the road" I love this set of lines as well. They speak for themselves. Then we get to the recurring theme of the last year or so. Everything has changed now. We know Ray has had some mental health issues of some description over the years, and here he starts off with the somewhat troubling "Sometime I get suicidal" but it seems the context is more about the loss of camaraderie, as it is quickly followed by "Now everyone is a rival" He lists off a few of his regular complaints, and understandably from my perspective, and then gets to the crux of the biscuit "When it all gets too bad I think back When we were all each other had When we started out on the road...." and again we return to the main idea here. Reminiscing on a life lived. A life lived in a way few get to live it. A memory of days gone by, when the dream was the aim, and the path was along the road, pumping out your songs to anyone that might listen.... We close out with Ray saying, there's still gas in my tank, and I'm setting off again.... and at this stage it seems more like the idea of, I don't know any other way to live now. This is who I am.... I'm in another hotel I look around the room, as all these memories of my extraordinary life flash across my vision in technicolor and I think of all the friends I've left behind On the road. This is a fantastic set of lyrics in so many ways. This lyric almost sums up the rock and roll era. Whereas Don McLean summed up the loss of innocence from the fifties to the seventies in his epic American Pie, and in a much more cryptic way, here Ray sums up the rock and roll cowboy of a bygone era at this stage.... This all still happens, but it doesn't seem to happen in the same way anymore... Anyway, I have probably waffled on too much already, and I haven't even looked at the music yet, but I love this epic lyric, that engages me, and stirs a nostalgic and reminiscent mindset of my own.... and perhaps that's why I like it so much, but this song even before we look at the music get a big thumbs up from me. It's another song on this thread that is a great new discovery for me, and for me it is definitely a Kinks Klassic, in bold type and sitting next to 20th Century Man and Celluloid Heroes among the greats of the band's catalog. We get the acoustic come in, and then move into a beat, with some nice synth fx in the background. The way the song slowly builds works really well for me. It isn't a new trick in the Kinks katalog, but it sure is an effective one. I love the melodic structure, and the reflective delivery. Then we break and the song pumps up into a rolling rock song. Like we have been moving on the side roads and now we are hitting the on ramp for the freeway and ready to fly to the next gig. We get little musical accents like the lead guitar behind the line about the Rolling Stones. The jangly guitar come in, and the song takes another side road, and then that excellent side road leads to another side road and we head back onto the highway. It's like we stopped at a musical truckstop. Then we get another breakdown, and all these breakdowns are so smooth and flowing. Dave gives us some virtually Los Lobos acoustic, answered with some electric.... and an economical melodic lead break gives us just the right amount. Great lead vocal, great use of backing vocals.... Like the Highway itself the song has lots of little twists and turns and I love the way we get to them... and the icing on the cake is the beautiful segue into the live album, with the crowd noise coming in as though the song was recorded at the concert I'm not going to bore you anymore with this terribly lengthy intro... I really love this track, and the lyrics and music are top Klass Kinks for me.
The Road Not sure what to say about this slightly anonymous album release. I agree with most in saying that the cover is ok and certainly better than others in their catalogue though at the same time nothing to write home about. I bought a Japanese White Label Promo a year or so ago and found the tracklisting introduced me to some new (old) numbers I was unfamiliar with prior to this thread. I didn't mind the sound, (being one of the few not entirely over the moon with the self aware battering ram ID of OFTR) finding it Konsistent if overlong and hard to stay foKused for the duration. So Ray was obsessed with the theme of The Road in general which Scorcese captured Robbie Robertson stating it to be akin to an impossible way of life and so it would also eventually prove to these brothers grim!
I really like the track, especially the unexpected tempo change. Is this somewhat obscure live album the only place to find it?
"The Road" is pretty epic to me. This is a good example of a studio recording being added to a live set where it makes sense (Stones "High Wire" and "Sex Drive" make zero sense as part of Flashpoint). It helps that the road is a literal and metaphorical concept. Everyone is on a road in some way so we can relate without being a touring musician. This song also makes a nice bookend with "Motorway", another road song recorded in the studio and released on an album that also includes live music. I think "The Road" would have a bigger profile in the katalogue if the band had played this song regularly live.
