DBT Track #41 -- 72 (this highway's mean)

bovine knievel · Post by **bovine knievel** » Mon Feb 28, 2011 8:49 am

When Clams asked me to help out with the DBT Track of the week, I immediately thought When The Pin Hits The Shell. But over the weekend I was listening to SRO and 72 (This Highway's Mean) just floored me. I have always loved the tune and how it showcases Cooley's knack for saying a whole lot with a few simple words.

I know I am not alone in saying that most of us on the board can relate different periods of our life with different DBT tunes. Now I usually don't share my personal life details on the board but I think a little personal detail here will help you to understand why I picked this song at this particular time.

The last few years were not easy, my relationship with my wife of 17 years was unraveling, my job was being impacted by pay cuts and furloughs, and I dreaded getting in the car everyday to drive 45 miles to my office. At that time it seemed like I was driving to Hell, only to reverse the process 8 hours later and make the drive back to a loveless home... Hell.

My 45 mile drive was on a stretch of Hwy 99 from Chico to Red Bluff, CA. There isn't a lot going on between these places, you cross the Vina Plains, zip through Vina and slow down thru Los Molinos and Dairyville. This is a dangerous road and everyday was like running the gauntlet. During the summer months, it is not uncommon to be in the triple digits for weeks at a time.

So this really was a road with Hell on both ends of it and nowhere in between. But it was the only road to get me there and I was running from a broken heart.

I don't need a map to tell me where I am today
I fixed all of that.
I moved to Red Bluff and and got a divorce.

Now I'm happy happy happy...

Don't know why they even bother putting this highway on the map
Everybody that's ever been on it knows exactly where they're at
Hells on both ends of it
And no where's in between
This highway's mean
Seems like it's always hot down here, no matter when you come
It's the kind of heat that holds you like a mama holds her son
Tight when he tries to walk, even tighter if he runs
It's a mean old dusty highway
But it's the only one that'll get you there
That'll get you there

Mean old highway
Stuck to the ground in Mississippi
It's the one'll set me free
It's the same one that I see
Being ripped up off the ground and wrapped around me
Don't let it fool you this highway's mean

I don't need a map to tell me where I am today
This feeling that I have has always led the way
Down here, you're running from a broken heart
Or to a heart that you have to break on this mean old highway

(Cooley / DBT)

beantownbubba · Post by **beantownbubba** » Mon Feb 28, 2011 10:34 am

Life imitates art. Powerful stuff, BK, both life and the song.

Clams · Post by **Clams** » Mon Feb 28, 2011 10:40 am

Great song and great post, BK. Amazing (a) the way you've co-opted the lyrics to fit your own situation and (b) how perfectly they fit said situation. This song is what I would call a slow burner.

By the way, if anyone else out there wants to do a track of the week thread, shoot me an email. We've done 41 songs but you'd be surprised how many great ones are still left.

Penny Lane · Post by **Penny Lane** » Mon Feb 28, 2011 10:56 am

Great post, thanks for sharing all of that.
You've had a long hard road, but seems like things are looking up for you :-)

GW in IA · Post by **GW in IA** » Mon Feb 28, 2011 11:16 am

Nice BK. Thanks.

Iowan · Post by **Iowan** » Mon Feb 28, 2011 2:13 pm

Powerful piece, BK.

I have my own Hwy 72, too. Hwy 9 bisects the northern edge of Iowa from Wisconsin to South Dakota. It's the main road through the region I grew up on, and it was always part of the path I'd travel on my way out of my hometown. It's the way in and out of Mitchell County, and it was always the road you took to get "out" literally and metaphorically. As soon as I heard this song, it brought that image into my brain.

I felt that part of this song shows how Cooley probably felt trapped in his hometown growing up (as I did) and had to realize through his own getting out that there was something special there. I've been through the same thing in my own life. It's that feeling of simultaneously feeling like you're trapped in a place, but that you belong there too.

Smitty · Post by **Smitty** » Fri Mar 04, 2011 2:20 am

As of right now, this is my ringtone.
Hwy 78 is my 72 - only way in & out of my hometown (other than the backroads)

OtisTheBulldog · Post by **OtisTheBulldog** » Sun Mar 06, 2011 8:58 pm

Easily one of my favorite Cooley songs. Just great cutting lyrics that give insight into a feeling of being stuck and hoping to find something else.

I love these lyrics and his delivery:

It's the same one that I see
being ripped up off the ground and wrapped around me
Don't let it fool you this highways mean

The imagery of the highway being wrapped around a man's body and keeping him bound is perfect song writing, IMO.

The Drifter · Post by **The Drifter** » Sun Mar 06, 2011 11:03 pm

love love love this song, and really enjoyed/appreciated your personal story, BK. i kind of have my own mean old highway right now. even though all the hell's on one side (my job and more specifically, my terrible, verbally abusive, condescending boss), it drags me down and makes me a very unhappy man even when i'm on my own time. hopefully i can get out of there soon and things turn around.

Zip City · Post by **Zip City** » Mon Mar 07, 2011 12:33 pm

I've often said that on SRO, Patterson's songs tend to be about plot/history, while Cooley's are more about scenery/subtext. 72 is a great track to introduce Cooley's thread of songs on SRO.

Fool No Where · Post by **Fool No Where** » Mon Mar 07, 2011 4:01 pm

Listening to this while driving 72 from Memphis to Florence (yes, I am stealth bragging) shines a different kind of light on the subject matter.

bovine knievel · Post by **bovine knievel** » Thu Mar 10, 2011 2:49 pm

*nod to OBL for posting the original in the NC thread

Smarty Jones · Post by **Smarty Jones** » Thu Mar 10, 2011 5:22 pm

Call me stupid, but I never really "got" the meaning of this song until I moved out of the house, out of the city, and out of the state that I'd grown up in. Don't get me wrong - I love it here in KY and wouldn't go back for all the money in the world - but I soon found out that it's really not all that different from the small town I come from. The same shit still haunts me everywhere. Listened to this driving from campus to stay with my folks over winter break, and I finally saw it in a whole new light.

