♫ Carefree Highway ♫

Posted on by under Bits 'n Pieces, History, music

I’ve already played a few by Gordon Lightfoot this year, but this is one I’ve never played here before!

There really isn’t much trivia about the song.  According to Wikipedia …

“Carefree Highway” is a song written by Gordon Lightfoot and was the second single release from his 1974 album, Sundown. It peaked at No. 10 on the Billboard Hot 100 and spent one week at No. 1 on the Easy Listening chart in October 1974.

The title comes from a section of Arizona State Route 74 in north Phoenix. Said Lightfoot, “I thought it would make a good title for a song. I wrote it down, put it in my suitcase and it stayed there for eight months.” The song employs “Carefree Highway” as a metaphor for the state of mind where the singer seeks escape from his ruminations over a long ago failed affair with a woman named Ann. Lightfoot has stated that Ann actually was the name of a woman Lightfoot romanced when he was age 22: “It [was] one of those situations where you meet that one woman who knocks you out and then leaves you standing there and says she’s on her way.”

And when asked during an interview what he meant by the song’s second line, “I wonder how the old folks are tonight?” He replied: “Well, I always thought about my folks. They’re both gone now. But I always thought about my folks, it doesn’t matter what kind of trouble I was getting into, I always thought about my folks.”

This song peaked at #1 in both Canada and the U.S., but other than Australia where it hit #74, it didn’t chart elsewhere that I can find.

Carefree Highway

Gordon Lightfoot

 Picking up the pieces of my sweet shattered dream
I wonder how the old folks are tonight?
Her name was Ann
And I’ll be damned if I recall her face
She left me not knowing what to do

Carefree highway
Let me slip away on you
Carefree highway
You’ve seen better days
The morning after blues
From my head down to my shoes
Carefree highway
Let me slip away, slip away on you

Turning back the pages to the times I love best
I wonder if she’ll ever do the same?
Now the thing that I call living
Is just being satisfied
With knowing I got no one left to blame

Carefree highway
I’ve got to see you my old flame
Carefree highway
You’ve seen better days
The morning after blues
From my head down to my shoes
Carefree highway
Let me slip away, slip away on you

Searching through the fragments
Of my dream shattered sleep
I wonder if the years have closed her mind?
I guess it must be wanderlust or trying to get free
From the good old faithful feeling we once knew

Carefree highway
Let me slip away on you
Carefree highway
You’ve seen the better days
The morning after blues
From my head down to my shoes
Carefree highway
Let me slip away, slip away on you
Let me slip away on you

Carefree highway
I’ve got to see you my old flame
Carefree highway
You’ve seen better days
The morning after blues
From my head down to my shoes
Carefree highway
Let me slip away, slip away on you

Source: Musixmatch

Songwriters: Gordon Lightfoot

Carefree Highway lyrics © Wb Music Corp.

16 thoughts on “♫ Carefree Highway ♫”

  1. Pingback: Daily Kind Quote – 5075 – Share Your Light

        • Clive … if I didn’t keep notes, I wouldn’t remember my own name half the time! Yeah, a few months back I asked you for some of your favourite artists and you gave me a list, which I promptly copied onto an electronic post-it note that resides in the upper right-hand corner of my home screen, along with a few dozen other such postie notes! 🤣 Working now on tomorrow’s (Friday’s) music post … hint: shortcake

          Liked by 1 person

            • Oh, if only you knew how often I jotted a note … a note that would never be found again, else seen 15 months later! No, I’m not organized at all, but I try. More and more of late I cannot seem to remember something for even 5 minutes. I can still recall the name of my best friend in kindergarten, though! 🤣

              You’ll see …

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  3. Canada’s minstrel had a lot of #1 hits in Canada, and deservedly so, but this one I am not so sure deserved that honour. It sounds good, but really it is just a bunch of words and thoughts thrown together without saying much of anything, in my honest opinion. He is almost flippant about his lost love — I hear no grief or sorrow. Was she really a love, or just a prize token for him to show off? Mr. Lightfoot loved to be surrounded by beautiful women.

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  5. Gordon’s music takes me back to my youth. Kind of a dreamy poetic voice for me. In a funny/sad story about that I happened to be listening to his melancholy voice while writing comments about my sister for her celebration of life. (She passed away many years ago from blood cancer.) While writing some of his lyrics crept into my commentary. When I read my comments I mentioned the wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald. — Afterward at our luncheon a friend of my sister felt that it was important to cut through my grief and point out that my sister Laura did not like that song very much. To this day I wonder my it was important for her to tell me that. I was Laura’s stem cell donor and sat with her for 6 weeks while she was in a coma. I was very sad when all my efforts failed. Thanks for allowing me to recall this bittersweet time. Sixteen years ago this month.

    Liked by 1 person

    • Awwww … your story is sad and my heart goes out to you. Like you, I cannot help but wonder why your sister’s friend felt it necessary to tell you that, but … people sometimes have the best of intentions while not being very good at expressing them. Sixteen years … a long time, and yet I can feel the pain in your words. Thank you so much for sharing your heartfelt story!

      Liked by 1 person

  6. Pingback: ♫ Carefree Highway ♫ | Ned Hamson's Second Line View of the News

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