Written: Near Kayenta AZ, 1975
Knees was driving out to Kayenta on the Navajo Reservation to tune a piano when he spied an article on “Progress” on a newspaper on the seat. It inspired him and as he drove he wrote the lyrics to this song. During the song his car broke down and he had to crawl under the car to fix it, but the irony of it all escaped him and he finished the first two verses and chorus before he made Kayenta.
I hear the whine of radial tires
Outside my window late at night
Since the freeway came I don’t get much sleep
It used to be so peaceful
With a dusty road outside
An with love all around,
You and me the only sound
But now I’ve got
Eighteen-wheelers screamin through my dreams.
I got a Quesar color TV
With stations round the dial
An we stay up all hours of the night
But I remember evenins when all I had was you
An the words you’d say, I remember to this day
Oh I wish you were here
To comfort me and sooth my achin eyes.
But I guess that’s progress,
Can’t stand in its way.
Yesterday we were laughin,
But I’m cryin today
An they call that progress.
I got a kingsize lectric blanket
To keep me warm at night
An central air the best that money can buy
But I still wake up cold an lonely
Callin out your name
Ever since you’ve gone,
This house just ain’t a home
I’m no good on my own
Without your love
To help me through the night.