Rodney Crowell - Telephone Road Lyrics

My cousin was murdered on Telephone Rd. Houston is the vortex to hell. My soul was sucked right out of me.

Telephone Rd and La Paseo.......

Noon day air raid buzzer every Friday without fail. We listened for it even in the summer time. My Momma was a Princess Drive-In Car hop too!

I was raised off 59 and Hopper Rd, but I did my share of raising hell on Telephone Rd.

As a native Texan myself, I can relate very well. He mentioned the mosquito truck, all I could do was laugh. I had almost forgotten about those going down the road, spraying and killing. Could you imagine how millennial parents would freak if they did that today?.....lol

I remember those tanks at 2:42. They were off of Market going into Jacinto City. I wonder if they are still there? Houston has changed so much. This video shows parts all over the east and southside. Love it.

http://telwink.com/

It's still there!

I was born and raised on the east side of Houston in the same neck of the woods as Rodney. I tear up every time I hear this song. (One of my all time favorites)

OMG I had not thought of the Tel-Wink Grill in years. Spent many a 2:00 AM in there fueling up before going back to LaPorte for a coupla hours sleep before going to work.

Dan Rather.

The Man is a lyrical musical super man for when he wrote beautiful despair in tribute to Bob Dylan
Rodney 4 me belongs in the greatest company.

This is about as good as it gets for my generation.

Rodney, thanks for the memories! Grew up in Deepwater (Pasadena) Texas and lived near Gulfgate and Telephone Rd.

Grande musicista !!! Ha inciso dischi stupendin,peccato in Italia lo conosciamo in 50 appassionati!

Yeah, that Prince's had great burgers. And I spent many an afternoon in the Tel-Wink grill playing pinball. Tel- Wink is still there, I checked yesterday.

Houston national anthem.

Such a shame that Dan Rather turned out to be a sellout Democrat communist. He should have known about the Clinton "86 plan" to install authoritarian communism, with Hillary becoming the last U.S. president.

That's what you take from this song Ron Jeremy?

The communists, Walter Cronkite and Dan Rather perpetuated the ongoing lie that America was losing the war in Viet Nam. Rather also lied about his childhood. My father lived on the next street from rather and had access to the same factual information that Rather lied about......what a fraud.

Barefoot heathens running wild and free!

been there....

Breakfast after the bars closed at 3 AM at the Tele-Wink Cafe... an ice cold beer on the way home from a bike ride at the W. Alabama Ice House....

I grew up in Pasadena. 5 miles east of Telephone Rd.

Great song and Rodney Crowell, as usual, giving an excellent performance. Used to see him in Austin years ago.

Telephone and Lawndale @ Cage Elementary School 1960.. Father went to the same in 1937

I lived on McHenry off telephone down close to Reveille. 1953 sneak off from house&cross telephone barefoot to get a 5cent coke at Stewarts Ice House.
Momma would tear my ass up but that did'nt stop this telephone rd. boy!

Steven Gibson I live off telephone and bellfort

I love the way he paints pictures with his songs

I remember Carla. I spent the night at the hospital. No one  could get to the hospital to work.

I grew up between Telephone and Wayside, off Lawndale. Yes Sir, it was home.

I grew up between Telephone and Wayside, off Lawndale. Yes Sir, it was home.

GREAT SONG, RODNEY! MAKES ME HOUSTON PROUD!

Maybe Rodney's best ever, so many good ones. You can click "dislike this", "like this", but not "I love this!"

GOD ALMIGHTY..  Dear Rodney I hope you're payin' attention to us all loving you and your spontaneous music/lyrics in here honey. Ah, having had southern roots, a speckof salt on watermelon got my small attention and drew a 'granny' grin of my southern Granny and she also put it on home grown tomatoes, a tad bit of 'sugar.' Nevermind that all. I'm in N Cali and saw you here honey, raised here w/ southern roots therein, Midland tx was where my folks met or I wouldn't have been born couple years b4 you. Forever your eternal loving fan.

Dorie McKay no NJ no cat food Cat Stevens

Sawdust Floor - this is the watermelon stand at 75th & Lawndale. I worked there 3 summers & the only tip I got was the watermelon seeds that the customers used to spit on on the "Watermelon Floor"

For me, this is just the story of all our childhoods - where and when and how we grew us;  ordinary kids, rich, poor or whatever.  How lucky we were, to have experienced it as opposed to today where a blade of grass is unknown.  Rodney Crowell says it all.

I remember Hurricane Carla but not with fondness. I was just 9 yrs. old; September of 1961.  My parents would remember about the bars but I sure remember Princess Drive In, the Cherry Tree in our front yard. Our parents took us to Gulf Gate shopping center. I remember getting lost when I asked my brother where the water fountain was, he pointed, I went; boy did I get a whoopin'. We lived in Foster Place neighborhood until I was around 12. Lots of fond memories.

even cowgirl get the blues

+Melissa Phillips was your daddy Sean Brady Phillips who's the nephew of Darrell Shepherd the son of newly shepherd? My only sibling Sean mother was Gail Lee. I know it is a long shot, but stuff happens!

