Topic: Key To The Highway

[dj]

I've been listening a lot to the three pre-war versions of "Key To The Highway" lately.  It's an old warhorse, but, like most things in life, it rewards a close listen.  In the hopes that someone besides me might find this interesting, here's what I've got.

The earliest recorded version was by Charles "Charlie" Segar, "Key Board Wizard Supreme", recorded in Chicago on February 23, 1940.  Segar plays piano and sings.  He's accompanied by a drummer, probably Fred Williams.  The versions of "Key To The Highway" that everyone knows all have 8 bar verses, but Segar's is in a 12 bar form.  The broad outline of the familiar melody is present in the first and third lines of Segar's verses, though the timing is necessarily different.  The piece is in Ab.  I have to say, Segar is a much better piano player than he is a singer.  He's got a fairly thin reedy voice.



I got the key to the highway, I'm rarin' to go
I got the key to the highway, I'm rarin' to go
'Cause I'm gonna leave here runnin, walkin's most too slow

I'm goin' back to the border where I'm better known
I'm goin' back to the border where I'm better known
'Cause you ain't doin' nothin' but drivin' a good man 'way from home

Give me one more kiss mama, one more kiss before I go
Give me one more kiss babe, just before I go
I'm gon' leave here, ain't comin' home no more

When the moon creeps over the mountain I'll be on my merry way
When the moon creeps over the mountain I'll be on my merry way
I'm going to walk the highway until the break of day

So long baby, I must say goodbye
So long, so long baby, I must say goodbye
I'm gonna roam the highway until the day I die
   

[dj]

The next version of "Key To The Highway" to be recorded was by Bill "Jazz" Gillum, again in Chicago, on May 9, 1940.  Gillum is on vocals and harmonica, with Big Bill Broonzy on guitar and a bass player, probably either Alfred Elkins or Al Collins.  (Is it bass a washtub bass?  From the sound it could be a washtub.  B&GR lists it as "imb".)  Broonzy is playing in E, E position.  His guitar on this is, I think, particularly nice, with his thumping, heavily damped bass and a nifty pull off descending run at the end of the fifth bar.  During the first harmonica solo, the bass cuts some fancy capers, and Big Bill switches from monotonous bass notes to quick bass runs under the second harmonica solo.  By now, three months after Segar's recording, the song has settled into its 8 bar format.  With the exception of the second half of the first line, the words are pretty close to what Segar sang.



I got the key to the highway, billed out and bound to go
I'm gonna leave here runnin' because walkin' is most too slow

I'm goin' back to the border where I'm better known
'Cause you haven't done nothin' but throw a good man away from home

Give me one more kiss mama, just before I go
'Cause when I'm leavin' here, I won't be back no more

When the moon creep over the mountain, honey I'll be on my way
I'm gonna walk this highway untilo the break of day

Well it's so long, so long baby, I must say goodbye
I'm gonna roam this highway until the day I die
   

[dj]

Almost a year after Jazz Gillum recorded "Key To The Highway", Bill Broonzy took a stab at the song, on May 2, 1941.  The instrumentation is similar to Gillum's version:  Broonzy on vocals and guitar, Gillum on harmonica, and an unknown bass player, with a rather subdued Washboard Sam added on washboard.  Broonzy is again playing out of E position, but this time capoed up to G.  It's interesting that I can't really hear the strong constant bass that is so notable on Jazz Gillum's recording.  But it doesn't sound like Broonzy is flatpicking, either.  It's as if he's playing only lead lines but with his fingers.  On Gillum's harmonica solos, Broonzy switches to variations on a boogie bass.  Broonzy's first three verses mirror verses in Segar and Gillum's versions of the song, but for his final two verses he amplifies the "going to the border" theme that is only touched on in the two previous versions.  At the start of the last harmonica solo, Bill gets off a very Tampa Red styled "Yeah!".



I got the key to the highway and I'm billed out and bound to go
I'm gonna leave here runnin', 'cause walkin' is most too slow

I'm goin' down to the border, now where I'm better known
'Cause woman you don't do nothin' but drive a good man away from home

Now when the moon creeps over the mountain I'll be on my way
Now I'm gonna walk this old highway until the break of day

Run here sweet mama, now and help me with this heavy load
I'm due in West Texas and I've got to get on the road

I'm goin' to West Texas, I'm goin' down behind the sun
I'm goin' to ask the good God "What evil have I done?"
   

[Johnm]

Hi dj,
Thanks for the topic and the posts.  I seem to recall Jazz Gillum feeling very wronged about Bill Broonzy getting credit for the song in later years.  It's hard to work up too much sympathy for Gillum when the lyric idea appears to have originated with Charles Segar, a new name to me.
I am away from my copy of Broonzy doing the song with Gillum at this time, and perhaps you could corroborate something for me:  The last time I listened to the take, I think I remember that Broonzy  only played the V7 chord in the second bar for his solos, and switched to a I7 chord behind his singing.  Is that the case?
All best,
Johnm

[dj]

Hi, John

Thanks for bringing up the difference in accompaniment between Broonzy's playing behind his vocals and behind Jazz Gillum's harmonica solos.  I'd forgotten to mention that.  Your memory is backwards.  Broonzy plays a | I   | V7   | IV7   | IV7   | progression for the first 4 bars of each verse when he's singing, but when Gillum is soloing, this switches to | I   | I   | IV7   | IV7   |.  This is different from his accompaniment on Jazz Gillum's recording, where he sticks to the | I   | V7   | IV7   | IV7   | pattern for both the sung verses and the harmonica solos.

