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Post by trekkielo on May 2, 2023 18:41:53 GMT -5
I always thought Gordon Lightfoot's song, Carefree Hwy, was Every Highway--meaning that every lonely highway made Gordon think about a long lost love (something I have done myself when travelling down some lonely highways as your mind drifts). I thought what a clever way to pass the time on a long (mostly boring) road--little did I know that the song was named for a road in Arizona named the Carefree Hwy (duh)! It wasn't until I did a countdown show that I found that out. The title comes from a section of Arizona State Route 74 in north Phoenix. Said Lightfoot, "I thought it would make a good title for a song. I wrote it down, put it in my suitcase and it stayed there for eight months." The song employs "Carefree Highway" as a metaphor for the state of mind where the singer seeks escape from his ruminations over a long ago failed affair with a woman named Ann. Lightfoot has stated that Ann actually was the name of a woman Lightfoot romanced when he was age 22: "It's one of those situations where you meet that one woman who knocks you out and then leaves you standing there and says she's on her way."  |
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Post by chrislc on May 2, 2023 18:44:54 GMT -5
I always thought Gordon Lightfoot's song, Carefree Hwy, was Every Highway--meaning that every lonely highway made Gordon think about a long lost love (something I have done myself when travelling down some lonely highways as your mind drifts). I thought what a clever way to pass the time on a long (mostly boring) road--little did I know that the song was named for a road in Arizona named the Carefree Hwy (duh)! It wasn't until I did a countdown show that I found that out. The title comes from a section of Arizona State Route 74 in north Phoenix. Said Lightfoot, "I thought it would make a good title for a song. I wrote it down, put it in my suitcase and it stayed there for eight months." The song employs "Carefree Highway" as a metaphor for the state of mind where the singer seeks escape from his ruminations over a long ago failed affair with a woman named Ann. Lightfoot has stated that Ann actually was the name of a woman Lightfoot romanced when he was age 22: "It's one of those situations where you meet that one woman who knocks you out and then leaves you standing there and says she's on her way." It must have been a heck of a romance if he couldn't remember what she looked like. |
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Post by mga707 on May 2, 2023 20:49:50 GMT -5
I always thought Gordon Lightfoot's song, Carefree Hwy, was Every Highway--meaning that every lonely highway made Gordon think about a long lost love (something I have done myself when travelling down some lonely highways as your mind drifts). I thought what a clever way to pass the time on a long (mostly boring) road--little did I know that the song was named for a road in Arizona named the Carefree Hwy (duh)! It wasn't until I did a countdown show that I found that out. The title comes from a section of Arizona State Route 74 in north Phoenix. Said Lightfoot, "I thought it would make a good title for a song. I wrote it down, put it in my suitcase and it stayed there for eight months." The song employs "Carefree Highway" as a metaphor for the state of mind where the singer seeks escape from his ruminations over a long ago failed affair with a woman named Ann. Lightfoot has stated that Ann actually was the name of a woman Lightfoot romanced when he was age 22: "It's one of those situations where you meet that one woman who knocks you out and then leaves you standing there and says she's on her way." To expand on the title inspiration, Lightfoot was on his way to a Flagstaff show, heading up I-17 from Phoenix, when he saw the 'Carefree Highway' exit sign--Exit 223, for us 'road geeks'. And if one takes the exit to the east one does wind up in the actual town of Carefree AZ,along with adjacent Cave Creek. Heading west at that exit will get one to Lake Pleasant ('Pleasant' AND 'Carefree' on the same road!) and eventually to US 60 and Wickenburg. At the time lightfoot saw the exit sign the road had not yet become part of the state highway system, although that did happen soon after, in the mid-1970s. Aside from the great 'Her name was Ann, and I'll be d**ned...' line, one other lyrical thing I like in the song is the way he subtly changes '...my sweet shattered dream...' in the first verse to '...my dream-shattered sleep...' in a later one. Reminds me of how Neil Young transposed the 'You' and 'I' in his 'I am just a dreamer, and you are just a dream' couplet in "Like a Hurricane". |
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Post by Rodney on May 2, 2023 20:52:30 GMT -5
That’s hilarious Joe. I always knew it was Carefree… but now I’ll be singing “every”… every now and then :-)
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Post by djjoe1960 on May 3, 2023 2:02:30 GMT -5
The title comes from a section of Arizona State Route 74 in north Phoenix. Said Lightfoot, "I thought it would make a good title for a song. I wrote it down, put it in my suitcase and it stayed there for eight months." The song employs "Carefree Highway" as a metaphor for the state of mind where the singer seeks escape from his ruminations over a long ago failed affair with a woman named Ann. Lightfoot has stated that Ann actually was the name of a woman Lightfoot romanced when he was age 22: "It's one of those situations where you meet that one woman who knocks you out and then leaves you standing there and says she's on her way." It must have been a heck of a romance if he couldn't remember what she looked like. Y'know the older I get the more I remember faces but names escape me.  |
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Post by chrislc on May 3, 2023 21:59:44 GMT -5
Okay so thanks to Casey I now know that Jimmy Buffett wasn't singing about his stew being covered with oil. Holy crap I'm an idiot. This thread is depressing.
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Post by Michael1973 on May 15, 2023 9:27:43 GMT -5
There's a line in Come Dancing by The Kinks that goes:
"You know they get away with things she never could."
I used to think he was saying:
"You know together we would think she never could."
Whatever that means...
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