Christopher Cross went from journeyman musician to Grammy history-maker in the span of just a couple of years. Many of his hits were of the soft-rock variety, but he also scored big with “Ride Like the Wind,” a feisty tale of an outlaw on the run.
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What is the song about? How did Cross come to write it? And what events transpired to help make Cross an unlikely, massive star? Saddle up with us as we look back at “Ride Like the Wind.”
An Unforgettable Trip
Christopher Cross was actually the name of a four-piece band that included singer/songwriter Chris Geppert (he would eventually take on the Cross name when he became a solo artist). Before they found a record deal, they were forced like so many other scrambling bands to work out cover material for their shows. In one show, they played a version of Paul McCartney and Wings’ “Nineteen Hundred and Eighty-Five,” during which Cross did a ba da da da vocal improv. That was the genesis of “Ride Like the Wind.”
The lyrics came when Cross was traveling to Austin, Texas, to record the songs for the band’s debut album. He took LSD and the words came flowing forth. They hearkened back to his Texas youth, as he explained in an interview with Songfacts:
“And I grew up with a lot of cowboy movies. Serials and stuff, like The Lone Ranger and these cowboy serials where they were always chasing the bad guy. And I lived in San Antonio near Mexico, so there was always this anarchistic allure about if you could get to Mexico, you could escape the authority. Also, Mexico was a place where you could go down there and drink and do all this debauchery that as a kid, you think sounds really cool. So getting to the border in Mexico was a fascinating thing to me.”
Catching the “Wind”
That Cross was actually getting a chance to lay down this song and others stands as a bit of an upset. He had sent his demos to many record companies to no avail. But Michael Omartian, a musician who became an exec at Warner Bros., liked what he heard and convinced his skeptical bosses to sign Cross.
Although each member of the Christopher Cross band appeared on the self-titled debut, Omartian, who produced the record, also hired some of the top session players on the West Coast to fill out the material. In the case of “Ride Like the Wind,” which also boasted smooth strings and horns, a vocalist was needed to provide answer lines to Cross in the chorus.
Among Omartian’s past musical gigs was playing keyboards for Steely Dan, which is where he encountered Michael McDonald. Omartian called upon McDonald to provide the necessary part in “Ride Like the Wind,” the finishing touch on a song that would rise to No. 2 on the U.S. charts in 1979.
What is the Meaning of “Ride Like the Wind”?
Cross does an excellent job in nailing the psychology of this character, as he captures both his bravado and the world-weariness that inevitably accompanies a life spent on the run. On the one hand, this guy sounds like a cool customer in a showdown: I was born the son of a lawless man / Always spoke my mind with a gun in my hand / Lived nine lives, gunned down ten.
It doesn’t seem like it’s a life he’d recommend, though: My body’s weak / I’m on the run / No time to speak. But he’s not so down on that life that he’s willing to give it up: Accused and tried and told to hang / I was nowhere in sight when the church bells rang.
And I’ve got such a long way to go / To make it to the border of Mexico, Cross sings in the refrains. His outlaw character remains forever on the run, immortalized and trapped in time by “Ride Like the Wind” every time it bursts out of the speakers with its frantic energy to contrast some of the softer songs on a typical yacht rock playlist.
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