Wold was born in Oakland, California. When he was four years old, his parents split up. His father played boogie-woogie piano and Wold tried to learn when he was five or six, but could not. At the age of eight, he learned to play the guitar from K. C. Douglas, who worked at his grandfather's garage, later realizing that he had been taught the blues. Douglas wrote the song "Mercury Blues" and had played with Tommy Johnson in the early 1940s. Wold left home at 13 to avoid abuse at the hands of his stepfather, and lived rough and on the road in Tennessee, Mississippi and elsewhere, until 1973. He would travel long distances by hopping freight trains, looking for work as a farm labourer or in other seasonal jobs, often living as a hobo. At various times, Wold worked as a carnie, a cowboy and a migrant worker. Paraphrasing H. L. Mencken, Wold described this time of his life by saying "Hobos are people who move around looking for work, tramps are people who move around but don't look for work, and bums are people who don't move and don't work. I've been all three."
When asked about his nickname, Wold has said: "because it's just true: I always get seasick". When he was ill on a ferry from Norway to Copenhagen, later in his life, a friend began playfully using the name and, despite Wold not rising to it for a while, it stuck. When asked about his name on British Sunday morning television show, Something for the Weekend, he replied, "I just get sick on boats". On Top Gear, when asked about his name, Wold replied "Well, I guess I just don't like boats!"
Wold made his first UK television appearance on Jools Holland's annual Hootenanny BBC TV show on New Year's Eve 2006. He performed a live rendition of "Dog House Boogie" on the "Three String Trance Wonder" and the "Mississippi Drum Machine". After that show his popularity exploded in Britain, as he explained in an interview:
"I can't believe it, all of the sudden I'm like the cat's meow!"
He was well received in the UK, winning the 2007 MOJO Award for Best Breakthrough Act and going on to appear at major UK festivals such as Reading, Leeds and Glastonbury. In 2007 he played more UK festivals than any other artist.
Wold toured early in 2008, playing in various venues and festivals in the UK. He was joined on stage by drummer Dan Magnusson. KT Tunstall also dueted with Wold at the London Astoria in January 2008.[20] Wold also played many other festivals throughout the world in 2008, including Fuji Rock in Japan, East Coast Blues & Roots Music Festival in Australia, also in April 2008,[21] and Roskilde in Denmark.
Wold's major-label debut, I Started Out with Nothin and I Still Got Most of It Left was recorded with Dan Magnusson on drums, was released by Warner Music on September 29, 2008, and features Ruby Turner and Nick Cave's Grinderman.
He has toured the UK extensively since 2007 being supported by Duke Garwood, Gemma Ray, The Sugars, Billie the Vision and the Dancers in January 2008, Amy LaVere in October 2008, Melody Nelson at the Brighton Dome on 7 October, and Joe Gideon & The Shark in January 2009. His tours in October 2008 and January 2009 were all sold out and included performances at the Royal Albert Hall, the Edinburgh Queen's Hall, the Grand Opera House in Belfast, the Apollo in Manchester, the City Hall in Newcastle and the London Hammersmith Apollo.
In 2009, Wold was nominated for a Brit Award in the category of International Solo Male Artist, That same year, BBC Four broadcast a documentary of Wold visiting the southern USA entitled Seasick Steve: Bringing It All Back Home. On January 21, Wold hosted "Folk America: Hollerers, Stompers and Old Time Ramblers" at the Barbican in London, a show that was also televised and shown with the documentary on BBC Four as part of a series tracing American roots music.
In an interview with an Australian magazine, Wold attributes much of his unlikely success to his cheap and weather-beaten guitar, "The Trance Wonder" and reveals the guitar's mojo might come from supernatural sources. "I got it from Sherman, who is a friend of mine down in Mississippi, who had bought it down at a Goodwill store. When we were down there last time he says to me, 'I didn't tell you when you bought it off me, but that guitar used to be haunted'. I say, 'What are you talking about, Sherman?'. He says, 'There’s 50 solid citizens here in Como who'll tell you this guitar is haunted. It's the darnedest thing – we’d leave it over in the potato barn and we'd come back in and it would be moved. You'd put it down somewhere and the next morning you’d come back and it would have moved. When you took that guitar the ghost in the barn left'. He told me this not very long ago and I said to him, 'Sherman! Why didn't you tell me this before?' and he said, 'Well the ghost was gone – I didn't want it around here no more!'"
On January 3, 2010, Wold appeared on the popular BBC motoring show Top Gear as the Star In A Reasonably Priced Car. He was the last star to drive in the blue Chevrolet Lacetti.
In February 2010, Wold was nominated for a Brit Award in the category of International Solo Male Artist for the second consecutive year.
