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

Chris Fehn of Slipknot

Chris Fehn of SlipknotSongwriter Interviews

A drummer for one of the most successful metal bands of the last decade, Chris talks about what it's like writing and performing with Slipknot. Metal-neck is a factor.

Todd Rundgren

Todd RundgrenSongwriter Interviews

Todd Rundgren explains why he avoids "Hello It's Me," and what it was like producing Meat Loaf's Bat Out of Hell album.

Steve Cropper (Booker T & the MG's, Blues Brothers)

Steve Cropper (Booker T & the MG's, Blues Brothers)Songwriter Interviews

Steve Cropper on the making of "In the Midnight Hour," the chicken-wire scene in The Blues Brothers, and his 2021 album, Fire It Up.

Corey Hart

Corey HartSongwriter Interviews

The Canadian superstar talks about his sudden rise to fame, and tells the stories behind his hits "Sunglasses At Night," "Boy In The Box" and "Never Surrender."

Have Mercy! It's Wolfman Jack

Have Mercy! It's Wolfman JackSong Writing

The story of the legendary lupine DJ through the songs he inspired.

Producer Ron Nevison

Producer Ron NevisonSong Writing

Ron Nevison explains in very clear terms the Quadrophenia concept and how Heart staged their resurgence after being dropped by their record company.