15 Meanings
Add Yours
Follow
Share
Q&A

Life is a highway Lyrics

Life's like a road that you travel on
When there's one day here and the next day gone
Sometimes you bend sometimes you stand
Sometimes you turn your back to the wind
There's a world outside every darkened Door
Where blues won't haunt you anymore
Where the brave are free and lovers soar
Come ride with me to the distant shore
We won't hesitate break down the garden gate
There's not much left today
Life is a highway
I want to ride it all night long
If you're going my way
I want to drive it all night long

Through all the cities and all these towns
It's in my blood and it's all around
I love you now like I loved you then
This is the road and these are the hands
From mozambique to those memphis nights
The khyber pass to vancouver's lights
Knock me down get back up again
You're in my blood I'm not a lonely man

There's no load I can't hold
Road so rough this I know
I'll bee there when the light comes in
Tell 'em we're survivors

Chorus x2

There was a distance between you and I
A misunderstanding once but now
We look it in the eye

There's no load I can't hold
Road so rough this I know
I'll be there when the light comes in
Tell 'em we're survivors

Chorus x 3
Song Info
Submitted by
howard55 On Apr 29, 2004
15 Meanings

Add your song meanings, interpretations, facts, memories & more to the community.

Add your thoughts...
Cover art for Life is a highway lyrics by Tom Cochrane

This song is, well, nice. It's radio friendly pop rock. I like it, but it's a bit of a guilty pleasure.

Cover art for Life is a highway lyrics by Tom Cochrane

A def. guilty pleasure. But a pretty good one.

Cover art for Life is a highway lyrics by Tom Cochrane

I read somewhere that the song was originally titled "love is a highway" but then after a trip to Africa and all the horrible things that he saw, he decided to call it "Life is a highway"

Cover art for Life is a highway lyrics by Tom Cochrane

"We look it in the eye". ;)

Love this song-always have. :)

Cover art for Life is a highway lyrics by Tom Cochrane

Okay, this song so reminds me of when I was little and living at my old apartment building, next door to this slutty ugly trashbag who wouldn't stop playing this song. But I love it anyhow! Anyways, I think this song is pretty straight forward. Its about two lovers, free lovers, who once had some bad times but now there in love again. As for imagrey and allusion, theres not so much of that. But I suppose it reminds one of the praries, the straight country roads that go on for long distances. Now, if you anything about Tom Cochrane, he was born in the Friendly Manitoba, Canada and then relocated to Ontario. So he's got a definite country roads feeling. So I urge you to think of this song in the praries, it paints a great picture.

@paigepeach See, normally I'd agree with you, but I didn't know before now where Tom Cochraine was actually from, so I just have a different mental association for this song... and it comes from an old tabletop RPG my friends and I played for a small stretch of time before the group grew tired of it and we switched to something else.

Cover art for Life is a highway lyrics by Tom Cochrane

Is it just me or did someone else notice a possible Rush reference? The line "Sometimes you turn your back to the wind" seems to be a possible nod to the line "I turn my back to the wind, before I start off again" from Rush's Time Stand Still, from five years earlier. Besides both groups being from the Toronto area of Canada, they have a mutual respect for each other and a friendly relationship. Tom Cochrane was the man who inducted Rush into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame. And I know that Tom likes to put messages in his songs.

@johnpauljones86 Yes I think this is possibly a good catch - definitely resonates with me. Tho I've never seen TC quoted confirming it mind...

Cover art for Life is a highway lyrics by Tom Cochrane

"I had a sketch of this song laying around for quite a few years, and after my first visit to Africa with World Vision, the world relief organization that I supported then and still support, I needed to write something that would pull me up, pull me out of that funk, make me feel good. I was exhausted mentally, physically and spiritually after that trip, and John Webster had been encouraging me to finish that sketch. I woke up one morning early, went out to my studio in the back shed and laid down the song and the lyric in about two hours. Again, the song was just born. I felt exhilarated, I felt good! And soon I guess it made a lot of other people feel pretty good too. The song had that effect. Songwriting is therapeutic, for the writer sometimes as much as for the listener ..." - Tom Cochrane

Song Meaning
Cover art for Life is a highway lyrics by Tom Cochrane

actually, u probably hav heard the original, i just wanted to hear the tom petty version and it popped up almost 100 times on limewire, only for it to turn out to be the original

Cover art for Life is a highway lyrics by Tom Cochrane

Great Hamonica Solo - better than Outkast's Rosa Parks

Cover art for Life is a highway lyrics by Tom Cochrane

The original is Tom Cochrane. Tom Petty never sang this song but many people assumed he wrote this as he is far better known than Tom Cochrane

 
Questions and Answers

Ask specific questions and get answers to unlock more indepth meanings & facts.

Ask a question...