Forty Miles of Bad Road
"Forty Miles of Bad Road" is a rock and roll instrumental recorded by Duane Eddy. Released as a single in 1959, it charted #9 Pop.[1] It also appeared on Eddy's 1960 album $1,000,000 Worth of Twang.
| "Forty Miles of Bad Road" | |
|---|---|
| Single by Duane Eddy, His 'Twangy' Guitar and the Rebels | |
| from the album $1,000,000 Worth of Twang | |
| B-side | "The Quiet Three" |
| Released | May 1959 |
| Genre | Instrumental rock |
| Length | 2:10 |
| Label | Jamie |
| Songwriter(s) |
|
Michael Gray has written that the idea of the song title came from Eddy's producer Lee Hazlewood, who heard one Texan say to another, "Your girl has a face like forty miles of bad road," and immediately recognised the remark's potential as a song title.[2]
The idiom is referenced in the lyrics of the R.E.M. song "Crush with Eyeliner": "She's a sad tomato/She's three miles of bad road". It is also referenced in Bob Dylan's 2000 Academy Award winning song "Things Have Changed": "I've been walking forty miles of bad road/If the bible is right, the world will explode."
References
- Koda, Cub (1994). Rock Instrumental Classics Volume 1: The Fifties (p. 14) [CD booklet]. Los Angeles: Rhino Records.
- Gray, The Bob Dylan Encyclopedia, pp. 655–656.