WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.879 Welcome back. I am really glad you're here with 00:00:02.879 --> 00:00:05.459 us today because we are unpacking something truly 00:00:05.459 --> 00:00:08.380 special. Yeah, we have a really fantastic mission 00:00:08.380 --> 00:00:11.199 for this deep dive. We do. You know those... 00:00:12.140 --> 00:00:14.699 Those pieces of culture like songs or stories 00:00:14.699 --> 00:00:16.760 or even just phrases that feel like they've just 00:00:16.760 --> 00:00:18.739 always existed. Right. The ones that feel less 00:00:18.739 --> 00:00:20.539 like someone sat down and wrote them and more 00:00:20.539 --> 00:00:22.600 like they were just, I don't know, pulled directly 00:00:22.600 --> 00:00:25.460 out of the American soil. Exactly. And today 00:00:25.460 --> 00:00:30.120 we are tracing the hidden and frankly, really 00:00:30.120 --> 00:00:33.159 fascinating lineage of one of those exact pieces 00:00:33.159 --> 00:00:35.299 of art. We're looking at a comprehensive historical 00:00:35.299 --> 00:00:39.240 text on the 1948 song Lost Highway. Yeah, and 00:00:39.240 --> 00:00:42.619 our goal today is to uncover how a forgotten, 00:00:42.759 --> 00:00:44.780 pretty desperate moment on the side of a dirt 00:00:44.780 --> 00:00:49.299 road evolved into a universal cultural touchstone 00:00:49.299 --> 00:00:51.719 spanning over seven decades now. It's an amazing 00:00:51.719 --> 00:00:53.920 journey. It really is. Okay, let's unpack this. 00:00:54.119 --> 00:00:56.119 Because you listening right now, you might think 00:00:56.119 --> 00:00:57.719 you know this song, or at least you might think 00:00:57.719 --> 00:00:59.740 you know the legend attached to it. Most people 00:00:59.740 --> 00:01:02.469 do. Right. But the true story we're looking at 00:01:02.469 --> 00:01:05.189 in these sources, it completely recontextualizes 00:01:05.189 --> 00:01:08.549 how we understand music history and authorship 00:01:08.549 --> 00:01:11.489 and, well, the things we leave behind. It really 00:01:11.489 --> 00:01:14.230 is a remarkable narrative. And to truly set the 00:01:14.230 --> 00:01:17.189 mood for us today, I want you to build a theater 00:01:17.189 --> 00:01:19.829 of the mind. Just picture the scene. Okay, set 00:01:19.829 --> 00:01:23.689 the stage for us. Picture a dusty, vintage Americana 00:01:23.689 --> 00:01:26.950 highway stretching out into the horizon. The 00:01:26.950 --> 00:01:29.349 heat is shimmering off the asphalt, and that 00:01:29.349 --> 00:01:33.319 image is layered. right alongside a massive wall 00:01:33.319 --> 00:01:36.439 of iconic record sleeves from across the decades. 00:01:36.579 --> 00:01:38.640 I love that visual. Because what we are exploring 00:01:38.640 --> 00:01:41.120 today isn't just a simple anecdote about classic 00:01:41.120 --> 00:01:43.780 country music. It's a study in how authenticity 00:01:43.780 --> 00:01:46.739 and these deeply human themes of perdition and 00:01:46.739 --> 00:01:49.780 hopelessness can completely transcend time, transcend 00:01:49.780 --> 00:01:52.060 genre, and even transcend the person who originally 00:01:52.060 --> 00:01:54.640 penned the words. That dusty highway visual is 00:01:54.640 --> 00:01:56.340 a perfect starting point, honestly, because it 00:01:56.340 --> 00:01:58.739 brings us right to the first major surprise from 00:01:58.739 --> 00:02:01.129 our source material. a lot of people off. It 00:02:01.129 --> 00:02:03.390 really does. When you hear the title Lost Highway, 00:02:03.670 --> 00:02:06.430 if you know anything at all about classic country 00:02:06.430 --> 00:02:09.150 music, your brain almost certainly goes straight 00:02:09.150 --> 00:02:11.750 to one specific name. Hank Williams. Hank Williams. 