A road trip from Phoenix to Oklahoma – just for the kicks
Mark Footer explores the eclectic American southwest on a 1,000-mile drive from Phoenix to Oklahoma City. And it all started with a song.
Described as “the greatest torch song ever written” by no less an expert than Frank Sinatra, By the Time I Get to Phoenix is the tale of a man leaving his woman for the umpteenth time, but this time for good. The song, written by Jimmy Webb in 1965, takes the listener on a lonely road trip across the American southwest, through Phoenix and Albuquerque to Oklahoma City, and has been performed by Glen Campbell (most famously), Isaac Hayes and Nick Cave, with his Bad Seeds. I’m not leaving anyone, but I am interested to see where the song takes me.
BY THE TIME I get to Phoenix, after a hard drive (without sparing the horsepower) through the desiccated, desolate beauty that is northern Arizona, it is already dark.
The following morning, I find myself at the city’s Musical Instrument Museum. Having marvelled at the profusion of bagpipes the world has produced, the piano at which John Lennon wrote Imagine and Wu Man’s pipa, I discover that Webb is due to perform here in a mere two weeks. Like his protagonist, however, I’ll be long gone by then, but I accept it as a good omen.
There are two roads heading from Phoenix towards Albuquerque; I reckon our man would have taken the most direct route but, according to my random sample of one local, Interstate 17 to Flagstaff is “much prettier”, so I plump for that. Webb’s runner fled alone but I have company: Garmin, the GPS device on my dashboard.
Shouty men on AM radio stations are discussing sport and religion – in either English or Spanish – as Garmin manages to get me out of Phoenix without any drama.
