Songfacts®:

• "Colossus of Roads" is a song recorded by Hurray for the Riff Raff, the musical project of Alynda Segarra. It was released in 2024 as part of their ninth album, The Past Is Still Alive.
• This dusty, Americana-infused ballad, built on a foundation of guitar, pedal steel, and a slightly off-kilter piano, unfolds like a stream-of-consciousness ramble, devoid of a traditional chorus. But beneath the raw instrumentation lies a message of finding solace and love in the face of violence and discrimination, specifically within the havens of queer and outsider spaces.
• The song was born in the aftermath of the tragic Club Q shooting in Colorado Springs, where five lives were lost in a hate-fueled attack. Segarra paints the club as a sanctuary for the ostracized, a beacon for fellow wanderers seeking acceptance and connection.
  
  "That song came fast," Segarra revealed to Uncut magazine. "It felt like I had been trying to write it my whole life, and it finally happened. It was right after the Club Q shooting in Colorado. I had just read a book called It Was Vulgar & It Was Beautiful, about AIDS activists like ACT UP and Gran Fury. I remember thinking, 'Where do my people go? Where do the queer, radically minded weirdos, artists and thinkers go where we can be safe?' Writing that song, I wanted to create a place in our minds where we're safe."
• The title is a nod to buZ blurr, the pseudonym of American artist and railroad worker Russell Butler, famous for his boxcar art under the moniker Colossus of Roads. Butler passed away in January 2024 shortly before the song's release.
• Segarra started recording The Past Is Still Alive with producer Brad Cook (Bon Iver, American Aquarium) the month after the death of Segarra's father in March 2023. The resulting album delves into key moments of their childhood, struggles in early adulthood, and lessons learned along the way.