00:02:12.069 --> 00:02:14.830 The song is almost universally associated with 00:02:14.830 --> 00:02:17.669 him. He's the face of it. But here is the reality. 00:02:18.569 --> 00:02:21.789 He didn't write it. Nope. The true author of 00:02:21.789 --> 00:02:24.870 Lost Highway is a man named Leon Payne. He wrote 00:02:24.870 --> 00:02:28.750 and recorded it in 1948. And Payne wasn't just 00:02:28.750 --> 00:02:31.449 some, you know, studio executive or a guy sitting 00:02:31.449 --> 00:02:33.330 in an air conditioned room trying to churn out 00:02:33.330 --> 00:02:35.750 a hit. Not at all. He was a blind country singer 00:02:35.750 --> 00:02:38.050 songwriter trying to physically make his way 00:02:38.050 --> 00:02:40.650 through a very unforgiving world. And that detail, 00:02:40.870 --> 00:02:43.469 his blindness, his vulnerability, it's absolutely 00:02:43.469 --> 00:02:45.909 crucial to understanding the DNA of this song. 00:02:46.030 --> 00:02:48.530 Yeah. When we look at the vivid origin story 00:02:48.530 --> 00:02:51.770 provided in the text, it grounds the art in a 00:02:51.770 --> 00:02:54.500 harsh, undeniable reality. Payne actually had 00:02:54.500 --> 00:02:56.539 a really prolific career. He worked from 1941 00:02:56.539 --> 00:03:00.000 all the way to 1969. A long run. A very long 00:03:00.000 --> 00:03:02.180 run. But in those early days, he was struggling 00:03:02.180 --> 00:03:04.620 immensely. He traveled from place to place just 00:03:04.620 --> 00:03:07.180 trying to find jobs, totally relying on the kindness 00:03:07.180 --> 00:03:09.819 of strangers. Which had to be incredibly difficult. 00:03:09.919 --> 00:03:11.860 Right. And the source tells us about this one 00:03:11.860 --> 00:03:14.379 specific instance where he was in California 00:03:14.379 --> 00:03:16.900 and he was hitchhiking, trying to get all the 00:03:16.900 --> 00:03:19.360 way back to Alba, Texas. That is a massive distance. 00:03:19.460 --> 00:03:21.360 And he wasn't out on the road seeking adventure 00:03:21.360 --> 00:03:24.479 or wandering for the romantic sake of it. He 00:03:24.479 --> 00:03:27.360 was desperately trying to get home to visit his 00:03:27.360 --> 00:03:29.849 sick mother. I really want us to sit with that 00:03:29.849 --> 00:03:32.689 image for a second. Just think about it. A blind 00:03:32.689 --> 00:03:35.750 man in the 1940s hitchhiking across the American 00:03:35.750 --> 00:03:38.710 Southwest to see his ailing mother. Think about 00:03:38.710 --> 00:03:40.810 the infrastructure back then. He was almost non 00:03:40.810 --> 00:03:43.509 -existent in places. Exactly. Think about the 00:03:43.509 --> 00:03:46.009 sheer physical risk. You're standing on the side 00:03:46.009 --> 00:03:48.550 of a road hearing cars speed by, feeling the 00:03:48.550 --> 00:03:51.750 dust kick up, entirely dependent on someone pulling 00:03:51.750 --> 00:03:55.050 over. That is the absolute definition of vulnerability. 00:03:55.629 --> 00:03:57.250 You're at the total mercy of the environment. 00:03:57.610 --> 00:04:00.650 people in it and for pain he was unable to get 00:04:00.650 --> 00:04:03.610 a ride he was entirely stranded the source notes 00:04:03.610 --> 00:04:06.129 that eventually he had to get help from the salvation 00:04:06.129 --> 00:04:08.949 army just to survive the ordeal and get moving 00:04:08.949 --> 00:04:11.710 again but it was right there sitting on the edge 00:04:11.710 --> 00:04:14.229 of the road waiting and hoping for a ride that 00:04:14.229 --> 00:04:17.230 simply wasn't coming that pain wrote lost highway 00:04:17.230 --> 00:04:19.769 wow what's fascinating here is that this wasn't 00:04:19.769 --> 00:04:22.790 some metaphorical poetic exercise this song was 00:04:22.790 --> 00:04:26.050 born out of literal physical