concrete speed
white dash dash dash dash dash
signs read Jesus John 3:3
160 miles to cincinati
148 miles to cincinatti 150 miles to cincinatti
dash dash dash concrete concrete
I have lost my creativity the highway
has ****** it from me
i see only sterile ruins of what was once great and beautiful
but is now trash on the side of the road
void of spirit or character
Where am I? Who am I? What am I? What have we become? Why have we made life into such an inorganic jungle of cold fear desperation hollowness? Why have we destroyed what we were given and created a jail?
A mental physical jail where we have all become strangers. We are foreigners in our own land
we dont know where we came from we dont know where we are going
but we just keep going and going and going will the highway ever end? it won't because we will continue to build it faster than we can drive
faster than the fast food we eat along the way

i'm never gonna turn off the television.
i'm just gonna let it run all night.
i'm gonna plant root vegetables out in the backyard
and come summer i am going to treat you right.

so put on your chairman mao coat
and let me clear my throat.
let's turn this whole town upside-down
and shake it 'til the coins come falling out of its pockets,
yeah put on your che guevara pin
call the troops on in
we're gonna sail through the night sky like a pair of bottle rockets.

i got a great big secret written down somewhere.
i got a rosary to protect us both from harm.
i got a storage locker full of cow figurines
and a laundry list of grievances longer than my arm.
and i am never going back to cincinatti.
all those bridges have burned down to the ground.
i got the jet pack strapped to my back
and i am waiting for you to come around.

yeah, put on your chairman mao coat
and let me clear my throat.
let's turn this whole place upside-down
and shake it 'til the coins come dropping out of its pockets.
yeah put on your che guevara pin
call the troops on in.
we're gonna sink through the night sky like a pair of bottle rockets.

Mark Kozelek sang about it for his first album as Sun Kil Moon, to remind himself of lost loves.

So did Modest Mouse, probably in a methed-out spark of inspiration.

And Neil Young, immortalizing Kent State.

And Damien Jurado, going back to love.

What is the draw for Ohio? Is it the landscape? The memories? The people?

A couple of friends of mine moved there not long after getting married.

She is from Cincinatti, he's from Hattiesburg, Mississippi.

Oh, Ohio! Maybe one day I'll visit you to try to understand your lure
Why so many musicians write about you

But I'll have to come in the late spring or summer, otherwise
Your winters will be a ***** for this Louisiana boy.