Highway Song

Album: Strikes (1979)
Charted: 26
Play Video

Songfacts®:

  • This driving rocker was written by Blackfoot mainstays Rickey Medlocke and Jakson Spires. The highway that inspired the track is Route 81 in a stretch going north to New Jersey. This is not an inspiring stretch of road, but it's where Medlocke got the idea for the song as he was riding in the group's tour van.

    "We were right around Winchester, Virginia, and I started playing it," he said in his Songfacts interview. "I wrote the opening of the lyrics, 'Another day another dollar, after I've sang and hollered,' and it took off from there."
  • This was Blackfoot's biggest hit. The Jacksonville band placed one other song in the Top 40, "Train, Train," which is also on the Strikes album.
  • The third verse contains song titles from their first two albums:

    Yes these big wheels are ready to roll - "Big Wheels" from their first album No Reservations (1975).

    We've been flyin' high and so low - "Flyin' High," the title track of their 1976 album.

    All this madness ain't as crazy as it seems - "Madness" from Flyin' High.

    I'm just a stranger on this road - "Stranger on the Road" from Flyin' High.

    I stand alone only in my dreams - "I Stand Alone" from No Reservations.

Comments: 3

  • House Cutty from Ky. UsaTakes me right back!!!
  • Jaime A Rockstar Chic, With No Guitar from St.louis1979..what a great year, not only my birth year.but a good year for the strikes album.highway song...an excellent song that anyone who has traveled down the highways of life ... an relate to.
  • Tim from Raytown, MoWhy on the lyrics “All this madness ain’t as crazy as it seems” do I hear “ All the Spanish ain’t as French as it seems”?
see more comments

Editor's Picks

Kristian Bush of Sugarland

Kristian Bush of SugarlandSongwriter Interviews

Kristian talks songwriting technique, like how the chorus should redefine the story, and how to write a song backwards.

Glen Ballard

Glen BallardSongwriter Interviews

Glen Ballard talks about co-writing and producing Alanis Morissette's Jagged Little Pill album, and his work with Dave Matthews, Aerosmith and Annie Lennox.

Hardy

HardySongwriter Interviews

The country hitmaker talks about his debut album, A Rock, and how a nursery rhyme inspired his hit single "One Beer."

Incongruent Opening Acts

Incongruent Opening ActsSong Writing

Here's what happens when an opening act is really out of place with the headliner, like when Beastie Boys opened for Madonna.

Richard Butler of The Psychedelic Furs

Richard Butler of The Psychedelic FursSongwriter Interviews

Psychedelic Furs lead singer Richard Butler talks about their first album since 1991 and explains what's really going on in "Pretty In Pink."

Mike Rutherford (Genesis, Mike + The Mechanics)

Mike Rutherford (Genesis, Mike + The Mechanics)Songwriter Interviews

Mike Rutherford talks about the "Silent Running" storyline and "Land Of Confusion" in the age of Trump.