Down That Highway [Shaw/Blades featuring Tommy Shaw]

Down That Highway
Written by Tommy Shaw & Jack Blades
Lead Vocals by Jack Blades

Little baby crying for attention
let me tell you I could use some too
A little late for an ounce of prevention
Better think of something else to do

What happened to the days of summer
They came and they went too fast
Should have known it wouldn't last forever
Now it's all just part of the past
Memories, down that highway
Whoa yesterday

Sittin' in with the boys and a six-string
Singin' every Beatles song we knew
Gettin' lucky with a girl at the drive-in
Keep me happy for a month or two

School year dragged by so slowly
Seemed like it wouldn't ever end
Summer flew by out of control and
Left me here again with the memories
Down that highway
Whoa yesterday

Now Jimmy got lost somewhere in L.A.
Paco's in trouble with the D.E.A.
J.J. ook the easy way out
Little Debbie never knew just what it was all about
She still don't know today

So much for the easy answers
So much for the simple cure
So easy when you start with nothin'
Feels good when you get a little more

'bout time I oughta get happy
'bout time I oughta feel good
Never know when they call your number
St. Peter gonna lock that gate anyway
Down that highway
Whoa yesterday
Whoa yesterday
Whoa...Yesterday

Interpretation

Here it is, in Tommy's own words (from a 1998 interview with Midwestern Skies:

That was a song about what happened to me and my friends at high school. In the lyric you will notice a line like "Paco's in trouble with the D.E.A." Well he was indeed a friend and roadie of mine who worked for me. Paco wasn't that smart...he sold cocaine to a D.E.A. agent in Texas and ended up in jail! "R.J. took the easy way out"; well R.J. got killed in another drug related thing. "Little Debbie" never knew why both guys got in trouble, and "Jimmy" did "got lost somewhere in L.A." like the lyric says--a friend of mine who ended up here in the music business, but I never heard from him again.