Tag: Forty Miles of Bad Road

I made a playlist of instrumentals and took recommended ones from the 1950s. I think the heyday of instrumentals was the fifties and sixties. Here is one that caught my ear… Forty Miles Of Bad Road

I have a soft spot for that twangy reverb guitar. Eddy played a major role in shaping the surf rock genre and influenced many following guitarists. The song peaked at #11 in the UK, #4 in Canada, and #9 on the Billboard 100 in 1959. This song was written by Duane Eddy and Al Casey. The song was on the compilation album $1,000,000 Worth of Twang. Damn, that is a great name for an album! Not to mention the title of the song as well.

The phrase was apparently inspired by a comment overheard by Duane Eddy and his producer Lee Hazlewood while in line at a movie theater. They heard two guys talking about one of their blind dates. He said she looked like 40 miles of bad road. Of course, they looked at each other and said that has to be the title of our new song.

This (and many of his songs) was recorded in a Phoenix studio which had an echo chamber that was originally a large water tank. A single speaker was placed at one end of the tank, the microphone at the other, and the guitar was piped in there. The title was referenced in a REM song called Crush With Eyeliner…instead of 40 miles…”She’s Three Miles of Bad Road.”