Traveling Man hits me on a more personal note. To me, it's definitely a personal song, and I can relate to it in many ways. It's almost comforting knowing that someone can verbalize the feelings that can be elusive to describe, especially in a song as well put together as this. It starts out simply put, "I'm just a traveling man you see, wherever this road goes is where I will be." So many of us that travel for a living or for leisure in our early/mid twenties can relate to this. We're kinda floating around on the breeze, just going wherever the wind takes us, or in this case, the road. Zach continues on with "I'll catch me a ride on a boat to Spain, tell a woman that I love her and forget her name." As shitty as this line might sound, it highlights that a deeper connection with a significant other can be hard to maintain and harder to find when your life is dominated by the road. Sometimes finding "love" or at least something like it is possible, albeit short lived when you're always traveling, hence the "forget her name" part... Anyway. We move on to "And I wish I could stay for midday coffee, but I just can't get this dreaming off me. If I could find me a place to rest my mind, but mama always said I'll be there in good time." It's like the narrator wants to stay, he wants to settle down, but something deeper in him just won't allow it. He has to go, he has to go on and keep chasing more, whatever that may be. It's as if he knows better than to keep chasing the dreams that keep him from staying put, but he can't seem to shake the rambling out of his boots, we'll get into this more in the chorus -> "There's some headlights burning down the highway, and I think that I may just hitch me a ride. 'Cause I'm a Traveling Man by trade sir, we're all running from the things inside." Maybe I will hitch a ride, maybe I won't. After all, I am a Traveling Man, that's what I do- an opportunity is here, and if I'll fall in to the habits of my past, I'll be damned if I don't take it. Back to the idea that he knows better- he almost justifies his traveling, or his "running." What is it he's running from? Society? Responsibility? His past? Who knows, maybe he doesn't even know. Sometimes figuring that out is the battle I s'pose. Finding out what "the things inside" are can be quite a journey in itself. All around, the whole tone of this song is spot on. It's not sad, it's not super happy, it just is what it is- perfect. There's no sense of regret, of wanting something else, of changing anything, or anything like that. It just is what it is. It carries the feeling of a simple, yet obvious answer to a deeply intellectual question. To me anyway.
Comments
Post a Comment