Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere

Everybody seems to wonder what it’s like down here. [But] I gotta get away from this day-to-day running around – everybody knows this is nowhere.

The Last Trip To Tulsa

‘Cause you’re the kind of man, you know, who likes what he says. (I wonder what’s it’s like to be so far over my head?)

What Did You Do To My Life?

When we were living together, I thought that I knew you would stay. Still, when you left me, I tried to pretend we could make it some way.

“In some ways, rock and roll has let me down…”

I think in some ways – only in some ways – but in some ways, rock and roll has let me down. It really doesn’t leave you a way to grow old gracefully and continue to work. If you’re gonna rock you better burn out, ‘cos that’s the way they wanna see you. They wanna see you right on the edge where you’re glowing, right on the living edge, which is where young people are. They’re discovering themselves, and rock and roll is young people’s music. I think that’s a reality, and I still love rock and roll and I love to play the songs in my set that are sort of rock and roll, but I don’t see a future for me there.

- Neil Young in “Legend of a Loner”, an interview with Adam Swetting in Melody Maker; 7th September 1985 [source]

The Old Laughing Lady

See the drunkard of the village falling on the street: [he] can’t tell his ankles from the rest of his feet. He loves his old laughing lady ’cause her taste is so sweet, but his laughing lady’s loving ain’t the kind he can keep.

If I Could Have Her Tonight

What if she came to me -  would she be kind? And if she stayed with me – do you think that she’d like to do anything I would, or would she leave me?

If I Could Have Her Tonight

All of a sudden she was on my mind: I wasn’t ready for her kind. And she was taking her time.

“I was always about two or three years behind everybody…”

I was always about two or three years behind everybody. There was nothin’ new about white bucks by the time I started wearing white bucks. They were like, out. No one was wearing them. That’s when I got mine. They were enough of a statement to piss people off. They set me apart.

- Neil Young in an interview with Jimmy McDonough; specific date unknown

Reference: McDonough, J. (2002). Shakey: Neil Young’s Biography. UK: Vintage Press. “Mr. Blue and Mr. Red”, p.62.

“There’s one guy in class that nobody fuckin’ likes…”

There’s one guy in class that nobody fuckin’ likes, that is a total weirdo. I just have to have some conversations with this person, y’know?

- Neil Young in an interview with Jimmy McDonough; specific date unknown

Reference: McDonough, J. (2002). Shakey: Neil Young’s Biography. UK: Vintage Press. “Mr. Blue and Mr. Red”, p.61-62.

“I think I was a little like Mr. Blue…”

Another song I used to listen to was Mr. Blue by the Fleetwoods. I related to the story. That feeling – if Mr. Blue was more aggressive, he probably wouldn’t be Mr. Blue. He probably would’ve found out either yes or no and would’ve been able to move on – but he wasn’t. [...] I think I was a little like Mr. Blue. And maybe I hadn’t gotten to the point in my life where I realised that Mr. Blue could be squelched any time by… Mr. Red. Heh heh heh. And that Mr. Blue was just running the show for entertainment and Mr. Red was calling the shots… y’know?

- Neil Young in an interview with Jimmy McDonough; specific date unknown

Reference: McDonough, J. (2002). Shakey: Neil Young’s Biography. UK: Vintage Press. “Mr. Blue and Mr. Red”, p.53.