Yoakam was born in Pikeville, Kentucky, the son of Ruth Ann, a key-punch operator, and David Yoakam, a gas-station owner. He was raised in Columbus, Ohio. He graduated from Columbus's Northland High School in 1974. During his high school years, he excelled in both music and drama, regularly securing the lead role in school plays, such as "Charlie" in a stage version of Flowers for Algernon, honing his skills under the guidance of teacher-mentors Jerry McAfee (music) and Charles Lewis (drama). Outside of school, Yoakam sang and played guitar with local garage bands, and entertained his friends and classmates with his impersonations, such as Richard Nixon, who, at the time, was heavily embroiled in the Watergate controversy.
Yoakam briefly attended Ohio State University, but dropped out and moved to Nashville in 1977 with the intent of becoming a recording artist. Later on, Ohio Valley University in Parkersburg, West Virginia awarded and presented Dwight with an honorary doctorate degree on May 7, 2005.
When he began his career, Nashville was oriented toward pop "urban cowboy" music, and Yoakam's brand of hip honky tonk music was not considered marketable.
Not making much headway in Nashville, Yoakam moved to Los Angeles and worked towards bringing his particular brand of new Honky Tonk or "Hillbilly" music (as he called it) forward into the 1980s. Writing all his own songs, and continuing to perform mostly outside traditional country music channels, Yoakam did many shows in rock and punk rock clubs around Los Angeles, playing with roots rock or punk rock acts like The Blasters (Yoakam scored a small video hit with his version of their song "Long White Cadillac"), Los Lobos, and X. This helped him diversify his audience beyond the typical country music fans, and his authentic, groundbreaking music is often credited with rock audiences accepting country music.
Yoakam's recording debut was the self-financed EP Guitars, Cadillacs, Etc., Etc. on independent label Oak Records produced by lead-guitarist Pete Anderson; this was later re-released by Reprise records, with several additional tracks, as his major-label debut LP, 1986's Guitars, Cadillacs, Etc., Etc.. It launched his career. "Honky Tonk Man", a remake of the Johnny Horton song, and "Guitars, Cadillacs" were hit singles. His stylish video "Honky Tonk Man" was the first country music video ever played on MTV. The follow-up LP, Hillbilly Deluxe, was just as successful. His third LP, Buenas Noches from a Lonely Room, included his first No. 1, a duet with his musical idol, Buck Owens, on "Streets of Bakersfield". 1990's If There Was a Way was another best-seller.
Yoakam's song "Readin', Rightin', Route 23" pays tribute to his childhood move from Kentucky, and is named after a local expression describing the route that rural Kentuckians took to find a job outside of the coal mines. (U.S. Route 23 runs north from Kentucky through Columbus and Toledo, Ohio and through the automotive centers of Michigan.) Rather than the standard line that their elementary schools taught "the three Rs" of "Readin', 'Ritin', and 'Rithmetic", Kentuckians used to say that the three Rs they learned were "Readin', 'Ritin, and Route 23 North".
Johnny Cash once cited Yoakam as his favorite country singer. Chris Isaak called him as good a songwriter that ever put a pen to paper. Time Magazine dubbed Yoakam "A Renaissance Man" and Vanity Fair declared that "Yoakam strides the divide between rock's lust and country's lament." Along with his bluegrass and honky-tonk roots, Yoakam has written or covered many Elvis Presley-style rockabilly songs, including his covers of Queen's "Crazy Little Thing Called Love" in 1999 and Presley's "Suspicious Minds" in 1992. He recorded a cover of The Clash's "Train in Vain" in 1997, a cover of the Grateful Dead song "Truckin'", as well as Cheap Trick's "I Want You to Want Me". Yoakam has never been associated only with Country music; on many early tours, he played with Hardcore Punk bands like Hüsker Dü, and played many shows around Los Angeles with Roots/Punk/Rock & Roll acts. His middle-period-to-later records saw him branching out to different styles, covering Rock & Roll, Punk, 1960's, Blues-based "Boogie" like ZZ Top, and writing more adventurous songs like "A Thousand Miles From Nowhere". In 2003, he provided background vocals on Warren Zevon's last album The Wind.
In the 21st century, Yoakam released dwightyoakamacoustic.net, an album featuring solo acoustic versions of many of his hits; left his major label and started his own label.
2005 saw the release of Yoakam's well-reviewed album Blame the Vain, on New West Records. Yoakam also released an album dedicated to Buck Owens, Dwight Sings Buck, on October 23, 2007. His duet with Michelle Branch, a song titled "Long Goodbye", was released as a free download on Branch's official website in early 2011.