Used to work a security guard gig at Schlumberger Well Services on 5000 Gulf Freeway and drove up Telephone Rd to get there every day. Ate at the Tel-Wink quite frequently. Thanks for the memories.

I grew up off Telephone Rd, over by Hobby Airport,  in the late 50's and 60's. Just like the song says!!!!

Hey DDT never hurt no-one! Commies banned it because it worked. Malaria is killing all the kids ijn Africa that the Boco Harem ain't raping. Plus it is a cool AC/DC song. IM DDT, IM DYNOMITE!

@Forest Blankenship it hurt lots of birds. so what? birds eat mosquitos.

Hey bro that's TNT, Dynamite. TNT is virtually the same thing as dynamite, that's the ACDC song, not DDT. Just sayin'...

Pretty sure that was excellent sarcasm, comrades

I was a barefoot heathen, LOL!

good song 

Yeah, I remember running through the magic fog coming out of the mosquito truck as a kid. I'm amazed I still have brain cells .

We would follow them on bicycles for blocks. argh

When we went camping in the Michigan State Parks, they would spray DDT in the evenings and us kids would chase the truck. Oh what fun that was, and our parents never said a word. How times have changed.

@Michael Allen We crashed a few bikes ourselves peddling through the thick smoke with our eyes closed. Then laughed our butts off while coughing our asses off. Now that was being a kid in old Houston!

From the Houston Kid album. 

I grew up in Channelview. Alot of things have changed. Its sad how Bad it is Now. My parents still live there. I visit every week.But I would never move back. Telephone rd. Is a Trip!

@Daniel Lee I lived on Rhobell and then Boggess in Scenic Woods. Went to Mt Houston Elementary in 1st grade and then Scenic Woods Elementary 2nd - 5th when it was established in 1964, On Boggess, our neighborhood back yard fence line divided the Scenic Woods and Lakewood school districts. In the beginning, the S.W. school buildings were old army barracks, when I left in 1968 I recall the new permanent school was being built beside it. My cousin graduated from Smiley in the 60s. They tore it down didn't they?
Went 6th grade through 8th in Northshore and moved to Huntsville in 1971 where I graduated in 1975. One day I want to drive around both Scenic Woods and Northshore as it's been many, many years since I was there, I live way up in Northeast Texas now but even though Houston has changed I still have good memories of living there.

@Daniel Lee Will pass on to my cousin about Smiley, he's the one who told me it's been torn down. I went to Cimarron Elementary,
I lived on Joliet St. so it was around the block.
There's still a lot of good folks in Houston, it's always good to visit.

Brian Bois Gilbert by

Cynthia Howell Cloverleaf Heathens

I graduated from C.E. KING, but we always headed to Northshore or Channelview for fun. Before the beltway when Wallisville was a gravel road.

god save the astrodome!

Brings back a lot of old memories growing up on the southeast side

So did I; Foster Place---went to Foster Place Elementary & Cullen Jr. High.

There was no astrodome in 1961.

I think you're right! I'm thinking 1965, because I had a sister born the same year it opened...

he said ge grew up in the shadow of the Astrodome... and that would fit. I wish they had only renovated it. These days, history means nothing to these morons handed everything.

he said ge grew up in the shadow of the Astrodome... and that would fit. I wish they had only renovated it. These days, history means nothing to these morons handed everything.

cool video that brings this great song to life!

I knew Jerry Stubbs long before he opened his shop, and I remember the old one. When I met him, he was a home improvement salesman at Montgomery Wards in Palm Center.

Rodney rules. His part in Heartworn Highways is tremendous. Blueberry Wine anyone?

I lived through Hurricane Carla it was a catagory 3 in 1961 . This song brings a lot of memories back for me because I grew up in that area

That German restaurant was the Old Munich Inn. And who remembers Stubbs before the move to Telephone Road. It was off Bellfort close to Nunn Street. We called it the Honda shop.

I lived and hung out, grew up off Telephone Rd down in the Garden Villas area, certainly not the same that was in the 60's & 70's.... Ken's Ice House, Rice Food Market, Tendal's Gas & Auto Repair; Airplanes all day and night going over head, Gulfgate, the Santa Rosa, The Carousel Motel - all great back in the good old days!

I almost forgot the Carousel Motel! Yep, Houston has changed so much.

from 7115 myrtle st
love this

I had relatives on Myrtle street, the Zimmerman family.

