Big Bill Broonzy — The Key To The Highway

Many years ago, I heard a song that fascinated me. I couldn’t get it out of my head. I had bought an interesting Eric Clapton album — an import, I think. It was part of a collection of four albums. First was a Cream album with colorful cartoon images of Clapton, Ginger Baker and Jack Bruce. Then each individual member of the group had his own compilation album with the same representative cartoon image, but minus the band mates.

On that Clapton album were several cuts from Derek and the Dominos, including a nine minute 40 second version of Key to the Highway. I couldn’t understand all of the lyrics. For the longest time I thought Clapton sang, ‘I got the key to the highway way down in my soul.’ Years later I heard him sing it acoustically and then understood the lyric to be: ‘I’ve got the key to the highway. I’m billed out and bound to go.’

I loved the amazing guitar work in the song; it was almost like a jam session. I don’t know if it included Duane Allman, but someone was jamming with Clapton. The guitarists played off of each other. The vocals were passionate; raw. Also, the character portrayed in the song was determined to leave his lover. She had been unfaithful or had been impossible to get along with — the singer doesn’t fill us in on the details. One thing is clear; he simply must leave.

Another thing about the singer that meant a lot to me when I first heard Key to the Highway was that he had a healthy sense of his own worth. Unquestionably, he deserved better treatment than he received from his former lover. He was going to move on and it was her loss. The highway didn’t scare him. Something better awaited him down the road.

Years would pass before I would learn of the composer of what had become my favorite blues song. Big Bill Broonzy was one of the old time blues men. He didn’t just play the blues, he lived the blues. His career spanned the 1920’s through the 1950’s. He died in 1958 at about 60 years of age. Bill Broonzy wrote Key to the Highway. I have seen some sources give Pete Seager partial credit for the song.

One of my favorite Bill Broonzy pleasures is the video that follows. In it Big Bill is playing in a very dark club in Belgium. He perfoms four songs. A white woman is enthralled by him — something that would have caused him a lot of trouble in the United States at the time. The year was 1956, just two years before he died.

Please enjoy the video:

 Big Bill Broonzy - ‘Low Light & Blue Smoke’ (1956)

Another great way to get my Bill Broonzy fix is the album, The Bill Broonzy Story. This album contains 67 cuts divided between dialogue and solo performances. Big Bill talks to the interviewer and then launches into a song. He is picking on his guitar even as he is talking. He is telling stories about how things used to be, a little about his family, about other old blues men and much more.

In addition to Key to the Highway, he performs an amazing solo version of Glory of Love that shows off his guitar skills. He also performs This Train, Trouble in Mind and Old Folks at Home.

I enjoy this album frequently and have never regretted buying it. I recommend The Bill Broonzy Story to everyone who loves the blues.

These links take you straight to the album. 

 

As a bonus, these links are for the album Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs by Derek and the Dominos. On it you’ll find the version of Key to the Highway that I first fell in love with.

 

–Thomas