Truckers Atlas

Album: Lonesome Crowded West (1997)
Play Video
  • I'm going to Colorado
    To unload my head
    I'm going to New York City
    And that's in New York, friends

    I'm going to Arizona
    Sex on the rocks all warm and red
    And we bled
    And the writing in the stall said

    "we write our maps in the stalls"
    I'm going up to Alaska
    I'm going to get off scot-fucking-free
    And we all did

    This truckers atlas roads the ways
    The freeways and highways don't know
    The buzz from the bird on my dash
    Road locomotive phone

    I don't feel and I feel great
    I sold my atlas by the freight stairs
    I do lines and I crossed roads
    I crossed the lines of all the great state roads

    I'm going up
    Going over to Montana
    You got yourself a trucker's atlas
    You knew you were all hot

    Maybe you'll go and blow a gasket
    You start at the northwest corner
    Go down through California
    Beeline you might drive three days

    Three nights to the tip of Florida
    Do you speak the lingo?
    Oh Oh No. No no
    How far does your road go?

    Oh no, you don't know
    I'm going to Colorado
    To unload my head
    I'm going to New York City

    And that's in New York, friends
    I'm going up to Alaska
    I'm going to get off scot-fucking-free
    And we all did

    And the writing in the salt says
    We ride out to the stars
    I'm going to Arizona
    Sex on the rocks all warm and red

    This truckers atlas roads the ways
    The freeways and highways don't know
    The buzz from the bird on my dash
    Road locomotive phone Writer/s: ERIC JUDY, ISAAC BROCK, JEREMIAH GREEN
    Publisher: Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC, Wixen Music Publishing
    Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind

Comments: 5

  • Kerri from Chicago, IlHow could Brock have been a truck driver? As the other poster mentions, Modest Mouse was formed in 1993 and if he was old or not, i've never heard of him taking time out from the band to be a truck driver!!

    Also while we can certainly read the drugs into an MoMo song, there's a theme of disillusionment to this album--one place looks like the other, all places are the same and the consumer culture is taking over. we see this thematically in other songs as well--the idea that the landscape is disappearing and we along with it.
  • Mrb from Seattle, OrIsaac Brock was not a truck driver. Sorry

    Considering that Modest Mouse was formed in 1993 when Brock was 18, and the song was released in 1997 (likely recorded in 1996, but I don't really know) puts Brock at age 21 maximum at the time the song was recorded; before he would be eligible to be a commercial driver of any kind, let alone a long-haul trucker.
  • Mike from Willoughby, OhHa, I just got it that he sells his atlas for crack money.
    The entire second half of the song is just the same few measures of quiet guitar and steady drumming repeating; this is referring to how on the road or with life in general, after being excited by seeing so many different places, they all end up running together and seeming the same. Or he could be coming out of his high.
  • John from Thorofare, NjHunter is correct, Issac Brock used to be a truck driver before he created modest mouse. Most of his older songs are about past lived memories i.e. when he was a truck driver he did cocaine to stay awake.
  • Hunter from Va Beach, Va Its about a truck driver that has to stay awake and goin for hours and days at the time. He snorts COCAINE which he brakes up with a blade on his atlas instead of a mirror."I fell good, But I dont feel" is a refrence to being numbed from coke."I do lines and i crossedroads, i crossed the lines of all the great state roads" just means he's done lines an almost all the pages, over almost all the roads.
see more comments

Editor's Picks

Donny Osmond

Donny OsmondSongwriter Interviews

Donny Osmond talks about his biggest hits, his Vegas show, and the fan who taught him to take "Puppy Love" seriously.

Mike Love of The Beach Boys

Mike Love of The Beach BoysSongwriter Interviews

The lead singer/lyricist of The Beach Boys talks about coming up with the words for "Good Vibrations," "Fun, Fun, Fun," "Kokomo" and other classic songs.

Emilio Castillo from Tower of Power

Emilio Castillo from Tower of PowerSongwriter Interviews

Emilio talks about what it's like to write and perform with the Tower of Power horns, and why every struggling band should have a friend like Huey Lewis.

How "A Rolling Stone Gathers No Moss" Became Rock's Top Proverb

How "A Rolling Stone Gathers No Moss" Became Rock's Top ProverbSong Writing

How a country weeper and a blues number made "rolling stone" the most popular phrase in rock.

Bill Withers

Bill WithersSongwriter Interviews

Soul music legend Bill Withers on how life experience and the company you keep leads to classic songs like "Lean On Me."

Lou Gramm - "Waiting For A Girl Like You"

Lou Gramm - "Waiting For A Girl Like You"They're Playing My Song

Gramm co-wrote this gorgeous ballad and delivered an inspired vocal, but the song was the beginning of the end of his time with Foreigner.