https:\/\/youtu.be\/fvj2OzKnpVM<\/p>\n
While it may be painfully obvious, a song that has always captured the spirit of The Road for me is \u201cAnother Travelin\u2019 Song\u201d by Bright Eyes. The song\u2019s bumping country bassline propels you through the song, and I can\u2019t help but to see tires spinning while I listen to it. Bright Eyes\u2019 frontman (and my lifelong obsession) Conor Oberst makes his intention clear from the song\u2019s first stanza.<\/p>\n
\u201cWell I’m changing all my strings\/<\/p>\n
I’m gonna write another traveling song\/<\/p>\n
About all the billion highways and the cities at the break of dawn\/<\/p>\n
Well I guess the best that I can do now is pretend that I’ve done nothing wrong\/<\/p>\n
And to dream about a train that’s gonna take me back where I belong\u201d<\/p>\n
In this, Oberst sees the road as both a way to a destination and a destination itself, a duality J.B. Jackson notes in \u201cRoads Belong in the Landscape.\u201d Andrew F. Wood speaks to this too, but specifically in relation to Route 66. In that particular case, The Road itself has become a tourist attraction.<\/p>\n
Oberst alludes to some mistakes he\u2019s made, and hints that perhaps The Road could be an escape from them. However, there\u2019s still a purpose of returning home.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/b>The next two lines echo the problems Oberst just introduced us to.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/b>\u201cWell now the ocean speaks and spits and I can hear it from the interstate\/<\/p>\n
And I’m screaming at my brother on a cell phone he’s far away\u201d<\/p>\n
Oberst sets the scene here \u2013 we can clearly see the type of road he is traveling on. I always loved the image of him yelling at his brother, perhaps because I can relate, having three older ones myself. However, after reading Jackson\u2019s piece and seeing the road as a destination itself, this line has new meaning for me. Oberst was trying to use the road to get away from his problems, but modern technology makes it impossible for him to fully escape them. Even on the road, he\u2019s not away from his issues.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/b>Fast forward to the end of the song, and Oberst realizes this.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/b>\u201cSo I will find my fears and face them\/<\/p>\n
Or I will cower like a dog\/<\/p>\n
I will kick and scream or kneel and plead\/<\/p>\n
I’ll fight like hell to hide that I’ve given up\u201d<\/p>\n
Just like how the road offers two options \u2013 taking you to a destination or being the destination itself \u2013 Oberst sees that he too has \u201ctwo paths diverged in the yellow wood\u201d: to face his problems, or to run away from them.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/b>While our in-class discussions have given new depth to this song, my history with it goes way back. I\u2019ve put this on nearly every traveling playlist I can remember. Most memorably, I remember driving home from Ohio on I-80 during Spring Break 2014. My boyfriend and I went to visit my brother, and as with any road trip, it\u2019s a big step to see if you can handle being in each other\u2019s vicinity for that long of a time.<\/p>\n
On our way there, my boyfriend got a speeding ticket – our first ever – and he was pretty sour about it for a bit. However, like Oberst had to in the song, he made the choice to let it not ruin our trip and to deal with it when we got home.<\/p>\n
I-80 is a straight shot through Pennsylvania, and is pretty monotonous. However, on our way back, we drove through a mountainous area with a beautiful view. I remember putting on this song as we entered that stretch. While we were definitely headed home, in that moment, The Road was its own destination.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
https:\/\/youtu.be\/fvj2OzKnpVM While it may be painfully obvious, a song that has always captured the spirit of The Road for me is \u201cAnother Travelin\u2019 Song\u201d by Bright Eyes. The song\u2019s bumping country bassline propels you through the song, and I can\u2019t help but to see tires spinning while I listen to it. Bright Eyes\u2019 frontman (and …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1329,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[136,139,135,137,138,131],"class_list":["post-212","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-another-travelin-song","tag-the-road-belongs-in-the-landscape","tag-bright-eyes","tag-conor-oberst","tag-j-b-jackson","tag-the-road"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.temple.edu\/americanicons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/212","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.temple.edu\/americanicons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.temple.edu\/americanicons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.temple.edu\/americanicons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1329"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.temple.edu\/americanicons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=212"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sites.temple.edu\/americanicons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/212\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.temple.edu\/americanicons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=212"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.temple.edu\/americanicons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=212"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.temple.edu\/americanicons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=212"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}