About The Song
A lot would say that Dwight Yoakam is an underrated country singer. He became popular back in the ’80s when he revived the hillbilly/honky-tonk type of country brand. Back then, a lot of the country artists were leaning towards ‘Urban Cowboy’ music.
The country singer performed outside of the traditional country music that was leaning towards the punk rock genre. This move from Dwight made him diversified with his fans, and he also introduced them to country music. One of his major hits was this honky-tonk song called “Guitars, Cadillacs.”
Dwight Yoakam wrote this track himself alongside all of his other music. This was a part of his debut album which is also titled as Guitars, Cadillacs, Etc., Etc. Pete Anderson was a huge help in the making of the album. He provided some ideas music-wise, played the guitar, and even sang in the background. In an interview, Anderson recalled how they met:
“I was a guitar player for hire in the early ’80s in Los Angeles, and I played mostly country music. I played some blues gigs and kind of roots rock Americana gigs. He needed a guitar player to play a gig, and we played together. He was playing some of his original songs and I got to hear the songs and said..Man, these are really good songs.”
The two have been close ever since and have done collaborations from left to right. They did not have enough money so they had to use a cheap recording studio to produce the album. They were quite surprised by the outcome of the album because it was a huge success. Through this, they caught the attention of huge labels such as the Warner Brothers. That was how they made it to mainstream country.
Video
Lyrics
Girl you taught me how to hurt real bad and cry myself to sleep
You showed me how this town can shatter dreams
Another lesson about a naive fool that came to Babylon
And found out that the pie don’t taste so sweet
Now it’s guitars, Cadillacs, hillbilly music
Lonely, lonely streets that I call home
Yeah my guitars, Cadillacs, hillbilly music
Is the only thing that keeps me hanging on
There ain’t no glamour in this tinseled land of lost and wasted lives
And painful scars are all that’s left of me
Oh but thank you girl for teaching me brand new ways to be cruel
If I can find my mind now, I guess I’ll just leave
And it’s guitars, Cadillacs, hillbilly music
Lonely, lonely streets that I call home
Yeah my guitars, Cadillacs, hillbilly music
Is the only thing that keeps me hanging on
Oh it’s guitars, Cadillacs, hillbilly music
Lonely, lonely streets that I call home
Yeah my guitars, Cadillacs, hillbilly music
Is the only thing that keeps me hanging on
It’s the only thing that keeps me hanging on
It’s the only thing that keeps me hanging on