My favorite line of the song:
Hell's on both ends of it, nowhere's in between
And this highway's mean.

I spent my whole childhood wanting to get away from where I'm from, only to find out the grass really isn't greener on the other side of the pasture. I didn't even know I felt like this until I listened to this song again. Cooley's a fucking genius.

Penny Lane · Post by **Penny Lane** » Thu Mar 10, 2011 6:12 pm

Smarty Jones wrote:I spent my whole childhood wanting to get away from where I'm from, only to find out the grass really isn't greener on the other side of the pasture. I didn't even know I felt like this until I listened to this song again. Cooley's a fucking genius.

Similar to what Cooley said in the movie about being a 'River Rat'...

Iowan · Post by **Iowan** » Fri Mar 11, 2011 8:37 am

Smarty Jones wrote:Call me stupid, but I never really "got" the meaning of this song until I moved out of the house, out of the city, and out of the state that I'd grown up in. Don't get me wrong - I love it here in KY and wouldn't go back for all the money in the world - but I soon found out that it's really not all that different from the small town I come from. The same shit still haunts me everywhere. Listened to this driving from campus to stay with my folks over winter break, and I finally saw it in a whole new light.

My favorite line of the song:
Hell's on both ends of it, nowhere's in between
And this highway's mean.

I spent my whole childhood wanting to get away from where I'm from, only to find out the grass really isn't greener on the other side of the pasture. I didn't even know I felt like this until I listened to this song again. Cooley's a fucking genius.

That's exactly what this song meant to me. I doubt I'll ever move back to my hometown, as it just lacks any kind of cultural opportunity (I'd be at a minimum 2 hrs from any concert ever), BUT after going to college I realized it was a special place in it's own way, and I always enjoy going back. Growing up I kind of assumed I'd leave Iowa too, but I don't see that ever happening after having grown up some and traveled around. I really like it here. Cooley went through the exact same thing.

That's what's the heart of '72 to me.

njMark · Post by **njMark** » Sun Apr 03, 2011 4:40 pm

I wish I could wax nostalgic about my hometown and remember it for what it was and what it had a hand in making me. Unfortunately Piscataway NJ doesn't really have anything going for it to make me really miss it, I remember hearing we might be moving because of my dads job and I was the happiest kid in NJ, devestated when I found out it wasn't happening. The only highway in my town growing up was I 287, which has NY on both ends of it. Staten Island on the south, the Tappan Zee bridge on the other end, is that hell on both ends, don't know but I did spend some time on SI and it sure wasn't heaven.

bovine knievel · Post by **bovine knievel** » Fri Oct 14, 2016 6:41 pm

I mentioned this highway in my original post for this track.

Based on this article... It's truly great to be alive!

whatwouldcooleydo? · Post by **whatwouldcooleydo?** » Fri Oct 14, 2016 6:43 pm

bovine knievel wrote:I mentioned this highway in my original post for this track.

Based on this article... It's truly great to be alive!

no shit, we're probably on 99 daily

LBRod · Post by **LBRod** » Fri Oct 14, 2016 6:53 pm

I live closer to I-5 now, but the first 25 years of my life were spent in walking distance to Golden State Blvd, the old highway 99.
I used to ride my bike as a kid over to watch them build the new freeway 99. I have driven every inch from south of Bakersfield
all the way to Red Bluff. It is indeed a mean old highway.

whatwouldcooleydo? · Post by **whatwouldcooleydo?** » Fri Oct 14, 2016 6:59 pm

LBRod wrote:I live closer to I-5 now, but the first 25 years of my life were spent in walking distance to Golden State Blvd, the old highway 99.
I used to ride my bike as a kid over to watch them build the new freeway 99. I have driven every inch from south of Bakersfield
all the way to Red Bluff. It is indeed a mean old highway.

as you know, Chico is far enough from I-5 (even after 20 years here I refuse to say the 5

) that for us 99 is THE freeway

dime in the gutter · Post by **dime in the gutter** » Fri Oct 14, 2016 7:54 pm

best bump ever. don't remember this thread. cool.

DBT Track #41 -- 72 (this highway's mean)

DBT Track #41 -- 72 (this highway's mean)

Re: DBT Track #41 -- 72 (this highway's mean)

Re: DBT Track #41 -- 72 (this highway's mean)

Re: DBT Track #41 -- 72 (this highway's mean)

Re: DBT Track #41 -- 72 (this highway's mean)

Re: DBT Track #41 -- 72 (this highway's mean)

Re: DBT Track #41 -- 72 (this highway's mean)

Re: DBT Track #41 -- 72 (this highway's mean)

Re: DBT Track #41 -- 72 (this highway's mean)

Re: DBT Track #41 -- 72 (this highway's mean)

Re: DBT Track #41 -- 72 (this highway's mean)

Re: DBT Track #41 -- 72 (this highway's mean)

Re: DBT Track #41 -- 72 (this highway's mean)

Re: DBT Track #41 -- 72 (this highway's mean)

Re: DBT Track #41 -- 72 (this highway's mean)

Re: DBT Track #41 -- 72 (this highway's mean)

Re: DBT Track #41 -- 72 (this highway's mean)

Re: DBT Track #41 -- 72 (this highway's mean)

Re: DBT Track #41 -- 72 (this highway's mean)

Re: DBT Track #41 -- 72 (this highway's mean)

Re: DBT Track #41 -- 72 (this highway's mean)