stranding. Yeah, 00:04:26.189 --> 00:04:29.290 the literal dirt. Exactly. The feelings of being 00:04:29.290 --> 00:04:31.610 lost, of being trapped, of rolling down a highway 00:04:31.610 --> 00:04:34.889 of regret, they were his immediate visceral reality 00:04:34.889 --> 00:04:38.389 in that exact moment. It is so raw. And to ground 00:04:38.389 --> 00:04:39.949 this for you listening, let's lay out the facts 00:04:39.949 --> 00:04:42.170 of how this incredibly intimate moment actually 00:04:42.170 --> 00:04:44.829 made it onto a physical record. Right, the logistics 00:04:44.829 --> 00:04:47.230 of it. Yeah. Payne ended up recording this track 00:04:47.230 --> 00:04:50.410 at the Jim Beck Studio in Dallas, Texas. It was 00:04:50.410 --> 00:04:53.490 released in October of 1948 on a Nashville -based 00:04:53.490 --> 00:04:56.120 label. called Bullet. Bullet 670 specifically. 00:04:56.660 --> 00:04:59.500 Right. Catalog number Bullet 670. And at the 00:04:59.500 --> 00:05:01.899 time, the industry classified it as a hillbilly 00:05:01.899 --> 00:05:05.019 genre track. Now, just for some context, hillbilly 00:05:05.019 --> 00:05:07.860 was actually the literal official term used by 00:05:07.860 --> 00:05:10.439 the Billboard charts back then. Before they formally 00:05:10.439 --> 00:05:12.980 adopted the term country and western. Exactly. 00:05:13.040 --> 00:05:16.160 So it was a two minute and 44 second track. And 00:05:16.160 --> 00:05:19.000 the physical record featured a B -side, you know, 00:05:19.000 --> 00:05:20.620 the song on the flip side of the vinyl called 00:05:20.620 --> 00:05:23.389 Baby Boy. Which is largely forgotten now. Completely. 00:05:23.529 --> 00:05:26.990 And Payne was a genuinely prolific writer. He 00:05:26.990 --> 00:05:29.990 penned hundreds of songs, including massive hits 00:05:29.990 --> 00:05:33.050 for other people like I Love You Because and 00:05:33.050 --> 00:05:35.209 They'll Never Take Her Love From Me. Great songs. 00:05:35.329 --> 00:05:38.089 Incredible songs. But there is absolutely no 00:05:38.089 --> 00:05:41.050 denying that this roadside moment, this desperate 00:05:41.050 --> 00:05:44.050 plea on the edge of the California highway was 00:05:44.050 --> 00:05:46.490 his ultimate masterpiece. It was his masterpiece. 00:05:46.689 --> 00:05:49.029 But the trajectory of that masterpiece was about 00:05:49.029 --> 00:05:51.949 to take a very unexpected turn. Yeah, it was. 00:05:52.199 --> 00:05:53.939 The song was about to leave his hands entirely. 00:05:54.259 --> 00:05:56.540 Here's where it gets really interesting. Because 00:05:56.540 --> 00:05:59.720 even though Leon Payne lived it, wrote it, and 00:05:59.720 --> 00:06:02.339 recorded it, history had different plans for 00:06:02.339 --> 00:06:04.360 who would become the permanent face of Lost Highway. 00:06:04.600 --> 00:06:07.420 Enter Hank Williams. The legend himself. Right. 00:06:07.639 --> 00:06:10.040 Hank records his version of the song on March 00:06:10.040 --> 00:06:13.720 1st, 1949. That is less than six months after 00:06:13.720 --> 00:06:16.379 Payne released his original version. A very quick 00:06:16.379 --> 00:06:19.000 turnaround. Super quick. Hank records it at Castle 00:06:19.000 --> 00:06:21.100 Studio, which was located at the Tulane Hotel 00:06:21.100 --> 00:06:23.899 in Nashville. And his version gets released on 00:06:23.899 --> 00:06:27.360 September 9, 1949 on the MGM label with the B 00:06:27.360 --> 00:06:30.000 -side. You're going to change or I'm going to 00:06:30.000 --> 00:06:31.639 leave. We really have to look at the environment 00:06:31.639 --> 00:06:34.420 of that 1949 recording session to understand 00:06:34.420 --> 00:06:36.860 the weight of it and why it sounded the way it 00:06:36.860 --> 00:06:38.939 did. Well, just to give you listening a sense 00:06:38.939 --> 00:06:40.779 of the room, you know, a fly on the wall field. 