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Lincoln Highway

from Lincoln Highway by Too Much Joy

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about

Originally released as a donor-only perk for fans who contributed to the IndieGoGo campaign that funded TMJ’s most recent LP, All These Fucking Feelings, “Lincoln Highway” is now being offered to the wider world as a kind of holiday present.

The first draft of the lyrics were written as TMJ singer Tim Quirk drove his dad’s car west on the Lincoln Highway, delivering it to a purchaser he’d found for it in California. That car was the last of his father’s possessions to be disposed of, after getting him situated in an assisted living facility in Massachusetts – his father had been forced to sell his house after suffering a brain aneurysm and collapsing the night before Tim’s younger brother’s funeral. It was a pretty shitty couple of months.

Coincidentally, TMJ guitarist Jay Blumenfield sent Tim his initial demo of the music for this tune while Tim was driving a different car east on the same highway. Tim loves driving that road exactly as much as he despises driving on interstates. It was the first paved road connecting San Francisco to New York, it winds you through numerous picturesque little towns you’d never see otherwise, and you frequently share the road with other Lincoln Highway fans who are so committed to the bit that they make the trek in vehicles from the 1920s and ‘30s. It’s hard to remain depressed too long on a road like that.

The cover art photos were snapped by Tim through the windshield of his dad’s car on that initial drive.

lyrics

Lincoln Highway

My dad missed my brother’s funeral
He was having brain surgery
He’d collapsed the night before
While I was writing the eulogy

It was a fucked up situation
Everything was so terrible
It was almost funny
It was almost bearable

Then I had to sell my dad’s house
And almost everything he owned
Doctors said the time had come
To move him to a home

I asked if I should set aside
Anything for him to keep
He told me to choose a few things
He wasn’t losing any sleep

Now I'm driving the Lincoln Highway
And all my thoughts are grim
Trying to locate my way
To become as free as him

He simply said goodbye
to eighty years’ of things
I hunger for the weightlessness
Such letting go can bring

My friend Daphne helped me
Arrange the estate sale
The vultures lined up at 6
Me and Daphne bailed

Now I'm driving the Lincoln Highway
And all my thoughts are grim
Trying to locate my way
To become as free as him

credits

from Lincoln Highway, released December 1, 2023
Guitars and singing: Jay Blumenfield
Yelling: Tim Quirk
Bass and singing on Lincoln Highway: Sandy Smallens
Drums: Tommy Vinton
More guitars and singing: William Wittman

Recorded at:
Melody Springs, Culver City, CA (engineer and thanks to: Leo Blumenfield)
Hobo Sound, Weehawken, NJ (engineer and thanks to James Frazee)
and various band members' houses

Produced and mixed by William Wittman

Cover photo by Tim Quirk (that's the actual Lincoln Highway)

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Too Much Joy Scarsdale, New York

TMJ is/was a punk-pop band of some minor renown. Some of that renown was due to their music, which included semi-hits such as “Crush Story,” “Donna Everywhere,” and “That’s a Lie” — a cover of the LL Cool J tune that featured the man himself in the music video, which actually got played quite a bit during daylight hours on MTV back when they did that sort of thing. ... more

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