Kinks, The - The Road Lyrics






Sitting alone on my hotel
Looking in the mirror wondering, "well,
After all this time you never thought you'd still be out on the road?"
Like a gypsy I was born to roam
Like a wanderer with no fixed abode
I think about the friends I've left behind on the road

Well, the road's been rocky along the way
It's been a long, hard haul on the motorway
But if it gets too smooth it's time to call it a day

(On the road)
The bed and breakfasts and the greasy spoons
(The road)
The loser bars and the noisy rooms
(The road)
The casualties who did too many lines
(The road)
Wasted talent on women and wine

I think of all the friends I've left behind
Whenever it's time to get back out on the road

Started playing blues in a coffee bar
I took a trip down Charing Cross Road
With my imitation Gretsch guitar
And my head full of songs and my eyes full of stars
I saw a band called the Rolling Stones
I thought, "that's it, I'll get a band,
I'm leaving home, I'm out on the road."

The motorways all over this land
(The road)
Far away places like Wigan and Birmingham
(The road)
Didn't have no name, didn't have any fans
(The road)
Didn't have no money so we slept in the van

All those early gigs we ever played
Sometimes we were lucky if we even got paid
On the road
Pete played on the bass guitar
Liked to get around, mixing with all the stars
But Mrs. Avory's child was all fingers and thumbs
But solid as a rock, setting time on the drums
While Dave the Rave hit the rock 'n' roll riffs
Yours truly strummed away with a slightly limp wrist
On the road

Everyday is when I can't get used to it
Everyday is when I can't get away
Another day, another freeway to face
That's the road

Well, life is a road, it's a motorway
And the road gets rocky along the way
But if it gets too smooth it's time to call it a day

(On the road)
Jimi Hendrix, The Who, the Led Zeppelin and Free
They took the road so it's alright by me
Some are survivors, some are debris
If you play in a band that's the road that you take
Living in it, eating in it, sleeping in it
You wake up in the morning, what do you see?
The road

Life is a road, it's a motorway
Lost a lot of good friends along the way
All the families and homes that I've left behind
To the wives and the lovers and friends who had their time
I say, "you take your road and I'll take mine."
(You take your road and I'll take mine)
You take your road and I'll take mine
(You take your road and I'll take mine)

Life is a road, it's a motorway
And the road gets rocky along the way
But if it gets too smooth it's time to call it a day

(On the road)
Observed all the various phases from
Flower power, heavy metal and acid rock
And still all the critics keep saying
"Are they still around? When they gonna stop?"
It's just the dedicated followers of fashion who like putting down
All the well respected men who came dancing and are still on the road

Sometime I get suicidal
Now everyone is a rival
Different cars, different bars and hotels
Corporations, big business and egos
When it all gets too bad I think back
When we were all each other had
When we started out on the road

And there's gas in my tank and I've still got a way to go
Another hotel, it's time to check out soon
As I look around the room
I think of all the friends I've left behind
On the road





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Kinks, The The Road Comments
  1. D.... P....

    On the Road this june on my racebike!

  2. D.... P....

    On the road

  3. B.... S....

    It'd be great if some of this footage would be released in its complete form, like the footage of Ray pouring alcohol on the audience. Looks like professionally shot concert footage from the early-mid 1970s. C'mon Ray, open your video vaults!

  4. D.... P....

    I am on the road

  5. D.... P....

    Unglaublich gute Musik! Textlich perfekt. Ich habe auch viele Freunde hinter mir gelassen. Nicht negativ gemeint. Im Leben ändert sich viel und auch der Freundeskreis. Du nimmst deinen Weg und ich meinen...

  6. D.... P....

    So good to hear it again and again...

  7. D.... P....

    So good - so brilliant!

  8. D.... P....

    This song is so good. You loose some friends in in time. But all the adventures will still remain...

  9. B.... J....

    😆😆😆😔

  10. J.... D....

    God I wish the Davies brothers would let by Hines be bygones and get back together.

  11. W.... G....

    And wasted talent on women and wine...

  12. C.... S....

    stuck in rehab,
    song was a surprise on the radio
    nuts , it was just what I needed for a while , plus tapes

  13. j.... ....

    Great song, by the Kinks, who are still on the road, but not as often.......

  14. a.... ....

    Ah... love this song. A nice compilation of their years on the road. (Ray Davies produced it.)  They still rock, incidentally!!!

  15. k.... ....

    Cheap Trick are the American Kinks, whether you like their music or not, the quality of their output mixed with crappy management and a record label they didn't get them...people have no idea what they have with them and people have no clue the impact of the Kinks and Ray...underdogs all of them

  16. M.... ....

    this is great! REally wish I was around then!

  17. W.... ....

    you take your road and i'll take mine.

  18. G.... R....

    One of the most fascinating bands ever.

  19. E.... A....

    It's really starting to piss me off,  just how underappericated this truly wonderful & extremly talented band is (was). I continue to think to myself WTF- Seriously?? Well, they don't know what their "missing"! Long Live 'The Kinks'

    E.... A....

    Yes, it really is!

    E.... A....

    My favorite Kinks song is Ape man...so simple but so so nice.

    E.... A....

    Real simple, if the Kinks aren't given every once of respect that The Beatles and The Stones get, they are the most under-rated band there is.

    E.... A....

    Eryn Aubrey
    Possibly because they didn't sell their soul to the devil!

  20. c.... ....

    heard first in treatment. Oh what it meant to hear a new Kink's song. Thanks

  21. J.... G....

    "there's gas in my tank, and i still got a way to go..."

  22. J.... Q....

    I used this song for my high school senior yearbook quote in 1989. "I think of all the friends I left behind, whenever its time, to get back out on the road. "

  23. t.... ....

    This is great. Thanks!

  24. M.... W....

    One of my favorite Kinks songs.