What are Your Favourite Neil Young Lyrics?

Neil Young has a way to cut to the core of things through direct, sometime heart wrenching lyrics.

My favourite come from Ambulance Blues. He nailed the lying type in a few verses.

I never knew a man could tell so many lies
He had a different story for every set of eyes.
How can he remember who he's talkin' to?
'Cause I know it ain't me, and I hope it isn't you.

What are some of your favourites?

 

Remember Bill from up on the hill
A Cadillac put a hole in his arm
But old Bill he's up there still
Having a ball, Rollin to the bottom

 

"And I felt like getting high." If this doesn't define a generation or two, I don't know what does.

 

From 'Tell My Why":

 

I need a crowd of people. But I can't face 'em day to day...

 

You're all just pissin'
in the wind
You don't know it but you are.
And there ain't nothin'
like a friend
Who can tell you
you're just pissin'
in the wind.

 

Down the windy halls of friendship
To the rose clipped by the bull whip
The motel of lost companions
Waits with heated pool and bar

But me I'm not stopping there
Got my own row left to hoe
Just another line in the field of time

When the thrasher comes
I'll be stuck in the sun
Like the dinosaurs in shrines
But I'll know the time has come to give what's mine



Read more: Neil Young - Thrasher Lyrics | MetroLyrics

 

Now I won't be back till later on,
if I do come back at all.
But you know me,
and I miss you now.

- from "On The Way Home"

 

I'm singin' this borrowed tune
I took from the Rolling Stones,
Alone in this empty room
Too wasted to write my own.

The first time you listen to it, I love the way he doesn't mention it until the end -- it's as if it takes him three or four verses to get there, and he suddenly figures it out HIMSELF, where the tune came from, at the same time that you do. That first time you hear it, it's naggingly familiar, and when he reveals it it's like a punchline of a really great joke. And it's basically a fantastic inside joke, for songwriters everywhere, who inadvertently do this type of thing all the time. Great throwaway song on a fantastic album.

That, and the line "keys left swinging in a hanging door" from "F*cking Up." Perfect image that suits the music and the tone of the lyrics. I've definitely been there.

 

...Goes off to listen to Aftermath again...

 

The lights turned on and the curtain fell down,
And when it was over it felt like a dream,
They stood at the stage door and begged for a scream,
The agents had paid for the black limousine
That waited outside in the rain.
Did you see them, did you see them?
Did you see them in the river?
They were there to wave to you.
Could you tell that the empty quivered,
Brown skinned Indian on the banks
That were crowded and narrow,
Held a broken arrow?

Eighteen years of American dream,
He saw that his brother had sworn on the wall.
He hung up his eyelids and ran down the hall,
His mother had told him a trip was a fall,
And don't mention babies at all.
Did you see him, did you see him?
Did you see him in the river?
He were there to wave to you.
Could you tell that the empty quivered,
Brown skinned Indian on the banks
That were crowded and narrow,
Held a broken arrow?

The streets were lined for the wedding parade,
The Queen wore the white gloves, the county of song,
The black covered caisson her horses had drawn
Protected her King from the sun rays of dawn.
They married for peace and were gone.
Did you see them, did you see them?
Did you see them in the river?
They were there to wave to you.
Could you tell that the empty quivered,
Brown skinned Indian on the banks
That were crowded and narrow,
Held a broken arrow?

 

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
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

 

"It doesn't mean that much to me, to mean that much to you."

"There's a mansion on a hill, psychedelic music fills the air, peace and love live there still, in that mansion on a hill."

"Just because it's over for you, doesn't mean it's over for me, It's a victory for the heart every time the music starts."

"Some are bound for happiness, some are bound to glory, some are bound to live with less, who can tell your story?"

 

Remember the nights of love
and that moment on the beach
That wasn't really too long ago
But we paid the price of time,
and now it's out of reach
And so the broken circle go,
Over and over again

 

Blind man running through the light of the night
With an insight in his hands
Come on down to the river of sight
And you can really understand

 

Who put the palm
Over my blonde?
Who put all the tar
On the morning sand?
Who took everything
From where it once was
And put it where
It was last seen?

 

Can't choose just one - so I am going with two.....


A while ago somewhere
I don't know when
I was watching
a movie with a friend.
I fell in love with the actress.
She was playing a part
that I could understand.



I am just a dreamer,
but you are just a dream,
You could have been
anyone to me.
Before that moment
you touched my lips
That perfect feeling
when time just slips
Away between us
on our foggy trip.

 

Look out mama there's a white boat comin' up the river...

 

It's so noisy at the fair
But all your friends are there
And the candy floss you had
And your mother and your dad.

The sky is blue
and so is the sea.
What is the color,
when black is burned?

Ohh, this old world keeps spinning round
It's a wonder tall trees ain't layin' down


curiously songs 1, 2 and 3 from Live Rust. I just love that run of songs.

 

That one about park bench mutations

 

Got mashed potatoes
Ain't got no T-Bone

 

"Now I come from a family
That has a broken home
Sometimes I talk to Daddy
On the telephone
When he says that he loves me
I know that he does
But I wish I could see him
I wish I knew where he was
But that's the way
all my friends are
Except maybe one or two
Wish I could
see him this weekend
Wish I could walk in his shoes
But now I'm doin' my own thing
Sometimes I'm good, then I'm bad
Although my home has been broken
It's the best home I ever had"

From "Crime In The City", one of the best written depictions of growing up in the inner city ever, IMHO.

 

I'm a dreamin' man. Yes, that's my problem.

When the dream came, I held my breath with my eyes closed. I went insane, like a smoke-ring day when the wind blows.

 

I was going to say Thrasher also. Runners Up would be Dangerbird and Pushed It Over The End.

 

There's a slew of favorites including the whole Will to Love thing, but I offer this bit from Grandpa's Interview since no one else will:

It ain't an honour to be on tv
And it ain't a duty either