Highwayman (song)
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| “Highwayman” | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Single by The Highwaymen from the album Highwayman |
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| Released | 1985 | ||||
| Recorded | 1984 | ||||
| Genre | Country | ||||
| Length | 3:06 | ||||
| Label | Columbia | ||||
| Writer(s) | Jimmy Webb | ||||
| Producer | Chips Moman | ||||
| The Highwaymen singles chronology | |||||
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"Highwayman" is the first single released by country music group The Highwaymen, a supergroup consisting of established singer-songwriters Johnny Cash, Waylon Jennings, Willie Nelson and Kris Kristofferson. It was the lead-off single on the Highwaymen's first album, Highwayman. The song is a Jimmy Webb cover and remains the most popular and widely-known of The Highwaymen's songs, having reached No. 1 on the US country charts.
[edit] About the song
It is distinctive in that it utilizes the voices of all of the members of the group and has no chorus between the four stanzas, sung by Nelson, Kristofferson, Jennings and Cash, respectively.
The song's main theme is death and rebirth, either physical or through one's legacy. In the first three verses, the characters mentioned meet their demise in some way, yet all are noticeably interconnected.
Nelson's character is a wanted highwayman, beginning his verse with what are probably the most famous lyrics of the song, "I was a highwayman / Along the coach roads I did ride". The man's adventures were brought to an abrupt end when he was caught and hanged "in the spring of '25". Nelson's verse ends with the words "But I am still alive", signifying a recurring theme throughout the song and much of The Highwaymen's work.
Kristofferson's character was a sailor who was "born upon the tide". He sailed on a schooner "'round the horn to Mexico". He went aloft up the main mast to furl the mainsail during a storm. He sings, "And when the yards broke off / they said that I got killed", ending with "But I'm living still", upon which Jennings' verse comes in.
Jennings' character was, in turn, a dam builder working on the Colorado River, probably constructing the Hoover Dam, referred to in the song as "a place called Boulder". While working, he accidentally "slipped and fell into the wet concrete below" and was buried in "that grey tomb that knows no sound". Once again, he ends with a distinctive phrase: "But I'm still around".
The final stanza, Cash's, begins with "I'll fly a starship / across the universe divide", introducing a different element into the song. Singing "Perhaps I may become a highwayman again / Or I may simply be a single drop of rain / But I will remain / I'll be back again", the character suggests that he is in a transitional phase that precedes reincarnation as a different object or individual; this also suggests that the characters mentioned in the song are in fact one and the same.
The music video for the song, as expected, focuses on the different characters and their untimely deaths, shown by a bolt of lightning striking the highwayman, the sailor and the dam builder. After each of these sequences, the same desert scene is displayed, with more and more riders on horseback are visible, to bring the total up to four following Cash's stanza. In those scenes, the face of the singer is blended into the clouds above, and, finally, all four are shown in a moment that can be seen on the album's cover.
| Preceded by "I'm For Love" by Hank Williams Jr. |
Billboard Hot Country Singles number one single by The Highwaymen August 17, 1985 |
Succeeded by "Real Love" by Dolly Parton and Kenny Rogers |
