The Life and Times of a Guitar Slinger

"Maybe it’s the realisation that music is a fulfilling creative outlet, but it doesn’t tell you good night as the moon settles into the sky. While often an equally dynamic duo, sometimes music is the master and the music creator is its submissive and 'The Guitar Slinger' masterfully shows this relationship through its lyrics."

(Shelia Taylor / amplifythenoise.com, April 30, 2023)

From a certain moment on into their career, successful artists have no choice, but lead their lives in the public's eye. Even though in most cases it has not necessarily been the primary goal, it simply becomes a side effect of the initial objectiv. Even more challenging it turns out to be for musicians who constantly have to be on the road if they want to meet their fan base. Especially if it is a necessary means of bolstering income from streaming or record sales.

But not everyone is handling it as well as a Willie Nelson does, who is still actively touring at the progressed age of 90 and who has never made a secret out of the fact that he feels most satisfied, when on the road. Life simply becomes more difficult when touring, because there is no calm anchor and it only consists out of exhausting travel from one venue to the next. It's those less glitzy hours in between shiny performances that the audience never gets to see and which become a challenge for the artist.

No wonder countless musicians have dealt with this topic in their songs. Some of which have become hits with an audience that typically has no real understanding of it, while others remain deep cuts, rarely listened to. What they all have in common though, is a view on life on the road, as subjective and indiviudal as it may end up being.

Willie Nelson for instance describes his perspective in one of his best known hits so idealized, that one feels hard to pressed taking it at face value. But once you know, that the official name of his touring band is Family, it may be a strong indication, that there is some authentic honesty to the lyrics, when he sings:

Just can't wait to get on the road again,
the life I love is making music with my friends,

goin' places that I've never been,

seein' things that I may never see again,

 and I can't wait to get on the road again.

 (On The Road Again / Willie Nelson [1980])

On the opposite side Jon Bon Jovi conveys his experience of life on tour quite different. With his global hit 'Wanted Dead Or Alive' he makes it sound like it only consists out of forlornness and disenchantment :

Sometimes I sleep, sometimes it's not for days.
The people I meet always go their separate ways.
Sometimes you tell the day by the bottle that you drink,
and times when you're alone, well, all you do is think,

I'm a cowboy ...

(Wanted Dead Or Alive / Richie Sambora, Jon Bon Jovi [1986])

Some artist weave in more specifics, such as concrete locations or a description of the feeling they get when on the road. Like Bob Seger has done it with one of the most widely known songs about the topic:

On a long and lonesome highway, east of Omaha,
you can listen to the engine moanin' out his one note song.
You can think about the woman or the girl you knew the night before,
but your thoughts will soon be wanderin' the way they always do,
when you're ridin' sixteen hours and there's nothin' there to do,
and you don't feel much like ridin', you just wish the trip was through.

(Turn The Page / Bob Seger)

Written by himself, 'Turn The Page' initially appeared on the album "Back In '72" [1973], which no longer is available. Based on personal experience, the song was covered manyfold and has become a classic in the niche of life-on-the-road-songs. Waylon Jennings made it the title cut of his first album after getting rid of cocaine-addiction in 1985 and the band Metallica had a world-wide hit with it in 1998.

Likewise did the band Sawyer Brown deal with life on the road on their single 'Gypsies On Parade', released in December of 1986. Written by lead singer Mark Miller, the song also starts with a location reference, but makes clear at the same time, that a tour must happen, no matter what weather (rephrasing their Eagle tour bus appropriately):

We pulled out of Charlotte, the snow is fallin' down.
We make our way in this one-eagle sleigh, till we reach another town.
Our name is in lights on the billboard signs, in every town we play,
but if you may, all it really need say, are gypsies, gypsies on parade.

(Gypsies On Parade / Mark Miller)

Kip Moore tackles the topic a little different on the 6-minute song 'Guitar Slinger' from his current album "Damn Love". He starts it on the morning after a performance, when he -supposedly not for the first time- realizes how different his life is going compared to that of everyday people.

Another dawn's creepin' in.
I guess it's my bedtime again.
And some old farmer fills his cup,
While I'm coming down from last night's buzz.

(Guitar Slinger / Dan Couch, Kip Moore)

 

 

On stage they are stars and overdimensional heroes, but soon after the lights go down they shrink back to being human and having to confront problems of their own. Such as a long-haired rock band like  Bob Seger in the hippie-era of the 1970s, which could not always expect a happy welcome wherever they showed up. Particularly in conservative areas around the US midwest.

Well you walk into a restaurant all strung out from the road,
and you feel the eyes upon you as you're shakin' off the cold.
You pretend it doesn't bother you but you just want to explode.
Most times you can't hear 'em talk, other times you can.
All the same old cliches, "Is it woman, is it man?"

And you always seem outnumbered so you don't dare make a stand.

(Turn The Page / Bob Seger)

It resembles the description Mark Miller put in his song some 15 years later. Again there is the subtle issue of acceptance in the room, since the band Sawyer Brown always had a difficult time getting accepted in the country genre, especially with their early pop-rock sound:

We pull into a diner, folks just stop and stare.
You hear 'em say, man, it's a rock 'n' roll band
by the look and the clothes they wear.

(Gypsies On Parade / Mark Miller)

The main theme of the song is typically transported by the chorus. It presents the essence of the song. For Bob Seger it is a constant reminder of the performances, that come and go, almost mechanically, starting over and over again:

Here I am,

on the road again,

there I am,

on the stage,

here I go,

playin' star again,

there I go,

turn the page. 

(Turn The Page / Bob Seger)

For Mark Miller it is more about the hardship backstage, that nobody out there gets to notice, because it remains tugged away underneath a shiny facade. Even the band itself has to learn that wisdom the hard way eventually:

Gypsies on parade, vagabonds that got it made.
They don't know what they've been told,
about the diamond rings and fancy things we wear,
they don't know what dues we pay for being gypsies, gypsies on parade.

(Gypsies On Parade / Mark Miller)

Kip Moore struggles more with himself. He feels torn between the passion for music and the burden it places on his shoulders. The hero reveals his vulnerability:

It's the life and times of the guitar slinger,
the day and the night of the good time bringer.
Highs and lows of a sad song singer.
I'm a simple man but it's complicated,
when your soul's on fire and your heart feels faded.
But I ain't complainin'.

(Guitar Slinger / Dan Couch, Kip Moore)

Of course the deeply human topic of love and relationships also needs to get mentioned. In fact Steve Earle dedicated a whole song ('Little Rock 'n' Roller') on his legendary "Guitar Town" [1986] album to a sobering phone call home from the road, which surprisingly gets answered by his little son, whom he hasn't really gotten to know yet: I guess I didn't know you could do that, Lord help me, have I been gone that long?

Mark Miller also describes such a call and the disappointing attempt at finding the right words, when the physical distance has been turned into an emotional one:

Then you telephone home'cause you're feelin' alone

and try to think of somethin' to say.

Seems all you get are tears of regret,

for being gypsies, gypsies on parade.

(Gypsies On Parade / Mark Miller)

Then Kip Moore remembers a possible one night stand, which quickly becomes another memory when he is leaving the next morning:

I close my eyes and frame by frame
I recall it all except her name.
Sweet southern voice beggin' me to stay.
Last week runs into yesterday .

 

I hear that diesel engine slow.
It's my wake up call and it's time to load.
I shuffle out into the cold,
I try to shake the tired but it's in my bones.

(Guitar Slinger / Dan Couch, Kip Moore)

For Bob Seger the performance takes center stage and outshines all other memories. Not until late at night, after the show, when thoughts of her become a small footnote to the passion for performing:

Out there in the spotlight you're a million miles away.
Every ounce of energy you try to give away,
as the sweat pours out your body like the music that you play.
 

Later in the evening as you lie awake in bed,
with the echoes from the amplifiers ringin' in your head,
you smoke the day's last cigarette, rememberin' what she said.

(Turn The Page / Bob Seger)

Kip Moore and Dan Couch desribe the exhaustive passion even more intense. It is not only a physical one anymore, but it leads almost to the point of total surrender. While still admitting, that the fire burns to bright for taking that ultimate step. Yet realizing, that it brings along the fact of having to miss out on other options in life:

I watch 'em line up in the streets.
There's nothing left but the shell of me.
Guitar sounds ringing in my head,
I know I'm alive but I'm walking dead.

I tried before to just walk away,
but the music always makes me stay.
The years just keep on rolling by,
Another day turns into night .

(Guitar Slinger / Dan Couch, Kip Moore)

Talking with americansongwriter.com Kip Moore describes the context: "You feel the demands of so many people and the expectations all the time and those things add up and it just weighs and weighs and weighs on you and then you haven’t watered any other gardens in your life."

 

Mark Miller feels the same brokenness when watching life pass by with every exit not taken on the highway, feeling trapped by a success he doesn't want to let go of:

 

Home is where the heart is but the heart is never home.
As I count the white lights on the exit signs, it's this guitar is all I ever hold.
But the stories we can tell or the stories we tell,
make better all the time spent away,
from family and friends, oh, it never ends for gypsies, gypsies on parade.

(Gypsies On Parade / Mark Miller)

That's why musicians will keep on traveling endless roads to meet their fans and spread excitement with shiny and memorable performances. It will remain part of the fascination for an audience to see their stars perform, as well as for an artists to see part of the world while doing so. But whoever takes the time to listen to the lyrics of songs about life on the road, will notice, that not everything that glitters is also gold.