Asha ~ Five hundred miles

Asha (aka Asha Elijah & Asher Quinn) sings 'Five hundred miles,' written in 1961 by folk-singer Hedy West, from his double album of cover versions "Songs of Love & Chains." CD/download here: http://www.ashaquinn.com/songsofloveandchains.htm

I recorded this in 2008 for my first album of cover versions (a double album), after releasing 16 solo albums of my own songs since 1987. To date (2021) I have now released 5 albums of cover versions, and a further 14 solo albums, plus 6 compilation albums. And there's plenty more in the pipe-line! 41 albums in all, so far. See http://wwwwww.ashaquinn.com

Unlike most of my albums, "Songs of Love & Chains" is largely acoustic, and most of the tracks are one-takes, so it's very simple and natural. I just set out to record some of my favourite songs, growing-up.

With 'Five hundred miles' I knew and loved the version by Peter, Paul & Mary, but it has been covered by the likes of Elvis, Joan Baez, the Kingston Trio, Sonny & Cher, and even Justin Timberlake and actress Carey Mulligan. It also inspired a Bob Dylan song.

And it's been translated into many languages, including Czech, Finnish & Vietnamese.

As a song that was at the vanguard of the 1960's folk revival, which introduced the wider world to newcomers Bob Dylan, Joan Baez & Donovan, plus established greats like Pete Seeger & Woody Guthrie, it was also sometimes known as 'The railroader's lament.'

It's a spiritually-themed song with a high moral poignancy, about being ready in the soul to face God with a pure heart, despite the hardship of life.

As a 'kid' in my 20's I left London with a one-way ticket to the USA with four things on my mind; to find a spiritual teacher; to find my birth mother who I had traced to San Francisco (I was adopted); to follow in the footsteps of Woody Guthrie & Bob Dylan as a folk-singer, and to follow the shamanic journeys of Carlos Castaneda down to Mexico.

I achieved all four goals!

I lived in the USA & Mexico for around 2 years, only leaving because I got arrested as an illegal alien, given that my student visa was nearly 21 months out of date. I was put in a juvenile detention centre in Kansas with 18 burly Mexicans, and eventually deported... the authorities were just settling down to watch this skinny English kid get eaten alive by Mexican gangsta's, but in the event the Mexican guys and I sang Beatles & Bob Dylan songs all night long. They also taught me some beautiful Mexican border ballads.

In the morning we all embraced before the guys were shipped off back home. Too bad we ruined the cop's entertainment, but they kind of got even by paddling me on the butt for fasting and refusing to eat the prison food. I spent 8 nights there and was then deported back to the UK.

This was one of many adventures.

I got mugged in Phoenix; met a rattlesnake in Tucson; busked in Greenwich village (where Dylan had busked); gave my first concert in Boulder, Colorado; rented my own ice-cream van in the desert; stole food in New Orleans because I was penniless; lived aboard an Alaskan fishing-trawler in San Francisco with street musicians (one of whom had been taught guitar by Charles Manson); got bitten by a 7 year-old girl and ran a high fever; found a Sufi master from Baghdad and followed him around the states & Mexico with a merry band of brothers; picked tobacco in Virginia; climbed a volcano in Mexico; smuggled a Mexican girl out of Mexico and into the USA across the Rio Grande, and hopped a freight train across the wild west.

I met my birth mother and my little black half-sister.

I was inspired by my heroes, Dylan & Woody Guthrie; by the Beat Poets, like Jack Kerouac & Allan Ginsberg; by the Sufi poets like Rumi & Hafez, and by Castaneda's magical reality.

Much of the time I busked to pay my way, but a lot of times I didn't have any money and was a bit raggedy, and I didn't know where I was heading. But I had God on my side. And I was on God's side! He had my back, and I had his!

The 'hopping a freight train experience' was partly the inspiration for this re-made film.

A French girl and I crept aboard a freight train by moonlight and hid in a wagon, cabin. We sped along to Winslow, Arizona, whereupon a rail-master discovered us. We could hear his footsteps approaching, and we hardly dared breathe. But he just peeked in, smiled and shut the door again.

We travelled across 2 states for free.

I made an original film to this song in 2013, but YouTube was still relatively new then, and my films were pretty basic.

I thought to do a re-make today, using some of the original film, but adding to it.

It's a short song, but full of feeling and meaning.

Really & truly I've spent my whole life getting ready to meet God with a pure heart. The biggest part of that is forgiveness, acceptance of what IS, and seeing enough of the bigger picture to live in gratitude and faith.

Anything less than that and 'I can't go back home this-a-way' as the song says.

Видео Asha ~ Five hundred miles канала Asha Elijah (aka Asha & Asher Quinn)