It's hard to work up too much sympathy for Gillum when the lyric idea appears to have originated with Charles Segar

Another thing I meant to mention but forgot is authorship.  The song is usually credited to either Segar or Segar/Broonzy.  But it's impossible to know at this point exactly where authorship lies.  Just because Segar was the first to disk with the lyrics doesn't necessarily mean he was the sole or principal author.  Nor does the fact that Jazz Gillum was the first to record the lyrics to the familiar 8 bar melody mean that he was the person who originally set them to that melody. 

It's interesting that both Segar's and Gillum's versions mention "going down to the border", but never develop that theme, while Broonzy's version does.  Does this mean that in it's pre-recording form the song was longer and had more verses, and that Segar and Gillum cut the "West Texas" verses that Broonzy sang because they'd reached the 3 minute recording limit?  Unfortunately, we'll never know.  Unless Bunker Hill comes up with an article from some obscure British Jazz magazine circa 1953 which lays out all the details!      

[Bunker Hill]

Another thing I meant to mention but forgot is authorship.  The song is usually credited to either Segar or Segar/Broonzy.  But it's impossible to know at this point exactly where authorship lies.  Just because Segar was the first to disk with the lyrics doesn't necessarily mean he was the sole or principal author.  Nor does the fact that Jazz Gillum was the first to record the lyrics to the familiar 8 bar melody mean that he was the person who originally set them to that melody. 

It's interesting that both Segar's and Gillum's versions mention "going down to the border", but never develop that theme, while Broonzy's version does.  Does this mean that in it's pre-recording form the song was longer and had more verses, and that Segar and Gillum cut the "West Texas" verses that Broonzy sang because they'd reached the 3 minute recording limit?  Unfortunately, we'll never know.  Unless Bunker Hill comes up with an article from some obscure British Jazz magazine circa 1953 which lays out all the details!    

If only Routledge "hadn't done the dirty" on Robert Riesman's Broonzy biography we'd have read in there all about the history of this song. An abbreviated version appears as the Key To The Highway entry in the Routledge Encyclopedia Of The Blues (p. 563-4) from which I've extracted the following:

The song's origins are murky. It is often associated with Big Bill Broonzy, but it was first recorded by pianist Charlie Segar for Vocalion in February 1940. Jazz Gillum and Broonzy then played on each other's recordings of it, Gillum (with Broonzy on guitar) for Bluebird in May 1940 and Broonzy (with Gillum on harmonica) for OKeh a year later. Broonzy told oral historian Studs Terkel that he had based the melody on one he had heard originally as a child in the South played on the banjo by his uncle, and credited Segar with composing new lyrics. Gillum maintained that he had written both words and music at the request of producer Lester Melrose, who then gave it to Broonzy. Broonzy's powerful final version from his last recording session in 1957 reinforced his connection with the song. Despite the conflicting claims of authorship, the song carries an indelible association with the African American blues musicians born in the South who invoked their rural origins when they migrated North in the first decades of the twentieth century and recorded in urban centers such as Chicago.

Several prominent musicians recorded noteworthy versions of "Key to the Highway" in the years following World War II. When harmonica star Little Walter recorded it for Chess Records in August 1958, it became his last top ten hit, rising to number six on the Billboard charts. Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee produced numerous versions, and their 1952 recording for Jax in particular raised the song's profile among a generation of blues fans internationally as it appeared on their multiple reissued collections in the 1960s. John Lee Hooker's 1952 session for Modern features Eddie Kirkland on second guitar striving to replicate Broonzy's phrases: Hooker also covered the song in later solo versions. Other artists who have recorded it include Clifton Chenier, Dinah Washington, Jimmy Witherspoon, Mance Lipscomb? and Freddie King.

[banjochris]

That reminds me that on one of his recordings of it (on video, I think), Mance Lipscomb mentions that the key to the highway is your feet.

[Johnm]

That is really cool, Chris.  I never heard that before.
All best,
Johnm

[blueshome]

I have a recollection of a "Key to the Bushes" or similar,(by Bobby Cadilac?) and a "Key to the Mountains" by someone I can't recall.  I'm sure that the key being the ability to walk away is exactly right and it's the sense I've always taken.

[banjochris]

"Key to the Mountain" is by Mary Johnson, once wife of Lonnie.
Chris

[dj]

If only Routledge "hadn't done the dirty" on Robert Riesman's Broonzy biography we'd have read in there all about the history of this song.

Right you were, Bunker Hill!  I was revisiting this topic to get the lyrics to Key To The Highway, read your post and thought "Hey, the book is out now. 

Riesman's story stick pretty closely to what Routledge has, except that he adds a quote from Bob Koester, who knew Gillum and Washboard Sam.  Koester: "I was told by both guys that Big Bill wrote all their tunes, and Gillum specified Broonzy as the real author of 'Key To The Highway.'"