On the Road to Find Out

This song is my own personal story, the story of my looking for God, for Christ. I know that Cat Stevens wrote it about himself, about his own road to find out. Yet it feels so true to me, that it can only mean one thing. It must be the common experience of many people, maybe of all mankind, at least of those who are seeking something or Someone beyond themselves.

On the Road to Find Out can be heard as the story of Christian going on his pilgrimage, fleeing the City of Destruction, and running towards the Celestial City in John Bunyan's famous book Pilgrim's Progress.

The song climaxes with the triple exhortation "The answer lies within, so why not take a look now, kick out the devil's sin, pick up, pick up the Good Book now!" This reminds me of the voice that instructed Augustine of Hippo when he was still living in sin, to "take up and read" the epistles of the apostle Paul. The triple repetition of the stanza openly points to the Orthodox Christian faith, which often speaks words and performs actions three times. This triplicity occurs in a few other Cat Steven's songs.

The explicit nature of the last stanza is hard to cover up, but people try, changing "the Good Book" to "a good book." The issue here is not capitalisation; it's the use of the word "the" which makes the phrase mean only one thing—the Bible. No other book in history has been called "the good book." Not the Talmud or the Qur'an, not the Bhagavad Gita or the Upanishads, not the Book of Tao or the Book of Mormon, only the Bible has received this title, "the Good Book," and in the context of the rest of the stanza, "kick out the devil's sin," what else can he have meant?

The best proof of all, is simply to listen to him sing the song. Listen carefully. What is he saying in that last line, all three times?

On the Road to Find Out — Play it!
Track 9 on the album Tea for the Tillerman

Well, I left my happy home
to see what I could find out
I left my folk and friends
with the aim to clear my mind out
Well, I hit the rowdy road
and many kinds I met there
and many stories told me
on the way to get there

CHORUS
So on and on I go,
the seconds tick the time out
So much left to know,
and I'm on the road to find out

In the end I'll know
but on the way I wonder
through descending snow
and through the frost and thunder
I listen to the wind come howl
telling me I have to hurry
I listen to the robin's song
saying not to worry

CHORUS

Well, I found myself alone
hoping someone would miss me
Thinking about my home
and the last woman to kiss me
Well sometimes you have to moan
when nothing seems to suit you
but nevertheless you know
you're locked towards the future

CHORUS

And I found my head one day
when I wasn't even trying
and here I have to say
'cause there is no use in lying, lying

Yes, the answer lies within
so why not take a look now
Kick out the devil's sin,
pickup, pickup the good book now
(three times)


Comments

The poetry of this song makes many obvious allusions that need not be commented on, but for the second to last stanza, "And I found my head one day when I wasn't even trying…"

This is the true pattern of how God, the living God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, who is the Lord Yahweh, relates to us. We would not have been looking for Him, had He not first been looking for us. From our end of the scope, it seems that He just ransoms us when and if He wants to, without our effort or even desire: we find our head when we're not even looking for it, or rather for Him. And what happens to the pilgrim when he finds his "head"?

Metanoia — Repentance!
"Kick out the devil's sin, pickup, pickup the good book now!"

And He put all things in subjection under His feet, and gave Him to be Head over all things to the church.
Ephesians 1:22

But speaking truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him, who is the Head, even Christ; from whom all the body fitly framed and knit together through that which every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love.
Ephesians 4:15-16


Cross Reference

On the Road to Find Out, at Cost of Discipleship