Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere

Everytime I think about back home, it’s cool and breezy. I wish that I could be there right now just passing time.

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.

“I see country music, I see people who take care of their own…”

I see country music, I see people who take care of their own. You got 75 year-old guys on the road. That’s what I was put here to do, y’know, so I wanna make sure I surround myself with people who are gonna take care of me. ‘Cause I’m in it for the long run. Willie Nelson’s 54 years-old* and he’s a happy man, doing what he loves to do. I can’t think of one rock and roller like that. So what am I gonna do?

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

* this age was true in 1985. Willie Nelson’s date of birth is 29th April 1933 – so get that calculator out!

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?)

The Last Trip To Tulsa

The preacher took his bible and laid it on the stool. He said, “with the congregation running, why should I play the fool?”

The Last Trip To Tulsa

I was chopping down a palm tree, when a friend dropped by to ask if I would feel less lonely if he helped me swing the axe. I said “No, it’s not a case of being lonely we have here – I’ve been working on this palm tree for eighty-seven years!”

He said “Go get lost!” – and walked towards his Cadillac; I chopped down the palm tree, and it landed on his back.

The Old Laughing Lady

There’s a fever on the freeway; blacks out the night. There’s a slipping on the stairway – just don’t feel right. And there’s a rumbling in the bedroom and a flashing of light; [then] there’s the old laughing lady, [and] everything is all right.

The Old Laughing Lady

They say the old laughing lady dropped by to call, and when she leaves, she leaves nothing at all.

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.

“Revenge of the Nerd? Great…”

Revenge of the Nerd? Great. [...] Because to achieve nerd status with only homegrown knowledge of nerddom is a fuckin’ great accomplishment – and I’m proud.

- Neil Young in an interview with Jimmy McDonough, in response to McDonough’s statement that many see Neil’s childhood as a classic case of “Revenge of the Nerd”; specific date unknown

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