"The Road" I really like the idea, and the lyric which takes in the whole Kinks career and so much more, and the episodic feel which takes us back to the 70s. But listening to it yesterday, the thing that really put me off was the drum sound - it seemed so loud and obtrusive. That was listening through speakers - listening again just now in headphones the effect wasn't so pronounced, but it is a pretty horrible drum sound that threatens to sink the whole thing. I don't think it's quite as successful a revisit to their past as "Did Ya", but it does sound like a Kinks epic that never was.
It can also be found in the somewhat obscure compilation of the MCA years Lost and Found as well as the somewhat obscure box set Picture Book.
The Road starts slow, then builds, and builds, and builds, it has a great driving chorus, it’s almost based on classic rock’n roll chords progressions, it has hooks all over the place, slow ones, fast ones, slower, faster, Ray-er, Dave-er, great call and response, a structure not too different from Do It Again, it’s melodic but driven by an exceptional set of words, a sentiment of what it is to be a touring band, a rock band, encompassing the whole Kinks experience in all its specificities and beyond, all the rock era, and more: life on the road, life as a road, the old metaphor that always works, but rarely so well. Ray plays the dinosaur part, he reaches out and shares the craziness, the loneliness, gives a nod to all his (and @Brian x ’s…) lost friends, the ones he left behind, the ones he forgot or betrayed along the way. It’s a monster song and its best quality, as a retrospektive track, is how it manages to convey all the Kinks eras, in just one tune. A little bit of sixties Where Have All the Good Times Gone dylanisms (@donstemple, you never replied to my suggestion to add this to your She & Him Kinks LP…), dedicated and well respected music-hall quotes, some early seventies Lola/Muswell/Show-biz country rock motorway flavors, more than a bit of theater and topicality (this should be the closing song to the Kinks musical or biopic), obvious throwback to Sleepwalker's Life on the Road and Misfits's Misfits, plus some shouty Ray thrown in and later eighties synth too. It’s Ray’s latest answer to Thunder Road boasting a new "Celluloid Fantasies" or "Rock’n Roll Heroes" epic and elegiac message , perhaps not on the exact same level but on the same emotional wavelength as those earlier klassiks. This is the whole Kinks experience distilled in one song, there's something to like for everybody, a majestic unmissable pop crossroads for Kinks fans of all eras, the early birds, the late converts, the whole Kinks krowd. Agreed it could be better, better produced, better sounding (yes, the drums…), but it could not feel any better than this.
“The Road”: A bit of a misfit in that it’s a studio track which kicks off a live album, but you can’t expect anything different from the Kinks. Our Headmaster’s analysis of this song is rather excellent and especially poignant since he too, like many others over the years, was bitten by the bug of rock and roll. The Kinks were one of the many bands that came out of the primary soup of London based bands of blues enthusiasts who followed Alexis Kornier (sic) and other pioneers away from trad jazz and pop, starting w/the Rolling Stones, who briefly considered one Mick Avory as a drummer before they found Charlie Watts. Anyway, “The Road” is a grand summing up of the rock and roll lifestyle and it’s joys and pitfalls by someone who experienced it all from the beginning.
Oh, by the way, I hope that Avid Smiler’s wife gets better. Naughty cat! Someone I know just had a nasty fall in a supermarket which resulted in a few injuries, so be careful Avids!
