Ventura Highway Cover

This week’s “Remake of a Classic” is America’s brilliant 1972 hit, “Ventura Highway”. There’s a lot to love in this song – notably great guitar and vocal harmonies – but, for me, it’s always been the lyrics that stood out…especially “Alligator lizards in the air”. Fact is, the lyric is actually a reference to the shapes of clouds in the sky Dewey Bunnell saw in 1963, while his family was driving the coast of California. During the drive they had a flat, and while his father changed the tire, he and his brother stood by the side of the road, watching the clouds…next to a road sign for “Ventura”. There really is no Ventura Highway; Bunnell and his family were traveling on Highway 1, the Pacific Coast Highway…and it just happens to go up to the town of Ventura.