Pacific Coast Highway
RICHARD DRY: I wrote this song after my mother died. When she first moved me from Philadelphia to California, when I was 4, we ended up in an apartment in Venice, CA, the place I still call home in my heart. She used to tell me that she was introducing me to "her ocean" and then later, when she had cancer and she was dying, she would ask me, "Are you glad that I moved you to the ocean?" and the answer was always and empahtic, "Yes." I walking with her on the shore one day, and then being shocked to realize later that it was the last time her legs were strong enough to take her to the beach. I wondered wha she must have thought about never getting to see her ocean again, so I answered the question in the song based on what she used to say to me whenI looked sad about losing her. She would always say that she would live on inside me; that's something I've tried to feel, but it's hard with such a big loss. After she died, by her request, we spread her ashes into the ocean on a magical night when the algae turned the crashing waves a phosphorescent wintergreen. Vale Valentine Dry will forever live on in me, but I feel particularly close to her when I visit the ocean, anywhere along the Pacific Coast Highway.
Main vocals, lyrics, and instrumentation was written and played by Richard Dry. Backup vocals were written and sung by Richard and Dakota Dry.
LYRICS:
Traveling down the pacific coast highway
One man his van, dogs and his gear
There’s something about the way the cliffs curve right here
Makes think about a boy in the waves
Remember, my mother watching me from the palisades
That woman I loved the most, she lived down the coast
She’s gone now so I drive
Just to think of her
I’ve been driving these beaches for years and know
Just which way the tide
Will take me
I’m going to let go of all of my fears
Shift with the changing gears
Ride these waves of tears and find my way
Down the Pacific Coast Highway
The hum of the road lets my thoughts unload
About the last time she walked outside
She’d been walking those beaches for years and knew
Just which way the tide would take her
So I guess it lives on inside
The people and the sun in the sky
She dreamed of one more ride
Down the pacific coast highway
When the moon rises
There’s a different kind of light
I’m tired but it feels cool to be tired
There’s a breeze through my window
So I stick out my hand
The resistance consistent with who I am
I’ve been riding these beaches for years and knew
Just which way the tide would take her
Well I guess she lives on inside
In the ocean and the sand and the sky
I dream we’re taking a ride
Down the Pacific Coast Highway