“On the Road” is a song I have always loved. I first heard it on John Denver’s 1974 album “Back Home Again.” You can find all the credits courtesy of Discogs at the link. That album had other gems on it like “Annie’s Song,” “Matthew,” “Sweet Surrender,” and “This Old Guitar.” Denver wrote seven of the 12 tracks, but “On the Road” belongs to Carl Franzen. It’s a great tune. A year earlier, Michael Johnson released it on his album, “There is a Breeze.”
Back in 2009, a local newspaper in the Minneapolis area, where Franzen lives, caught up with him at home, and this is a bit of what Franzen had to say about songwriting.
“I went to L.A. when I was a young [songwriter], and all they said was, ‘Where are the hooks?
Where are the hooks? I decided right then I wanted nothing to do with the music business,” says Franzen, who makes his living as a freelance advertising copywriter. “But two weeks later, I wrote a song called ‘On The Road’ which Michael Johnson and John Denver recorded. Then soccer took over (i.e., organizing a community soccer league in Minneapolis), and I stopped for a long while.”
But, as Franzen continues to sayt, the songwriting and piano-playing bug never left him. There is more to it, of course, and you can find some of it in Jim Walsh’s piece here.
According to a ReverbNation page, Franzen appears still to be writing songs, which is great to see. “On the Road” is the kind of song that paints a most vivid picture, and I’m glad Mr. Franzen is still at his craft.
Here’s a blurb from Franzen’s Facebook page.
Carl Franzen is a singer-songwriter-writer-filmmaker. His lyrics paint pictures, tell stories and ask questions (melodies and rhythm included). His new chapbook, “Words for Wordies,” is a collection of irreverent essays taking on topics like french fry consumption, voters who can’t make up their minds, and rules for heaven. His song “On the Road,” was recorded by Michael Johnson and John Denver. Lonnie Knight recorded Franzen’s “Suddenly.”
Here are two very different, but compelling, versions, of this special song, with Johnson ‘s as the primary and Denver’s as the bonus, but it could have gone either way. Here’s to hoping Franzen is still writing songs this good.