Guy Clark – L.A. Freeway

In the past couple of years, I’ve been listening to more and more of the Texas style singer/songwriters and I can’t get enough. I keep looking for more but there are a few I always come back to…Guy Clark, Townes Van Zant, Jerry Jeff Walker, and Steve Earle.  In 1975 Guy Clark released this song on his first album Old No. 1 and eventually released 13 studio albums. 

In the 1960s, Guy Clark tried his luck in the California music scene. He also built and repaired guitars and had a shop in San Francisco in 1969. In 1971 he was signed as a songwriter by Sunbury Music in Los Angeles, he decided to relocate to the company’s Nashville office in 1971. His arrival helped usher in a migration of new songwriting talent to the city.

Clark wrote this song while living in Los Angeles in the late 1960s. He and his wife, Susanna Clark, lived in a small, rundown apartment, and they felt out of place in the city. They wanted to leave Los Angeles and return to Texas, where he felt more at home.

The idea for the song reportedly came to Clark while he was driving on the freeway, scribbling lyrics on a paper bag. The line “pack up all your dishes, make note of all good wishes” showed his desire to escape the chaotic nature of L.A. at the time.

Jerry Jeff Walker was the first to record the song on his self-titled album in 1972. Walker’s version of this song peaked at #98 on the Billboard 100 so Walker popularized it. 

L.A. Freeway

Pack up all your dishesMake note of all good wishesAnd say goodbye to the landlord for meThat son of a bitch has always bored me

Throw out them LA papersAnd that mouldy box of vanilla wafersAdios to all this concreteGonna get me some dirt road back streets

If I can just get off ofI’ll be down the road in a cloud of smokeTo some land I ain’t bought, bought, bought

And it’s, here’s to you old skinny DennisThe only one I think I will missI can hear that old bass singingSweet and low, like a gift you’re bringing

Play it for me one more time, nowGot to give it all you we can nowI believe every thing you’re sayingAnd just to keep on, keep on playing

If I can just get off of this L.A. freewayWithout gettin’ killed or caughtI’ll be down the road in a cloud of smokeTo some land I ain’t bought, bought, bought

And you put the pink card in the mailboxLeave the key in the front door lockThey’ll find it likely as notI’m sure there’s somethin’ we have forgot

Oh Susanna, don’t you cry, babyLove’s a gift that’s surely handmadeWe got somethin’ to believe inDon’t you think it’s time we’re leavin’?

If I can just get off of this LA freewayWithout gettin’ killed or caughtI’ll be down the road in a cloud of smokeTo some land I ain’t bought, bought, bought

If I can just get off of this LA freewayWithout gettin’ killed or caughtDown the road in a cloud of smokeTo some land I ain’t bought

So pack up all your dishesMake note of all good wishesAnd say goodbye to the landlord for meThat son of a bitch has always bored me

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Author: Badfinger (Max)

Power Pop fan, Baseball, Beatles, Alternative music, old movies, and tv show fan. Also anything to do with pop culture in the 60s and 70s... I'm also a songwriter, bass and guitar player. Not the slightest bit interested in politics at all.

31 thoughts on “Guy Clark – L.A. Freeway”

  2. Pingback: Guy Clark – L.A. Freeway – MobsterTiger

  5. Texans seem to have a special disdain for ‘California’ and when they say ‘California’ they usually mean L.A. specifically. But it sure seems easier to become a star in LA, or Nashville than in the Lone Star state.

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    1. Yea you are right about that…there is a disdain. Most of these guys Dave…they never really seemed to want stardom…just to make a living on writing and singing their songs….and for the most part they did. Townes Van Zant is an example…never a household word but his influence is huge.

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    1. Yea Atlanta is the worse traffic I’ve ever seen. I was sitting beside a Detroit guy in an Atlanta ballpark…and he said Atlanta is the worse traffic he had ever seen… The roads are narrow and they fly by you doing 80.

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  8. It was Jerry Jeff who introduced me to this song and Guy Clark. Clark’s “That Old Time Feelin'” is on the same album. Walker also made me want a pair of cowboy boots, my first since childhood, when I heard “Charlie Dunn”.

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    1. I’m listening to it now…I like this…I never heard it. I’ve never had cowboy boots or a hat in my life. The only boots I had was cuban heeled boots.

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      1. In my generation, I think every white kid had a cowboy hat, boots, and toy guns at some point. We had an old shack in the backyard that was our saloon and hideout. I never really wanted cowboy boots as an adult, but Charlie sounded like the guy I’d want to have make some for me if he wouldn’t make regular shoes.

        By junior high, what we all wanted (but most of us didn’t have) were Beatle Boots – probably a lot like your Cuban heeled boots.

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      2. Oh they were Cuban Heeled boots but I didn’t get them from The Beatles…my dad wore them anyway. He dressed much like Burt Reynolds back then and wore those boots. I would like to get another pair instead of dress shoes.
        Thanks for the song!

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  11. This song pops up in the reel in my head. I can relate to the lyrics. Jerry Jeff brought me to gy and it sent me on a whole bunch of great music. Very cool that your getting locked into all this great music. Yeah that big city life doesnt fit these guys. JJ Cale had the same experience. I get it.

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    1. I can certainly relay on the no big city thing. It’s basically a trove full of great music that I never knew existed.

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      1. Jerry Jeff started it of for these types. The Ely Gilmore, Hancock was a different vein I tapped into by another source. The music just keeps giving. I think I told you I caught Guy in an intimate show. It was such a great evening. Townes was supposed to be with him but he couldnt make it across the border. Clarke had a smile on his face the whole night probably thinking just another experience with these bad boys.

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      2. Up to no good I’m sure but in a great way. I’m glad you caught all of these guys when you could. You are right…it does keep giving!

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  15. I love Guy Clark. Lived in Los Angeles all my life. Love this song. Love the story Guy would tell about the landlord, the tree and the cement before playing this song.

    If I can just get off of this LA freeway
    Without gettin’ killed or caught

    Indeed. A simple metaphor that can be tied to so much.

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