On rewatching the video, I was struck by the moment where footage has been edited so it looks like Mick is goosing Ray! I kinda like the song 'The Road'.. in the past it seemed a bit self conscious and depressingly 'old hasbeen looks back on fond memories' but listened to in the context of this thread it carries a lot more weight.. still it seems a bit 'written to order' to totally convince for me still I must admit.. A lot of thought went into the various sections in terms of subtlety evoking the various eras and the progression For instance, the 'life is a road, it's a motorway' (bridge?) seems very 70s Kinks to me, like Schoolboys/Sleepwalker cusp, esp Ray's delivery.. appropriate given the subject matter, and if you charted The Kinks career up to that point against the song, you'd prob arrive at that era around when that bit comes in.. It's just the dedicated followers of fashion who like putting down All the well respected men who came dancing and are still on the road That said, Hate this ^ lyric, the 'member when?' references are so clumsily inserted. (and Ray already did a shoehorned in 'Dedicated Followers' reference a decade before in 'Live Life'!) It's like the Kinks equivalent of a Mike Love solo lyric where he's droning on about 'California Girls on a Good Vibration, singing Help Me Rhonda all across the nation' or somesuch claptrap. (I like Mike btw) It doesn't even make any sense: in what sense were The Kinks 'well respected men?' I know many writers and record company folks have called them that using journalese shorthand, but it seems to forget the intent of the original song, which seems pretty poor coming from it's author. I've always found the 'Jimi Hendrix, The Who, the Led Zeppelin and Free' line kinda (unintentionally?) funny in a kind of 'rule of 4' way in the sense that (with all due respect to Paul Rodgers and his first Co.) I would venture that Free are just that little bit less legendary than the first 3 mentioned, so it has a kind of slight Pythonesque bathos to it.
The Road At least Ray gave MCA this stop-gap, state-of -the-union epic; one of the best of the MCA Era (faint praise, or what?). You can’t blame the suits for being upset: the Kinks first album for them was a bland affair, doing nothing to stop their commercial free-fall. Then Ray perversely set his mind on round two being a live double-cd plus concert video. It’s bad enough Ray had writer’s block conceiving Think Visual, but Irving Azoff and company must’ve been livid when they got wind of Ray’s 80 Days project, and that all the (v. good) new songs within would not be earmarked for a new Kinks platter. One can easily see how this relationship was damaged beyond repair; Ray’s energies were elsewhere and MCA bet the wrong horse. The Road is a wonderful, shaggy dog of a song. There’s a lot to love here; it’s sober-eyed assessment of a career in music, it’s vulnerability and determinedness equally measured. All hope abandon ye who enter here. The music biz, that is; Ray cautioning the upstart: ‘don’t try this at home.’ But this is the road he’s chosen, so get outta the way. Sometimes I get suicidal To know everyone is a rival What a sad couplet! A chilling but true commentary. I can’t fault the Ray’s production here, or the band’s performance, both are top notch. Great turns by all involved; every man with a job to do. Crisp strumming by Ray, Ian’s pulsing synth (reminiscent of what ‘70’s drama’s theme? Help!), Jim chipping in some neat bass lines, Bob being Bob, and Dave with some tasty leads and Spanish guitar flourishes. The Kinks really feel like a band on this track. Also, a quintessential vocal, and so seemingly casual and natural is this delivery, you wonder why it doesn’t appear more often. More, please.
The Road: I'm glad I didn't hear this song in real time, otherwise I would have wanted to buy the whole album! (I never did - bless the digital age for opening the door to cherry-picking key tracks.) This is one of those songs I'd classify as Dave's backing vocals adding so much to a track (that slight upward vocal bed where he and Ray repeat the title in the background). I think if you crossed "Sitting in My Hotel" with "Life on the Road" you'd get this. Just because someone writes a road song doesn't mean it's going to be bad or cliched. Jackson Browne wrote a whole album about being on the road, and that has to be one of the high points of the concept. "The Road" is comparable to Browne's "The Load Out" that closes out Running on Empty (with the cover of "Stay") trying to find your own emotional context in a life spent heavy traveling, understanding that most people have no idea what your life is like, the amount of time you spend on buses, in airports, hanging out, doing nothing most of the time, having these immense blasts of excitement/pleasure/self gratification, followed by the reality that eight hours from now, you'll be stumbling out of another Holiday Inn to repeat the whole cycle again in another town. And this is as good as it gets, the level every band strives to attain for as long as possible! Most of us love the concept of meaningful travel: going places, taking it in, seeing the sights, trying to absorb as much of the local culture as possible. But that's something else entirely from hurriedly driving from one city to the next, a string of non-descript hotel rooms, whatever sense of home supplied by whatever you can carry, a guitar you can strum on, bandmates and the crew. That concept seems cool and inviting when you're young, but it must get real old over time.
