1. Steve Youn… Read Full Bio ↴There are multiple artists using the name Steve Young.
1. Steve Young (July 12, 1942 – March 17, 2016) was an American country music singer, songwriter and guitarist, known for his song "Seven Bridges Road" (on Rock Salt & Nails & Seven Bridges Road). He was a pioneer of the country rock, Americana, and alternative country sounds, and also a vital force behind the "outlaw movement" that gave support to the careers of Waylon Jennings, Hank Williams, Jr. and more. Young was also featured in the 1975 Outlaw Country documentary Heartworn Highways. He was the subject of the song "The All Golden" by Van Dyke Parks. Young's first album, Rock Salt & Nails, on A&M, was performed on and supported by Gram Parsons, Gene Clark and other musicians from the 1969 musical community in Southern California.
Steve Young has never fit comfortably into categories. He follows his own musical and spiritual quest, weaving together Southern roots with a wide experience of life, and creating new traditions in American music.
Young was born in Georgia and grew up in Alabama, Georgia and Texas in a family which moved frequently in search of work. By the time he had completed high school in Beaumont, Texas, he was playing guitar and writing songs which incorporated influences of folk , country , gospel, and blues musicians and people like Hank Williams , Elvis Presley, Carl Perkins and others. Once as a teenager he was blown away by seeing Carlos Montoya , a Flamenco Guitarist. He managed to use that too!
By his late teens, Young was back in Alabama, where he established some reputation on the local music scene. However, the wandering spirit soon took over again. He immersed himself briefly in the Greenwich Village folk scene, at a time when Bob Dylan and others were just being noticed.
Returning to Alabama, Steve found that "my New York folk-protest songs didn't fly in the South." Searching for more receptive audiences, he made short forays to California and other locations before moving to the West Coast in 1964.
In California, he worked with musicians like Van Dyke Parks and Stephen Stills, at one point holding a day job as a mailman. A major-label record deal led to a short-lived stint with a psychedelic country-folk band, Stone Country.
Settling into a solo career, Steve Young became an integral part of the movement which defined the California country-rock sound. Appearing on Steve's 1969 classic album, Rock, Salt & Nails were fellow pioneers like Gene Clark, Chris Hillman, Bernie Leadon and Gram Parsons.
Through 12 albums and countless live performances, Steve Young's music has remained fresh and aggressive, with a sense of deepening spirituality, and a consistent intellectual and artistic challenge, to himself and to his audience.
Many of the stars of the music industry have recorded Steve Young songs, and in some cases forged a career image around them. "Lonesome, Orn'ry & Mean," for example, became the signature tune for 'Outlaw' Waylon Jennings. Hank Williams Jr.'s cover of "Montgomery In The Rain" remains a classic.
Certainly the most-covered Steve Young song of all is "Seven Bridges Road," which has been recorded at various times by artists like Joan Baez, Rita Coolidge, Ian Matthews, the Eagles, Ricochet, and, most recently, Dolly Parton.
While Steve Young songs have brought commercial success to others, Young has never been close enough to the mainstream to sustain his occasional brushes with stardom . He has been unwilling to accept the loss of artistic control that the industry expects of its stars.
And while Steve has lived in country music towns like Nashville and Austin, and his songs have had a strong impact on the direction of country music, he rejects the country label for himself. Young is in many ways a cultural dynamic in himself.
Part Cherokee (from his father) by birth, steeped in Baptist fundamentalism as a child, yet attracted to a Zen spirituality, the young man from the South with a nomadic spirit went on to create a unique form of American roots music with a truly global perspective.
Steve Young has literally toured the world. He has performed in many countries of Europe, in Australia and New Zealand, in Micronesia, China and Mongolia, in Egypt and East Africa and beyond. Wherever he has gone, he has filled the dual role of ambassador for American music and student of the cultures of others.
Young's live performances express the depth and power of his vision. He draws on his own songs, on Southern folk songs from varied traditions, on collaborations and on the best of contemporary songwriters such as J.D. Loudermilk, David Olney and others.
Steve passed away on March 17, 2016 at age 73
2. 'Steve Young' is also a pseudonym of Peter Friel, ambient tape musician.
I Can't Sleep
Steve Young Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
It afforded a wonderful view
Count the sheep 'til I cry
Count the times you said goodbye
And I can't sleep when I can't sleep with you
There's no need to think you'd remember
A love like some forgotten I.O.U.
Every night since you're gone
And I can't sleep when I can't sleep with you
Oh babe
I'm so lonely
Now I'm wonderin' what I'm gonna do
All of my life I've been dreamin' a sweet dream
How was I to know that dream was you
Last night I stayed up late to watch the sunrise
And I'll stay up late tomorrow night, too
Count the sheep 'til I cry
Count the times you said goodbye
And I can't sleep when I can't sleep with you
Oh babe
I'm so lonely
Now I'm wonderin' what I'm gonna do
You don't have to wake me when it's over
Now I know I can't get over you
Last night I stayed up late to watch the sunrise
And I'll stay up late tomorrow night, too
Hear that early bird call
Ain't it hard when you fall
And I can't sleep when I can't sleep with you
In Steve Young's "I Can't Sleep," the singer is unable to sleep due to missing a past lover. The singer recounts staying up late to watch the sunrise and counting sheep until they cry, but nothing helps them sleep. Throughout the song, the singer acknowledges the futility in hoping their former love remembers them or feels the same, yet they can't help but stay awake and think of them. The desperation and loneliness of the singer is palpable in lines such as "Oh babe, I'm so lonely, now I'm wonderin' what I'm gonna do" and "You don't have to wake me when it's over, now I know I can't get over you."
The use of nature imagery, such as watching the sunrise and counting sheep, adds to the melancholy tone of the song. The repetition of the line "And I can't sleep when I can't sleep with you" emphasizes the singer's inability to move on or find comfort without their former partner. The song ends with the singer acknowledging they will stay up late again the next night, unable to escape their thoughts and the pain of missing their love.
Line by Line Meaning
Last night I stayed up late to watch the sunrise
I was awake all night and decided to watch the sunrise
It afforded a wonderful view
It was beautiful and made me happy
Count the sheep 'til I cry
I tried to fall asleep by counting sheep, but it made me sad instead
Count the times you said goodbye
I keep thinking about all the times you left me
And I can't sleep when I can't sleep with you
I feel restless when you're not with me
There's no need to think you'd remember
I don't expect you to think of me
A love like some forgotten I.O.U.
Our love feels like a debt that's been forgotten
I've been watchin' the dawn
I've been watching the sunrise every morning
Every night since you're gone
I've been doing this every night since you left me
Oh babe
My dear
I'm so lonely
I feel empty and sad without you
Now I'm wonderin' what I'm gonna do
I don't know how to move on from this
All of my life I've been dreamin' a sweet dream
I've always dreamed of finding someone as special as you
How was I to know that dream was you
I couldn't have predicted that you would be the one I was dreaming of
You don't have to wake me when it's over
You don't need to tell me when our relationship is truly over
Now I know I can't get over you
I realize I won't be able to move on from you
Hear that early bird call
I can hear the sound of the bird outside my window
Ain't it hard when you fall
It's difficult to pick yourself up after a hard time
And I can't sleep when I can't sleep with you
I can't help but feel restless when you're not by my side
Contributed by Emily W. Suggest a correction in the comments below.
Kim Young
on Lonesome, On'ry and Mean
The lyrics posted here are not actually correct and I don't understand why they are not. If you listen to Steve's vocal you will hear what they should be. This song is truly about getting clean and sober, according to what Steve told me!