He reuses the verse melody from the previous album's "Dirty Little Religion", the topics of the verses are all over the place, and he packs too many words into one line (goes to show...) and too few in another (it's pretty hard to find), and rhymes "Henley Regatta" with "Persona non grata", but gets away with it all as only he could.
Spent the last year
Rocky Mountain Way
Couldn't get much higher
Out to pasture
Think it's safe to say
Time to open fire
And we don't need the ladies
Crying 'cause the story's sad
'Cause the Rocky Mountain Way
Is better than the way we had
Well, he's tellin' us this
And he's tellin' us that
Changes it every day
Says it doesn't matter
Bases are loaded and Casey's at bat
Playin' it play by play
Time to change the batter
And we don't need the ladies
Crying 'cause the story's sad
Rocky Mountain Way
Is better than the way we had
Rocky Mountain Way
Couldn't get much higher
Out to pasture
Think it's safe to say
Time to open fire
And we don't need the ladies
Crying 'cause the story's sad
'Cause the Rocky Mountain Way
Is better than the way we had
Well, he's tellin' us this
And he's tellin' us that
Changes it every day
Says it doesn't matter
Bases are loaded and Casey's at bat
Playin' it play by play
Time to change the batter
And we don't need the ladies
Crying 'cause the story's sad
Rocky Mountain Way
Is better than the way we had
Lyrics submitted by Demau Senae, edited by Nookoh
Rocky Mountain Way Lyrics as written by Joseph Fidler Walsh Joey Vitale
Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
Add your thoughts
Log in now to tell us what you think this song means.
Don’t have an account? Create an account with SongMeanings to post comments, submit lyrics, and more. It’s super easy, we promise!
More Featured Meanings
Corpse I Fell In Love With
Gadjits, The
Gadjits, The
Show Me a Little Shame
Ben Harper & the Innocent Criminals
Ben Harper & the Innocent Criminals
He certainly did earn that reputation.
Grand Theft Auto
Insane Ian
Insane Ian
The way this song speaks to me🥺🥺when I sing it I feel like I relate
Fast Car
Tracy Chapman
Tracy Chapman
"Fast car" is kind of a continuation of Bruce Springsteen's "Born to Run." It has all the clawing your way to a better life, but in this case the protagonist never makes it with her love; in fact she is dragged back down by him.
There is still an amazing amount of hope and will in the lyrics; and the lyrics themselve rank and easy five. If only music was stronger it would be one of those great radio songs that you hear once a week 20 years after it was released. The imagery is almost tear-jerking ("City lights lay out before us", "Speeds so fast felt like I was drunk"), and the idea of starting from nothing and just driving and working and denigrating yourself for a chance at being just above poverty, then losing in the end is just painful and inspiring at the same time.
The Night We Met
Lord Huron
Lord Huron
This is a hauntingly beautiful song about introspection, specifically about looking back at a relationship that started bad and ended so poorly, that the narrator wants to go back to the very beginning and tell himself to not even travel down that road. I believe that the relationship started poorly because of the lines:
"Take me back to the night we met:When the night was full of terrors: And your eyes were filled with tears: When you had not touched me yet"
So, the first night was not a great start, but the narrator pursued the relationship and eventually both overcame the rough start to fall in love with each other:
"I had all and then most of you"
Like many relationships that turn sour, it was not a quick decline, but a gradual one where the narrator and their partner fall out of love and gradually grow apart
"Some and now none of you"
Losing someone who was once everything in your world, who you could confide in, tell your secrets to, share all the most intimate parts of your life, to being strangers with that person is probably one of the most painful experiences a person can go through. So Painful, the narrator wants to go back in time and tell himself to not even pursue the relationship.
This was the perfect song for "13 Reasons Why"
It seems like the story of a draft dodger who fled up into the mountains. The nonchalant way he says "Time to open fire" references the war that he was not a part of. "We don't need the ladies crying" is a reference to mothers who lost their sons at war, of which he was not one. "He's telling us this, he's telling us that" is a reference to Nixon lying all the time. I don't know who Casey is unless the line is actually "in case he's at bat" instead of "and Casey's at bat". "Time to change the batter" means getting a new president. The message of the song is that he would rather live up in the mountains than be at war or deal with the ridiculous political situation of 1973 (the year the song was written).
@Nookoh Joe Walsh's father was a test pilot in the Air Corp (before the Air Force!) and sadly died in Okinawa when Joe was 2-years-old. He grew up very proud, his father a hero. He actually became very involved in honoring military KIA and their families. He was not a protestor.<br />
Ok yall this is a song about the government in the 60s. the hippies revolted by goin bak to nature and the old ways, allot of youth didnt want to live like society wanted "its bettr the way we have" walsh actually says the bases r loaded IN CASE HES AT BATT talking about politics n the president, "time to change the batter" talking about nixon being elected and he was a crook too "it doesnt matter. Thats why that gen lived the rocky mountain way .
Well finally this is the first close to the truth translation I've ever seen. It's clearly a draft dodger reference as many young people at the time found hiding wherever they could to avoid the draft including the Rocky mountains and Canada - "it's better than the way we had" is a refernce to blind obedience of the first and second world wars... and the rest is history...<br />
He's telling a story...the lyrics are literal as well as figurative. He was inspired at Caribou Ranch above Boulder, Colorado (Nederland). For anyone who has ever been there, you know that it's a fact... you can't get much higher since the Continental Divide is in your face. Since he was finished with James Gang projects, he probably literally felt put out to pasture at the time. Lots of meadows around Ned, too.
He's a songwriting genius. Love ya, Joe!!
this is a excellent song, its a southern song, true.... when i jam to this song, it brings out my southern heritage in me... has some old southern folk in it...
this is a excellent song, its a southern song, true.... when i jam to this song, it brings out my southern heritage in me... has some old southern folk in it...
Rocky Mountain Way...can't get much higher than that. I like to try though ;P
can't say that's true but this song is terribly funky
The guitar is speaking its mocking the teachr from peanuts. Pokin fun out of the way the generations superiors allways in their ears tellin them what to do, joe walsh was the hippie eagle
out to pasture think its safe to say time to open fire is a drug refrence. , dont need the ladies crying cuz the storys sad, the babyboomers wer jus goin to live life how they wanted, its our history folks
I dunno for sure what the lyrics are about, but they apply nicely to our current situation here in WI; this state sucks and gov. Walker is at bat, missing every pitch. I'd rather be in Colorado