Born during the Great Depression and raised by his grandparents, Nelson wrote his first song at age seven and joined his first band at ten. During high school, he toured locally with the Bohemian Polka as their lead singer and guitar player. After graduating from high school in 1950, he joined the U.S. Air Force but was later discharged due to back problems. After his return, Nelson attended Baylor University for two years but dropped out because he was succeeding in music. During this time, he worked as a disc jockey in Texas radio stations and a singer in honky-tonks. Nelson moved to Vancouver, Washington, where he wrote "Family Bible" and recorded the song "Lumberjack" in 1956. He also worked as a disc jockey at various radio stations in Vancouver and nearby Portland, Oregon. In 1958, he moved to Houston, Texas, after signing a contract with D Records. He sang at the Esquire Ballroom weekly and he worked as a disk jockey. During that time, he wrote songs that would become country standards, including "Funny How Time Slips Away", "Hello Walls", "Pretty Paper", and "Crazy". In 1960 he moved to Nashville, Tennessee, and later signed a publishing contract with Pamper Music which allowed him to join Ray Price's band as a bassist. In 1962, he recorded his first album, ...And Then I Wrote. Due to this success, Nelson signed in 1964 with RCA Victor and joined the Grand Ole Opry the following year. After mid-chart hits in the late 1960s and the early 1970s, Nelson retired in 1972 and moved to Austin, Texas. The ongoing music scene of Austin motivated Nelson to return from retirement, performing frequently at the Armadillo World Headquarters.
In 1973, after signing with Atlantic Records, Nelson turned to outlaw country, including albums such as Shotgun Willie and Phases and Stages. In 1975, he switched to Columbia Records, where he recorded the critically acclaimed album Red Headed Stranger. The same year, he recorded another outlaw country album, Wanted! The Outlaws, along with Waylon Jennings, Jessi Colter, and Tompall Glaser. During the mid-1980s, while creating hit albums like Honeysuckle Rose and recording hit songs like "On the Road Again", "To All the Girls I've Loved Before", and "Pancho and Lefty", he joined the country supergroup The Highwaymen, along with fellow singers Johnny Cash, Waylon Jennings, and Kris Kristofferson.
In 1990, Nelson's assets were seized by the Internal Revenue Service, which claimed that he owed $32 million. The difficulty of paying his outstanding debt was aggravated by weak investments he had made during the 1980s. In 1992, Nelson released The IRS Tapes: Who'll Buy My Memories?; the profits of the double album—destined to the IRS—and the auction of Nelson's assets cleared his debt. During the 1990s and 2000s, Nelson continued touring extensively, and released albums every year. Reviews ranged from positive to mixed. He explored genres such as reggae, blues, jazz, and folk.
Nelson made his first movie appearance in the 1979 film The Electric Horseman, followed by other appearances in movies and on television. Nelson is a major liberal activist and the co-chair of the advisory board of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML), which is in favor of marijuana legalization. On the environmental front, Nelson owns the bio-diesel brand Willie Nelson Biodiesel, which is made from vegetable oil. Nelson is also the honorary chairman of the advisory board of the Texas Music Project, the official music charity of the state of Texas.
Nelson uses a variety of music styles to create his own distinctive blend of country music, a hybrid of jazz, pop, blues, rock and folk. His "unique sound", which uses a "relaxed, behind-the-beat singing style and gut-string guitar" and his "nasal voice and jazzy, off-center phrasing", has been responsible for his wide appeal, and has made him a "vital icon in country music", influencing the "new country, new traditionalist, and alternative country movements of the 1980s and 1990s".
In 1969, the Baldwin company gave Nelson an amplifier and guitar with their "Prismatone" pickup. During a show in Helotes, Texas, Nelson left the guitar on the floor of the stage, and it was later stepped on by a drunk man. He sent it to be repaired in Nashville by Shot Jackson, who told Nelson that the damage was too great. Jackson offered him a Martin N-20 Classical guitar, and, at Nelson's request, moved the pickup to the Martin. Nelson purchased the guitar unseen for $750 and named it after Roy Rogers' horse "Trigger". The next year Nelson rescued the guitar from his burning ranch.
