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sippicancottage

A Man Who Has Nothing In Particular To Recommend Him Discusses All Sorts of Subjects at Random as Though He Knew Everything

Back When Driving And Drinking Was An Activity

The Flying Burrito Brothers. I could write all sorts of tidbits from Wikipedia and my foggy memory about them, but all you really need to know is that there’s a chain of Mexican restaurants in New Zealand named after them. Do you have a chain of Mexican restaurants in New Zealand named after you?

I didn’t think so.

Six Days On The Road

Well, I pulled out of Pittsburgh,
Rollin’ down the Eastern Seaboard.
I’ve got my diesel wound up,
And she’s running like never before.
There’s a speed zone ahead, all right,
I don’t see a cop in sight.
Six days on the road and I’m gonna make it home tonight.

I got ten forward gears,
And a Georgia overdrive.
I’m taking little white pills,
And my eyes are open wide.
I just passed a ‘Jimmy’ and a ‘White’:
I’ve been passin’ everything in sight.
Six days on the road and I’m gonna make it home tonight.

Well, it seems like a month,
Since I kissed my baby good-bye.
I could have a lot of women,
But I’m not like some other guys.
I could find one to hold me tight,
But I could never believe that it’s right.
Six days on the road and I’m gonna make it home tonight.

I.C.C. is checking on down the line.
I’m a little overweight and my log’s three days behind.
But nothing bothers me tonight.
I can dodge all the scales all right,
Six days on the road and I’m gonna make it home tonight.

Well my rig’s a little old,
But that don’t mean she’s slow.
There’s a flame from her stack,
And the smoke’s rolling black as coal.
My hometown’s coming in sight,
If you think I’m happy your right.
Six days on the road and I’m gonna make it home tonight.
Six days on the road and I’m gonna make it home tonight.
Six days on the road and I’m gonna make it home tonight.

(Dave Dudley)

6 Responses

  1. When I was growing up in South Carolina a sailing buddy of my father's showed me how to play a few chords on the guitar; I made some crack about being ready for the big time & he laughed & said "well there was a guy, a friend of my son's who I showed how to play the C chord, and he ended up in the Flying Burrito Brothers".

    I had never heard of 'em. Given where he had grown up & his various career perambulations that could have been anybody from Gram Parsons to Chris Hillman to somebody in the '80's version of the band.

    My guitar lesson took place probably about 1980. His son had been a true late '60's / early '70's counterculture freak-flag hippie and fried his brain very thoroughly before overdosing on something or other.

    There was a sister, still alive at the time of the guitar lesson, but dead a few years later and for the same reason. I saw a lot of her friends and associates; ex-flower children grown leathery. I was just a kid. My father could not have hoped for a better arms-length example for me of what just ten years or so of continuous casual drug using and general dissipation could do to people, even supposed "adults". They couldn't have been much over thirty, then. I was never afraid of them, and I watched them closely. The wrecks they were fascinated me.

    When I first met the sister I thought she was her mother's sister. I've already outlived her terminal age by more than ten years.

  2. It would surprise me not one whit if there was a chain of Mexican restaurants in New Zealand named after Gagdad Bob.

  3. It's possible that Rick Roberts (guitar and harmony vocal immediately to Hillman's right in this clip) spent some time in South Carolina growing up. Rings a bell, but I don't have any corroborating liner notes available at the moment. Acording to the wiki, he was born in Florida.

    Anyway, thanks for this, I don't believe I've previously seen any clips of the "Last Of The Red Hot Burritos" band.

  4. I went to New Zealand on my honeymoon, and I would have most certainly eaten at a restaurant named Gagdad Bob's. (NZ isn't known for it's cuisine.)

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