00:06:40.879 --> 00:06:43.839 This session was produced by the iconic Fred 00:06:43.839 --> 00:06:47.720 Rose and the band backing Hank. It was his drifting 00:06:47.720 --> 00:06:50.120 cowboys. And these weren't just random musicians 00:06:50.120 --> 00:06:52.740 hired for the day. Not at all. These guys were 00:06:52.740 --> 00:06:55.160 the elite architects of the Nashville sound. 00:06:55.240 --> 00:06:58.079 You had Dale Potter on fiddle, Don Davis on steel 00:06:58.079 --> 00:07:00.600 guitar. Zeb Turner playing lead guitar. Yep. 00:07:00.639 --> 00:07:03.399 Clyde Baum on mandolin, Jack Shook on rhythm 00:07:03.399 --> 00:07:06.319 guitar, and Ernie Newton on the bass. When you 00:07:06.319 --> 00:07:08.899 put that specific group of master musicians together 00:07:08.899 --> 00:07:11.319 with a song that heavy, magic is going to happen. 00:07:11.459 --> 00:07:13.879 Absolutely. The weeping sound of that steel guitar 00:07:13.879 --> 00:07:16.319 alone sounds like a lonely train whistle in the 00:07:16.319 --> 00:07:18.540 dead of night. It certainly was magic in the 00:07:18.540 --> 00:07:21.220 studio, but the immediate commercial reaction 00:07:21.220 --> 00:07:23.319 is actually quite surprising, and it kind of 00:07:23.319 --> 00:07:26.339 contradicts how we generally remember music history. 00:07:26.560 --> 00:07:28.339 Yeah, tell them about that quote. The source 00:07:28.339 --> 00:07:30.720 text includes this brilliant, crucial quote from 00:07:30.720 --> 00:07:33.399 Hank Williams' biographer Colin Escott that we 00:07:33.399 --> 00:07:36.250 really need to dissect here. Escott points out 00:07:36.250 --> 00:07:38.970 a profound double irony about this recording. 00:07:39.129 --> 00:07:54.189 Okay. He says, and I quote, Wait, it barely dented 00:07:54.189 --> 00:07:56.449 the charts? That completely contradicts the mythos. 00:07:56.509 --> 00:07:59.310 Doesn't it? We look back at these historic moments 00:07:59.310 --> 00:08:01.589 and just assume they were instant, explosive, 00:08:01.750 --> 00:08:05.189 number one hits. But Lost Highway wasn't a smash 00:08:05.189 --> 00:08:07.689 hit for Hank out of the gate. No, it took time. 00:08:07.810 --> 00:08:10.170 So I have to ask, and maybe push back a little 00:08:10.170 --> 00:08:13.129 here, how does it become his signature song? 00:08:13.310 --> 00:08:15.550 And honestly, doesn't that feel fundamentally 00:08:15.550 --> 00:08:18.970 unfair to Leon Payne? I can see that. Payne lived 00:08:18.970 --> 00:08:21.290 the trauma. He was the one stranded in the dirt. 00:08:21.649 --> 00:08:24.110 But Hank Williams gets all the glory and cultural 00:08:24.110 --> 00:08:26.470 ownership just because he had a more famous persona 00:08:26.470 --> 00:08:29.050 or a bigger studio behind him. That is a very 00:08:29.050 --> 00:08:31.149 fair point. Yeah. And it's a tension that exists 00:08:31.149 --> 00:08:33.389 constantly in the history of recorded music. 00:08:33.570 --> 00:08:36.970 It does seem unfair on the surface. But the text 00:08:36.970 --> 00:08:39.250 explains exactly why it became Hank's signature 00:08:39.250 --> 00:08:41.889 anyway, despite the lackluster chart performance 00:08:41.889 --> 00:08:43.669 and the fact that he didn't even write it. Why 00:08:43.669 --> 00:08:46.269 is that? It comes down to the profound power 00:08:46.269 --> 00:08:49.379 of interpretation. The song is a potent combination 00:08:49.379 --> 00:08:53.179 of perdition and hopelessness. For Hank Williams, 00:08:53.500 --> 00:08:55.899 a man who battled infamous, very public inner 00:08:55.899 --> 00:08:58.580 demons, struggling with severe alcoholism in 00:08:58.580 --> 