SCENES FROM HIGHWAYS 1981-2009 Lyrics

[Intro]
I let the car drift some
Eye your uncomfortable pose in profile

The postures of long drives
That endless cycling of your numb and near sleeping parts
And you lean much harder than you need when the road curves
Swerve through traffic and the cracks in the ground

Every gesture you require of a drive like this night
When you fight now you just head out of town
I let the wheel go over center lines
Inside a place without time, a loop through history

Eye you in periphery now prone in the passenger seat
It’s a mystery the ways you can sleep

[Bridge 1]
I want to leave here for where nobody goes
I want to breathe in the air
Of all those sprawling ancient spaces on earth

You said we’re so scared of alone and I knew what you meant
You want to go where it glows all those places where your watch doesn’t work

[Verse 1]
You were riding those nights on the highway always hiding out inside a songwriter’s dream there, like a scene from a song
Born to Run, or maybe Running on Empty
Ones where they would leave

Certain nights when you’d fight you couldn’t stick around
So you’d head out of town
Just hit the highway and drive

Certain nights when you’d thought it was fine
But it shook you when the baby would cry

Why did you always turn around in the end?
To hear the shattering of glass on the door again?
So loud the baby couldn’t sleep anymore?

What didn’t you find that you were looking for?
Your mother called a hardware, set you up an interview
An answer to an ad
The bosses’ daughter still remembers dinner
Where her father said
He wouldn’t stick his neck out for trouble again
But they did then
And those days you’d wake up
And just decide you wouldn’t show
He’d show up at your door
Nights you’d skip town
He’d follow you out
Pretty soon you started falling for their daughter
And she fell for you
Drive roll every window down
Let the desert enter heavy and primitive in
Drift till rumble strips sound
Time moves so slow but I know that you meant what you said
You want to go where it’s frozen
All those places where the highways don’t reach

[Bridge 2]
You want to go where it glows
Somewhere that time is irrelevant
You want to go where it glows
Somewhere the spaces are infinite


[Verse 2]
You want to go where it glows
Somewhere you don’t feel the hours pass by
You identified the flowers on the road
I rolled the windows down and shut off the radio

Did you ever think you’d end up here
All those late nights you were driving alone?
You were riding to hide
Or you were looking for a brand new life
Did you ever think you’d find one back home?
Did you even think you’d get out alive?
Could you imagine then the love you now know?
I think history’s a system of roads and there’s nowhere it doesn’t go
I pulled over to the side and felt no time
Off the highway with the landscape aglow
Still not sure what we were trying to find
I only know we went home

How to Format Lyrics:

  • Type out all lyrics, even repeating song parts like the chorus
  • Lyrics should be broken down into individual lines
  • Use section headers above different song parts like [Verse], [Chorus], etc.
  • Use italics (<i>lyric</i>) and bold (<b>lyric</b>) to distinguish between different vocalists in the same song part
  • If you don’t understand a lyric, use [?]

To learn more, check out our transcription guide or visit our transcribers forum

About

Genius Annotation

This is one of the three “historical fiction” songs on the album, that recount events from singer and lyricist Jordan Dreyer’s ancestors. The couple referred to in this song is presumably Jordan’s parents judging by the dates (1981-2009) and the presence of a young kid of the couple (Jordan’s grandparents already had kids in the ‘50s and '60s).

Credits
Produced By
Recorded At
Studio 4 in Conshohocken, PA
Release Date
March 18, 2014
Tags
Comments