{"id":265,"date":"2006-10-05T06:36:00","date_gmt":"2006-10-05T13:36:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ayearofsongs.org\/blg\/?p=265"},"modified":"2015-10-30T16:34:27","modified_gmt":"2015-10-30T23:34:27","slug":"straight-into-the-light","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ayearofsongs.org\/blg\/2006\/10\/05\/straight-into-the-light\/","title":{"rendered":"Straight Into the Light"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Straight<\/p>\n

W<\/span>hen I came up with the phrase, “in my daddy’s rented Cadillac” — I knew<\/span> the Caddy would have to come to a violent end, hopefully along with the presumably rich and spoiled young protagonist.<\/p>\n

Without doubt, the more interesting part of this story — who this young wastrel is\/was, what he did to warrant (what increasingly seemed like it would have to be) a fiery demise, who he’d be thinking about in those final moments, who he’d leave behind — all<\/span> of that got left out of this song.<\/p>\n

All that’s left is a kind of man and the road saga of a compulsive drive on a spooky night culminating in… the end of the song.<\/p>\n\n

Internet Archive page for this recording<\/a>
\nprevious AYoS version<\/a> November 02, 2005<\/p>\n

DADDY’S CADILLAC<\/span><\/p>\n

When I left the high school dance
\nin my daddy’s rented Cadillac
\nI didn’t know what trouble was
\nI didn’t know there was no way back<\/p>\n

The moon was a hole in the night sky
\nheaven knows who was looking in
\nThe night was a hole in my life
\nand I didn’t know I was falling in<\/p>\n

I made it past dead man’s curve
\nand the cliff at the top of the hill
\nI glided deftly through the hairpin turns
\npast the old graveyard that’s not quite full<\/p>\n

I drove up that twisted mountain road
\nstraight up into the night
\nNow I was totally all alone
\ndrving through a hole in my life<\/p>\n

My heart was pounding but my hands were dry
\nThe engine was throbbing and the gears whined
\nMy mind was racing at the speed of light
\nand my knuckles on the wheels glowed ghostly white<\/p>\n

My life was the road and the road was my life
\nas it twisted and turned into the night
\nThe road was the world and the world was night
\nas I rounded the bend and drove straight into the light<\/p>\n

My eyes were shadows in the back of my brain
\nMy mind was unravelling and my soul was in flames
\nThe car was gone I was cut loose in space
\nDogs from heaven laughed in my face<\/p>\n

I was spinning I was falling I was going down
\nfallilng through a world without light or sound
\nI was watching from a hill from far away
\nwhen the Caddy hit the gas truck —
\ngreat balls of flame!<\/p>\n

Copyright 1981
\nT.K. Major<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When I came up with the phrase, “in my daddy’s rented Cadillac” — I knew the Caddy would have to come to a violent end, hopefully along with the presumably rich and spoiled young protagonist. Without doubt, the more interesting part of this story — who this young wastrel is\/was, what he did to warrant […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pgc_meta":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[6,340],"tags":[619,621,622,620],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ayearofsongs.org\/blg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/265"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ayearofsongs.org\/blg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ayearofsongs.org\/blg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ayearofsongs.org\/blg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ayearofsongs.org\/blg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=265"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/ayearofsongs.org\/blg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/265\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1845,"href":"https:\/\/ayearofsongs.org\/blg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/265\/revisions\/1845"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ayearofsongs.org\/blg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=265"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ayearofsongs.org\/blg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=265"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ayearofsongs.org\/blg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=265"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}