Sometimes, You Just Need it Faster

I spent all day driving today. My ears perked up when World Cafe's made a reference to Kerouac in talking about the musician's life being one spent on the road, and how getting back home demands one to decide which part of their life they like better, and how one gets a chance to look at themselves in the mirror after months of ceaseless traveling and realizing with some sadness at first at how pieces of oneself have been left in all the places touched upon.

I think of Ralph Stanley II's Honky Tonk Way. Life on the highway -- its freedom and the entrapment, all at the same time. A lyric from that song:

We ride the highway in a big silver eagle
its not quite as nice as you think
the freedom of the highway can feel like a prison
with bars made of asphalt and paint

I also think of more entrapment of the traveler that is traveling on assignment. Traveling for the sake of anything else but to move and experience new things, the idea horrifies me. After having listened to Cold Shoulder a thousand times, the thousand-and-first time penetrated my understanding of what the song was trying to say. The double meaning of the phrase 'cold shoulder' only hit me when I realized Ralph was taking on the character of a trucker.

The lure of the highway is like a woman sometimes
She can be your best friend, but she's a real jealous kind

I wish I could hold her
Instead of hugging this old cold shoulder

I say all these things because, as Kerouac says, they are too fantastic to remain silent about. Life is brimming with light and inspiration, given to us freely to the point of overflowing. Who am I to withhold that from my fellow humans, who have that same access to this spring of light? Because this song is also "too fantastic not to tell," I give you this song. Those fellow wanderers in this land of electronic tonic who have been exceedingly vigilant in November may recognize these lyrics ;)
http://songza.fm/~19uf0d
http://songza.fm/~8548qa
Same song; different recordings. No artist or title, its a surprise, and an explosive one, at that.