Composer of "Lost Highway"?

[Man of Peace Manfred Helfert]

On Wed, 28 May 1997 20:40:51 -0500, William Wilson
<ww...@mail.msy.bellsouth.net> wrote:

>In the early part of the film "Don't Look Back",Dylan is in a hotel
>room with Joan Baez and Bobby Neuwerth and is singing a song that's
>probably titled "Lost Highway".Can anyone tell me who composed this
>piece?

The following info re this song can be found on my website listed in
the signature block (along with lyrics and info on quite a few songs
covered by Dylan -- a total of about 130 songs so far, including
uncirculated ones, songs mentioned by Dylan, etc.).

I just added the lyrics of "Mr. Bojangles" (along with David
Bromberg's recollections of the song's genesis as related by Jerry
Jeff Walker...)

>LOST HIGHWAY (Leon Payne)

>(Copyright 1949 Fred Rose Music, Inc.)
>covered by Bob Dylan (with Joan Baez) off-stage (hotel room) during 1965
British tour;
>a fragment was in included in D. A. Pennebaker's documentary "Don't Look Back".
>The tune is in my opinion related to that of "Oh Bury Me Not On The Lone
Prairie."
>Dylan's likely source: Hank Williams, MGM matrix 49-S-6032, 1 Mar 1949.

>"Lost Highway", often assumed to have come from Hank's pen, was written by Leon
Payne...
>Payne was a blind musician who worked out of Jerry Irby's nightclub in Houston
and guested
>on the Hayride and the Opry. His original version... had been released on the
Nashville-based
>Bullet label in October 1948.

>Colin Escott, Hank Williams - The Biography, Boston, 1995, p. 98

>MYRTIE (Mrs. Leon) PAYNE: In the early days of Leon's career,
>he hitchhiked from one place to another, finding jobs wherever he could.
>Once he was in Califonia hitchhiking to Alba, Texas, to visit his sick mother.
>He was unable to get a ride and finally got help from the Salvation Army.
>It was while he was waiting for help that he wrote this song.

>Telephone interview, 20 Dec 1972; reprinted in Dorothy Horstman,
>Sing Your Heart Out, Country Boy, New York, 1976, p. 368

>I'm a rolling stone, all alone and lost,
>For a life of sin, I have paid the cost.
>When I pass by, all the people say
>"Just another guy on the lost highway."

>Just a deck of cards and a jug of wine
>And a woman's lies make a life like mine.
>Oh, the day we met, I went astray,
>I started rollin' down that lost highway.

>I was just a lad, nearly twenty-two,
>Neither good nor bad, just a kid like you,
>And now I'm lost, too late to pray,
>Lord, I've paid the cost on the lost highway.

>Now, boys, don't start your ramblin' round,
>On this road of sin or you're sorrow bound.
>Take my advice or you'll curse the day
>You started rollin' down that lost highway.

Hope this helps
-- Man of Peace
"Routes, Routes & Ramblings" Dylan Musical Roots and Influences
Website at http://www.yi.com/home/HelfertManfred/index.htm