lp discography - covers & lyrics

"The highway is a part of hell that never caught on fire," sings Dave Dudley in the title track of this 1970 album. Memorable lyrics notwithstanding, the song barely cracked the Top 15, while the comparatively bland "Comin' Down" made the Top Ten. The album is otherwise full of fun material like the rocking "Six-O-One" and Shel Silverstein's "The Rollin's All Gone Out of This Rollin' Stone," and even a trucking song in deference to Dudley's musical past. Kris Kristofferson's "For the Good Times" is a little too treacly in Dudley's rendering, and in general the faster and funnier material is more successful than the ballads. One exception is the poignant "I Cry a Lot," in the tradition of — if not quite on par with — "I Guess Things Happen That Way" and "Funny How Time Slips Away." Dudley doesn't often get much recognition for his songwriting, but he wrote half of this album, a minor feat in the days when artists often released three or four albums a year.
(A friend of mine has a theory that no one ever reads liner notes. Mine is that at least the artist does. T.T. Hall.)
Dear Dave, I think that this is one of the best albums you have ever done. I especially like: Coming Down, Farewell To The Road, Listen Betty, Under Cover Of The Night, I Hope My Kind Of Love, The Rolling's All Gone Out Of This Rolling Stone, Cry A Lot, For The Good Times, I Feel A Cry Coming On, Down On Whisky Row, and 6-0-1. Dave, do you remember the muzzle loading pistol you gave me for Christmas last year? Well, the other day I was out in the pasture shooting it while I was looking at my cows. Next time you're in Nashville we'll have a beef roast. The people in Olive Hill, Ky. (where you came to sing at my Homecoming Celebration this summer) finally found the guitar player you lost. They are sending him back on a bus. You will also be glad to get the bus back. I had a good time, too. I have discussed the possibility of installing a direct telephone line between my house and yours so our wives, Dixie and Jeanne, can continue their conversations about their Basset Hounds. The line would only cost around eight thousand dollars which would save us both money. We could even make an arrangements to use it ourselves every third Wednesday. I hear that you have been having tremendous crowds at your shows on the road. I have talked with the people at Mercury records and we all concur that you should stop referring to me as your brother. People are asking for records by Tom T. Dudley...and not very many! I am looking forward to the bear hunt in your part of the country. I have been practicing with the switches, like you said, but I still feel we ought to take along a gun... just in case. Dave, I know you are busy at the D.D. Lodge in Dudleyville with all of the folks who stop by, but would you look around and see if I left my rhyming dictionary up there. I just had a great idea for a song about these two guys who are sitting around this bar about nine-thirty in the morning and...

DAVE DUDLEY

LISTEN BETTY