Life Is A Highway (Tom Cochrane)

Life’s like a road that you travel on
When there’s one day here and the next day gone
Sometimes you bend, sometimes you stand
Sometimes you turn your back to the wind
There’s a world outside every darkened door
Where blues won’t haunt you anymore
Where the brave are free and lovers soar
Come ride with me to the distant shore
We won’t hesitate, break down the garden gate
There’s not much time left today
Life is a highway
I want to ride it all night long
If you’re going my way
I want to drive it all night long

Through all these cities and all these towns
It’s in my blood and it’s all around
I love you know like I loved you then
This is the road and these are the hands
From Mozambique to those Memphis nights
The Khyber Pass to Vancouver’s lights
Knock me down get back up again
You’re in my blood I’m not a lonely man

There’s no load I can’t hold
Road so rough, this I know
I’ll be there when the light comes in
Tell ’em we’re survivors

Life is a highway
I want to ride it all night long
If you’re going my way
I want to drive it all night long

Life is a highway
I want to ride it all night long
If you’re going my way
I want to drive it all night long

There was a distance between you and I
A misunderstanding once but now
We look it in the eye

There’s no load I can’t hold
Road so rough this I know
I’ll be there when the light comes in
Tell ’em we’re survivors

Life is a highway
I want to ride it all night long
If you’re going my way
I want to drive it all night long

Life is a highway
I want to ride it all night long
If you’re going my way
I want to drive it all night long

Life is a highway
I want to ride it all night long
If you’re going my way
I want to drive it all night long

This song written and sung by the Canadian Singer Tom Cochrane reached the top 6 of the US top 40 in 1992. It is the only single of Cochrane that hit the top of the U.S. charts. However, he is a very popular singer in his native country having received many musical honors and awards. “Life Is a Highway” was inspired by the singer’s West African trip where he was busy with his advocacy of ending famine in the world. He went to West Africa with the group called World Vision. Cochrane revealed that when he wrote this song, he was feeling spiritually and mentally exhausted. He thought that he needs something to pull him out of his doldrums.

But he had something going in his mind and when he got up at seven the next morning, he went to work on “Life Is a Highway.” He admitted that he was surprised that he was able to write a positive song on the day that he was feeling down. The song’s spirit is aptly demonstrated by the lines “There’s a world outside every darkened door, where blues won’t haunt you anymore, where the brave are free and lovers soar.” In other words, when you are feeling down, just go on because life is a highway. You never know what positive things await you when you turn the corner.

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