In 2010, Wold made numerous festival appearances throughout the summer, including the Pyramid Stage at the Glastonbury Festival, the main stage at V Festival, the main stage at the Hop Farm Festival and many more.
In February 2011, Wold signed to Play It Again Sam to release his new album with the exception of the US, where it will be released on Third Man Records. Subsequently his new album You Can't Teach an Old Dog New Tricks was released on his new labels and it was announced that former Led Zeppelin bassist John Paul Jones had played on the new album, and performed alongside Wold to promote it.
On 16 August 2014 he was the headline act at Beautiful Days in Exeter, UK, and on the 24th August he headlined at 'Victorious Festival' in Southsea, Portsmouth, UK.
You Can't Teach An Old Dog Ne
Seasick Steve Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
What it is I can't quite see
I can't seem to do nothing right.
Maybe I need to change my style
Been this way for a long long while
Maybe there's a few things I ought to fix.
Can you teach an old dog new tricks?
Wanna put a little fire in my life
Tired of this ordinary bullshit.
Maybe I need to change my style
Been this way for a long long while
Maybe there's a few things I ought to fix.
Can you teach an old dog new tricks?
Can you teach an old dog new tricks?
Well, that right
Maybe I should leave well enough alone
I might not be perfect but I'm me to the bone
I don't need to change my style
Been this way for a long long while
There ain't nothing that I got to fix
You can't teach an old dog new tricks.
You can't teach an old dog new tricks.
You can't teach an old dog
You can't teach an old dog new tricks
You can't teach an old dog new
You can't teach an old dog
You can't teach an old dog
You can't teach
You can't teach
You can't teach
Seasick Steve's song "You Can't Teach an Old Dog New Tricks" is about the challenge of trying to change oneself. The lyrics express a desire to improve but also a sense of resignation that perhaps it is not possible. The singer of the song feels that something is wrong with him but can't quite put his finger on what it is. He suggests that he may need to change his style and fix a few things to put a little fire back into his life. However, he also recognizes that he has been this way for a long time and wonders if he is capable of learning new tricks.
The chorus is a play on the old adage "you can't teach an old dog new tricks," which means that it is difficult to make people change their habits or ways of thinking once they have become set in their ways. The singer acknowledges that he may need to make some changes, but ultimately decides that he is content with who he is and doesn't need to fix anything. The song is ultimately about self-acceptance and the idea that we don't always need to change ourselves to be happy.
Overall, "You Can't Teach an Old Dog New Tricks" is a thoughtful meditation on the challenges of personal growth and the importance of self-acceptance. It encourages listeners to embrace who they are and not to feel pressured to change themselves for the sake of fitting in or conforming to societal norms.
Line by Line Meaning
There must be something wrong with me
I feel like something is off or not quite right about myself.
What it is I can't quite see
I'm not sure what exactly is wrong or causing me to feel this way.
I can't seem to do nothing right.
I feel like I'm failing or not succeeding in many aspects of my life.
Maybe I need to change my style
Perhaps I should try a different approach to life or to my problems.
Been this way for a long long while
I've been struggling with these issues for a significant amount of time.
Maybe there's a few things I ought to fix.
Perhaps there are areas of my life that could use improvement or fixing.
Can you teach an old dog new tricks?
Is it possible for someone who's been set in their ways for a long time to change or learn something new?
Wanna put a little fire in my life
I desire to add some excitement or passion into my life.
Climb a little higher, did it right
I want to achieve higher goals and succeed in a meaningful way.
Tired of this ordinary bullshit.
I'm sick of living a mundane or unfulfilled life.
Maybe I should leave well enough alone
Perhaps I should be content with my life as it is and not try to change too much.
I might not be perfect but I'm me to the bone
I may have flaws and imperfections, but I am who I am at my core.
There ain't nothing that I got to fix
I don't believe there are any major problems or issues in my life that need fixing.
You can't teach an old dog new tricks.
Ultimately, I believe it's very difficult for someone who's been set in their ways for a long time to change or learn something new.
You can't teach an old dog new tricks.
This line reinforces the belief that it's difficult for someone to change once they've become set in their ways.
You can't teach an old dog
This line reemphasizes the phrase from the previous lines that it's difficult to make significant changes to someone who's been set in their ways.
You can't teach an old dog new tricks
This is the final repetition of the phrase that reinforces the idea that it's difficult to make substantive changes to someone's habits or behavior once they've become set in their ways.
You can't teach an old dog new
This line is another repetition of the same phrase.
You can't teach an old dog
Another repetition of the same phrase.
You can't teach
This line suggests that teaching someone is not always a guaranteed way to change their behavior or habits, especially if those habits are well-established.
You can't teach
Another repetition of the idea that teaching is not always effective in changing behavior or habits.
Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group, BMG RIGHTS MANAGEMENT US, LLC
Written by: STEVE GENE WOLD
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind