Early in the pandemic as things seemed to become more insane day-by-day, I turned to music for comfort. And one of the albums I found myself repeatedly listening to was Willie Nelson’s Red Headed Stranger. And one song I kept returning to was “Hands on the Wheel.”
Nelson’s concept album recounts the tale of the Stranger who after killing his wife and her lover begins a journey to find redemption. Finally, after much travel, the Stranger’s discovery of peace is relayed in “Hands on the Wheel.”
The album’s final song with words was written by Kentucky raised Will Callery, and the song is often also associated with Jerry Jeff Walker. Nelson’s version also appears at the end of the Robert Redford movie The Electric Horseman (1979).
There is another wonderful version of “Hands on the Wheel” by Carla Bozulich and Willie Nelson on Bozulich’s re-interpretation of the entire Red Headed Stranger album. I’ve also been listening a lot to Bozulich‘s wonderful Red Headed Stranger album too, and I recommend it for fans of Nelson’s album.
I am not sure why the album and this song have grabbed me even more during these times. Maybe even Willie Nelson saw the connection, as online he performed the song with his sons early on during the pandemic. Perhaps it is something subconscious about how “Hands on the Wheel” begins:
At a time when the world seems to be spinnin’
Hopelessly out of control;
There’s deceivers, and believers, and old in-betweeners,
That seem to have no place to go.
Those lines reflect much of the feeling in the air these days. As the pandemic and the economic devastation bring death and suffering to the world, everything seems out of control with failed leadership. At the same time, when I go on Facebook and elsewhere, I see the deceivers echoing falsehoods about the coronavirus. And that takes place while we shelter, seemingly having no place to go.
It is a pretty depressing opening to a song. Yet, maybe the song also gives us some hope, or I at least I want to believe it does. The singer continues by telling us how in the craziness of the world, he found love, family, faith, and a place in the world.
And I looked to the stars,
Tried all of the bars,
And I’ve nearly gone up in smoke;
Now my hand’s on the wheel,
Of something that’s real,
And I feel like I’m going home.
And maybe that is it. We have to hang on to whatever is real to try to get through these times. Remember what matters, whatever or whoever that is. And hang onto it for dear life, no matter what the rest of 2020 brings us. Don’t let go. Like the Four Seasons also told us, “hang on to what we’ve got.”
And maybe not today, or tomorrow, or the day after that, but someday we will wake up and feel like we are not yet home — but at last we are heading that way.
