Thinking about this prompt, I remembered that my favorite place is not a place, in the sense of a static location somewhere, but a place on which I am moving. I can "slip away" onto a Carefree Highway, as Gordon Lightfoot sang in 1974. And in fact this is one of my musical essays, so I hope people will go to my website or facebook page and click on the youtube links to hear the music and see images of carefree highways.
I usually think of a two-way highway, in a mostly rural setting, but not too far out of town. Somewhat curvy and hilly, and offering great views. It makes me think of being free, maybe seeing friends along the way, feeling connected to where I am, but also to the panoramas of the distance ahead.
Sometimes when I am at a restaurant with friends and I order a sandwich and it comes with a pickle. But I don’t like pickles. I sing "I don’t want a pickle. Just wanna ride on my motorsickle. And I don’t wanna die. Just wanna ride on my motorcy----cle". And Arlo Guthrie goes on in 1968 to say that he had an accident on his motorcycle while riding fast on such a carefree highway and going over a cliff, but he didn’t die. "I landed on top of a police car, and HE died". Sort of like the cops who arrested him at Alice's Restaurant in 1967. It was a testimony to youth in the late 1960s in a rebellious time, like in the 1969 Easy Rider movie.
The famous 1968 rock song in the movie said "Get your motor runnin’, head out on the highway! Lookin’ for adventure in whatever comes our way," because we were Born to Be Wild. We can climb so high, and never wanna die. Riding a motorcycle on a carefree highway does play a part in my macho fantasies. But being on the highway doesn’t necessarily have to be so dangerous or thrill-seeking as that. It is like feeling the wind on your face amid the rustle of the grass on a wonderful California day. I don’t even need to take a smoke of grass to feel this way. I can just get another hit of sweet California sunshine and Fresh Air (1970) , courtesy of the Let’s Get Together/Get Together songwriter Dino Valenti aka Jesse Otis Farrow aka Chester (Chet) Powers whom I have written about before, and who did need "another hit" and had gotten himself arrested over "grass" .
I guess I began to feel this way about highways remembering my life-changing summer of 1966. Remember how my Dad got so mad at me for swiping a rowboat at our motel’s pier on Clear Lake at night for a ride? And yet just months after getting my drivers license he let me drive the family car on that trip going north on Highway One. It felt great driving up and down the hills, and from then on when I heard certain panoramic pieces I would revel in the images of the carefree highway that the music evoked for me. Even John Entwistle slipped away in 1971 with The Who in his fast car to escape his wife for a super-powerfully panoramic mad dash! Like Gordon slipping away onto the Carefree Highway to escape from Ann (or was it to see Ann?). I’ve seen better days too.
So I haven’t had to ride a motorsickle without a pickle to "slip away". Our friend Ross rides a motorcycle. Our older friend who walks with a cane said Ross doesn’t look like someone who rides a motorcycle. I said, "you never know". If I ever get in shape again I might even ride one too, I said. Right now though, even driving my car on a highway seems a bit daunting for me sometimes. But I can still listen to the music. One of my first youtube videos was of the bouncy 1966 song Live by The Merry Go Round and its singer-songwriter Emitt Rhodes (roads?). It went viral and has the most views and likes of any of my videos. I put images of carefree highways, motorcycles and bicycles on it. As I did on my video of one of my favorite organ works, the Organ Symphony #1 Finale from 1899 by Louis Vierne, showing motorcycles, bikes, horses, airplanes, ships, valkyries and more. "It is the epitome of traveling music", I wrote years ago in my essay on Vierne. This music pretty much is the pinnacle and apotheosis of this essay, and it also directly refers to the rebellious historical journey of liberation we are all on, if we can get there again!
I guess I have written enough now. Enjoy the videos and get out and ride your panoramic carefree highway, and remember to ride or drive carefully, unless you wanna die. Take in the view, whether on land, sea or air, and enjoy the journey-- even if only in your mind, and in the music.
John Entwistle solo with his band play My Wife
another ride from Steppenwolf (also 1968) notice that it is an organ work
Born to Be Wild showing lyrics and a highway
another live version of the Motorcycle Song, and this time there's a new twist, and Arlo explains why he didn't want a pickle.
Go ride the music, baby! Wooden Ships by Jefferson Airplane
Today's meditative ambient space music is often panoramic too. As in this 2023 album Paz Infinata by Phillip Wilkerson that achieved a permanent place on my CD player in 2024-2025
I Like You impromptu essay for BOW Aug.10, 2025
My earlier essay about the flying bike I saw in 1960 connects to the Motorcycle Song. Arlo crushed a cop when his motorbike flying through the air landed on a police car. I have written essays about Oz too. Remember when Miss Gulch kidnapped Dorothy's dog saying you must turn him over to me "unless you want to go against the law!" Soon though, Dorothy was swept up into a tornado with Miss Gulch too riding her flying bike, and then she morphed into a wicked witch. But Dorothy's flying house crushed Miss Gulch the witch when it landed in Oz. Dorothy squashed the law! The Flying Bike I Saw in 1960
Some further thoughts. You may notice some other common themes in these songs and movies, which I noticed myself after I picked them out for this essay, besides riding on highways wild and free and being carefree, careless and adventurous, with no time to think. Relationship "pickles" crop up, and of course, the law and the rules, and even sometimes some guns. In this great organ piece by Vierne, which has the same powerful panoramic energy of all the other rock n roll pieces linked here, was called "my Marseillaise" by the composer. It connects to the ongoing Revolution of modern times that was being revived in his time, and again in the times of these songs too. But death is also a common theme in many of them. Unlike Arlo and Steppenwolf, the guys in Easy Rider do die on their motorcycles at the end. And now we face the possible death of the Revolution and modern times alluded to by Louis Vierne as our president Anthony Fremont (mentioned in my flying bike essay) is set to kill it. We may need to "squash the cops" (like ICE) and "the law" or take some other drastic steps in OUR times in 2025 to stop our looming return to the age of kings!