Story Behind The Song

This song was started while I friend was trying to learn how to use some electronic recording gear in a music tech lab one night. He needed a 'subject' to sing 'something', anything, into a mic against some sequenced keyboard tracks that I had started. I made up the opening lines to the song on the spot, and the song grew out of that night mood in a music technology lab.

Song Description

It's a surreal song . . . a guy is driving down the night time highway, alone. There'a sense that a phantom woman is sitting beside him, guiding him through the night. A reference is made to the poem, 'The Highwayman' by Alfred Noyes. Some wild experimentation is going on in the song to heighten the surreal experience of a ghostly trip on the night highway. Some of that experimentation included sweeping across the keys of my (un-tuneable old piano, recording from either end and then panning across the whole aural spectrum for the record). Some of the vocals were sung through a tiny cigarette package amplifier for that tinny distortion sound. I asked our guitarist to have a 'muttering conversation' between his two guitar parts in one of the sections of the song. It was quite experimental and quite a lot of fun recording this. The song appeared on our 2003 album, "Waiting For Luck To Come," by Wilfred N & the Grown Men. We have just released our ninth album of original music titled "I'm In Love With The City".

Lyrics

I'm drivin', moon shinin'
I'm goin' but I don't know where
My headlights know the way and
My engine just don't care

No white line to guide me
I must be flyin' blind
I don't know where I'm goin'
All I know is, I've got time
The moon is my medallion
She pulls me like the tide
She knows that I'm a liar
In her I can confide
The sunrise moving backwards Sinking below the line
If I must drive forever
I know that I've got time

Timeless highway will unfold
Every corner is unknown
As I drift into the silent night
I better do it right

The road a ribbon of moonlight
I'm so far from my home
The moon a ghostly galleon
Like in that high school poem

The desert cool and brisky
All clear up to the sky
The last time that she kissed me
I knew it was goodbye


(instrumental)






I roll down - my window
And let the night air flow
I'm breathin' so deeply
It's filling up my soul

The stars are my master
And they will be my guide
The moon shines on my shoulder
An angel by my side

I'm drivin', moon shinin'
I'm goin' but I don't know where
My headlights know the way and
My engine just don't care

No white line to guide me
I must be flyin' blind
I don't know where-in-the-heck I'm goin'
All I know is, I've got time