Story Behind The Song

Like everyone, I run into small-mindedness. Someone I cared about dished a bit of it out to me over the progressive freedom-based path we'd chosen to educate our children. The unorthodox scared her, and without researching she proceeded to tell me my children were not going to develop properly. I was offended, enraged, hurt... I felt very betrayed and completely misunderstood. I'd been processing this for awhile, and finally yesterday the clouds cleared in my mind and this song came. The issue for me wasn't so much about education, there are lots of "expert" opinions out there and I know we've picked the right path for our family, but more about allowing and trusting each other to be who we really are, to follow our highest roads, our hearts and our instincts, even if they are off the beaten path. That can be hard, but it has to be if we are to be true to ourselves and to life. I realized my friend does not allow herself the God-given right to be who she is separate from external systems and measurements, she seems to me to be afraid to think and feel for herself, so how can she allow me it? That was the core of it. That is the song.

Song Description

Yes, it is strange to think of Paul Simon and Patti Labelle mixed, but this has Simon's thoughtfulness and Patti's wailing. And then I hear Sugarland singing it! LOL! We all have a "high" way, a way that we know to be God-meant for us, even if others cannot see it within their own paradigms of thinking. And when you're on it you know it, things feel right and they flow fast (if you can release self-doubt and fear). I say turn those lights up! It's a happy thing!

Lyrics

VERSE
It was the damndest thing
when my father picked a road
he?d point to all the others
as the wrongest way to go
and he would use a spotlight
to uncover all those sins
on everybody?s road, but oh you gotta know
he never shone on his

CHORUS
Turn the lights up on my highway
?cause you know I?m going that way
keep the other light on low
?cause all I need to know
come whatever may
there is a road for me
and on it I fly free
no going fifty-five, that?s ain?t the way I drive
when I do it naturally

VERSE
Oh, I have got to wonder
what you would have to say
if I chose another road as the way for me to go
would you say it was okay
I hope I know the answer
you?d be holding that spotlight
and pointin? it away and then I?d hear you say
?Hey! Turn up your lights!?

AMENDED CHORUS
Turn the lights up on your highway
?cause you know we?re going that way
I?ll keep the other light on low
?cause all you need to know
come whatever may
there is a road to see
and on it you?ll fly free
no going fifty-five, that?s ain?t the way to drive
when you do it naturally

BRIDGE
I look into the atlas
so many roads to see
and all the roads they show
so many ways to go
and all them could be
the road that takes us where
we are happy there
and so it is my friend
I hope you understand...
bring your lights and come with me

AMENDED CHORUS
Turn the light up on our highway
?cause you know we?re going that way
keep the other light on low
?cause all we need to know
come whatever may
there is a road to see
and on we fly free
no going fifty-five, that?s ain?t the way we drive
when we do it naturally

AMENDED CHORUS
I turn the lights up on my highway
?cause you know I?m going that way
keep the other light on low
?cause all I need to know
come whatever may
there is a road for me
and on it I fly free
no going fifty-five, that?s ain?t the way I drive
when I do it naturally

TAG
You take a different road,
that?s okay, you go
God be with you my friend
I hope we cross again

I?ll turn the lights up on my highway...

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