Kick your punk ass

i went to get a princes burger the other day and its some crapy burger joint now

Well I feel kinda left out,seeing how I was born and raised in Houston and I was listening to some blues station and heard him singing about Telephone rd.Use to spend many Monday[$ night[ nights at that drive inn,and at the dome.Had to sell all my land and move after those murdering S.O.B. killed my wife in 5th ward.Miss my family and friends and all those good times.But Houston is not the Houston I grew up in.Had to move to MT. alot safer .Miss yall

This is a great song and video growing up in Houston in the 70's was a great time. We had that china berry tree in the back yard & I loved climbing to the top & poppin my friends in the head with the china berries. ha my dad cut that tree down in the 80's. I was sad to see my old friend go.

RIP Bully Paul.

gotta love this

I didn't grow up on Telephone Rd - but I played with Phil Parr at the Western Club....Also played with Robert Herridge before the Urban Cowboy thang. God Bless Texas and Rodney Crowell.

used to ride innertubes on Buffalo Bayou when the big rains rose the water into the tops of the oak trees. Would pull ourselves around on the branches. Parents never caught us... What a great place. Telephone Road. Old Spanish Trail. Westheimer. Before the freeways scrambled everything and erased the past...

I was there. Smiley graduate. Prince's Drive In, the Granada, Tidwell Drive-In.... Astrodome, Hurricane Carla, the skeeter truck, salty water melon slices,. Ahhh, the memories,

grew up living in Kings Row mobile home park. I know Pauls Ice House well. Love this song and the memories it calls up.

great tune...Rodney always takes you in a different direction... thanks for posting

History in the making...............

Hurican Carla, as Dan says. Song gives me chills of my hometown. Oops, I mean big azz city of H-Town!

Read Rodney's new book. It took me about six really wonderful hours. It's called Chinaberry excellent funny ass songwriter and bookwriter something or other. I liked it and I know you will too. Because I just know.

What a great song!

@jasonhanes lol

With me growing up in this area, I find that China Berry trees are not friendly for barefoot heathens. lol

@Tayfancier Thats funny... My mother also talked about the big times at Magnolia Gardens and seeing Elvis when he did one of his first tours. I was also born in Pasadena at the old Pasadena General. Been to the Red Bluff but we won't discuss that lol. Loved the old Prince's. I grew up near the corner of Lawndale and Telephone. Proud to be from there for some reason. Guess I'm proud to have make it out alive. Now reside in friendly Tyler Tx. Mike

I grew up there until I was 40 years old. Old Cage Elementry. East End Little League. then the ice houses where I stayed for 20 some odd years. Good times and bad times. It was bad when I couldn't go have a good time. Knew Tod Herring, Big Ed Baxter and his crew.#1 Big Ed's Ice House,The Telro, Rays Ice House, Rosies Lounge, The Rock Lounge and thats just to name a few. Now its all gone except for a few die hards.

God Bless Garden Villas and Jerry's Used Cars!

Rodney Crowell lived up off of North Wayside, in what we knew in the 60s as Podunk. I think one might have to say he might have know shit about Telephone Road - it wasn't *that* far away...

i grew up on telephone road you bitches dont know shit about telephone

I was one of the bare foot heatherns! I'm still here!

Always liked Rodney Crowell. Didn't know he sang a song about my hometown (really Pasadena). I did have a friend who said she saw Elvis at Magnolia Gardens. Prince's drive in. Red Bluff Drive In. Love nostalgia.

I grew up just off Telephone Road and Wayside Drive. Not much has changed and the Telewink does still have the best breakfast on the SE Houston side, even at 4:00 AM after a night running the bars along Telephone Road. I still live about 15 minutes from there... lots of memories! Hey Rodney, when are you coming back to Houston????

I grew up in Jacinto City in the '50s and '60s ~ ~ funny to see the water tower. I'll have to send this to all my old friends. It was good.

When I first heard this song, it all came back...

I USED TO RUN BEHIND THE MOSQUITO TRUCK AS A KID, TOO! All the kids did - we were clueless to the danger.

Love the video - I was a kid in Houston during the bomb drills, Carla, Prince's, etc. THANKS

Yes TS1, he did....My mom and dad was there for that.......he said every guy there wanted to "Whip his gyratin ass , but man, he sure fired the girls up".....hehehe....I think it was New Years 56, because I was born Sept 4 ,1956.....hehehe....aint that a hoot......

Did Elvis perform at the Magnolia Gardens bandstand in the late '50s?

I can only remember going there once. Swam across the river and back. Some drunks started chasing us and they followed us all the way back to the Jacinto City police station. When they realized where we were parking they turned around and we never saw them again (thank goodness.)

TimeSpanOne Yes. He played in 1954 and 1955. My parents most likely saw him there.

Wow, that brings back some memories! I had just moved to Austin to go to UT when Carla came in. And the carhops on roller skates....

Wonderful stuff! Lived it!

great song thanks for posting