On The Road (Home I'll Never Be)
performed by Tom Waits & Primus
From the album Jack Kerouac Reads: "On the Road" (Ryko)

Tom Waits and Primus recorded this track for a 1999 release of an album of remastered and remixed spoken word material by Jack Kerouac. Waits and Les Claypool of Primus had collaborated on a number of other tracks and projects, and the two were brought on by Lee Ranaldo of Sonic Youth (the Kerouac album's producer) to perform a reworked version of the song "On the Road". The song, based on a French Canadian folk song, was written by Kerouac, and performed by him. Waits reworked the lyrics and changed the music, and recorded the vocals, with Claypool providing backup-vocals, and Primus performing the instrumentation.

The song itself makes numerous references to the life of a transient during the heyday of the railroad era. Many of the towns and cities mentioned are Depression-era railroad hubs or crossroads. Others are local corruptions of the Indian (feathers, not dots) or Hispanic names of American cities and sites. The "plot" of the song, regarding a transient finding his father shortly before the old man dies, mirrors stories told by Kerouac about Neal Cassady, the hero of his saga the Myth of Duluoz.

The music is rolling and jangling, and gives every impression of being played around a campfire by a hobo with an out of tune guitar, or from the corner of an empty cross-country boxcar. Waits delivers the lyric with his trademark haggard gruffness, and does an excellent job of capturing the tone and emotion of the song. Think about it: if you were going to write a song about the life of a railroad-hopping drifter, who could you really pick to sing it other than Tom Waits?

Waits has performed the song live a number of times, and live recordings and alternative lyrics exist. A notable (and appropriate) performance of the song was at a memorial benefit for Allen Ginsberg, for instance.

Lyrics

Well, I left New York in nineteen forty-nine
To go across the country, without a dad-blame dime
Montana in the cold cold fall
I found my father in a gamblin’ hall

Father, father, where have you been?
I’ve been out in the world since I was only ten
Father, father, where have you been?
I’ve been out in the world since I was only ten

Don’t worry about me, about to die of pleurisy
Cross the Mississippi, cross the Tennessee
Cross the Niagara, home I’ll never be
Home in ol’ Medora, home in ol’ Truckee
Apalachicola, home I’ll never be
For better or for worse, or thick and thin
I’ve been married to the little woman
God he loves me, like I love him
I want you to do just the same for him
Well, the worms eat away
But don’t worry, watch the wind

So I left Montana on an old freight train
The night my father died in the cold cold rain
Rode to Opelousas, rode to Wounded Knee
Rode to Ogallala, home I’ll never be
Rode to Oklahoma, rode to El Cajon
Rode to old Tehatchapi, rode to San Antone

Hey! Hey!

Rode to Opelousas, rode to Wounded Knee
Rode to Ogallala, home I’ll never be
Rode to Oklahoma, rode to El Cajon
Rode to old Tehatchapi, rode to San Antone

Home I’ll never be
Home I’ll never be
Home I’ll never be
Home I’ll never be
Home I’ll never be
Home I’ll never be