Song Lyric Sunday – Ventura Highway

This week’s prompts from Jim Adams for Song Lyric Sunday are Avenue, Boulevard, Drive, Road and Street. Thanks Jim! I was actually spoilt for choice! I hope highway will be acceptable as I am choosing Ventura Highway by America from 1975. This song always makes me happy and I love the poetic use of words.

According to Songfacts, America member Dewey Bunnell wrote this song. In an interview with the Los Angeles Times October 1, 2006, he explained: “It was 1963 when I was in seventh grade, we got a flat tire and we’re standing on the side of the road and I was staring at this highway sign. It said ‘Ventura’ on it and it just stuck with me. It was a sunny day and the ocean there, all of it.”

Bunnell’s father was in the Air Force and was stationed at Vandenberg Air Force Base near Santa Barbara. They were on a trip in the Oxnard area of southern California when they got stranded.

Regarding the lyrics, “Seasons crying no despair, alligator lizards in the air,” Bunnell said: “The clouds. It’s my brother and I standing there on the side of the road looking at the shapes of clouds while my dad changed the tire.”

There’s no official “Ventura Highway,” but Ventura is a county in California, and Highway 101 runs through it.

Have a great Sunday!

Ventura Highway
America
 
Chewing on a piece of grass
Walking down the road
Tell me, how long you gonna stay here Joe?
Some people say this town don't look
Good in snow
You don't care, I know
 
Ventura Highway in the sunshine
Where the days are longer
The nights are stronger
Than moonshine
You're gonna go I know
 
'Cause the free wind is blowin' through
Your hair
And the days surround your daylight
There
Seasons crying no despair
Alligator lizards in the air
 
Wishin' on a falling star
Watchin' for the early train
Sorry boy, but I've been hit by
Purple rain
Aw, come on Joe, you can always
Change your name
Thanks a lot son, just the same
 
Ventura Highway
In the sunshine
Where the days are longer
The nights are stronger
Than moonshine
You're gonna go I know
 
'Cause the free wind is blowin' through
Your hair
And the days surround you daylight
There
Seasons crying no despair
Alligator lizards in the air
 
Songwriters: Dewey Bunnell
Ventura Highway lyrics © Warner/Chappell Music, Inc