Constant strumming with a guitar pick over the decades has worn a large sweeping hole into the guitar's body near the sound hole—the N-20 has no pick-guard since classical guitars are meant to be played fingerstyle instead of with picks. Its soundboard has been signed by over a hundred of Nelson's friends and associates, ranging from fellow musicians to lawyers and football coaches. The first signature on the guitar was Leon Russell's, who asked Nelson initially to sign his guitar. When Nelson was about to sign it with a marker, Russell requested him to scratch it instead, explaining that the guitar would be more valuable in the future. Interested in the concept, Nelson requested Russell to also sign his guitar. In 1991, during his process with the IRS, Nelson was worried that Trigger could be auctioned off, stating: "When Trigger goes, I'll quit". He asked his daughter, Lana, to take the guitar from the studio before any IRS agent arrived there, and then deliver it to him in Maui. Nelson then concealed the guitar in his manager's house until his debt was paid off in 1993.
Nelson is widely recognized as an American icon. He was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1993, and he received the Kennedy Center Honors in 1998. In 2011, Nelson was inducted to the National Agricultural Hall of Fame, for his labor in Farm Aid and other fund raisers to benefit farmers. In 2015 Nelson won the Gershwin Prize, the lifetime award of the Library of Congress. In 2018 The Texas Institute of Letters inducted him among its members for his songwriting. He was included by Rolling Stone on its 100 Greatest Singers and 100 Greatest Guitarists lists.
Born to Lose
Willie Nelson Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
I've lived my life in vain
Every dream
Has only brought me pain
All my life
I've always been so blue
Born to lose
And now I'm losing you
Born to lose
It seems so hard to bear
How I long
To always have you near
You've grown tired
And now you say we're through
Born to lose
And now I'm losing you
I'm born to lose
My every hope is gone
It's so hard to face
An empty dawn
And you were all
The happiness I knew
I'm born to lose
And now I'm losing you
Willie Nelson’s song “Born To Lose” expresses a feeling of despair and heartbreak throughout the lyrics as the singer experiences a sense of defeat in their life. The first stanza reveals that the singer believes they were born to lose and that they have lived their life in vain. Every dream that they had brought only pain, and throughout their life, they had always been blue. It seems that the singer feels that they have no control over their life and that they are destined to fail.
The second stanza of the song highlights the singer's desire to always have their loved one near, but it seems that they have grown tired of them and want to end the relationship. The singer feels defeated again as they cannot hold on to the one happiness they knew. The last stanza reveals that the singer’s hope is gone, and facing an empty dawn is hard. The person they loved was the only happiness they had, and now they are losing them. The song’s sentiment is that the singer feels that they were born to lose, and they are losing everything they ever cared about.
Line by Line Meaning
I'm born to lose
I am destined to experience failure throughout my life
I've lived my life in vain
My existence has been useless and without purpose
Every dream
Has only brought me pain
All my ambitions have resulted in suffering and disappointment
All my life
I've always been so blue
I've experienced sadness and depression for as long as I can remember
Born to lose
And now I'm losing you
Because of my ill-fated life, now I am losing you as well
It seems so hard to bear
The weight of my failures is difficult to carry
How I long
To always have you near
I desire to be in your company at all times
You've grown tired
And now you say we're through
You have become weary of me and have decided to end our relationship
Born to lose
And now I'm losing you
Because of my ill-fated life, now I am losing you as well
My every hope is gone
I have lost all sense of optimism for the future
It's so hard to face
An empty dawn
It's difficult to begin each day with a sense of emptiness and despair
And you were all
The happiness I knew
You were the only source of joy and contentment in my life
I'm born to lose
And now I'm losing you
Because of my ill-fated life, now I am losing you as well
Lyrics © BMG Rights Management, Peermusic Publishing
Written by: Ted Daffan
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
@sergeleblanc353
I listened to Willy Nelson since 1972 and I think this is the song that You can hear best how beautiful his voice is.
@charlesbarry971
Willie Nelson has a unique way of singing
He does justice to this song
@rosemaryjonston8529
No one will ever have a voice like Willie Nelson… 💕💕💕💕💕💕💕
@janetfarris3739
I've always loved this song. But Willie Nelson you can bring it through like no one else can. Thank you for being you 😘
@Pattiepies55
He is just perfect. Such a gifted man and such a gentle, kind soul.
@Jimmiesheehan211
What a wonderful singer, musician and song. Willie gets right to your heart strings like no one else.
@jeweldotson3891
I have more respect for Willie Nelson than any of the singers ever, Willie is the most caring person I know, and his music stands head & shoulders above all others
@eileenbennett3413
I agree you are so right
@gladyskempwilliams7089
Trump 2020
@gladyskempwilliams7089
TRUMP 2020 THE BEST AND YET TO COME!😉