What is “Mercury Highway” about?
"Mercury Highway" is an origin story told from the road: born in a borrowed car, raised by a mother who kept the wolves away and a father who carried his ghosts, the narrator has buried brothers, shame and her own name along the way. The hook flips that burial imagery, insisting each attempt to bury her meant "I came up a garden." A slide guitar gets the bridge, telling her to keep moving. It sits at the center of Gasoline Hymn as track eight.
Mercury Highway lyrics
Lord knows I was born in a borrowed car
Lord knows I was raised on a dying star
Mama kept the wolves on the other side
Daddy kept his ghosts on the passenger side
I learned to run before I could walk
I learned to sing before I could talk
I learned every trick the devil knows
And I'm still here, and I still got toes
Rolling down that Mercury Highway
(Rolling down that Mercury Highway)
Nothing in the mirror but the sun rising
(Nothing in the mirror but the sun rising)
Every time they tried to bury me
(Every time they tried to bury me)
I came up a garden
I came up a garden
I came up a garden on the Mercury Highway
I buried my brothers in a dusty field
I buried my shame in the steering wheel
I buried my name in a hundred songs
And every one of 'em brought me home
Rolling down that Mercury Highway
(Rolling down that Mercury Highway)
Nothing in the mirror but the sun rising
(Nothing in the mirror but the sun rising)
Every time they tried to bury me
(Every time they tried to bury me)
I came up a garden
I came up a garden
I came up a garden on the Mercury Highway
Slide guitar weeping in the rearview
Slide guitar telling me the truth
Slide guitar saying keep on moving
Slide guitar saying keep on moving, child
Mercury Highway, Mercury Highway
Mercury Highway, I came up a garden