Thinking about Ghosts of the Great Highway reminded me of a song on the new album(s), fairly transparently titled "Ghosts of the Highway," which isn't really inspired by the Sun Kil Moon album at all, but instead by the summer of 2006 when I played the hell out of that album while trying to outrun my sadness in a speeding car, hoping it would dissipate behind me into the enormous empty space that is the middle of America.
It didn't.
I actually recorded the main guitar and vocal for the album version of "Ghosts of the Highway" about a week ago and it's just waiting for some overdubs before it goes in the can. I can't share the music part yet, but I'll post the lyrics like it's, like, a real poem and junk!
Somewhere on the highway
Near the Washington state line
Is a rest stop haunted by the ghost of
What I left behind
You didn’t meant to hurt me
And I didn’t have a choice
But when I drive by with the windows down
I still hear your voice, singing
Every love that dies
Lies in a shallow grave
And the things that won’t stay buried make it
Hard to turn the page
So I push the pedal down
Till I’m going way too fast
Even ninety miles an hour, though
I still can’t outrun the past
Ghosts in my head
Ghosts of the highway
Ghosts in my head
Ghosts of the highway
We crossed a continent together
From the east into the west
And everywhere between our love’s
Remains are laid to rest
Every time I find a new way
And I think I’m moving on
I end up on another road
That’s haunted by your song
Now I’ve met another girl
But every time I say her name
I worry that her love will end up
Buried just the same
I wonder where you are tonight
I look up at the sky
I hope that you don’t think of me
And aren’t still haunted by
These ghosts in my head
Ghosts of the highway
Ghosts in my head
Ghosts of the highway