00:09:01.720 a really turbulent personal life, those lyrics 00:09:01.720 --> 00:09:04.200 sounded, as the biography puts it, like pages 00:09:04.200 --> 00:09:07.320 torn from his diary. Oh, wow. Sometimes an interpreter 00:09:07.320 --> 00:09:10.639 can embody a piece of art so perfectly, so authentically, 00:09:10.700 --> 00:09:12.759 that the public permanently assigns ownership 00:09:12.759 --> 00:09:15.250 to them. Hank didn't write the words on the side 00:09:15.250 --> 00:09:17.529 of that road, but his voice carried the exact 00:09:17.529 --> 00:09:20.269 same existential pain. He lived the emotion of 00:09:20.269 --> 00:09:22.190 the lyrics so thoroughly that the culture simply 00:09:22.190 --> 00:09:24.649 decided the song belonged to him. I see your 00:09:24.649 --> 00:09:26.850 point. It's the difference between authoring 00:09:26.850 --> 00:09:29.789 the map and being the one seen walking the road. 00:09:29.950 --> 00:09:32.129 Beautifully put. And the cultural imprint of 00:09:32.129 --> 00:09:34.549 Hank's interpretation is staggeringly strong. 00:09:35.419 --> 00:09:38.419 Decades later, his own son, Hank Williams Jr., 00:09:38.419 --> 00:09:41.620 referenced the song as a foundational truth about 00:09:41.620 --> 00:09:43.799 his dad. Right, in one of his biggest hits. Yeah. 00:09:44.250 --> 00:09:46.529 In All My Rowdy Friends Have Settled Down, Hank 00:09:46.529 --> 00:09:49.090 Jr. literally sings, I think I know what my father 00:09:49.090 --> 00:09:52.090 meant when he sang about a lost highway. Notice 00:09:52.090 --> 00:09:54.549 he didn't say when he wrote about, he specifically 00:09:54.549 --> 00:09:57.110 said when he sang about. The culture accepts 00:09:57.110 --> 00:09:59.970 him as the voice of it. Exactly. The song is 00:09:59.970 --> 00:10:03.009 deeply, permanently woven into the Williams family 00:10:03.009 --> 00:10:06.169 mythology, all stemming from Leon Payne's Lonely 00:10:06.169 --> 00:10:08.429 Moment. And yet, that is still just the beginning 00:10:08.429 --> 00:10:10.870 of the song's journey. because it didn't stay 00:10:10.870 --> 00:10:13.129 contained within the country music sphere or 00:10:13.129 --> 00:10:15.929 even within the Williams family legacy. The ripple 00:10:15.929 --> 00:10:18.450 effect of this song is something we rarely see. 00:10:18.610 --> 00:10:21.309 The footprint is massive. Escott noted that the 00:10:21.309 --> 00:10:23.730 title Lost Highway has been co -opted for so 00:10:23.730 --> 00:10:25.809 many different things across the cultural landscape. 00:10:26.029 --> 00:10:29.169 It has been the title of books. It's been a stage 00:10:29.169 --> 00:10:31.950 show. A television series. The TV series, yes, 00:10:32.210 --> 00:10:34.409 it's the name of a highly influential record 00:10:34.409 --> 00:10:37.230 label that launched incredible Americana artists. 00:10:37.769 --> 00:10:40.549 And maybe most fascinatingly, it was used by 00:10:40.549 --> 00:10:43.370 the surrealist director David Lynch as the title 00:10:43.370 --> 00:10:46.509 for his 1997 psychological thriller film. That 00:10:46.509 --> 00:10:49.230 Lynch connection is so telling. If you're familiar 00:10:49.230 --> 00:10:51.190 with David Lynch, you know he operates in the 00:10:51.190 --> 00:10:53.809 realm of the surreal and the neo -noir, these 00:10:53.809 --> 00:10:57.440 moody, shadow -filled... morally ambiguous worlds. 00:10:57.600 --> 00:11:00.019 Very strange worlds. Right. And the fact that 00:11:00.019 --> 00:11:03.200 a 1948 country song about hitchhiking to Alba, 00:11:03.299 --> 00:11:06.100 Texas could inspire the title in the atmosphere 00:11:06.100 --> 00:11:08.860 of a neo -noir film about identity crisis and 00:11:08.860 --> 00:11:11.139 fugue states tells you everything you need to 00:11:11.139 --> 00:11:13.240 know. It really does. It proves the atmospheric 00:11:13.240 --> 00:11:16.139 power of the phrase lost highway. It's no longer 00:11:16.139 --> 00:11:18.820 just a physical road. It's a psychological state 00:11:18.820 --> 00:11:21.340 of dread and confusion. That makes so much sense. 