Lyric of the Week: H.I.o.t.HW#3

or: Heard It on the Highway, no. 3

Well, I heard it on the highway, coming through from way beyond

It was so unmistakably true, I had to rise and respond

I heard it on the highway, from heaven to Murgatroyd

I was picking up the Great Creator’s signals through the void

Well, jump, jive, and wail past the jerky Jersey jokes

Flip, flop, and fly over the velvet rims and spokes

Slip, slide away through the streaks, strikes, and strokes

We’ll catch what we can now ‘cuz we may never be here again

Well, I heard it on the highway, it was a very auspicious date

A caffeinated pilgrimage from the top to the bottom of the state

I heard it on the highway, from Shmenglewood to the Cape

In every service area along the way as I made my great escape

There was Coach Vince and Genius Tom

There was Celia, Alex, Judy, and Jon

There was Chairman Frank and Die Hard Bruce

Knocked out in the first round, dragged down and cut loose

Well, I saw them from the highway

All these old names posted up on signs

But I said it’s time to do things my way

As I took off to claim what was mine

It was twenty-two years before I made it all the way to Cape May

I made eleven states in six days, from Asbury to LA

It was nothing short of fulfillment of a biblical prophecy

I found what I was looking for once I reached the shining sea

Whither east to west to the Coast, or north to south down the Shore

I journeyed as far as I could go, till I could go farther no more

I was tuned to the freakquency, I was totally in the zone

But I didn’t get any big epiphany,

only a voice telling me it’s Time To Go Home

Well, I heard it on the highway …

This was my experience during the last weekend of March, 2025. I drove from my [temporary] home in northeasternmost New Jersey all the way to the southern tip of the state, where I was all set to attend the Singer-Songwriter of Cape May convention/festival for the first time since before the pandemic. It also references my cross-country trip overland when I moved to California for the first time, in June 2003. I could write an extensive blog covering all the details but I will leave it to the reader's imagination.

In 2024, I began recording my first post–Soul In Exile project. I wanted it to be a bridge between Soul In Exile and my life outside of it; for this reason I chose to include not one but two versions of "Heard It on the Highway," which makes its first appearance in Soul In Exile 3: Love Runs Aground. However, no. 2 (the first of the new versions) is a faster, harder-rocking version without the extended coda, and no. 3 (the second of the new versions) is slower and funkier, more in tune with the way I've taken to playing it live as a solo singer-songwriter.

I recorded both new versions, piano and voice only to start, at my longtime recording home base, Retromedia Sound in Red Bank, NJ, in late 2024; in the ensuing months, as I practiced playing it live, I realized that rather than just repeat the lyrics in both versions, the last one should have an entirely new lyric. But what should it be about? I didn't merely want to restate the same thing. I mulled and brooded over it for weeks and months on end ... till I made my way to Cape May. Then, on the road and in highway rest stops along the entire journey, the first two verses came to me. The third verse came to me on April 9, 2025—yesterday, as of this writing—when I purposely hit the road with the intention of finishing the song. Somewhere between the James Gandolfini Service Area in the northernmost reaches of the Garden State Parkway and the Love's Travel Stop in the center of the state, I understood that the lyrics should include the story of the much bigger pilgrimage I had made when I crossed the country and what I found when I reached the end.

The new recording will initially be released in a series of EPs, the first one already available on CD, with streaming scheduled to go live on May 23, 2025. A full album will probably follow.