lyrics
backseat driver with something to prove
she was runnin some daytime night moves
she said to leave the radio on
rolled out for a cigarette
don’t you stay too long/gonna play our song
but you know that song never came on
and I don’t think I’ll make it to the next turn of the screw
’cause the only thing that keeps me here is you
so roll on/sister roll on
hold on to the wheel
roll away forever/roll away from what you feel
take the car ’cause you come this far
who am I to keep you down?
’cause my world turns on Catherine Wheels
whenever you’re around
well I guess we bought what they sold us
believed in what they told us
that we’d be safe here on this holy ground
well I guess ain’t no one to blame
stood and watched it go up in flames
couldn’t even feel it burning down
and every night I have this dream where I’m sinking like a stone
just praying I’ll be waking up alone
so roll on/sister roll on
hold on to the wheel
roll away forever/roll away from what you feel
take the car ’cause you come this far
who am I to keep you down?
’cause my world turns on Catherine Wheels
whenever you’re around
who am I to keep you?
I just tried to reach you
with you it’s always on with the show
so I’m letting you go
whenever you want to roll
story
In 1993, I was a cub reporter for a magazine called Guitar Player. No prizes for guessing what the mag was about. In many ways, it was a dream job – I got paid to work in an office full of musicians, listen to crusty old backstage war stories from older writers during long, not-fully-sober lunches, and meet the occasional shredder who wandered into our thoroughly un-rock’n’roll cube farm of an office.
In that year, I convinced my editors to run an interview/album review focused on the new Crowded House album, which included a great song called “Catherine Wheels” (plural). Talking to the writer, Neil Finn, inspired me to hit the dictionary (no Internet back then, boyz’n’girlz) to find out what Catherine Wheels were, viz:
Catherine Wheel: a spiked wheel symbolizing the instrument of torture involved in the martyrdom of Saint Catherine of Alexandria (died a.d. 1307).
Zow! What a great band name! (Taken.)
Okay, song title then!
Ten years later, at an Arroyo Seco campfire during a solo roadtrip to Mission San Antonio, the other shoe finally dropped. I was aimlessly strumming chords while trying to guess the species belonging to the eyes in the bushes beyond the fire when the words “my world turns on Catherine Wheels / whenever you’re around” came out of my mouth (with a melody utterly unrelated to the one that finally made the record).
Two days later, safely ensconced within Radio Nowhere HQ, I played around with the song for seven hours or so on the guitar, getting nowhere. So I burned it.
Then I switched to Rhodes electric piano, played for about 5 minutes…and the entire riff, melody and arrangement for the chorus came out. Funny how often it works that way.