A headline which caught my eye in last Sunday's Post was "Highway 12 to economic heaven" with a report concerning the rich potential of this route which stretches west to east from Tak on the Myanmar border to Mukdahan, just this side of the Mekong River from Laos.
The reason for my interest is that for the past dozen years I have regularly travelled on a short anonymous stretch of this highway blissfully unaware that I was actually on the road to heaven or even nirvana. Frankly I will settle for any highway that promises a quiet life unbothered by politicians, generals, gendarmes and loudspeakers.
The section I am most familiar with is between Chaiyaphum's Khon San district and Chumphae in Khon Kaen, sometimes venturing on to Khon Kaen provincial centre itself. The small towns between Chumphae and Khon Kaen are unusual in that they are well represented by replicas of dinosaurs at road intersections with the Tyrannosaurus particularly popular. There is even a Dinosaur Museum nearby where the wife insists I would be a suitable exhibit.
Something intriguing about my little stretch of Highway 12 is that approximately 10km west of Chumphae there is a replica of the Statue of Liberty in greenish-light blue, naturally much smaller than the one that overlooks New York harbour. The Chumphae "Lady Liberty" has been there for many years and I have often wondered how she feels about ending up in a parking lot on Highway 12. The statue is attached to a café and presumably the owner has strong links with the US.
I've noticed a couple of other statues in the Chumphae region that have similar colouring and wonder if they all came from the same paint pot.
Route 66
Talking about highways one of the most famous in America is Route 66 which runs from Chicago to Santa Monica, near LA, for a distance of 3,940km. It is quite a remarkable highway and has achieved legendary status through the song "(Get Your Kicks On) Route 66", written in 1946 by Bobby Troupe who regularly travelled the highway and wrote down what he saw.
Troupe's song immediately caught on and in the early days was recorded in somewhat sedate fashion by Bing Crosby and Nat King Cole. However, most people know it as a rock and roll number and for this we have to thank Chuck Berry for his lively version in n 1961. It became an even bigger hit for the Rolling Stones in 1966 and is regarded as one of their best recordings. I particularly enjoy the way Mick Jagger delivers the line "And Oklahoma City looks oh so pretty". It almost makes you want to visit the place.
For pub quiz buffs, England cricketer Joe Root chose 66 as his team number.
Highway 61 revisited
Another celebrated American route worthy of mention is Highway 61, which Bob Dylan featured in his album Highway 61 Revisited which included his big hit "Like a Rolling Stone".
In his younger years Dylan frequently travelled from his home town of Duluth in Minnesota on Route 61 to the southern cities of St Louis, Memphis and New Orleans, all with a strong musical culture. I must admit I still don't understand Dylan's lyrics on that title song except that lots of weird things end up happening on Highway 61.
I wonder if Dylan would be interested in composing a song about Thailand's Highway 12 with its dinosaurs? Well, maybe not.
Dylan at the Dragon
That particular Dylan album sparks memories of early days in Thailand. Late in 1969, I ventured into the Green Dragon bar on New Phetchaburi Road and was pleasantly surprised to find a Thai band called the Apples playing several Dylan songs which were warmly greeted by the large crowd of US military on R&R from Vietnam.
The band's organist and singer, nicknamed Eed, was a huge Dylan fan. A Thammasat University student, Eed told me he would love to sing more Dylan numbers but didn't know the lyrics. There was no internet in those days so Eed would come over to our house in Makkasan clutching the vinyl albums Highway 61 Revisited and Blonde on Blonde.
We spent hours playing the songs over and over again on my ancient record player in a bid to pick up what Dylan was singing about. The fact that I couldn't understand the lyrics didn't help matters. It was a desperately slow process but great fun at the same time.
The real reward came a few weeks later at the Green Dragon when I watched the Apples performing these Dylan songs to a large crowd of enthusiastic GIs. Dylan would have been impressed.
The army game
The Apples also sang many Beatles numbers and had particular fun with one of the most frequent requests, "A Day in the Life".
When it came to "the English army had just won the war" the band often changed it to "Thailand army" triggering not entirely convincing cheers from the Thai bar staff. As an acknowledgement to the GIs in the audience the band would take it a step further with "American army", sparking a tsunami of free beers for the band from the appreciative soldiers.
However, on one occasion I heard a disillusioned Vietnam vet observe: "There's no way we're going to win this war, man."
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