00:11:21.620 --> 00:11:23.539 And the musical covers of the song reflect that 00:11:23.539 --> 00:11:26.259 exact same universal adaptability. The text gives 00:11:26.259 --> 00:11:28.320 us an astonishing rundown of artists who have 00:11:28.320 --> 00:11:30.620 covered this track. It's a huge list. Let's group 00:11:30.620 --> 00:11:32.940 a few vastly different interpretations together 00:11:32.940 --> 00:11:35.159 to show you listening just how far this song 00:11:35.159 --> 00:11:37.419 has traveled. Let's start with the rock and pop 00:11:37.419 --> 00:11:40.519 adoptions. The most striking example there is 00:11:40.519 --> 00:11:44.700 U2. Yeah. During their massive 1987 Joshua Tree 00:11:44.700 --> 00:11:47.440 tour, they actually played Lost Highway several 00:11:47.440 --> 00:11:50.580 times in disguise. They performed as their own 00:11:50.580 --> 00:11:52.720 opening act, calling themselves the Dalton Brothers, 00:11:52.940 --> 00:11:55.379 and played this song. Why do you think they did 00:11:55.379 --> 00:11:57.759 that? I mean, U2 was the biggest band in the 00:11:57.759 --> 00:11:59.799 world at that moment. Why put on disguises to 00:11:59.799 --> 00:12:02.379 play a 1940s country tune? Because the Joshua 00:12:02.379 --> 00:12:05.440 Tree era was all about U2 exploring the mythos 00:12:05.440 --> 00:12:08.559 of America, the open spaces, the deserts, the 00:12:08.559 --> 00:12:11.419 spiritual yearning. By donning disguises and 00:12:11.419 --> 00:12:13.399 playing Lost Highway, they were able to strip 00:12:13.399 --> 00:12:16.000 away their massive stadium rock ego and step 00:12:16.000 --> 00:12:17.960 directly into the shoes of the drifter. That 00:12:17.960 --> 00:12:20.259 tracks perfectly. The disguise allowed them to 00:12:20.259 --> 00:12:22.320 access the vulnerability of the song. And they 00:12:22.320 --> 00:12:24.379 aren't the only massive pop rock act to lean 00:12:24.379 --> 00:12:26.980 on it. Cooled Play covered the song 40 times 00:12:26.980 --> 00:12:29.320 early in their career, most recently in 2003. 00:12:29.779 --> 00:12:33.059 Tom Petty rehearsed it in 2006, which was actually 00:12:33.059 --> 00:12:35.759 featured in his 2007 Running Down a Dream documentary. 00:12:36.460 --> 00:12:38.299 And then you have the whole indie and alternative 00:12:38.299 --> 00:12:41.240 melancholy side of things. Bob Dylan and Joan 00:12:41.240 --> 00:12:43.700 Baez were captured singing it offstage in a hotel 00:12:43.700 --> 00:12:47.179 room in the 1965 film Don't Look Back. Classic 00:12:47.179 --> 00:12:50.419 footage. Yeah. And the replacements used it in 00:12:50.419 --> 00:12:53.799 2013 for a fundraiser EP for Slim Dunlap. It 00:12:53.799 --> 00:12:56.120 was covered by Jeff Buckley, released posthumously 00:12:56.120 --> 00:12:59.620 in 2004. You also have versions by the Mekons, 00:12:59.620 --> 00:13:02.799 Jason and the Scorchers. therapy, did it for 00:13:02.799 --> 00:13:04.879 a BBC session, and even The Handsome Family. 00:13:05.059 --> 00:13:07.320 Just an incredible indie lineup. But the cover 00:13:07.320 --> 00:13:09.399 that truly stopped me in my tracks when I read 00:13:09.399 --> 00:13:11.360 the source material comes from the country and 00:13:11.360 --> 00:13:14.259 folk homages. Willie Nelson, who clearly has 00:13:14.259 --> 00:13:16.279 a deep affection for the song, recording it multiple 00:13:16.279 --> 00:13:19.679 times, once with Ray Price in 2009, recorded 00:13:19.679 --> 00:13:22.120 a version in 2008 with a man named Kurt Nilsson. 