L.A. Songs: L.A. Freeway

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Today I’m home. Last night I took you back to West Virginia. Today the music is going to take us out to California. Let’s head to Los Angeles first, then we’ll stop in Hollywood. L.A. Freeway - Jerry Jeff Walker Here’s another one of those examples of a song being recorded by someone else before the songwriter got to record it. Guy Clark, a Texas native, wrote it in 1970 shortly after arriving in L.A. and not being all that impressed with the traffic. (Like the traffic is a breeze in Houston or Dallas or Austin….) Jerry Jeff Walker had already had a recording career, albeit not that successful. His writing the song “Mr. Bojangles” gave him all the clout he needed to record on his own terms. So there. This was the first song Clark got recorded as a songwriter, and it set him on his way to enshrinement in the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame. Jerry Jeff knew what good came out of someone recording his songs, so he was happy to pass the favor on to someone else. L.A. Freeway Written by Guy Clark Recorded by Jerry Jeff Walker From Jerry Jeff Walker, 1973 L.A. LYRICS: title Down the road in a cloud of smoke: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uiHbh8qKRn4