It’s one of the definitive heartland rock songs. Yet many people likely don’t realize the fellow who wrote and performed it is Canadian. We’re talking about Tom Cochrane’s massive 1991 hit “Life Is a Highway.”
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The song acts like a shot of adrenaline for anyone who’s out on the open road. It turns out Cochrane only completed this road-trip classic after traveling far across the globe and seeing some heartbreaking sights.
Cochrane on His Own
There’s a well-known phenomenon about British artists who are revered in their home country but struggle to make much of a dent on American soil. Tom Cochrane could sort of relate to that notion, only from the perspective of someone massively successful in Canada who wasn’t anything near a household name in America.
Throughout the ‘70s and ‘80s, Cochrane helped put together six albums that went Platinum in Canada as a member of the group Red Rider. In America, however, they received little exposure aside from the significant FM airplay earned by the brooding 1981 single “Lunatic Fringe.”
As the ‘80s drew to a close, so too did Red Rider run its course. But the band still had some legs left, thanks to a demo of a song Cochrane had presented to the group at the start of their career they had left unfinished and unrecorded. It was that in-progress track that would become Cochrane’s breakthrough.
“Highway” Life
Prior to recording his first solo album, Cochrane and his family had made a trip to Africa as part of a humanitarian group. Witnessing the poverty and hunger of the people there shook him. And it somehow took him back to that demo from all those years back, which he now adorned with the ringing chorus that’s become a sing-along staple for fans all over the world.
The artist explained in interviews he felt powerless at times during that fateful trip, and he completed “Life Is a Highway” to help him focus on what he could control. He released the song as the first single from his debut solo album Mad Mad World in 1991.
“Life Is a Highway” turned out to be the gift that kept on giving for Cochrane. Not only did it rocket to the top of the Canadian charts, but it also broke down the dam for him in the U.S., hitting the Top 10. In 2005, the song returned to the American Top 10 thanks to a country-rocking version by Rascal Flatts.
Behind the Lyrics to “Life Is a Highway”
Cochrane’s fast-talking lyrics in the verses set up the narrator’s worldview, one that suggests you should find the strength to rise above troubles and concerns if you can (and while there’s time). The narrator hints at going beyond the earthly plane to transcend your difficulties: There’s a world outside every darkened door / Where blues won’t haunt you anymore.
The singer references his trip in the second stanza: From Mozambique to those Memphis nights. Cochrane suggests a strong relationship is the key to overcoming life’s more depressing aspects: Knock me down, get back up again / You’re in my blood, I’m not a lonely man. He also implies he’s learned from past mistakes to not sweat the small stuff: There was a distance between you and I / A misunderstanding once, but now we look it in the eye.
Just tell ‘em we’re survivors, he bellows heading into the chorus at one point. “Life Is a Highway” is all about resilience. Tom Cochrane knew well that trait, as he stuck to his artistic path until it finally made him a worldwide sensation.
Photo by Mike Slaughter/Toronto Star via Getty Images
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