Original DDE™ art: “Endless Highway Blues” — by: rob kistner © 3/6/26.
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cold van coughed awake outside another dim hall
for years now we been climbin’ this rock’n’roll hill
I tune my damned strings standin’ on the echoing empty stage
you sit memorizing lyrics on the dimm’d stage-front ledge
nearly 30 years now of this thunder-drummin’ big beat
our busted guitar cases betray what we’ve been about
our sweat droplets sparkle in colored gel’d stage lights
our sound climb’n in a roar into night club lofts
the magic smoke curl’n upward — crowd surges ’n shouts
sweet riffs just keep rise’n higher as the crowd-mind shifts
some nights the gig has our soul energy wildly stirrin’
some morning-mirrors return two ragged faces stare’n
your voice always softens the roar of a restless crowd
as my les paul ripps out raw with the rocker’s creed
we criss-cross this wide land tote’n battered gear
still chase’n the golden promise of the perfect gig
young bands arrive dreamin’ — bright with spunk’n’spark
we smile’n watch’em burn on — with our know’n smirk
along endless highways and in broken shabby motel rooms
the songs keep breathing hope — so the heart still roams
we carry mic chords, amps n’guitars in sore tired hands
following the siren’s echoes of our damned stardom plans
when the amps fall quiet as lights come up in the empty’n hall
…askin’ ourselves will we ever make it — believin’ we might still
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My band: StoneFox and I (on left)
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rob kistner © 03/5/26
I added this last song because miss M makes me cry…
You have to have that belief, Rob! xx
Yes you do, Merril — yes you do! It is a hard life, trying to get a breakthrough national hit rock record. Although it was fantastic as we strove through those exciting younger decades — until it finally wasn’t… but no regrets, only some amazing memories. We were pretty successful as a “live” opening-act band in the Eastern, Midwestern, Southern, and Central regions — but only modest success regionally in the recording game. But the stories I, and my many bandmates could tell… but most, only in private. 😉
this is great Rob – so much momentum in the poem and you mastered the rhyme scheme like a soloist!
Thank you so much, Laura! I wasn’t totally certain of what I was doing as I was doing it, and I wasn’t feeling good — but thank you very much for your wonderfully kind words. 🙂
Rob, I love me my rock n roll and my rock n roll musicians. You did them right with your autobiographical panache. I bet you were one hell of a hellraiser as a young musician.
“we criss-cross this wide land tote’n battered gear
still chase’n the golden promise of the perfect gig”
Thank you Lisa! If you look at how wrecked my health is now, it is a testament to just that fact. It eventually catches up with you… 😐 …but what a helluva ride! 😉
Heck yes 🙂
🙂 😉
This resonates with me a lot Rob, having done the same kind of things up until just a few years ago, first as a musician and then as a tour manager. My musical interests were never likely to be commercially successful but did manage to take me to places that I never would have dreamed of as a teenager.
Great write Rob ?
Cool shaun, hope you dug it like I did
,and thankd you.,
Nicely done Rob. I’ve been/am on the radio side of things after being a Jock and PD for many years and now a production guy there. I’ve met the drive and the hustle and also the struggle too over the years in many, early or late, and I’ve always been in awe of that spark and that desire.
Love this:
“young bands arrive dreamin’ — bright with spunk’n’spark
we smile’n watch’em burn on — with our know’n smirk”
Thank you so much Stephen! I am too old and frail for the road amymore — my touring music life is well behind me… but WOW — do I have a lifetime of memories… it was hard, but when I was still able, it was amazing. Not all the memories are pleasant, but it was beautiful, even with the blemishes. I would give my life to do it again… which, if I tried, would most likely be the cost. 🙂
as a fellow musician the last two stanza resonated fircely with me “when the amps fall quiet as lights come up in the empty’n hall
…askin’ ourselves will we ever make it — believin’ we might still”
Rock n roll aint the only way but its by far the funnest!!! I leanred a lot about you through this one! Well done, and loved all your videos to go with it!
Cara — cool to hear you’re a fellow musician. For me, back then, rock ‘n’ roll was my main drug — a hit record was my total addiction. A love/hate relationship with the big beat, and the road, for 3+ decades. Got close a couple times climbin’, but never fully reached the summit of Mount Stardom. I do not regret a moment of it… 😉