On The Road Again (Canned Heat Song)
"On the Road Again," a song recorded by the American blues rock group Canned Heat, was released as a single in April 1968, and appeared on their 1968 album Boogie with Canned Heat as well as the 1969 compilation The Canned Heat Cookbook. It reached number eight on the UK Singles Chart and number sixteen on the Billboard Hot 100.
"On the Road Again" was adapted by Alan Wilson from a song of the same name recorded in 1953 by Floyd Jones (July 21, 1917 – December 19, 1989), a Chicago blues musician. Jones' song was itself an adaptation of "Big Road Blues," recorded in 1928 by Delta blues musician Tommy Johnson.
With his knowledge of Eastern music, Wilson used a tambura drone to give the song a hypnotic effect and a psychedelic edge. The song features Wilson as the lead singer and harmonica player. Wilson's harmonica solo has a note that is not playable without an overblow; he re-tuned his harmonica's six hole up a half step. The B-side of the single was entitled "Boogie Music". A black and white live performance is used in place of a video.
The song appears in the films Alice in the Cities (1973), Hideous Kinky (1998), Frequency (2000), Cold Creek Manor (2003), and The Bucket List (2007) and the videogame Need for Speed: The Run (2011).
Read more about On The Road Again (Canned Heat Song): Other Versions
Famous quotes containing the words road and/or heat:
“Such were the first rude beginnings of a town. They spoke of the practicability of a winter road to the Moosehead Carry, which would not cost much, and would connect them with steam and staging and all the busy world. I almost doubted if the lake would be there,—the self-same lake,—preserve its form and identity, when the shores should be cleared and settled; as if these lakes and streams which explorers report never awaited the advent of the citizen.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“I have a blood bolt
and I have made it mine.
With this man I take in hand
his destiny and with this gun
I take in hand the newspapers and
with my heat I will take him.”
—Anne Sexton (1928–1974)