00:13:22.279 --> 00:13:24.379 The World Idol winner. Yes. Kurt Nilsson was 00:13:24.379 --> 00:13:26.059 the winner of the television show World Idol, 00:13:26.159 --> 00:13:28.360 and their version of Lost Highway went to number 00:13:28.360 --> 00:13:30.659 one on the official Norwegian singles chart. 00:13:31.080 --> 00:13:33.179 It is an incredible fact. You have to marvel 00:13:33.179 --> 00:13:35.799 at the sheer geographical and cultural leap happening 00:13:35.799 --> 00:13:39.259 there. Exactly. How wild is it that a song written 00:13:39.259 --> 00:13:42.120 by a blind man stranded in the dirt of a California 00:13:42.120 --> 00:13:45.940 highway in 1948 resonates so deeply in the fjords 00:13:45.940 --> 00:13:48.940 of Norway that it becomes a number one pop hit 00:13:48.940 --> 00:13:52.100 in 2008? It's amazing. And the country homages 00:13:52.100 --> 00:13:55.019 keep coming. Johnny Horton, Townes Van Zandt, 00:13:55.019 --> 00:13:57.909 Roy Eckhoff. Jerry Lee Lewis with Delaney Bramlett, 00:13:58.029 --> 00:14:01.110 David Allen Coe, and Kacey Musgraves just covered 00:14:01.110 --> 00:14:04.330 it in 2025 to honor her signing with Revive Lost 00:14:04.330 --> 00:14:07.509 Highway record label. Soul Circle. Truly. It 00:14:07.509 --> 00:14:10.240 speaks to the vessel the song has become. And 00:14:10.240 --> 00:14:12.080 it's not even reliant on the lyrics to convey 00:14:12.080 --> 00:14:14.019 that feeling anymore. What do you mean? Well, 00:14:14.039 --> 00:14:15.840 the source mentions instrumental explorations 00:14:15.840 --> 00:14:18.840 by jazz and experimental artists. Bill Friesel 00:14:18.840 --> 00:14:21.379 interpreted it, and Rand Blake recorded an instrumental 00:14:21.379 --> 00:14:24.139 version without any words at all. Stripping the 00:14:24.139 --> 00:14:26.419 words away entirely, that is a massive test for 00:14:26.419 --> 00:14:28.940 a song's structural brilliance. It is. When you 00:14:28.940 --> 00:14:30.779 listen to a jazz guitar interpret Lost Highway 00:14:30.779 --> 00:14:33.419 without a single lyric, you hear how the notes 00:14:33.419 --> 00:14:36.120 themselves bend and drift. The melody itself 00:14:36.120 --> 00:14:38.850 carries the feeling of being untethered. You 00:14:38.850 --> 00:14:40.570 don't need to hear the words to know the musician 00:14:40.570 --> 00:14:44.730 is wandering. So we have U2 in disguise, a number 00:14:44.730 --> 00:14:48.169 one pop hit in Norway, indie rockers, and instrumental 00:14:48.169 --> 00:14:51.009 jazz explorations. If we connect this to the 00:14:51.009 --> 00:14:54.509 bigger picture, why does this specific 1948 hillbilly 00:14:54.509 --> 00:14:56.690 track work in all these different environments? 00:14:57.110 --> 00:14:59.190 Because the concept of the lost highway maps 00:14:59.190 --> 00:15:02.700 perfectly onto the human condition. Leon Payne's 00:15:02.700 --> 00:15:05.440 physical stranding in 1948 translates seamlessly 00:15:05.440 --> 00:15:08.399 into the existential stranding of any era. Yeah. 00:15:08.519 --> 00:15:11.120 We are all at various points in our lives trying 00:15:11.120 --> 00:15:13.080 to figure out where we are going and realizing 00:15:13.080 --> 00:15:16.000 we don't have a map. It perfectly encapsulates 00:15:16.000 --> 00:15:18.879 the feeling of being adrift, of seeking redemption 00:15:18.879 --> 00:15:21.539 or just wanting to get home. It's the geographical 00:15:21.539 --> 00:15:23.899 description of a psychological crisis. I really 00:15:23.899 --> 00:15:26.080 want you listening to this right now to reflect 00:15:26.080 --> 00:15:28.659 on that. We might not be literally hitchhiking 00:15:28.659 --> 00:15:30.519 across the country with