In July 2011, Yoakam re-signed with Warner Bros. Nashville and announced plans to release a new album. 3 Pears was released on September 18, 2012 with twelve new tracks. The album, produced by Yoakam, includes collaborations with Kid Rock, Beck, and Ashley Monroe. 3 Pears was released to resounding critical acclaim and earned Yoakam the highest-charting debut of his career on the Billboard 200 and Billboard Country Albums charts. 3 Pears reached #1 on the Americana Radio chart on October 29, 2012 and went on to break the 2012 record for most weeks at #1 on Americana Radio.[4] By the end of 2012, the album was named on annual best of lists by NPR, Rolling Stone, American Songwriter, AOL's The Boot, Entertainment Weekly, The Village Voice, and Rhapsody, and has been included in more critic's "best of 2012" lists than any other artist in the country genre.
Yoakam won the Grammy Award for "Best Male Country Vocal Performance" in 1993 for the song "Ain't That Lonely Yet". He was also named "Artist of the Year" by CMT Europe in 1993 and given the International Touring Artist Award by CMA in 2007.
In 2011, Yoakam received the Cliffie Stone Pioneer Award for his trailblazing achievements in the country music genre.
Trains and Boats and Planes
Dwight Yoakam Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Are passing by,
Could mean a trip
To Paris or Rome
For someone else
But not for me
The trains and boats and planes
We were so in love,
And high above
We had a star
To wish upon, wish
And dreams do come true,
But not for me
The trains and boats and planes
Took you away, away from me.
Trains and boats and planes
Took you away,
But every time I see them I pray
And if my prayers
Can cross the sea,
The trains and boats and planes
Will bring you back,
Back home to me...
The lyrics to Dwight Yoakam's song Trains and Boats and Planes tell the story of a person who is lost and alone, watching as life passes them by in the form of passing trains, boats and airplanes, each potentially marking an opportunity for travel and adventure - something that would mean a lot to anyone, but not to the singer, whose loved one was taken away from them. The lyrics are poignant and relatable, capturing the sense of longing and loss that comes with the end of a relationship. The lyrics evoke the idea that while the world keeps moving, the singer's world has come to a halt as they are left behind, unable to move forward because of their loss.
The singer reflects on a time when they were in love and had their whole life ahead of them. They had dreams and wishes to fulfill, with the stars above as their guide. But their dreams did not come true because the trains, boats, and planes took their loved one away. Through this imagery, the meaning of the lyrics boils down to the idea that despite all the opportunities the world offers, they mean nothing when someone you love is missing. The singer prays that their loved one will return, and that the same things that took them away will bring them back.
Overall, the lyrics to Trains and Boats and Planes invoke feelings of loss and longing in a way that is both relatable and timeless.
Line by Line Meaning
Trains and boats and planes
Various modes of transportation, representing the different ways people can travel
Are passing by,
These forms of transportation are moving past the singer
Could mean a trip
They could represent an opportunity for someone to travel
To Paris or Rome
Two potential destinations people might visit on such a trip
For someone else
While these means of travel might represent an opportunity for someone else, they do not for the artist
But not for me
The singer is not traveling on any of these modes of transportation
The trains and boats and planes
These forms of transportation, which had a specific effect on the singer's life
Took you away, away from me.
They were the means by which the artist's loved one was separated from them
We were so in love,
Speaker and their loved one were deeply in love
And high above
Above life's issues
We had a star
They had a symbol of hope, something they believed in
To wish upon, wish
They used this symbol to make wishes
And dreams do come true,
Dreams can become a reality
But not for me
Despite the truth in the previous line, it did not happen for the singer
The trains and boats and planes
These forms of transportation, which had a negative effect on the singer's life
Took you away, away from me.
They were the means by which the artist's loved one was separated from them
Trains and boats and planes
Repeating the idea of various means of transportation
Took you away,
The transportation took the singer's loved one away
But every time I see them I pray
When the singer sees these means of transportation, they pray for their loved one
And if my prayers
If the artist's prayers
Can cross the sea,
Can reach their loved one despite the distance
The trains and boats and planes
The same types of transportation that took their loved one away
Will bring you back,
Will bring the singer's loved one home
Back home to me...
Back to the artist, completing the separation
Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group, BMG RIGHTS MANAGEMENT US, LLC, Warner/Chappell Music, Inc.
Written by: BURT BACHARACH, HAL DAVID, BURT F. BACHARACH
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
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