no money in our pockets, 00:15:30.580 --> 00:15:32.740 but think about your own life. Have you ever 00:15:32.740 --> 00:15:34.860 felt like you're navigating your own lost highway 00:15:34.860 --> 00:15:37.759 without a mat? Most of us have. Right. Think 00:15:37.759 --> 00:15:40.720 about modern information overload or severe career 00:15:40.720 --> 00:15:43.059 burnout. That feeling of existential drifting 00:15:43.059 --> 00:15:45.559 where you are moving forward, but you have no 00:15:45.559 --> 00:15:48.240 idea where the road leads and you're just hoping 00:15:48.240 --> 00:15:50.120 for some kind of clarity to come along. That 00:15:50.120 --> 00:15:53.379 is your own personal lost highway. The profound 00:15:53.379 --> 00:15:55.700 lack of direction is just as deeply relatable 00:15:55.700 --> 00:15:59.120 today as it was in the 1940s. That is precisely 00:15:59.120 --> 00:16:02.120 the connection. And that is exactly why a college 00:16:02.120 --> 00:16:05.419 radio DJ at WMBR could start every single show 00:16:05.419 --> 00:16:08.610 with it. different cover of this track. The song 00:16:08.610 --> 00:16:10.730 is an emotional container. You pour your own 00:16:10.730 --> 00:16:13.809 specific brand of pain or confusion or wandering 00:16:13.809 --> 00:16:16.409 into it and the song holds it perfectly no matter 00:16:16.409 --> 00:16:18.950 what genre you wrap it in. So what does this 00:16:18.950 --> 00:16:21.169 all mean? When we look at this massive stack 00:16:21.169 --> 00:16:23.629 of history we've just gone through, to me Lost 00:16:23.629 --> 00:16:26.309 Highway is the ultimate proof that true art doesn't 00:16:26.309 --> 00:16:27.830 belong to the person who wrote it. It doesn't 00:16:27.830 --> 00:16:29.389 even belong to the person who made it famous. 00:16:29.590 --> 00:16:31.769 It belongs to whoever needs it in the moment. 00:16:31.929 --> 00:16:34.789 It is a living, breathing testament to a shared 00:16:34.789 --> 00:16:37.309 human struggle. It doesn't matter if you were 00:16:37.309 --> 00:16:39.750 a blind musician hitchhiking in California or 00:16:39.750 --> 00:16:42.230 Hank Williams battling inner demons under the 00:16:42.230 --> 00:16:45.169 spotlight or that college radio DJ starting their 00:16:45.169 --> 00:16:48.230 show. The highway is open to everyone. We all 00:16:48.230 --> 00:16:50.929 walk it eventually. And as we wrap up our analysis 00:16:50.929 --> 00:16:53.269 today, this raises a lingering question for you 00:16:53.269 --> 00:16:55.750 to mull over. Let's hear it. We have seen how 00:16:55.750 --> 00:16:58.029 Leon Payne's physical stranding on the side of 00:16:58.029 --> 00:17:01.509 a road. birthed a metaphor that artists from 00:17:01.509 --> 00:17:04.289 Coldplay to Townes Van Zandt used to process 00:17:04.289 --> 00:17:06.900 their own emotional wilderness. It makes you 00:17:06.900 --> 00:17:09.259 wonder, if Payne's ride to Alba, Texas had shown 00:17:09.259 --> 00:17:11.759 up just five minutes earlier, would all these 00:17:11.759 --> 00:17:13.640 generations of artists have been left entirely 00:17:13.640 --> 00:17:16.700 without a map for their own Payne? Oh, wow. That 00:17:16.700 --> 00:17:19.779 is a truly haunting thought to end on. The idea 00:17:19.779 --> 00:17:22.079 that our greatest cultural comforts are entirely 00:17:22.079 --> 00:17:24.539 dependent on someone else's perfectly timed misery. 00:17:24.839 --> 00:17:26.700 I am going to be thinking about that for a long 00:17:26.700 --> 00:17:29.460 time. Thank you truly for joining us on this 00:17:29.460 --> 00:17:31.740 deep dive today. Keep seeking out the hidden 00:17:31.740 --> 00:17:33.619 histories behind the things you think you already 00:17:33.619 --> 00:17:35.880 know, and we will catch you next time.